More Tips on Creating and Publishing Your Ebook

Continuing our series of tips on creating and publishing your eBook (get steps 1-3 in part 1 here):

4. Formatting. Next, you’ll need to transform your manuscript Word document into a format that suits eBooks. Kindle uses the .mobi format, Barnes & Noble, Apple and others use Epub. Many writers find it too tedious to convert their manuscripts into proper format for acceptance by the Kindle Store, etc., and prefer to pay a modest amount for a formatting service. (We can help with that.)

5. Get an ISBN. In order for people (and your local bookstore) to find your books, you’ll need an ISBN number.  ISBNs are used worldwide as a unique identifier for books that simplifies distribution and purchase of books throughout the world. These may be purchased from Bowker identifier services, or you can get one free using such services as Smashwords. (However, Smashwords strongly encourages authors to use their Smashwords-issued ISBN only on Smashwords.)

6. Upload/Distribution. There are numerous ways you can distribute your eBook. We can recommend the best ways to go on this. (Hint: Smashwords is pretty dang spiffy. So is the Amazon Kindle Store.)

Tune in for more tomorrow: pricing, sampling and more!