EBook Publishing and Marketing Guide
By Sandy Harper
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About this ebook
There are radical changes in landscape of book publishing. If you’re a writer who have published a book or not yet, consider creating ebooks, because ebooks and the devices that read them are the fastest growing sectors in the publishing industry. Amazon has the Kindle, Barnes & Noble the Nook, Sony's got the Reader, Apple has the iPad and Google Ebooks has recently been released. People even read on their cell phones. And this is just the beginning. Ebook sales are soaring and are surpassing paper book sales. Amazon and Barnes & Noble, biggest book sellers, are making more money publishing and selling eBooks than regular printed books.
You will learn how to publish your books on various digital platforms, especially Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple iBooks store, and Smashwords. How to convert your document into any eBook format; and what file types to upload. You will learn how to prepare the cover and where to get the free images for covers; and how to price your book to name a few. If you want to make, market and sell ebooks and do it all for free, then this is a must read and the one source for everything it takes to succeed at this. New as well as published authors will realize how much time and frustration these formatting tips can save; and put you on the fast track to selling ebooks.
You will learn how to do effective marketing and use various social networks to promote your books. It explains how to prepare blogs; build and Maximize Social Media and Online Platform. With this guide you can turn your idea into an eBook and start collecting royalties in a matter of days not weeks and months.
Sandy Harper
Sandy Harper (B.A., B.Ed.), a School teacher who started part time and became a full time entrepreneur. She has been running successful business from home since January 9, 1986. This is the first time she is sharing what she has learned in over a quarter of century. The suggestions she provides are practical many of which has helped her grow from scratch. She is the author of various guides in “Cash at Home Series.”
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EBook Publishing and Marketing Guide - Sandy Harper
Cash at Home Series
EBook Publishing
And
Marketing Guide
Sandy Harper
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2011 by Sandy Harper
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Contents
Introduction
1. PUBLISHING AN EBOOK
2. Everything You Need to Know to get started
3. YOU PUBLISHED A BOOK, NOW WHAT?
4. EBOOK PROMOTION AND MARKETING
5. HOW DID THEY DO IT! PERSONAL MARKETING TIPS
Appendix A. Another writer shares his real success experience with sense of humor
Appendix B. Experience of an author marketing online
Appendix C. Story of a new author about her eBook Adventure
Back to Contents
Introduction
There are radical changes in landscape of book publishing. Many people were born before the Internet. When they grew up, there were no eBooks. We recall the childhood or even adulthood, a phone book was a paper guide to help you find phone numbers. Today it is an eBook that you can read in your phone. You need to understand what these changes mean for you.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble, biggest book seller, are making more money publishing and selling eBooks than regular printed books. Digital publishing has been around in one form or another for many years starting with early eBook readers from Sony and devices like Palm PDAs; but it wasn't until Amazon introduced the Kindle — and then Apple followed up with iBooks and Barnes & Noble with the Nook — that eBook readers really went mainstream.
Kindle, Nook, Sony, iPad and many other eBook readers have made it very convenient to store and read eBooks. And this is just the beginning. This aspect of home business cannot be ignored anymore. There are people who are making decent living just by selling eBooks. Whether you’re a writer who have published eBook or not yet, this guide is here to help you publish and market eBooks.
You will learn how to publish your books on various digital platforms, especially Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple iBooks store, and Smashwords. How to format an eBook and what file types to upload. You will learn how to prepare the cover and where to get the free images for covers; and how to price your book to name a few. New as well as published authors will realize how much time and frustration these formatting tips can save.
You will learn how to do effective marketing and use various social networks to promote your books. It explains how to prepare blogs. Personal accounts of various successful authors are invaluable. With this guide you can turn your idea into an eBook and start collecting royalties in a matter of days not weeks and months.
Back to Contents
Chapter 1
PUBLISHING AN EBOOK
The economy is not doing very well, and many people have felt this in their wallet. Many bookstores have felt it too. Borders who filed for bankruptcy in February is now closing their stores in September, 2011. Publishers of print magazines and newspapers are not spared and many have gone belly up. So why it is that powerhouse publisher Random House announced in early 2011 that last year was a banner year? Sales were up, and earnings were up by a whopping 26 percent in this economy!
The answer: Random House's eBook sales rose by 250 percent.
It is not surprising at all. Barnes and Noble is doing well due to their move towards eBooks. They have sold more eBooks than their printed version.
There are two things that you as a published or future author need to know and understand. One is that your book may not disappear as a print book. For economic reasons, hardcover books may have a hard time surviving, but softcover books are likely to stay. For any number of reasons, but here's one of them: the world is strongly influenced by religious beliefs. At the root of those beliefs is a book. As long as preachers in religious places do not quote the hymns from a Kindle or other eBook Reader, don't count on the disappearance of printed books.
Number two and most important: eBooks are here to stay for the rest of time. They have come, and they will never leave. EBooks have no fading ink, no disintegrating glue in spines, no curling cover, no pages falling out, and no moisture that turns pages brownish. Ten thousand years from now they will look just as fresh and crisp as they look today, and people will still read them.
Maybe this future is of only limited interest to you. More important now is that your eBook needs no printing and no shipping to be purchased, downloaded, and read within a matter of seconds by anyone anywhere in the world. And that's not a distant future. That's today!
In conclusion, eBooks are finally catching up beyond imagination, thanks to new eBook readers such as kindle, nook, Sony eBook Reader and so on. Many big name publishing houses like Barnes and Noble are selling more eBooks than regular print edition. BN has claimed to sell million eBooks in one month. They have done it within 3 months of getting into eBook business in September 2010.
A Kindle Primer
This is a fact: Epublishing is revolutionizing publishing, an event no less important to intellectual discourse than the penny newspapers of the nineteenth century.
Epublishing is a viable option to seeking a traditional publisher. Not only are established writers publishing original material to Kindle (and other eBook platforms), but indie writers are being offered traditional DTB (dead tree book) contracts based on their eBooks. While the eBook market is still only 9% of the total book market (as of 10/2010); it is a growing market. Consumers are expected to buy one billion dollars in eBooks by the end of the year. So let’s get aboard.
How to get started
There is no charge to upload your manuscript to Amazon Kindle (or any of the other eBook platforms, including Smashwords, PubIt, Kobo, iPad, Android, Sony, and Diesel). You do not have to own a Kindle to publish on Kindle. You do not have to own a Kindle to read Kindle books (there is a free download application for your computer on the Amazon website). Similarly you don’t need Nook to publish Nook books on Barnes & Noble.
There are a handful of simple steps. Prepare your manuscript, then proof and format it to perfection. Prepare your sales pitch, design a cover or get it done by a professional, and decide on a price. Once you have these elements together, it takes only about one hour per venue. You can finish writing a novel on Monday, post it on Tuesday, and start making money on Friday. It may take a few days for Amazon or Barnes & Noble to process it. But if everything is in order, the book can be on sale within 24 hours.
For Kindle, it is easier if you have a U.S. bank. Barnes & Noble also pays through U.S. Bank. Smashwords pays through PAYPAL, and is therefore more international. Kindle and Barnes & Noble pays monthly, Smashwords pays quarterly at this time.
Preparing Your Manuscript
1. COPY EDITING. Have several people proof your work. Have at least three people (preferably fellow writers) read your manuscript for typos. And/or hire a professional (which will cost $300 – $1,000). If you need or want an editor, someone who chops and cuts and moves material around, and questions you about word choice, narrative flow, storyline, etc., that will run from $2,000-$8,000, and will take two weeks to a month.
Do an Edit/Find on redundant and passive words, such as ‘that’, ‘starts’ and ‘begins’, ‘of the’, ‘turned’, ‘the phone’ and ‘some of the’, ‘was’ and ‘were’.
If you cannot afford a copy editor, here's another technique several indie authors have employed. Transfer your book file to your Kindle and use the text to speech. Read along with a hard copy of your manuscript. You'll be astonished by what you catch. Very helpful and costs nothing.
NOTE: Amazon, B & N, Smashwords, and most eBook publishers allow readers to download a sample before they can buy your book. Most readers will do this, SO MAKE THE BEGINNING OF YOUR BOOK FABULOUS. It must read so a person is intrigued, has to know more, will not sleep until he reads more.
2. Put all of your files into one Microsoft Word document (including title page), single spaced, justified. Times Roman or Arial font, or something simple. (Not courier.)
Before you upload to Kindle, check your formatting as Amazon converts it using HTML.
Make sure you have no tabs. Do an Edit Replace for ^t, replacing it with nothing. Then highlight your entire document using select all
, and use the Format, Paragraph, Indent and Spacing. (Indentation: 0" for Left, Right; Spacing: 0 point Before, and 10 pt After; Line Spacing: Single; Special:(none) Or you can double space between paragraphs.)
Kindle is much more flexible about format than Smashwords, but to save you from formatting your manuscript twice, you might want to abide by Smashwords rules (which you can read at Smashwords.com).
Titles and headings font size should not be larger than 18 pitch (not for Kindle, but for Smashwords), and limit the number of extra line returns to 5 (again for Smashwords).
At the end of chapters, put 4 or 5 line returns (again for Smashwords).
3. After your title page, you want to put something like:
Digital Edition
Copyright © 2010 by Author Name
All rights reserved
The © symbol supposedly protects the text internationally. As I understand it, as soon as you've created a text, it's copyrighted in the U.S., but that allows you only the ability to stop republication by someone else. If you register the copyright with the Library of Congress, you are able to collect money damages. For more information, see http://copyrightregistery-gov-form.com/
For the Smashwords Edition, you’ll want to put:
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2010 by Author Name
All rights reserved
NOTE: You own the rights if you publish on Kindle or Smashwords. If a publisher reads what you have on Kindle, and wants to do a DTB (dead tree book) commonly known as print edition, you have all rights to sell it to them. I know of several indies who have found publishers this way.
4. SAVE: When you are done formatting, SAVE AS a Microsoft word