Final Thoughts on Creating and Publishing Your Ebook
Facebook "Fan" Page for Mystery author J. Alexander Greenwood.
Winding up our series of tips on creating and publishing your eBook (get previous entries by scrolling through the last three days of blog entries):
10. Market Your Book. Promoting eBooks online is the most cost-effective method to market your work. We recommend that any author comfortable using the internet set up a Facebook page, a Goodreads author page and an author website. There are numerous methods to market and promote your work–too in-depth to cover here, but we have extensive experience in helping authors promote their books.
11. Reviews, Tips & Tricks. One fantastic aspect of eBooks is the potential for longterm profitability. (They are clearly a marathon, not a sprint.) Properly promoting your book, obtaining reviews and generating word of mouth can achieve this.
Obviously, there are numerous other factors and details in e-publishing. AlexGPR & Caroline Street Press is here to help! Call 913.907.4426 or email us for more information.
Even More Tips on Creating and Publishing Your Ebook
Print On Demand Paperbacks are also a hot item.
Continuing our series of tips on creating and publishing your eBook (get steps 4-6 here):
7. Set Your Price. When you upload your book, you’ll need to set your price. Bear in mind that if you are an unknown author without a platform of dedicated readers, you will want to be careful about overpricing your book. Pricing varies case by case, but in general, we recommend debut books stay in the $2.99 to $4.99 range. Royalties vary be distributor (see #9). Also, pricing can change as time marches on–sales, previous books as loss leaders and other marketing concepts can easily be employed.
8. Sampling. Many distributors offer some form of “free sampling” of your book. We recommend making 10-20% of your book available free as an enticement.
9. Royalties. Amazon pays author royalties of between 35 percent and 70 percent, depending on how the book is priced. Check out this handy chart for more info on that.
Smashwords Pays a generous 85% to authors. The rate may vary for sales made through other outlets. More details are here.
Also–PayPal is the method of choice for royalty payments by most distributors, so you better get an account if you haven’t already.
Tune in for more tomorrow: marketing and more!
More Tips on Creating & Publishing Your Ebook
Get Ready to Launch 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!
Steps to Creating and Publishing Your eBook
Photo Courtesy of R. Long.
You may have read a recent blog post about Caroline Street Press, our new e-publishing division here at AlexG PR. We started the division for two reasons:
1. As writers, we love ebooks (and Print On Demand books) as well as working with creative people.
2. We keep getting calls and email from aspiring indie writers asking us to coffee to “pick our brain” about ebooks and print-on-demand publishing.
So, as much as we like a free cup of coffee (and a picked brain), we figured it would be better for everyone involved if we offered a professional service package rather than just caffeine-fueled, off-the-cuff advice.
That in mind, we’re offering a few free (though you can mail us coffee or a Starbucks card if you care to) tips on what it takes to publish a quality ebook right here on the blog every day for the next few days. Bear in mind, this is merely the tip(s) of the proverbial iceberg, so if you’re interested in a one-on-one consultation about getting your book from your computer to Amazon.com (or Barnes & Noble, etc.) then please contact us. We’re here to help!
eBooks are one of the fastest-growing segments of the publishing industry–and the vast majority of eBooks are independently produced. Where once mighty publishing houses controlled virtually every aspect of editing, production and marketing of a book, today authors can go it alone–often with spectacular results. This post (and the next few after it) covers the basic tasks required to publish a quality eBook.
1. Write a Good Book. Though this may seemingly be understood, many writers–intoxicated by the relative ease of getting their book from their computer to market–don’t put enough time and effort into writing a quality book. We suggest writing a first draft, putting it aside for a few weeks, then revisiting the manuscript for a rewrite. After the rewrite, share it with a few “beta readers.” Ideally, these are people who will “give it to you straight” about parts of the books that need work. They shouldn’t take the place of an editor, but they can be immensely helpful if they will read your work and give you an honest critique.
2. Hire an Editor. This is some of the best money you will ever invest (trust us, we know from firsthand experience). After you make any necessary changes, ship your manuscript off to an experienced editor. They will find things you and your beta readers missed such as typos, inconsistencies, rough sentence structure, etc. Once the editor returns the marked draft, it’s up to the author (you) to accept the recommended changes. After any changes are made and a final polish of the manuscript is complete, then you’re ready to go to the next step.
3. Get A Good Cover. How many wonderful books are ignored because of a below average cover? You need a cover that screams credibility–and one that will attract attention even when it’s a tiny thumbnail on a computer screen.
Tune in for more tomorrow: formatting, ISBNs and more!
