Can anyone recommend some good web sites (high traffic, clean design) that sell ebooks? I have 2-3 printed titles that I'd also like to make available in electronic format. They would not work for kindle as there are many pages that the customer would want to print out and fill in (charts, etc..)

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Dani,

You should probably head over to Smashwords. It offers your book in more formats than Kindle which is only DRM. Even better, Smashwords is in the process of having their ebook catalog listed on BarnesandNobles.

Thank you Kevis!

This seems to be exactly what I was looking for + more.

Hopefully Amazon will have more options in the future as well.

I just looked at smashwords a bit. I may look into it more when I'm ready to go with e-books. Looks like a pretty good site. Thanks for sharing the info.

The only downside I see so far is that it seems limited for heavily formatted books. They require the source files to be in Word - which is a nightmare to use for those who know and love InDesign. Oh well, I'll be spending some fun nights with word.

I'm happy with Smashwords. They seem to know what they are doing.

I'm hoping that I can use OpenOffice, since I am running a Word version that is not supported by much of anyone or anything these days. MS Word 2000--does anyone remember that? lol I've found that there is not much file-sharing I can do with that version anymore. And it strips out formatting from the later versions of .doc files that others send me. What a shame. I can't upgrade, though. So, I'm hoping OO will work with smashword when I'm ready.

Dani wrote: "The only downside I see so far is that it seems limited for heavily formatted books. They require the source files to be in Word - which is a nightmare to use for those who know and love InDesign...."

Good luck! I'll pray for you. ;-)

BooksOnBoard.com is a great ebook site! You don't have to pay any membership fees etc, and they have always have excellent prices and promotions going on.

I am happy with Smashwords.com and the ease of uploading my book to their system. They also have agreements with Kindle and B&N.com so inputting my book into their system has gotten it into the others I was researching. I downloaded it to my Iphone and found I like the way it looks as well.

Lori Newman Here All Along

I'm anti-ebook, but I can't ignore it any longer.

Lori, when you listed your book with smashwords, did you have to do anything extra to get it listed with Kindle?

How are your sales?

Yasheve,
Smashwords now has an agreement with Kindle to place their books there as well. Smashwords will be sending them over within the next month. I had to put mine on both only because the agreement came out after I had already loaded into Kindle. Smashword is easier to load and more user friendly than Kindle was. If you go with Smashword they also have the option for your ebook to go into Barnes & Noble ebook store as well. It's a really good way to get your book out there electronically.
If you have any other questions just let me know. Would love to help you.
Going to check on my sales now. :)
Thank you,
Here All Along

Hey Lori;

Been thinking of putting my books up into Smashwords but I'm unsure as to how they pay the author. What does 'credits' mean? Is there a place to link paypals into the site?
Any information would be very useful.
Thank you.
Jo

Jo-Anne,

Smashwords pays out via Pay Pal after 10.00 in sales. I don't know what credits are either? I have not run into that. I hope this helps.

Lori Newman

Uuummm have you looked into myebook? You get ALL proceeds.

Yes, I have. There was a glitch and I have not yet gone back to try to undo my glitch. I will, just taking a day to breathe.
:)
Can I ask you for help when I get back to trying it out again?
Lori

I'm here for you.

But... I won't have Internet connections until the very end of December. I'm off to Mexico...YIPPEE!!! All packed and leave tomorrow. Taking my 2 daughters (a graduation present with the catch...they had to take their mother...lol).

Have a merry Christmas.

Jo

There's also jexbo.com

You set your own price, pay 5% to the site... but you might have to pay PayPal a commission.

It's not high traffic yet, but as more authors list, it will probably grow, especially if we keep prices lower than what the pirates are charging on EBay.

I do have mine on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Here-All-Along-ebo...
and Smashwords.com I could not figure out a few things at the Myebook site. Rowena, I will look into your suggestion today and see if I can make it work for me.
Thank you,
Lori Newman

Never heard of that site, Rowena. I'll have to look into it when I return.

I'm hoping I can share my inner fears with all of you...I'm worried that we're going to cut-throat our real value of our work if we set our prices too low.

Finally, we, as authors, are in the driver's seat. With eBooks and online distributors willing to supply a site for us to display our books...like, this is FABULOUS! For such a long time, we had been at the mercy of traditional distributors. We paid for printing & shipping charges and then had to give the distributor a 35-65% cut even before we paid for everything else. When it was all done...we had pennies for our hard work ...and I mean OUR WORK!

Like what's wrong with this picture? Just doesn't make sense...

But, I look at our farmers, here in Saskatchewan, and they're in the same situation. Folks around here pay $36.00 for 12 beer, and yet the farmer would get around $.05 for the Barley that goes into the product. Again, just doesn't make sense.

Now, as authors, we are in control. Through eBooks, we don't have the expenses of printing and shipping. The distributors online (like myebook & smashwords) are doing us a service by distributing for us for free...then, why would we set our standards/prices so low?

I do believe our ebooks should be quite a bit less than a physical book, but we have to be careful not to set the price too low. This is our turn to be in control, so let's not blow it but lowering our standards and our OWN WORK.

Thoughts on prices? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings to all of you.

Jo