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Writing Magazine How to publish your e-book app

edited September 2013 in Writing
Hello everyone,

Lauren from the Writing Magazine team here. I just wanted to share the exciting news that this morning Writing Magazine launched an exclusive How to publish your e-book app.

Our app is available on i-pad for writers around the world and is something that we have put together following reader feedback about advice they want.

E-publishing is a massive phenomenon, but if you haven’t published an ebook before, it can be difficult to know what to do, how to do it, and when. We’ve picked the very best articles on e-publishing from the pages of Writing Magazine for this special app to guide you through the process of e-publishing step-by-step.

Our app will give you the foundation and skills you need to help your ebook on its way to being the next bestseller. Here's a taster about how it can help you:

LEARN HOW TO:
• Format your ebook text
• Design a cover that will stand out on Amazon, Apple’s Newsstand or iBooks store, Smashwords – anywhere that ebooks are sold
• How to write a book blurb and press release to generate publicity
• How to upload your book to Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, iBooks, or, alternatively, the benefits of using a company like Matador to do all the work for you.
• How to build your online profile and generate sales
• How to build an author platform online and widen your potential audience.

The App can be bought from the i-tunes store using the following link https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/how-to-publish-your-ebook/id699111107?ls=1&mt=8

We'd love to know what you think.

Comments

  • Interesting, just one question, will it be available on any other platform other than i-pad?
  • I don't have an iPad, or use a smartphone, so it's no good for me if I can't access it via my computer.

    Great idea, but needs to be available in other platforms.
  • Being a starving writer, I can't afford an i-pad. I could e-publish my book when it's finished, turn it into a best-seller and then buy one - but that would be too late.
  • I don't have an iPad either.
  • Webbo has been ...
    _ seduced?
    _ stalked?
    _ distracted?
    _ undermined?
    _ overawed?
    ... who is this Lauren, to take 'our' friend's identity instead of waiting her(?) own application for Talkback to be accepted?

    To be serious; the app. is a great idea but would benefit many more if it was available in universal formats. {Please?}
  • edited September 2013
    What they all said - I only have a laptop.

    Perhaps WM could publish it as an e.book we could download in pdf?
  • Same here - can't take advantage of Webbo. Well I can...but...
  • Wot no Android? :-)

    It sounds quite interesting, but what does the app do that a printed guide or an ebook can't? Apps need a degree of interactively to be worthwhile; this seems more of an instructional sort of thing from what you've said, Lauren.

    If any of our resident Apple-owners give this a go, I'd be keen to hear what they think of it.
  • Even if it was available for Android, the screen's way too small on my phone.
  • I have a Samsung tablet - about the size of a Kindle. I only got it a few weeks ago, but already I'm using it far more than I expected.
  • edited September 2013
    Hi everyone, it's me. Sorry about the interlauren!
    I'm afraid we've only planned this for the iPad for now - we're dipping our toes in the water a bit and (to stretch a metaphor beyond all bounds of taste), Apple has the biggest pool and the most inviting water. I can't promise that an Android version is on its way, but if this goes well initially, it definitely makes sense for us to attempt to reach as many people as possible.

    [If anyone's interested in the behind-the-scenes, the difference in proposition for developers is quite stark:
    • develop one iOS version in two flavours (iPad and iPhone). We decided just to develop for iPad this time, as it's a much more pleasant reading experience. As updates are free and controlled by Apple, most users are on the most up-to-date version of the OS that their devices support. 93% of iOS users are on iOS6 (until tomorrow at least...), with the remainder nearly all on iOS5. Even supporting older versions, you're only really developing on 3 or 4 different versions. Since all those users are on the same hardware, everyone has the same experience, same screen size, same resolution, etc.
    • develop an Android version. 89% of Android users are split fairly evenly between three different versions of the operating system, so you've already got three times as much work in testing. But the real kicker is the hardware - each of those splits then splits again over a wide range of phones and tablets (Samsung, Sony, Nexus, whatever, with no manufacturer having more than a 10% share), with varying performance, screen size, etc, on each one. So from a quality control point of view, it gets a lot more complicated and time intensive very quickly.
    [/techy bore]
    If there were any lingering suspicions this was still Lauren, I think I've quashed them now.

    So anyway, back to the script - if you do have an iPad, check out the app, we'd love to know what you think!
  • The search for the elusive Talkbacker who has an iPad and can comment. :)
  • [quote=Carol]The search for the elusive Talkbacker who has an iPad[/quote] And one who hasn't already self published but is seriously considering giving it a go. That narrows it down.
  • Webbo, you've gone all techno-computery on us. Are you sure you're you?
    So what all that jargon and gibberish means is that you've done it for i-pad, and only for i-pad?
    *Sighs and turns away, unloved and forlorn, but trying very hard to understand.*
  • *feels Mrs Bear's pain*

    Oh.

    *whimpers*
  • *iPad-less TB's gather in a mass sympathy huddle*
  • *gulp*

    I've never needed a hug more than I do now - more even than my need for an iPad.
  • Carol said: The search for the elusive Talkbacker who has an iPad and can comment.

    Um- well I' m typing this on the OH's IPad... But I'm not planning to publish an e-book... Sorry...
  • And I have an iPad, but I already published four books and two articles on publishing ebooks.
  • [quote=Nena]I already published four books and two articles on publishing ebooks[/quote]In which case you are an ideal critic.

    Have Writers-Online/the "Writing Magazine"/Lauren/Webbo(?) prepared this App., in a comprehensive and accurate form?
    Is the information completes?
    Are pitfalls explained in sufficently simple order for any novice publisher to achieve successful reproduction?
    Is the app., interactive?

    "We" bow in homage to Nena's expertise ............ and await criticism ~ constructive, of course.
  • Ah, Jan, ever the sweet-talker! Ok, I'll invest and see what it's like, but don't expect a review before the weekend because I'm giving a talk at the local Writer's Festival on Sunday and I haven't really started to get it all together yet. Webbo, if I do like it, I'll give it a plug at the Festival! :D
  • [quote=Jan]"We" bow in homage to Nena's expertise ............ and await criticism ~ constructive, of course.[/quote] Maybe Nena doesn't want to pay £4.99 for a book of advice on something she already knows how to do?
  • It's ok PM. I've done it, now. More money than sense, maybe.

    Pssst...Webbo has a beard and he talks! Really! Not just writes. Looks a bit nervous, though. Are you scared of us, Webbo?
  • [quote=Phots Moll]Maybe Nena doesn't want to pay £4.99 for a book of advice on something she already knows how to do?
    [/quote]


    *wonders if WM will knock a fiver off Nena's sub fees next time?*
  • *wonders what's in the App that hasn't been written about in the magazine*
  • It's actually mostly taken from WM, so long-term subscribers and readers will have seen at least some of it - but a lot of people requested a compilation of all the information in one place.

    [quote=Nena]Pssst...Webbo has a beard and he talks! Really! Not just writes. Looks a bit nervous, though. Are you scared of us, Webbo?[/quote]
    Yes! Quite hard to remember a script without losing eye contact with the camera and look natural too. At least it was for me! Beard's gone now, for now.
  • [quote=Webbo]Beard's gone now, for now[/quote]

    Shame...:)
  • [quote=Carol]Webbo wrote: Beard's gone now, for now


    Shame...[/quote]

    That's what I thought. I like beards...except on women. :rolleyes:
  • *reaches for razor*
  • [quote=Nena]I like beards ... except on women[/quote]


    [quote=Baggy Books]*reaches for razor*
    [/quote]


    *was going to comment but decides to keep it zipped*
  • [quote= Phots Moll]Maybe Nena doesn't want to pay £4.99 for a book of advice on something she already knows how to do? [/quote] Thank you, Phots Moll, for bringing this to my attention.

    How much?
    Most apps., are marketed as a free introduction to some form of skill that then generates revenue from participation through its interactive facilities.

    Sorry Nena, perhaps Writers-online will accept return of the app., and reimbursement of the payment. It seems pointless purchasing a mere copy of work already published. There seems little point of a USB compilation disguised in another form. Apologies Webbo but Lauren has not explained this new idea very clearly.
  • I've had a bit of a better look at it now and I think it's maybe the name 'app' that's causing confusion. It is really more of an interactive magazine with a collection of useful/interesting articles and videos to watch. It's easily navigated and covers most general things you'd want to know as far as I can see. But yes, if you're a regular subscriber to WM, you will have seen it all before. It just means you don't have to go hunting for it all.

    Price? - I'd say it's overpriced for an app (sorry, Webbo). Even as a compilation i-magazine, it costs more than a normal WM edition.
  • edited September 2013
    No apologies necessary Nena and Jan! It's all fair comment. This is the first time we've tried anything quite like this, so it's all part of the learning process for us, including pricing and content. The "app" part comes from the way it's all handled by Apple - it could have been made available through the iBooks store, but that gets much lower traffic than the main App Store, and it's not a regular magazine that we could put through the Newsstand store like the regular digital editions.
  • [quote=Nena]with a collection of useful/interesting articles[/quote]
    Nena's kindly sparing my blushes here - among the great articles are two very useful ones of hers, which I hadn't told her would be re-used. Entirely my fault, and sincere apologies to Nena.
  • [quote=Webbo]and sincere apologies to Nena.[/quote]

    Does she get her fiver back then? :)
  • I have a Google Nexus Android tablet that my OH bought me, so I can't take advantage either. Cue, sad face:)

    Few people I know have an iPad and none of them are writers, just gadget mad.
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