Quote:
Originally Posted by SigilBear
For example, I'm working on a book about state symbols, which includes hundreds of state flower, state birds, etc. Most state symbols references include brief information about the natural history of each of these symbols, which is a little redundant. ("The mountain bluebird breeds in the spring...")
I'd like to instead link each state symbol account to a web page where readers can learn all the natural history they want. So the ebook would focus on symbols, while an associated website would offer information on an "ecosymbols" appearance, distribution and life history.
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Consider:
- An ebook that consists of nothing but links to websites has been tried before. Amazon removes them when they're reported, they're considered scams.
- An ebook where every page has some content, but also links to a website, might skate past Amazon's rules, but would still likely have readers considering it a scam, if they had to pay for the book.
What is the actual use case for this?
How many people actually need a reference for all state symbols, vs the number who are looking up a particular one that they may have need of for just that minute? An ebook reference for all the state symbols is vanishingly useful for the second group, but the first group cannot be very large - who are they?
Why are people looking up state symbols? For general personal edification? That audience has to be miniscule.
Most people looking one up would have a specific purpose in mind: They want to use it on something seems the most likely to me. In which case, the background behind it is of no interest, they want a high res copy of it, and to know the rules about usage. So they'll go to the source, the state government website of the symbol(s) they are interested in, where they are guaranteed the most up to date information and imagery.
Kids researching for a school assignment? They might be interested in the extra information, but again, unlikely to need more than one symbol, and probably wouldn't spend their disposable income on a reference book.
Someone looking up a symbol to end an argument? ("No, you idiot, the symbol for Foo state has an OSTRICH on it, not a camel") Again, unlikely to need a reference to all the state symbols, just specific info on that one. Wikipedia will likely answer that for them, why would they buy a book about it? How would they know there
is a book about it?
I'm struggling to come up with further use cases, but in any case, that's your job.
I suspect the reason your hard copy competitors in this space are out of print, is because they aren't that useful anymore. This kind of information is readily available directly from the source, as well as aggregated on sites like Wikipedia. Printed encyclopedias are pretty few and far between these days too. Times have changed.
In any case, where and to whom would you market this kind of information? Are there "state symbol enthusiast" clubs?
Unless you can figure out who your audience is, and why they need the information, you can't market to them. And if you can't market to them, they won't be buying.
Successful self-publishing these days, as any self-published author will tell you, is far more about marketing and discoverability than anything else.