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Two years ago I wrote a novel, originally called Crystal Ball, now called, Oh Great, Now I Can Hear Dead People. I secured a deal with an agent for it and it almost got signed by Orion, but they had a similar title already coming out. Because by trade I'm a non-fiction writer, The Novel has been sitting in My Documents file ever since, so I've decided to just take the plunge and publish it with Kindle Direct Publishing. Initially I was so overwhelmed with the amount of information on KD that I thought, I am never going to be able to do this, but a lady by the name of Carol, who is in her late 60's and has published many books both with mainstream publishers and more recently with KD, took me under her wing and persuaded me to give it a go, so I thought I would share the tips and tricks that she's taught me, in case any one else is thinking of publishing with KD:
* If you want to promote your book, do so on the KD forum on a Friday - according to statistics, more people are inclined to read about new books on a Friday.
* Most people who download a new ebook won't pay over £6 for it, and the ones that attract better sales are the ones that are priced between £2 and £3.
* If you can do your own cover, do so. It's very simple - just make sure you save it as a JPEG of TIFF file.
* Use Facebook and Twitter to self-promote and become 'friends' with other authors because they will support you and let their 'friends' know about you.
* Don't worry about formatting too much. If your ms is set to industry standards (double lined etc) and written as an MS Word document, Kindle will automatically format it for you.
* Don't worry if it shows a chapter starting half way down a page when you preview your book on Kindle, this is normal - readers of ebooks don't like too much white space to have to scroll through.
* Don't panic if you upload your book and discover that there's a typo or a mistake on there - you can constantly delete, amend and reload it even when it's live.
* Don't worry too much about marketing and promoting - new books from new authors attract a lot of sales and interest, particularly from the US.
At the moment I am just waiting for my daughter to work her magic and design my cover, so I will keep you posted of how I get on and when I actually go live!
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Comments
I follow a YA writer on Twitter who has done it, in fact I bought his book for my daughter, and he's having a good bit of success. He's even saying he now has interest from a publisher to do the paperback version of his new book and the Kindle book too. I was thinking of compiling a short story anthology of my own as a taster into how it would work for me once I write a few more and sort out if I can use the ones published elsewhere.
Great tips and good luck with your book.
Perhaps other TB'ers who are interested in this can join me and test the market with their stories and we can share notes, tips, tricks etc here? Let me know how the anthology goes, Tony.
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Thanks for the info - interesting stuff.
I really didn't want to go down the self-publishing route, but this really appeals to me - it's completely different. I've got a pile of freeform poems that don't follow the rules. People and blog followers seem to be enjoying them and this could be a great way to reach that wider audience. Hubby's an artist and is keen to illustrate some of my work.
No doubt there will be an element of vanity-published equivalent works on Kindle but at least the reader gets the choice - and can publicly review.
Please do let us know how you get on, Tony too. And all the best of luck.
For instance if you could sort it you could do your FFF as an anthology up for sale tomorrow, split the money or give to charity and have it as a publicity vehicle for your site and the writers involved.
The other great part is that readers can download free samples first. So they get the first chapter or two of a novel or first story of an antho. You know if they buy they liked it and parted with the cash because of quality.
Also remember with the illustrations that it's only grey scale.
You know, several people have suggested making FFF into an anthology so I may well consider it. However, I had a look at KPD and there are issues around whether a work is already in the Public Domain - which these are - so I would need to investigate that further.
Re: illustrations, he works largely in pen and ink, and is a printmaker so grey scale suits, but that information could be useful to others.
See - now I'm totally distracted from my deadline!
This ebook may be of help to those wanting to look deeper into the process.
http://amzn.to/i6bvIq
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A few weeks ago Graham was given a free ebook for his Kindle, provided he placed a review on Amazon when he finished it. He did this and the author was pleased and said he'd now go ahead and have it printed with Kindle publishing and send him a printed version of his last book. That's what gave us the idea to do the same. The author was Tim Frost and the book The Abigail Affair.
'my Carol' came via a magazine interview I did with her about how she e-published her books, but I will check with her that it's OK to give you her email address and hopefully she will be able to answer any queries about formatting. Maybe if you try uploading your poems as a Word document, it will work better? I don't know, as I say I'm still learning the ropes (very slowly!) but someone else might have a better suggestion.
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http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscreator.asp
Please do because I am considering it. Be interesting to get your reaction to sales too.
Midia, what good advice. Have you considered sending a feature proposal based on what you've learnt to Writers' News or Writing Magazine? I certainly would want to read it.
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I asked Carol about formatting poems and this is what she said:
"If you go to www.smashwords.com and download the style guide it will explain about the mobi and the problems and help with formatting. For some reason or my copy and paste won't copy the link this morning. I hope I'm not going to have another day like yesterday! I'm not up on the mobi but they should find all the information in there regarding it. It's free to download I have a copy. I know it's smashwords but it includes the mobi-creator and helps explains problems. I've also emailed a friend who is at the moment working on formatting his book of poetry to Kindle. He might be able to help. If they are still stuck I will have a go myself with putting a poem through my .mobi and see what happens. Once on Kindle they should also try smashwords as I think I mentioned to you for your book. They distribute to Barnes & Noble and many other big retailers. Very useful indeed! Got the link here it is!! http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52"
Hope that helps.
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http://flyingtart.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-lexi-revellian.html
A project I'm developing might be suited to it. I don't have a Kindle, so don't know the ins and outs.
you get ONE chance only with Neilsons. You have to get it right first time you file that ISBN number. Check everything before it goes.
Having said that ... I have had notices from Neilsons asking about books I have never heard of and never would ...
I've just spoken to Nielsen's and they're emailing me the application form.
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There's a bit about it here.
http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/thread.jspa?messageID=44113걑
In short, no you don't need an ISBN to publish with Kindle, but if you wanted to say turn your book in to a paperback at some point, or if a publisher read it and wanted to publish it as a paperback to sell in bookstores, then they would add an ISBN number to that particular book, but you don't need one for electronic books.
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Ah, just found the answer to the ISBN question:
Kindle Publishing Tip: Do You Need An ISBN For eBooks?
This question seems to come up an awful lot: do you need to have an ISBN International Standard Book Number for an ebook (on the Amazon Kindle or otherwise)?
The answer, bottom line, is no.
Currently, ISBNs are only required for printed matter books. The purpose of the ISBN, according to ISBN.org, is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.
At this point, the main use of the ISBN in Kindle publication using Amazons Digital Text Platform (DTP) is to help Amazon link up the catalog entries for the Kindle and print editions of your book so that the reader reviews posted to one version will also appear in the other, and so on. The same is also true for books you publish through Mobipocket.com that are then distributed to the Kindle store: if you have a print edition of your book on Amazon, make sure to put the print edition ISBN in the ISBN field of the ebook metadata.
Will refer this to them. I would have said it is a book and needs an ISBN.
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It's a pleasure, actually, to send a query back. I have been bombarded with queries since sending in the list of titles, some stupid, some sensible, some down to people not looking properly and in one instance, someone presuming that two books by authors with the first name Elizabeth but the last name different was my mistake and they were one and the same person. Bit of a presumption there, after 17 years I know every title we have ever put out.
"Hi Karen,
All format types require their own ISBN, even different eBook types such as pfd and kindle, so the you will require a new ISBN.
I hope this helps, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.
Kind regards..."
As I was told, a different number for each one. Don't get caught out by trying to use the same one. It all costs money, that's the trouble ... buying their blocks of ISBNs is not cheap.