Whether you wish to cost-effectively promote your current business or web site, or you wish to get a new significant income stream, publishing yourself is an excellent idea that deserves your serious consideration. Why? Because book publishing is a $25 billion industry in U.S. alone, it touches millions of lives, it is very viral, it powers information economy, it feeds need to know things (a need that people will always have), and you can get into it right now very easily both for profit and promotional purposes. It is an industry that is growing tremendously as people feel need to know more and more. The publishing industry is almost five times larger than Hollywood’s movie industry. You can get in on it right now, in a few minutes, and start using it to cost-effectively promote your business or have a new income stream.

Anyone can be an author, especially when it comes to nonfiction books and ebooks. Everybody has at least one book in them. You are a unique person, and that makes you posses a unique collection of knowledge, experiences and perspectives that thousands of people out there would wish to hear about. Perhaps you know how to make great candles at home. Or you may know how to market certain products well. Or you may be a great listener. Or you may have some great skills when it comes to looking after pets. Perhaps you know how to save and invest money very well. Or you notice that your friends love to listen to you when you talk sports because of all that you know. These and many other skills are in high demand and desired by certain people all over world. You do have a book inside you. Everyone does. And with today’s electronic publishing and marketing options, you can produce it for almost no money and market it for very little and still profit very well.

Even if you do not wish to make money in publishing, ebooks and books are excellent ways to promote your regular business, especially online businesses. Ebooks especially are fantastic at achieving this. This is because top three activities performed online are downloading, searching for information and emailing, and ebooks are downloadable information products that can be emailed. They are highly viral, getting passed on from one person to another if they contain useful information. Therefore, whatever business you may be in, by writing a short ebook with useful information related to your industry you establish yourself as a credible authority, get trust of your customers, get yourself considered as a point of reference, and best of all you get a useful product that you can give away free at no cost to you and have people pass it on to each other thus giving you free promotion. An informative, small ebook can end up being passed on to thousands of potential customers! at no cost to you. Of course, your free ebooks would have to contain genuinely useful information that is somehow related to your products and services that you do sell. They would also contain references to your products and ordering information. Your ebooks would become your free sales reps, duplicated and passed on from customer to customer even while you sleep.

"How to Crank Out a New Ebook Every 30 Seconds!"

Is this what we call "the ebook craze"? A better name might be "Make-a-Quick-Buck Ebook Frenzy!"

Now, don't get me wrong. I like ebooks. I like them a lot. I love being able to place an order, click download, and be seeing what I bought light up 480,000 pixels in blazing color on my computer screen within a matter of minutes.

But, I also want those kilobytes of data to deliver real substance. "Meaty" stuff that I can sink my teeth into and learn from. Original ideas that dispatch a psycho-electric charge to my brain and makes that little light in my head glow bright and warm.

Sadly, it's been a long while since an ebook has delivered much more to my hard drive than current you'd get from a nearly dead AAA battery.

And is it any wonder? Some authors (and a few of them very respected Internet marketers) are cranking out one ebook after another. It seems onslaught to cash in on ebook craze is creating an unending proliferation of poorly done ebooks.

So, how can you weed out good ebooks from bad? How can you know which ones will deliver value for your hard earned dollar BEFORE you make investment?

Here's a few "rules of thumb" that I think will serve you well as you consider your next marketing ebook purchase:

#1 - A QUALITY PRODUCT WILL SELL ON IT'S OWN MERITS

I can't remember how many ebook sales sites I've visited where half to two-thirds of sales copy was directed at all "valuable(?) bonuses" I'd get with my purchase. This kind of site screams "LOW QUALITY!" to me.

I've always felt that true quality can stand on it's own. A product that delivers honest value needs no help from freebies and will sell completely on it's own merit.

#2 - A HIGH AFFILIATE COMMISSION CAN SIGNAL INFLATED PRICES

Check to see if there is an affiliate program for ebook. If so, look at commission structure. While not always true, a commission pay out of greater than 25-35% could mean you're paying an inflated price to make up for commission.