Publishing an ebook

Howard

First of all, a warm hello to all my old friends on the forum with apologies for not having enough time to contribute regularly.

I’ve just got my website going in order to promote my novel. I’ve published it as an ebook prior to sending it out to agents. My thinking is that I have nothing to lose by doing so – the cost has been minimal – and I might as well get it out there and find out about the market. I have no idea whether ebooks will really catch on but I suspect that they will find their niche rather than replace printed versions. However, they do offer an interesting opportunity to publish and promote from home (which is especially useful if you live abroad.) You can see what I've been up to at : http://www.howardthomas.net/

Carol

Welcome back Howard.

dora

yaaay hello Howard :)

KJ

Quick question - do eBooks need to have all the same info as a printed book if they are commercially sold (i.e. ISBNs)?
If so, is it the same ISBN as a printed book?

Carol

Yes KJ the standard info you get at the front of the book with the copyright info and ISBN number is used in an e-book.

Nefertari

Howard! Lovely to see you again. Going to check out your web site now

dorothyd

welcome back!

Verica

Congratulations on placing your book as an e-book and welcome back. Very good cover and description on your blog.

My husband has been trying to convert my published book, The Find, into an e-book format for Kindle, but each attempt has produced considerable corrupted text and layout. He's persevering, but it appears it's not as easy as it seemed. He's using Calibre. Unfortunately, the many photographs in the book do not seem to convert well. Are you able to advise us, please?

Howard

KJ: you do not need an ISBN for Amazon (ie kindle) but you will need one for Apple (iPad) and (I believe) for the Sony reader. I have read conflicting information as to whether you can you use just one ISBN for both the printed and electronic copies of the same book. The copyright statement etc is the same. If you publish through Smashwords they will provide an ISBN free of charge if you meet all their formatting requirements.

Verica: the formatting is a nightmare. Amazon don't give clear advice and the video on YouTube, which Amazon themselves promote, avoids the whole formatting question. The best advice I've found is in the Style Guide from Smashwords.com. You have to sign up to access the Guide as a download but that does not imply any commitment. They explain how to prepare the MS as a Word document. I used their 'Nuclear Option' which involved copying the text into a .txt programme (Notepad or TextEdit on a Mac) and purging all formatting before redoing it all in a compatible way. It worked for me and it helped me understand why I had been so frustrated in preparing the MS for Kindle on Amazon. I have no photographs but I had initial problems with the colour of my book cover as a TIFF document. It was OK once I'd converted it to JPEG.

Rosalie

Welcome back, Howard. Your website is great and your book looks really interesting.

Howard

Thanks, Rosalie. You can read 20% of the novel for free by following the link to Smashwords on the website.

Carol

Formatting can be a problem with e-books. It is often the complaint readers have with them.

Howard

Carol: I'm not surprised and it worries me that readers could stop reading out of frustration with poor formatting. I wanted to put margins in the Kindle version but I could do it down the left hand side, but not the right. It looked terrible so I abandoned the idea and had to accept that I had little control over the all important 'white space'. I hope that formatting is made easier in the future.

Carol

I have to say that a lot of the newer e-books I've been reading lately have been reasonable so possibly they are starting to work out how to make it work better.

pbw

Brilliant. Just read about 'Gran's giant kecks'. Hilarious. I look forward to reading the whole book. I hope it's picked up by an agent. I'd be pleased to read it as an e=book but I can't afford a Kindle yet, so I'll look forward to the paper version. Love the web site. VERY professional. The images are lovely and sharp.

Carol

PBW, you can read an e-book on your computer if you don't mind reading on screen.

pbw

[quote=Carol]PBW, you can read an e-book on your computer if you don't mind reading on screen. [/quote]
DUH! 'course I can! never thought of that but actually I don't like reading on the computer. I spend to much time doing stuff on it and I like to get away from it, although I can take my lap top around with me and read it on that. I actually do prefer the paper version and I was hoping that a Kindle screen was softer on the eyes than the normal computer screen.

Carol

You can certainly read for longer on an e-reader screen but you do still need to rest your eyes regularly PBW.

Mutley

Oh my word - I have just received this email from the local newspaper - now the question is, do I have the courage to invest in print? What would you do?


'I was just wondering if there is somewhere locally that your book is stocked. After the article in our paper, we have had a few people asking where they can buy your book – Lovers Take up Less Space.'

Carol

You need to look at the cost of getting x number printed from a variety of sources, plus if you are going to have an ISBN, can the cover on your e-book be used for a hard copy version...there's a lot to consider.

Mutley

I've requested 3 different quotes. The cover is not a problem I have it in book format as well as ebook. I will get ISBN numbers.

pbw

Mutley can you look at print on demand (POD) suppliers? There must be firms advertising in WN which do that.

Mutley

Thanks PBW, but I don't think that makes it viable. The cover price would have to be fairly high. I want to sell for £4.99 ideally. Given I don't do things by halves - I'm looking at setting up my own publishing company :) Never a dull moment!

Jay Mandal

Best of luck, Mutley!

Carol

Ditto.

LilyC

Wow Mutley. All the very best with that.