HOW TO PUBLISH AN EBOOK ON A BUDGET
AN AUTHOR'S GUIDE
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To The Free Yet Professional Way Of Getting Your Writing Up For Sale On Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble NOOK,
Apps, Smashwords And More
by Stephanie Zia
Blackbird Digital Books London on Smashwords
Copyright Stephanie Zia 2010
EDITION 8: REVISED FEBRUARY 2012
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“A fantastically brisk, snappy and practical guide. I love the step-by-step hand-holding nature of the instructions for the techie aspects!” Louise Voss, Bestselling No. 1 Top 100 Kindle Author/100,000 copies sold
“The author somehow conveys the feeling to the reader that 'You can do it!' If you're entertaining the idea of epublishing, this book is definitely worth reading.” Jayne Bowyers, Amazon Vine Voice Reviewer
" Fantastic. I'm 83 years old, technically naive as far as computers are concerned. I strongly advise anyone wanting to 'Kindle' their writings to buy Stephanie's book. I did and it saved my sanity." Alan, Amazon *****September 2011
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HOW TO PUBLISH AN EBOOK ON A BUDGET
AN AUTHOR'S GUIDE
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All prices and exchange rates quoted are liable to fluctuation and change at any time. While the information and advice in this ebook are believed to be accurate and true at the time of publication, neither the author, publisher or distributor can guarantee results nor accept any responsibility or liability for any damage or losses of any kind resulting from any advice included in this guide, be it from the author, any person or persons mentioned in this guide, or any product, listing or mention, whether directly or indirectly. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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CONTENTS
Part One
Finalising the Words
Chapter 1. Copy Editing - Why The End is Only The Beginning
Chapter 2. Copyright and Copyleft
Chapter 3. Libel
Chapter 4. Titles, ISBNs, Legal Notices and Disclaimers
Part Two
Turning Your Words Into an Ebook
Chapter 5. Why There's No Need to Get Confused by all the Different Ebook Formats
Chapter 6. How To Make Your Ebook for ePub - Smashwords, iBooks, NOOK, Apps & More
Chapter 7. How To Make Your Ebook For Kindle
Chapter 8. How To Make Your PDF Ebook
Chapter 9. Why You Don't Need Page Numbering
Chapter 10. A Beginner’s Guide to Hyperlinking
Chapter 11. How To Hyperlink Chapter Headings
Chapter 12. Check Your Links
Part Three
Working With Photographs and Images
Chapter 13. Using Photos Online And Inserting Them Into Your Your Document
Chapter 14. How to Make an Ebook Cover on Your Home Computer
Chapter 15. Making A Cover - Find Affordable Artwork & Free Royalty-Free Photos
Chapter 16. How To Make A Thumbnail Ebook Mini-Cover
Chapter 17. Different Photo Sizing For Covers, Documents & Publicity
Chapter 18. Final Touches
Part Four
Publishing Your ebook
Chapter 19. Publishing to Adobe PDF
Chapter 20. Final Proof Read
Chapter 21. How To Set Up Security on Adobe PDF
Chapter 22. Publishing on Amazon Digital for Kindle
Chapter 23. Publishing On Smashwords/iBooks/NOOK/Apps & More + How To Fill Out US Tax Forms For UK
Authors (And So Make30% More Profit!)
Chapter 24. Sell From Your Own Website For £20/$40 A Year, Inc Domain Name
Chapter 25. Turning Pro - The Mistakes to Avoid If You're Offered a Print Book Deal
Chapter 26. How to Grow Your Sales
Chapter 27. How To Grow Your Sales Through The Roof
Appendix For Alan (83) – The Complete Beginner's Step by Step ABC of Word Doc to Kindle Ebook
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Part One
Finalising The Words
CHAPTER ONE
COPY EDITING – WHY THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
'Add freshly ground black people.'
Cookery book misprint, 2010
So, you've written The End and your manuscript is perfect and ready to publish. Are you sure about that? Before publication, all print books go through two vital stages: copy editing and proof reading. If it's to look professional, your ebook must do the same. But first, have a close look at your writing one last time.
• Are there any long, rambling sentences that could be shortened or split into two? Large, intense sentences and big blocks of paragraph aren't so easy on the eye scanning a page. With an electronic screen this is even more relevant and especially important for ebooks. In any medium, short sentences and simple words are more likely to keep your reader engaged. Look for 'ands' and 'buts' which could be replaced by full stops.
• Look at the length of your paragraphs. Have you missed any natural breaks that could be split?
• Can you break up the page by taking a list that may appear in a sentence and turn it into a linear list that scans down the page, with one subject on top of the next one, rather than running along horizontally?
• Are there any lists like this one that would benefit from bullet points?
To give you the professional perspective on copy editing and proof reading, I'm handing over to Blackbird Digital Books' Associate Editor Sarah Tomley. Sarah has worked as a copy editor and commissioning editor for some of the UK's largest publishing companies and has edited hundreds of books.
The Difference Between Copy Editing and Proof Reading
'Copy editing comes at an earlier stage than proof reading. When you've finished writing, a copy editor will read your book and make sure that it will work from a reader's point of view. Often authors are so expert in their subject that they assume too much knowledge on the part of the reader, and skip into discussions on new subjects without introducing them clearly.
The copy editor's first task is to check the structure of the whole book:
Is it logical?
Is it the best way to guide a reader through a new subject?
Does it include everything that the reader needs to know?
Does it need an introduction, or explanatory section at the beginning?
Non-fiction books, especially "how to" books, often benefit from having a separate "key skills" area before the main chunk of the book, which readers can refer back to easily at any time.
Does the book need a glossary?
Or index?
In an ebook you might want to consider a hyperlinked index, so readers can jump into the book via a particular (key) word.
The second thing a copy editor does is to focus in on each section or chapter one at a time. This involves the same kind of structure checking as above, but now focuses only on one section, to make sure its structure make sense, is easy to follow, and includes everything necessary.
Then comes the detailed read, correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, checking that facts, names, dates, references and so on are correct. During this "pass" over the text, the copy editor will also smooth out the tone and rhythm of the text, in line with the publisher's style. If you're self-publishing a printed book or an ebook, you'll need to decide – as the publisher – what this style is. Some publishers opt for a very detached, authoritative style; others for an expert but friendly approach; a few for an irreverent, cheeky one; and so on. Take a look at this potential sentence for a travel book on Turkey, for example:
• The Mediterranean coastline running eastwards from Alanya is much less populous than the western portion, but offers vistas every bit as diverse
• The Mediterranean coastline east of Alanya has incredible views, and far fewer people than the crowded coasts of the west
• Head east to Alanya for amazing views and uncrowded beaches
Consider too, how closely you want to speak to your readers. The examples above are all impersonal, but you might choose to make the book much more personal in approach, using "you" and "I" ("I headed straight for the coasts east of Alanya, like Silifke and Kizkalesi, which were amazing. Incredible views and hardly anyone else hogging space on the sand.")
The two things to consider here are what image you want to project (are you a detached expert or the reader's friend?) and who your audience is (do they want detailed information, a humorous rough guide, or just to read your story?).
The copy editor also keeps an eye out for consistency, and works with a running "list" of spellings, capitalisations, etc. that could be used in more than one way (he or she makes a decision early on and ensures that it is the form used in every instance). Are you opting for "z" or "s" spellings? (ie specialization or specialisation?) Do you refer to the Earth or the earth? Is there always a space between amounts and units or not? (10 g or 10g?) However something appears in its first use in the book must be used throughout.
In general publishing, digital manuscripts undergo many layers of checks, from the initial read-through and possibly requested rewrite of the submitted manuscript, to three or four editing and proofing checks by the copy editor and designer, and at least two by the author. And even then mistakes can sneak through.
If at all possible, have someone else check your text for you, to act as the copy editor. You will have seen the text so many times that your brain will skip along too fast, filling in the gaps if there are any – so you'll be blind to them. If you don't have anyone to act as copy editor for you, make sure you leave long enough between writing and editing to be able to approach the text as though seeing it almost for the first time; Stephen King recommends locking away the manuscript for at least six weeks.
Copy Editing Non-Fiction
Does the structure make sense? Check the overall book and the structure of each chapter.
Have you included everything you need/meant to?
Are your chapter titles clear and useful?
Do you need any repeating devices to help make important points? (These could be as simple as occasional "top tips" or pictures to illustrate the main points.)
Are your sources 100% reliable?
Have you libelled anybody? (See Chapter 3.)
Are all real towns, districts etc in the place the author says they are and spelled correctly?
Is the tense consistent throughout? (ie do you start off talking in the present tense and veer off to the past or future?)
Is the viewpoint consistent throughout? Are you in the first person, 'I did this, I did that etc', the second person 'You do this, then you do that etc' or the third person 'He did this, she did that etc'?
Who is the target audience? Is the book solely for UK consumption? Or solely for US consumption? Like most ebooks, is it going to be sold to a world market simultaneously? If so, are there any regional technicalities that need expanding on or deleting - pricing, contact details, regional phone numbers etc.
Are there sectors that need clarifying for the world audience? Can you insert an American, European or Asian equivalent to any society or organisation that you quote? Whichever route you decide on, local or international, be consistent.
Grammar. Don't rely on computer grammar programs.
Spelling. Don't rely on computer spellcheckers. If you're not sure about a spelling, use an online dictionary.
Fiction
As the novel is its own world within itself, not much of the above is relevant. One important point to check in fiction is timeline.
Are dates and seasons consistent?
Does everybody age at the same rate?
Are there any minor characters, animals even, that appear and disappear without trace?
Are there any quotes that need clearing and paying for or deleting (see Chapter 2: Copyright)? Don't even let the thought cross your mind that it's only your small book and nobody important will ever read it and notice anyway.
Have you made up any fictional names for companies or places that really exist and therefore might, within the context of the story, get you into trouble? Have you mentioned real companies or people who get involved in your fictional story in a less than glowing way which could get you into trouble?
Getting the professionals in
What a professional can give you is a fresh eye. An insight into the actual content of your words – ie what they really say, not what you think they say.
Editors know that there are many ways in which communication can fail, but here's three that you're unlikely to spot in your own writing:
Authors often "delete" (don't say as much as they think they have); "generalise" (make sweeping statements that aren't strictly true and need unpicking and rephrasing if useful); and “distort” (introduce a personal bias where it is not appropriate). A professional will very quickly iron out any of these contaminating factors.
Every client has different needs – and only they know the real purpose of the book (to share information, to make money, to shock, and so on). A professional editor will ensure that the book you've written does the job you want. The depth of a copy edit is up to you to make clear when you commission. Do you want a heavy edit (the full check as given above), or a light proof read (for grammatical/spelling/ typographical errors only)?
Some authors, for example, would like their copy editor to check their sentence structures and edit the words to flow with a better rhythm and pace. This will give the work that all-important professional sheen. But to many authors this would be nothing short of anathema – a crossing of the line from checking to interfering with their precious words.'
So: make sure you spell out your requirements very clearly before you commission an editor.
How much will it cost?
Copy editing is much more time-consuming than proof reading – it probably works out at around three to four times the cost. But Sarah points out it's really impossible for a professional to judge without seeing a sample piece, as some people's work needs only a very light edit, while others needs a virtual re-write:
'If you're writing a non-fiction book, it's probably worth hiring a professional to help structure it – ie lay out the plan for the whole book and for each chapter – so that the structure makes sense and the writing is easy. By breaking down the chapter – into the content for each chapter and even each page, if you want – it becomes much easier for the author. You can then write in prescribed "chunks", and don't have to waste time wondering what to write each day. Once you know that you've included everything that's important, you can just enjoy writing. This is the kind of help you'd expect from the full "commissioned" service – the full attention and expertise of a professional commissioning editor for one, two or all of the services – detailed structure/planning; copy-editing; and proofreading. Just as any professional author would enjoy when working with a large publishing company.'
Sarah is the MD of the UK company EditorsOnline, a group of top freelance UK editors who work at highly competitive rates. No job is too small or too large, and they're friendly too (http://editorsonline.org).
To give you an idea of costs in UK, Wildproofreading's charges start at £6.00 per 1,000 words.
(http://www.wildproofreading.co.uk/page009.html).
To find a copy editor in the USA have a look at Elance (http://www.elance.com).
Proof Reading
Copy editing all done, now it's time for your first proof read. The final one comes at the end of the process, just before you go to print. Jump to Chapter 20 Final Proof Read now for a checklist.
CHAPTER TWO
Copyright extends to 70 years after the author's death in the UK. In the USA it could be 70, 95 or even 120 years. Wherever you are, even if you've written a work of fiction, you must do a thorough copyright check or you could find yourself in big trouble.
Have you quoted from any books, poems or song lyrics? Have your characters read any magazine or newspaper reports quoted from real life?
If you want to use a quote from an author's work, you need to contact their literary agent or estate. Google the author's name + literary agent or look them up on Wikipedia. If you have no luck there, look up the author's work on Amazon, find out the publisher's name and contact their 'permissions and rights' department. They may deal with this themselves or they'll refer you to the author's agent.
Have you used any song lyrics? Song lyrics are the bane of professional authors and permissions are often notoriously expensive.
Author Blake Morrison had to pay:
£500/$728 for one line of 'Jumping Jack Flash'.
£735/$1069 for one line of 'When I'm Sixty-four' (I'm quivering a bit here but it IS all right to name the title of the song, even if it's included in a later lyric).
Two lines of 'I Shot the Sheriff'? £1,000/$1455.
His final bill was £4,401.75/$6,406. And that was addressed to the author, not the publisher. He was lucky to have a decent publisher who helped him out by paying half.
Read the full article here:
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/01/blake-morrison-lyrics-copyright)
Music copyright is complicated. To read more and to find out how to get a quote, go to The UK Copyright Service or ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), links at the end of this book.
Words
Whilst every case must be checked individually, generally speaking the 70 years after the author's death in the UK and the pre-1923 Public Domain rule in the US (a high percentage of works published before 1923 are in the public domain) are your starting points. Be aware that works might have been re-licensed so do your research thoroughly. In the process of trying to clear a quotation from a World War 1 memoir we wanted to use in Blackbird Digital Books' French travel book The Valley of Heaven and Hell, Cycling In The Shadow of Marie Antoinette by Susie Kelly, the author finally got the definitive response from a US librarian. Whilst the text was all over the web, the copyright was very questionable. There had been numerous other editions, with new introductions, plus an original ghostwriter who had died much later than the author! JUST BECAUSE IT'S ON THE INTERNET DOESN'T MEAN IT'S COPYRIGHT FREE! NO WAY!
Images
If you're using photos you took yourself you might think you're clear. But no.
It's a bit of a grey area but if there are any people in your images you are technically supposed to get 'model clearance' if you're putting your picture in a selling document. If you look on photo agency sites the images will say 'model cleared' to show they have signed permission from the person in the photo. Of course taking this to the limit would put all street photography out of bounds, so use your discretion. If you're in a situation where you can get a chit of paper signed, get it signed.
Many historical or special sites, houses, gardens etc open to the public allow photography. But only for non-commercial use. If you decide to use one of your snaps in your book you'll have to get clearance and permission. We tried to clear a picture of Marie Antoinette's bed in the Palace of Versailles for The Valley of Heaven and Hell. Permission to use one photo for an ebook would have cost 119 Euros.
Whilst old paintings might be out of copyright, the IMAGE of the painting may well not be. Museums and art galleries, many of whom ban photography, grant licenses to use reproductions of their images, for which you have to pay. Some images ARE OK, the Mona Lisa, for example, is obviously everywhere. If the image is pre-1885 you're more likely to be in luck but always check no matter what the date. Most copyright notices are on Wikipedia. But be careful. The rules vary according to where you are. In 2009 the National Portrait Gallery in London threatened to sue an American who uploaded some of their images to Wikipedia. Whilst the images were in the public domain, the digital photos were not – in the UK anyway. Note that the museum may require a credit even if there's no payment.
Links
Check the source of your links. In Valley of Heaven and Hell the author had included a fantastic clip from an old Jacques Tati film. It had to come out.
From Wikipedia contributor guidelines:
For policy or technical reasons, editors are restricted from linking to the following, without exception:
Material that violates the copyrights of others per contributors' rights and obligations should not be linked. Linking to websites that display copyrighted works is acceptable as long as the website has licensed the work. Knowingly directing others to material that violates copyright may be considered contributory copyright infringement. If you know that an external website is carrying a work in violation of the work's copyright, do not link to that copy of the work. Linking to a page that illegally distributes someone else's work sheds a bad light on Wikipedia and its editors. This is particularly relevant when linking to sites such as YouTube, where due care should be taken to avoid linking to material that violates copyright.
Not everything is copyright
Just to complicate matters, there's an area of copyright law called Fair Dealing, or Fair Use, where you can use quotes as long as you document the source. Journalists, for example, quote from press releases which have been sent to them with that intention in mind. I sometimes quote from websites without asking for permission if the quote is used as a small part of a journalistic article and the source is given.
Blake Morrison explains that in the UK the guidelines are as follows:
“If you're writing a critical commentary on a piece of writing you can quote up to 400 words or use a series of extracts of up to 800 words. With poetry it's up to 40 lines, provided that doesn't exceed a quarter of the poem's length. Note that this is only for critical commentary. You can't quote other people's copyrighted work in a piece of your own imaginative work.”
The laws vary from country to country. For more information look at the Fair Dealing section on Wikipdedia's Copyright page. Wikipedia itself is copyright free. Its text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence but additional terms may apply. See their Terms of Use for details.
There's been plenty of discussion about the accuracy of Wikipedia over the years. I've found it pretty reliable but I prefer to use (http://www.encyclopedia.com/) as a first reference point. It searches over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries and the results can be viewed side-by-side. Whatever your source, facts should always be double-checked, preferably triple-checked via the most reliable sources you can find. Though newspapers have a political bias, their articles will have gone through their own checking procedures. Treat personal blogs with caution, especially if they have an agenda, clear or hidden. Blogs can of course be excellent sources of information you could find in no other way. To check up on the weight and authority of a blog or website, type its name in the Technorati search window. The higher the number the better. The famous internet newspaper The Huffington Post, for example, has an authority of 958. Technorati is also a useful place to go to when you get to your ebook promotion stage (see Chapter 26).
If you want to use somebody else's work, an expert in a particular field for example, don't be afraid to seek permission. People are often delighted to be asked. Tell them they'll receive full credit for their quote and don't forget to do that. Thank them in your Acknowledgements and send them a copy of the ebook. Print and file any permission emails in a safe folder so that you can prove it later if need be.
Photographs and artwork
Have you used any photographs or artwork? Are they copyright-free? Is there a photographer you have to pay? What about the person in the photograph? Have you asked their permission and got a signed clearance? If it's a famous person you must ask their permission by getting in touch with their representative be it management company or agent.
Google their name + agent + publisher or whatever.
You don’t get away with it if they're dead either. For 70 years after their death (and it could be more in the US) their estate holds the copyright and you must get written permission.
Google their name + estate. If the work is by a friend or relative, have you asked permission and credited them in your Acknowledgements?
Are there any copyright images within the photographs you've taken? The first draft of my non-fiction ebook had a photograph of a store front I'd taken myself. I deleted it from the second draft because I was told by my proof reader that the store in question is sensitive to its image being used. The British Far-Right Political Party, the BNP, recently got into trouble with the manufacturers of Marmite for using the image of a jar in their political campaign.
Wherever copyright is concerned, don't ever think, 'ah they're too famous to bother with my little book, I'll probably get away with it'. DON'T RISK IT. ALWAYS veer on the side of caution.
Copyleft
Copyleft is an internet word. It's a form of licensing that's used to maintain copyright on computer software, documents, music and art. It's a novel way of using existing copyright laws to ensure a work remains freely available. See Wikipedia for more information.
Your Own Copyright
Put a copyright notice at the front of your book, the symbol © plus the word 'copyright' plus any disclaimers. If you're offering advice make it clear you're not legally responsible for anybody else's actions.
The copyright sign on a Mac is ALT + G.
The copyright sign on a PC is CTRL + Alt + C or Alt + 0169 (on block of no's far R of keyboard). Or in Word: INSERT> symbol.
CHAPTER THREE
Libel is terrifying, not least for the way it can creep up behind you from the most unexpected places. I was once told my blog was libellous for stating, in some inane by-the-by chatter, that I hadn't received a reply to a query email I'd sent out to a literary agent. Not receiving replies from query letters to literary agents isn't an infrequent occurrence but she had every right to say that. I had blackened her name and threatened her professionalism. It frightened the life out of me and I took down every word immediately.
The only failsafe defence of libel is if it's the truth. You cannot be sued for libel if what you're saying is true, which is why those Kitty Kelly-type celebrity 'exposes' can get published. As I write this, the UK newspapers are full of a landmark case** showing how one remark by a journalist in one article has led to a 2 year battle with costs of £200,000/$291,000.
This is an area where self-publishers really are at a disadvantage. Publishing house editors know what to look out for and can refer anything they're not totally sure about to their lawyers. The work may also already have been read by an experienced literary agent with half of one eye trained on the legal ball.
A copy editor may flag up a problem area but the buck rests firmly with you. It's solely down to you to check, check and double-check. Here's a blogger's guide to online defamation law.
(http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation)
**(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/apr/02/simon-singh-help-me-win-libel-reform)
CHAPTER FOUR
TITLES, ISBNs, LEGAL NOTICES AND DISCLAIMERS
The big words at the front and the little words at the beginning and end.
Titles
When my ex-agent was considering whether to take on my latest novel or not, her main concern was the title. It wasn't until I'd suggested 5 or 6 titles (out of a shortlist of dozens) that I found one that she thought was good enough and she signed me up.
If I hadn't come up with a great title I wouldn't have been taken on. Period.
I even had an agent contact me once who'd been given a title by an editor at one of the major publishing houses. She was looking for an author to write the book to fit it.
That's how important a title is. Give it a lot of thought. Look at other books in your market area. See if there are any memorable sentences that stand out in your text (some phrase titles, like Does My Bum Look Big In This? enter the language).
Ask the opinions of those around you but don't drive them crazy. Invite a group of friends round for wine and food and a one-off brainstorming session. If you belong to a writing group, give one of your reading slots up to a title search. That's how I got mine.
ISBNs
Every print book that's sold in a shop and/or stored in a public library has to have an ISBN number and bar code. ISBN stands for the International Standard Book Number. The ISBN registration agency run by Nielsen reaches out to over 100 countries around the world.
If you want to give your book an identity you can purchase your own ISBN here for UK:
http://www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk/controller.php?page=123
and here for US and the rest of the world:
http://www.nielsen.com/content/corporate/global/en.html
You have to buy them in batches of 10 which costs £111.86/$163.00.
The good news is ebooks don't need them. There are advantages, but you don't have to have one.
If you publish with an epublishing site, some of them allocate a free ISBN which will list that company as the book's publisher. You don't need to worry about this, you still hold all the copyright and are free to register the book with other epublishers. The same book can be published as a print version in the UK with a free Lulu ISBN and as a print version in the US with a free CreateSpace ISBN. The only restriction is that some sites have a pricing policy. Amazon Kindle, for example, says that your list price mustn't be greater than the lowest retail price for any physical edition of your book. If your ebook is priced lower anywhere else, their terms and conditions state they will lower the price on their site. They don't need to inform you, it will just happen.
If you do decide to assign an ISBN to your ebook, each different version (ePub, Kindle, PDF etc) will require a different ISBN. If you are republishing a book of yours that has been published in print before, DON'T use the ISBN number. See the Smashwords summary of ISBNs and ebooks
(http://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/ISBNManager)
Disclaimers
If you've written a novel, you'll need to insert the all the persons are fictitious disclaimer.
If you have included people you know, even if it's just their name as an in joke, email them to ask their permission first. Even if it's your best friend, closest relative and it's the most flattering portrait in the world, situations do change.
If you've written a non-fiction book, the easiest way to see if you've covered every angle in the disclaimers section is go to a bookshop or library, find a title that covers a similar area and see what their publishers have written at the front.
My ebook, Done & Dusted - The Organic Home on a Budget, has lots of advice on cleaning and stain removal so I had to make it clear that I would not be liable for any damage or loss resulting from anybody following the advice in the book.
I was once asked by a newspaper reader if they could tell me if they had a legal case against a chair manufacturer after they'd spilled something on the cover which wouldn't come out. I refused to answer the question or they might have shifted their legal claim over to me. Some people are just extremely litigious and authors and self-publishers can't be too careful in covering themselves.
Here's what I have in the front of Done & Dusted:
First published by Blackbird Digital Books
LONDON
© Stephanie Zia 2010. All rights reserved.
The cleaning and stains problems addressed in this book and their solutions are universal, but please be aware that this book was written in the UK. Where products and websites are concerned, there is, therefore, an unavoidable UK bias. No refunds can be given on this basis. US prices and websites have been included wherever possible. All prices and exchange rates quoted relate to February 2010 and are liable to fluctuation and change at any time. They may or may not include taxes, postage and packing and the reader must check with each individual linked website. Updates will be included in subsequent editions. Rough US dollar equivalents are given to sterling wherever possible. While the information and advice in this ebook are believed to be accurate and true at the time of publication, neither the author, publisher or distributor can guarantee results nor accept any responsibility or liability for any damage or losses of any kind resulting from any advice included in this guide, be it from the author, any person or persons mentioned in this guide, or any product, listing or mention, whether directly or indirectly. Successful treatments and savings are the responsibility of the reader of this book.
If the contents of your ebook are controversial in any way and you're getting sleepless nights about whether you should publish or not, there is professional liability insurance but it's not cheap. Even at the reduced rate the cost is likely to be around £500/$728 per annum in the UK and more in the US.
Check carefully to see what you're covered for. There are lots of insurance companies that sell policies for writers which include public liability and legal costs if you pursue your own case but the policy (especially if it's suspiciously cheap) may well not cover you if anybody sues you.
The UK Society of Authors has recommendations with discounts for its members (http://www.societyofauthors.org). You have to have a print deal, or an offer of a print deal, though, to join.
The US Author's Guild (http://www.authorsguild.org) has a package for its members which covers libel, slander or disparagement; invasion of privacy; trademark and copyright infringements and plagiarism.
* * * * *
Part Two
Turning Your Words Into An Ebook
CHAPTER FIVE
WHY THERE'S NO NEED TO GET CONFUSED BY ALL THE DIFFERENT EBOOK FORMATS
Basically you can make 1, 2 or 3 main master documents which will cover all the major ebook formatting systems:
Adobe PDF which you can make from start to finish on your computer, no special ebook formatting system required. These are the earliest form of ebook. Since the rise of the Kindle, iBook, NOOK etc this style of simple PDF for ebooks has waned. Adobe itself is now using the ePub format, see below. However, basic home Adobe makes excellent, full colour ebooks and is still very much in use for making POD (Print On Demand) paperbacks, online brochures, leaflets etc.
Mobi for the Kindle ebook system. This system is gradually being replaced by a brand new system Kindle Formatting 8, or KF8. The first stage went live in January 2012. It only works on the latest US Kindles, Kindle Fire, and needn't worry beginners. Details (from our non-techie POV) will be on the How To Publish An Ebook On A Budget Update Blog:
http://blackbird-digitalbooks.com/2011/12/22/update-blog/
ePub the most popular open ebook format used for the iBook, NOOK, Sony Reader, Kobo, Adobe Digital Editions, a variety of phone e-readers and more.
I chose to make all 3 versions so that I could sell my ebook from my own website as a PDF and have it selling in the worldwide marketplace via both Kindle and iBooks, NOOK etc. The Mobi and ePub versions are converted and sold by the ebookstores, distributing my ebooks to a massive world audience. I name the price I want to sell at and the ebookstores take a cut of that.
ADOBE PDF
The design software used by virtually all professionals is Adobe InDesign ® which retails at £699.12/$1009. This is the system used for making print books as well. You can, however, make a beautiful full colour, illustrated ebook by using the free Adobe PDF application on your computer.
If you don't have it, download free here
(http://get.adobe.com/reader/).
PDF documents can be read on computers, mobile phones, iPads and iPods. They can be transferred to eReaders, some (eg Sony Reader) more successfully than others.
Pros: Free. All done offline at your computer. Looks good. Full colour. Easy to insert photographs and diagrams. You have total control of the final look of your book - cover/spacings/fonts/styles/layouts etc. Perfect for distribution yourself ie distributing from your own website; sending to friends and relatives. PDF is also perfect for making POD paperbacks and pamphlets, flyers etc to promote your ebooks.
Cons: Not versatile. Not commercial. You can't transfer the finished document to the big ebook selling sites like Amazon Kindle and the rest.** The text on PDFs transferred from your computer directly to Kindle tends to come out too small to read comfortably. You can get round this by downloading the free ebook management software Calibre and/or, if you have Windows, Mobipocket.
(http://calibre-ebook.com/)
(http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailsreader.asp)
**Unless you're using the pro InDesign system. In which case Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign® is a free plug-in which can be used to convert documents or books created in Adobe InDesign® to Kindle format.
The free Adobe system has progressed from a simple desktop viewing system to a comprehensive ePub ebook software: Adobe Digital Editions.
(http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/?autoPrompt=true)
Use it to read Adobe Ebooks in ePub format (on a lovely, book-like page-turning interface), and transfer Adobe Ebooks onto many ebook reader/phone/computer screens. It's supported by Google, but not Amazon Kindle so you'd still need Calibre to reformat free PDF to Mobi for Kindle reading (if you can be bothered). An important development is Epub 3.0 - one of the hottest topics at the April 2011 London Book Fair. Ebooks produced in this format will be able to support multimedia content such as video, audio and much more. A child can colour in a picture and email it to their parents for example. The gossip is that the digital wizardry preserve of the App (expensive to produce/hard to make a profit on as retail prices are so low) will be challenged.
EPUB AND OTHER FORMATS
The US site Smashwords is a one-stop destination for turning your document into multi-format ebooks. It has a very human and personal feel to it.
(http://www.smashwords.com/)
You only have to download your formatted text once to Smashwords and they'll turn your words into all those eformats like ePub, RTF, LRF and Mobi that serve different types of ereader, computer and/or mobile phone (but not, as yet, for retail on Amazon Kindle). You set the retail price and purchasers can buy your ebook direct from Smashwords or from the ebookreaders' own catalogues. These include: Stanza for iPhone and iPodtouch; Sony Reader; Palm Doc; Apple iBookstore; Barnes & Noble NOOK, Apps and more. Their ebook creation services are free. They take a cut of your sales before forwarding your royalties to PayPal.
Smashwords describe themselves as "ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet." You have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of your written works. If your download meets Smashwords' mechanical requirements for distribution it will receive a Premium Status. This has nothing to do with content but everything to do with following all the download requirements. If your cover isn't the right pixel size, for example, you won't get premium status. It's well worth getting this right as your book will then automatically get into the huge US Barnes & Noble NOOK ebookstore and Apple iBooks. Founder Mark Coker has an interesting story to tell of his own journey trying to get into mainstream publishing not dissimilar to my own experiences with my fiction.
Mark has produced two helpful How To books:
The Smashwords Style Guide (free)
The Smashwords Style Guide makes it easy to format your manuscript to produce high quality multi-format ebooks.
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (free)
How to market your books on Smashwords. How Smashwords helps promote your book, and 26 simple do-it-yourself marketing tips.
Both are downloadable from the site or can be 'purchased' for £0/$0 on Amazon's Kindle Store. Mark's instructions are clear, well-written and therefore easy to understand and absorb.
Pros: Free. Your book is sold to an instant worldwide market. Very few style problems for works that have no special spacing requirements.
You only have to make one master document and Smashwords will digitise and ship your ebooks. For this reason, from now on I will umbrella Barnes & Noble, Sony, iBooks etc under the Smashwords title. Smashwords ebooks take colour photographs. Untick Plain Text before final conversion. Word handles images best. See the Style Guide for instructions on how simple it is to compress images in Word without harming quality.
Cons: Diagrams and illustrations are OK but not tables. Spacing can be tricky. As the one master document is converted to multiple formats you don't have close control on how the document will look over all the platforms until it's there, though you can get a good idea by previewing the Smashwords version on your computer screen before publishing. To balance this, updating your document after it's been published and then reloading is simple and efficient. If you don't have an old Mac like I do, you can also preview your Smashwords ebook on the free Adobe Digital Editions ePub ebook viewer. You can do a test run without making the book 'live'. Try putting up a few pages and see how they look.
The above was correct at the time of writing. Advances in the downloading technology are happening fast and Mark stays ahead of the game so check out the Smashwords blog (http://blog.smashwords.com/) and the Smashwords Site Updates for the latest information.
Selling on Smashwords
Like the Kindle Store, the Smashwords storefront is instant after upload. It does take time for them to multi-format your text and get your ebook out to the different stores though. Barnes & Noble takes about 8 weeks from Smashwords approval and shipping and getting your book on Apple iBooks also takes time.
So you upload one document to Smashwords and it will retail in the Apple iBookstore (inc Germany, US, UK, France, Canada), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, the Diesel eBook Store, Kobo, Borders, Stanza, Aldiko, FBReader and Word-Player, Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson Australia, Whitcoulls (New Zealand) and more. Though Smashwords don't as yet distribute to Amazon, they produce ebooks in the Mobi format so that purchasers can read an ebook purchased from them on their Kindles.
Another Pro: The Smashwords Coupon Code system is useful for getting free review copies to potential reviewers (Kindle format is catered for) and for giving discounts to friends and bloggers. At Blackbird Digital Books we recently negotiated a free download code offer with a national organisation for our first children's book, The Dream Theatre, using a specially-created Smashwords code.
ePub Without Smashwords
I can't imagine it. Smashwords takes away so much of the frustration and confusion when dealing with the technical side of ebook creation and then sends the books to all the different market platforms for you. But there are other options. If you have a book that isn't straight text, or straight text/image layout, and are familiar with HTML computer code, or are willing to learn, you might want to have a go at formatting your ePub book yourself. Read Guido Henkel's online guide for beginners which uses TextMate (for Mac. Costs, but 30 day free trial available) or jEdit (free, for Mac, Windows, Linux).
(http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/)
You do have to be able to follow technical instructions, and certainly take no notice of his opening paragraph which is very unflattering about authors' efforts at doing it for themselves. With the help of Smashwords you can produce excellent ePub books without having to go into all the HTML detail. Tens of thousands have already done so and that's the proof of it. Another way to get into the HTML code to correct something (spacing and indents are the most common problems) is to load your Word or Open Office document to an Open Source (free, make donation) user-friendly HTML viewer like KompoZer and make your designs there before loading to Smashwords. Note, however, that Amazon's Publishing Guidelines states that there are differences between writing HTML for websites and for Kindle books. “There are many web page design practices that should be avoided when creating Kindle books.”
For around $99, the US site Bookbaby will convert your document to ePub and Mobi ebooks and put them up on to Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble etc for you. You then pay an annual fee of around $19 but you get to keep 100% of any royalties earned.
(http://www.bookbaby.com/)
Sigil ePub editor is a free shareware systems that operate on a voluntary donation basis. Works on both PC and (newish) Macs.
(http://web.sigil.googlecode.com/hg/main_ui.html)
MOBI FOR AMAZON KINDLE
Smashwords don't (at the time of publication) distribute directly into the Amazon Digital Kindle store. To make your Kindle ebooks separately (also free), you use the same Word master document as you made for Smashwords with a few small adjustments. You then upload this to Amazon's KDP site and, after approval, and if you hold the appropriate world rights, it appears for sale on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de (Germany).
Amazon Kindle ebooks can take photographs but it's still early days and reproduction isn't great.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing documents can be uploaded in:
HTML
Word (.doc)
Plain Text (.txt)
MobiPocket (.mobi and .prc)
but not, note, Open Office.
Open Office can easily be converted to HTML for transfer with one click. Note that transferring Open Office documents to Word isn't so straightforward.
The Mobipocket software for making a Kindle is free to download from the Amazon KDP Digital site. With its HTML facility, it gives you close control of the final look of your ebook. The basics of HTML aren't difficult. It's just code. However, it IS a techie area and can be confusing if you're not a regular computer user. Note Mobipocket is only available for Windows, not Macs. The formatting and styling in this book doesn't use Mobipocket but is done on plain Word or Open Office. There are a few limitations in the deep depths of techie-dom. A reviewer of this ebook has pointed out that there is no TOC click-back facility on the Kindle version. It's shaded out so you can't click back to it. You can, however, click back to 'Beginning' where the TOC will be found. The instructions for making a TOC facility are here.
(http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=56879.0)
Beyond me I'm afraid. If I fathom how to do it will update here accordingly. [For those going what the **** is TOC? = Table of Contents].
The best thing is that, on both Kindle and Smashwords, you can keep close track of your sales, monitoring sales 'live' as they happen (very addictive) and watch your rankings change accordingly. You have access to your sales statement page which is updated as sales happen.
In both cases, Kindle and Smashwords, once you've prepared your master document you are guided through the uploading process in straightforward stages. Then ebookstores sell your ebooks for you and take a percentage of the sales price of each book. It doesn't cost anything to put your book up there and royalty percentages vary.
A good blog to follow for all the latest Kindle information is Andrys Basten's blog ( http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/).
OTHER EBOOK SITES
In Summer 2010 Barnes & Noble launched their own ePublishing site, pubit! but only for those with a US bank account, credit card and tax number.
Lulu, the UK-based independent self-publishing site, also does ebooks. You can transfer your full colour PDF file, add sales buttons to your website, keep 80% of sales revenue and expand into print-on-demand sales. They can get your ebooks into Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble etc. but you have to pay. Note that they don't accept password protected PDF files so you'll have to make a separate Lulu copy of your ebook, skipping the password protect stage of the instructions in Chapter 19. I don't think it's worth making a PDF just to sell ebooks on Lulu.
POD paperback creation doesn't cost anything to set up with Lulu, however, and, though the service side of things isn't as efficient and streamlined as CreateSpace, the quality of the paperbacks (I am using the standard American Trade size) is good. It means that those who are resistant to reading digitally can now order my books direct from Lulu. Lulu handle all the payment and dispatch side of things and pay my royalties into PayPal. I have a button on my web sales page that goes straight to their shopping basket. See more details below.
Where do you start?
Though Adobe PDF is fairly obsolete as a way of selling ebooks since the rise of the Kindle, iBookstore etc, I'm assuming you're going to, like me, make 3 SEPARATE Master ebook documents:
1. Smashwords
2. Amazon Digital for Kindle
3. Adobe PDF
and that your MS (manuscript) has photographs.
My suggested order of doing things:
1. ePub Following the Smashwords Style Guide (see the next chapter), first make the Smashwords version in Word. Once you've formatted your book to these precise guidelines you've also got a document that is, in computer-speak, laid out cleanly for the other 2 ebook formats as well.
2. Kindle To make the Kindle version, use a copy of your nice cleanly formatted Smashwords Master as your starting point and make the changes necessary to turn it into a Kindle Master. More detail later but, for example, whereas you can hyperlink text to websites on your Kindle document, you can't on your Smashwords document. Any Smashwords links have to be typed out in full (eg http://blackbird-digitalbooks.com/) This may change in the future, the latest Style Guide will be your guide. Another difference is that whilst Smashwords text rolls on and on like the text in Jack Kerouac's On The Road toilet roll, Kindle documents require page breaks between their rolling chapters.
3. PDF Take a copy of your clean, hyperlinked Kindle master to turn into your PDF Master. This can be styled and designed on the page, in full colour with links and photographs. Any spacings, indents, fonts, positionings, page breaks you make on your Word or Open Office page will transfer exactly to the PDF final version.
PRINT ON DEMAND (POD)