Review: eBook Secrets Exposed

If you want to make a lot of money with your own eBook and you only read one book on the subject in the next 12 months, I strongly recommend that it's 'eBook Secrets Exposed' by Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel.

The authors are both well qualified in this area. Jim Edwards has written five best-selling eBooks (including 'The Lazy Man's Guide to Online Business' and '33 Days To Online Success').

David Garfinkel is considered by many to be the world's greatest copyrighting coach. He's an award-winning business journalist and is also the author of several best-selling eBooks, such as 'Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich' and 'Killer Copy Tactics'.

There have been so many books on this subject that I really couldn't imagine how this book could add anything new.

But I have never before seen an eBook that explains so clearly how to do it. I got the feeling that you could literally walk in Jim Edwards' footsteps and get the same results he did (over 4,500 eBook sales in 9 months).

What makes this book very readable and enjoyable is that it's simply a long interview - David Garfinkel asks the questions and Jim Edwards gives the answers.

The book is packed with so many 'insider tips' that's it's difficult to know where to begin, but one of the most valuable tips is how to find out - before you write your book - if there's a market for it.

You do this by following Jim Edwards' 5-Step 'Ultimate eBook Success Formula'. The formula allows you to find out if there's a target audience that is already actively looking for the information you're about to sell online. And if so, if they are prepared to pay for it.

One of the interesting things you'll discover in this book is that competition is actually good for your eBook.

If you come up with an idea for an eBook and you find that there are no competing books, you need to get worried - it means there's probably no market for that idea.

But if there are books competing with yours, you're on safe ground - you know you have a market.

And don't be put off by competition: anyone who is serious about a particular subject will buy at least 4 or 5 books on that topic.

Many eBook authors who make big money quickly with their eBooks do resale rights. Instead of making $29 per sale, they're making $99 per sale. As you can see, resale rights can get you into serious money very fast.

But there are definite pitfalls with resale rights (such as finding out a few months later that your cherished information product has become a free eBook). If you want to avoid these pitfalls, you need to read Section 2 carefully.

You might think that best-selling eBook authors don't bother with affiliate programs. Wrong!

Jim Edwards shows you that one of secrets to making money with your eBook is to load it up with back-end affiliate links. But there's a right way to do this and a wrong way (more about this in Section 5).

But the real secret to how Jim Edwards made over $40,000 in one month from a single eBook is joint ventures - finding people with lists of 10,000 or even 100,000 and getting them to do a personal recommendation to their readers.

On the Internet it's not products that make money, it's lists (products don't sell, lists do). Or as Jim Edwards puts it: 'the power is in the pipes, in the distribution'.

Let's say your eBook is priced at $29 and you find someone with a list of 10,000 and they do a mailing that results in 3000 people turning up at your website.

And let's say that those 3000 visits result in 90 to 180 sales - you and your joint venture partner are suddenly making thousands of dollars in a few days.

Jim Edwards shows you exactly, step-by-step, how to set up a joint venture. He even shows you the exact same letter that he used to set up joint ventures for his book 'How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in a little as 7 Days'.

One of the keys to making joint ventures work is what Jim Edwards calls 'the Santa Claus technique' (more on that in Section 2).

A question many people have is how to price their eBook. And it's crucial that you get this right. In Section 4 Jim Edwards reveals his 'pricing formula' - a very clever way to find your eBook's 'breakpoint' or equilibrium.

There's another very valuable tip in Section 17 - 'My Secret Method For Slashing Refunds' (this tip on it's own could be worth the price of the whole book).

This is the best book on eBook publishing I've read in the last 18 months - in fact, while reading it, I came up with the idea for my next eBook!

You can get your copy of 'eBook Secrets Exposed' at: http://www.freezineweb.com/ese.html

Review of Down and Out in London and Paris By George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an intriguing and entertaining tale concerning Orwell's experience and observation of poverty. This vivid memoir eloquently and intelligently describes his time spent with the destitute and desperate of his society in Paris and London. The haunting and moving way in which Orwell describes each character he meets sticks in your mind, and although many doubt whether this novel was a real autobiography, no one can ignore the unique personality of each character such as Boris, Charlie and Bozo.

Orwell voluntarily entered the ranks of the poor and scarcely surviving in Paris. His account is rich in its description of sights, sounds and characters. When he isn't unemployed and pawning his clothes, he works long days as a "plongeur". Orwell's book fully demonstrates that the never ending cycle of Poverty is "squalid and boring". He ends his Paris section by speaking directly to the reader about the reasons for such Poverty. Rather than claim any kind of nobility in his destitute state, he shows that the appalling jobs he and his friends perform are mostly useless and can easily be made obsolete, which creates a dismal tone in the novel. Later he moves over to London and joins the ranks of the English vagrants. This section is less strong and reads more like a scientific study of homelessness in Edwardian England.

The tense and dramatic atmosphere is accentuated in the detail of the rapid descent into the heart of the seedy and impoverished, portraying an entirely different attitude towards two of the most famous cities in Europe. Contrasting with great, romantic literary works of these cities, Orwell uses a depressing and dark point of view to bring to light many of the false generalizations and careless mistakes we have towards the unfortunate of our society. This shocking revelation creates a gloomy and appalled tone to the novel, making it more emphatic and memorable.

The novel also gives emphasis to the power of words that Orwell possesses, showing his talent through the thorough yet still entertaining descriptions he gives throughout the script. Since there is very little representation of spoken discourse in the text, the story must be fleshed out by vibrant narrative which is difficult to do well. However, in my opinion Orwell's fine style and evocative attitude sets a tone of significance to everything that is written on the pages. Through this, Orwell is able to convey his inner thoughts and emotions to his audience in a refined and subtle way. This air of secrecy is very effective in the novel as it draws the reader in and leaves a memorable atmosphere.

Altogether I feel that this is an interesting novel with some strong key ideas about morality in the society of Orwell's time. While much has changed since the 1930's, I believe that the basic concept that Orwell is trying to get across are still significant in today's culture. Rather than an actual story with a beginning, middle and end, I did sense that the novel read like a long journalistic article on society, due to the interlude chapters concerning, for example, slang and Orwell's personal opinions of the idea of Poverty. It seemed to me that Orwell was trying to persuade us to accept and agree with his view, which to be honest worked wonderfully. However, I would not call this a typical novel, and I wonder if this part-fictitious tale could even be categorized with other novels or whether it should go under its own unique genre to match its unique author.

If the novel had been written by any other author, it would have been extremely dull, as the book is repetitive and the story line is weak. However the art lies in the description for the most part, creating a colorful image to relay to the audience the effect of a place or person. I thought that more went on in the Paris section of the novel than the London section, mostly due to the fact that he didn't do anything but waste time trying to survive on little money whilst in London. I feel he included the London sections more to make a point about hardship in English Poverty rather than entertain an audience.

Overall I genuinely enjoyed reading this novel and encourage others to take a look. The novel looks dense and difficult, but even through the treacherous hardship Orwell faces, he manages to keep the tone light. To be honest, this is the sort of novel that everyone should read at least once in their lives to help educate the minds and inform them about the different aspects of humanity.