How to Start an E-Book Website

Maybe you simply enjoy reading e-books and like the idea of offering e-books to the public via your website. Or perhaps you want attract visitors to your website where you offer advertisement space or sell related products. Perhaps you're a writer who wants to sell downloads of your e-books from your site. Regardless, placing e-books on your website or personal blog isn't extremely difficult to do. The following steps can assist you as you begin your project.

Instructions

1. Gather the information you need for your site. This might include an introduction, a mission statement, a list of available PDF e-books, and pricing information. You should also include any legal disclaimers, etc. that will serve to protect you as well as visitors to your website. If you intend to offer the works of others, make sure they are either in the public domain or that you have written permission before you place these e-books on your website. In the U.S., most works created after 1928 are not in the public domain. Bottom line: don't upload someone else's work to your site without a legal right to do so.

2. Create PDF versions of the books you wish to place on your website (or obtain the PDF versions to upload to your site).

   If you only want to allow one download per person, provide a one-time download link via e-mail.

3. Advertise your website to attract visitors. If you're a member of a book club or online forum, invite members to visit your site. (Always follow the proper etiquette when doing this. Some forums maintain strict rules against this, while others don't mind as long as you've been a regular contributing member to the forum. When in doubt, check with the administrator before proceeding.)

   List your website on search engines to gain visibility for your e-book site. One creative way to attract attention for an e-book site is to create videos of yourself or actors reading excerpts from various texts and then posting them on video sharing sites.

References

• Multi-page PDFs with Adobe Photoshop