Indie Author's Marketplace discussion
General
>
Self-Publishing Options
date
newest »
newest »
I'm going to self-publish at Amazon and Smashworlds (to get my e-book in Apple store etc.) Those are my preferred bookshops right now so if I'd be looking for a book, I would go there. There's a lot of help/tutorials on the web to get your formats right. They have a huge market share and cost next to nothing to get your book in their store.
Mod
Thanks Emmy. That all sounds great. I was a bit worried because I'm not working at the moment, other than my first book being released and it's still a baby so I'm not earning much. I was worried that to self-pub I would have to fork out a small fortune. I'm going to have a proper look at them now. :)
I am also starting without a lot of funds. I'm saving those for editing and some help with the cover design. I think those investments will pay off. Amazon and the like will rake in their money on a cut from your sales so placing an e-book there will cost you nothing in advance and not having to split the profits with a publishing company will help pay for the next books. Good hunting, Elaine!
First the Amazon KPD select last 3 months, is automatically renewed but you can stop it before.With Kindle Select you can set days in advance where you can offer your book at reduce price or free. You can't do that with regular KDP.
KDP select doesn't affect print version.
Smashwords is handy to get your book in every popular ebook stores without having to lift a finger aside from having it approved for premium catalog. It also pays more per sale than Amazon even if you sell for lower than 2.99, however, I've bought my book through ITunes a month ago, for kicks to see how long it would take before I'd see the sale, and I am yet to see anything appear on smashwords' sales and payment reports, so they are rather slow.
Smashwords is handy when you want to offer free books for review or to friends. You don't need to buy a copy to gift to someone, unlike Amazon.
With Smashwords you can build the interest with the pre-order feature.
Both are totally free if you can format your word document the way they want it, which isn't hard at all.
Both offer free ebooks to help with the formatting of the file.
(I can't think of anything else at the moment, but if you have any question, I'll be happy to help if I can.)
Mod
With Kindle Select you can set days in advance where you can offer your book at reduce price or free...."
Thanks G.G. That's amazing information. It definitely sounds like something I'll try. But like you say, I'll read their formatting guides first. :)
Mod
Thanks Emmy. That really is the problem. I had this vision of having to shell out a fortune, just to get it up and running. This is great information, thanks.
I'm about to put my 1st 2 books out on e-books to, and I have done quite a bit of research and talked to a lot of Indie authors. What I've learned is that Amazon by far outsells all other e-book sources put together. And they also do a little bit of marketing and have a few other perks when you go with KDP Select. And as one other commenter mentioned - KDP Select does only last for 90 days at a time. If you're worried about people without Kindles, not being able to buy your books, I don't know if that's a real worry because there is a Kindle app for just about every device out there from phones to tables, to computers. Also, I think it makes a difference what genre your books fall into. Mine happen to be teen fantasies and sad to say because I'm not a fan of the idea of Amazon taking over the publishing world, the majority of kids have Kindle! One other thing I'd like to mention. Yes, you can format your own word document, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are code wizard. Nothing is going to shout out 'amateur' faster than a poorly edited and poorly formatted book. And it's really not that expensive to have a professional format it - around $75-80 is all and well worth it. That's my two cents and good luck to you!
Mod
Thanks for this Marla. (Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.) Unfortunately, the 'not that expensive' option, is actually pretty expensive to me. I don't have funds to start this project at all. Anything I have tucked away is to purchase books that will be published by my publisher, because they're coming from overseas, so I need more money to get them. I also need to advertise and do promotional material.
I think after reading everything though, I'm inclined to go with Smashwords. 100% free, unless I buy a cover image and hassle free. I'm also looking into CreateSpace, but I've got time. I don't intend to start this project until the New Year, when everything has calmed down a little.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I have a direction now, it's just getting there that's left. :)
If you go with Smashwords, you might as well publish on Amazon too. It's also free and once you have your manuscript formatted for SW, it won't be a hassle to put it through Amazon also and it is free. Just don't choose the KDP Select and there will be no problem that you are both publishing SW and Amazon.The main difference between the two manuscripts is the way they make you do the headings/chapters, and how they separate chapters. (One is with breaks the other with headings.) I haven't tested my theory yet but I am pretty sure that Smashwords' formatting would go A1 on Amazon.
The hardest part is to have the manuscript cleaned of words' tabs etc. Once you've done that, before you do the headings etc. just save two copies. One for SW one for Amazon and work the differences from there. (It's easier to start from blank slate than to have to remove the formatting from one to do the other.)
Don't worry. If you follow SW's instructions, it won't scream amateur.
It's really worth learning how to create and format EPUBs using basic HTML and CSS. I use Sigil to create and edit EPUBs, and that lets you do basic formatting in a normal editor, and also see the underlying code.I've never actually published on Smashwords, really because I like to do all my own formatting and not put everything into MSWord, but I think in the last year Smashwords has started to allow EPUB submission... need to find out.
Amazon and KDP / Select are good, but Nooks seem to be very popular as well. The hardest thing, of course, is to get anyone to buy the books. I don't know that I've made much (if any) profit on mine.
Mod
Thanks G.G. And actually, to this complete techno-phobe, that made sense. lol. Yay!
Mod
Same here Francis. And that's with a publisher too. That's why I thought if I could self-publish in between, while she's working with other people, I could try to bump up the earnings a bit. :) I've been recommended this site - http://w3schools.com - for how to learn coding and things, so I'm going to give it a try and see if I can do this myself. *fingers crossed*
That's a good site. Feel free to ask me if you're confused about anything.Heh - maybe we should set up a discussion / topic for it...
Mod
Heh - maybe we should set up a discussion / topic for it..."
Sounds good. I'll mark one up now. Doing a little clean up as it is. :)
Mod
Heh - maybe we should set up a discussion / topic for it..."
Tips and Tricks is now live! :)
I've been thinking about doing some self-publishing for my independent novels, outside of this series. What are the best places to do this?
I've looked at CreateSpace, Smashwords, Amazon and Lulu. There are soo many choices, but I'm not very savvy with this sort of thing. Is there a way to simplify it all for me? I'd love to hear your opinions about what is the best choice. All I know is that everyone says not to do Amazon KPD Select (I think that's what it's called) because it takes away your right to publish elsewhere.
So what I'd love to know is - what do you recommend? how expensive are they? ease of use, formatting issues...anything that comes to mind.
You can probably tell how confused I am, so anything you could tell me to clear it up would be great.
Thanks.