epublishing: where, when, how, who?
Ok you have heard so much about epublishing. Now what? Here are some tips.
FIRST RULE: IT HAS TO LOOK PROFESSIONAL
o Price your ebook cheaply – don’t deal with anyone that won’t let you set your own price. Make sure the cover art looks professional.
WHERE TO PUBLISH:
KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING
o Amazon. Upload your book to Kindle directly (no fees)
o 70% royalty fee to writer but some rules apply complete list of terms
o https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
o $.99-$9.99 pricing – most books sell at $2.99 or less
o Create your own cover using: Mobipocket eBook Creator or Calibre. Mobipocket Creator allows you to create an e-book with a table of contents and convert it into Amazon's proprietary e-book format, AZW (MOBI, the file output by the program, is the same as AZW). You can start with a Word file, which then gets converted to HTML, then MOBI. (Check out the Mobipocket eBook Creator guide at the company's Web site).
APPLE
o Offers the same royalty to writers that Amazon offers (70%).
o Must use an aggregator such as Smashwords or Lulu to get into iBook store.
SMASHWORDS
· Free style guide for formatting your Word document and images. http://www.smashwords.com/
· Upload the document and image into their “meatgrinder” tool and you can create an ebook in just about any format that you want.
· They don’t charge you for creating ebook but do take a small cut of the author’s royalties. At a price point of $2.99, on Apple’s iBookstore, Smashwords takes 10% of the retail price (iBookstore earns $1.794 or 60% of the retail price) so Smashwords winds up taking $.299.
· You can acquire your own ISBN for a price although most ebook publishers provide it for free or roll it into their total price.
LULU
· You can publish a print book or just publishing ebook. Lulu distributes to Apple iBookstore and Lulu.com. Lulu would charge from $99.99 to $299 for this conversion.
· It is one of the main aggregators for Apple’s iBookstore.
· The author receives 56% of the retail price for a book sold at Apple (versus 60% at Smashwords). Charges a $1.49/book production fee for every book sold to Apple in addition to the 20% sale price if Lulu sets up the book for you.
· However authors are free to use any of the free conversion programs available to them. If you go to lulu they list these on their website. http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/
FAST PENCIL
· A number of self-publishing packages. http://www.fastpencil.com/
· $149 for its basic epublishing packing, and you still have to import your own cover image and get no design help. You do get wide distribution. (Nook – B&N, iBookstore, Kindle store, Sony Readers, Ingram’s Digital network.
· Royalty is similar to Lulu’s which is not quite as good as Smashwords – or about 56% of retail rate.
PUBLISH GREEN
http://www.publishgreen.com/
· A number of packages from $299 - $899.
· Kindle compatible file.
· 90% royalty.
o Create Space, iUniverse, Xlibris, Authorhouse.
· Allow you to do print-on-demand self publishing ebook conversion service and distribution but avoid any company that doesn’t let you set your own price.
SCRIBD
· http://www.scribd.com/
· Fast/easy way to get ebook on Internet. Create an account, then a PDF of your book with cover image embedded on the first page of the PDF and upload it to Scribd. Its online software converts your document into
· a file that can be viewed on a pc, iPad or other portable devices.
BARNES & NOBLE PUB-IT
· http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home
· Similar to Amazon B&N set the Publit royalty rate for authors at 65% of the sale price for titles priced $2.99 and higher. Rate falls to 40% if you go lower than $2.99 or higher than $9.99 with B&N setting $.99 as lowest price and $199.99 has highest. This is close to Amazon’s 70% royalty but not quite as high.
· RESOURCES: J.A. Konrath (mystery writer)has a primer on ebooks "How to Make Money on eBooks"
·
Ok you have heard so much about epublishing. Now what? Here are some tips.
FIRST RULE: IT HAS TO LOOK PROFESSIONAL
o Price your ebook cheaply – don’t deal with anyone that won’t let you set your own price. Make sure the cover art looks professional.
WHERE TO PUBLISH:
KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING
o Amazon. Upload your book to Kindle directly (no fees)
o 70% royalty fee to writer but some rules apply complete list of terms
o https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
o $.99-$9.99 pricing – most books sell at $2.99 or less
o Create your own cover using: Mobipocket eBook Creator or Calibre. Mobipocket Creator allows you to create an e-book with a table of contents and convert it into Amazon's proprietary e-book format, AZW (MOBI, the file output by the program, is the same as AZW). You can start with a Word file, which then gets converted to HTML, then MOBI. (Check out the Mobipocket eBook Creator guide at the company's Web site).
APPLE
o Offers the same royalty to writers that Amazon offers (70%).
o Must use an aggregator such as Smashwords or Lulu to get into iBook store.
SMASHWORDS
· Free style guide for formatting your Word document and images. http://www.smashwords.com/
· Upload the document and image into their “meatgrinder” tool and you can create an ebook in just about any format that you want.
· They don’t charge you for creating ebook but do take a small cut of the author’s royalties. At a price point of $2.99, on Apple’s iBookstore, Smashwords takes 10% of the retail price (iBookstore earns $1.794 or 60% of the retail price) so Smashwords winds up taking $.299.
· You can acquire your own ISBN for a price although most ebook publishers provide it for free or roll it into their total price.
LULU
· You can publish a print book or just publishing ebook. Lulu distributes to Apple iBookstore and Lulu.com. Lulu would charge from $99.99 to $299 for this conversion.
· It is one of the main aggregators for Apple’s iBookstore.
· The author receives 56% of the retail price for a book sold at Apple (versus 60% at Smashwords). Charges a $1.49/book production fee for every book sold to Apple in addition to the 20% sale price if Lulu sets up the book for you.
· However authors are free to use any of the free conversion programs available to them. If you go to lulu they list these on their website. http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/
FAST PENCIL
· A number of self-publishing packages. http://www.fastpencil.com/
· $149 for its basic epublishing packing, and you still have to import your own cover image and get no design help. You do get wide distribution. (Nook – B&N, iBookstore, Kindle store, Sony Readers, Ingram’s Digital network.
· Royalty is similar to Lulu’s which is not quite as good as Smashwords – or about 56% of retail rate.
PUBLISH GREEN
http://www.publishgreen.com/
· A number of packages from $299 - $899.
· Kindle compatible file.
· 90% royalty.
o Create Space, iUniverse, Xlibris, Authorhouse.
· Allow you to do print-on-demand self publishing ebook conversion service and distribution but avoid any company that doesn’t let you set your own price.
SCRIBD
· http://www.scribd.com/
· Fast/easy way to get ebook on Internet. Create an account, then a PDF of your book with cover image embedded on the first page of the PDF and upload it to Scribd. Its online software converts your document into
· a file that can be viewed on a pc, iPad or other portable devices.
BARNES & NOBLE PUB-IT
· http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home
· Similar to Amazon B&N set the Publit royalty rate for authors at 65% of the sale price for titles priced $2.99 and higher. Rate falls to 40% if you go lower than $2.99 or higher than $9.99 with B&N setting $.99 as lowest price and $199.99 has highest. This is close to Amazon’s 70% royalty but not quite as high.
· RESOURCES: J.A. Konrath (mystery writer)has a primer on ebooks "How to Make Money on eBooks"
·
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