Q: If
authors want to self-publish, how do they choose between the overwhelming array
of self-publishing options for books and ebooks?
Excellent question – and one for which there is no
answer. But there are some signposts to consider
on this particular path.
Here are my notes by category on some of the options now
available (and remember that this information is subject to change at a
moment’s notice):
Amazon’s Kindle and CreateSpace:
Let’s say you want to try out Amazon’s Kindle Select option, which requires
an exclusive 90-day period on Kindle with the ebook not available for sale
anywhere else. You could use Amazon’s
POD publisher CreateSpace to convert your book to the Kindle format. (You can read about Kindle Select at
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect
)
But this conversion service (starting at $69 and going up depending on the complexity
of the conversion) is only for a physical book self-published through
CreateSpace. (Yes, Kindle Direct Publishing has instructions to do the
conversion yourself. Although I may end
up doing this, I would prefer someone else whose specialty this is to do it for
my ebooks.)
(Note: For CreateSpace you can upload a manuscript in pdf, doc, docx or
rtf.)
BookBaby and Smashwords:
I used ebook publishing company BookBaby to convert
HOW TO
SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE for ebook formatting because I
wanted to try BookBaby’s distribution channels.
For BookBaby a manuscript can be uploaded in pdf, which is good as you do
not have to worry about making sure all the formatting codes in the manuscript
are correct.
Now let’s say you want to add your published ebook to a Smashwords ebook
account. Smashwords does not take a pdf
or rtf; it requires a correctly formatted Word doc. You must decide if you really want to spend
the time to go through your entire manuscript and check all formatting codes
before uploading to Smashwords.
(Note: I am assuming here that, before you self-publish, you
hire a copyeditor/proofreader to go over your manuscript unless you are very
good at spelling, grammar, etc.
Computers usually do not know the difference, for example, between their
and there and they’re.)
Book
marketing services:
In a comment on a discussion thread in the LinkedIn Book
Marketing group I founded and manage (www.LinkedInBookMarketing.com)
someone recommend an online book marketing service because his friend had used
this service to supposed good results (whatever that means).
Someone rightly asked what kind of book the friend had and
the book’s title in order to better evaluate this comment of “good results.”
Then I added that, even if we knew what kind of book and the
book’s title, we would not be able to evaluate the friend’s success for
purposes of considering this particular book marketing service for
ourselves.
Why? Because there
are so many additional variables for a book’s success online and offline,
including whether the author was active on social media before the book launch,
how active was the author during the book launch, etc.
When I work with authors on book marketing, I make it very
clear that there are no guarantees that online marketing will sell even one
book. What online marketing can do – and
do well with the investment of time and effort – is get your books in front of
the target audiences you have identified.
Then all those other variables come into play, including how
well-written a novel is, how relevant the information of a nonfiction book is,
the price of an ebook, etc.
Ebook
pricing:
Speaking of the price of ebooks, as someone said the other
day about the publishing world, it’s the wild frontier.
Just following the news about U.S. ebook price collusion and
what this means for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. is enough to drive authors
crazy.
My personal opinion at this time – and I have only my own
observations and research on which to base this observation – is that $9.99
should be the highest ebook price, and this should only be for nonfiction
titles.
My ebook HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE
is currently priced at $9.99. But I
would not recommend pricing a novel this high unless you are a famous author.
Physical
book vs. ebook:
I had recently decided that ebooks are all that is needed
for new books, especially as Smashwords allows each title to have many purchase
options, including a downloadable pdf.
Then I read something that made me reconsider this
opinion. Someone wrote that he believes
there are readers that, after reading an ebook, would want the physical book.
Because it is very inexpensive to publish a POD book through
CreateSpace, I have now decided to make my ebooks also available in a physical
version. This, of course, becomes
another “to do” item on a very long list.
One thing the undertaking of this task requires is the
decision of what size to make the physical book, and I am studying this
question now. I realize that the optimal
(whatever this means) size may vary with each individual book.
In conclusion, there are not necessarily any right answers –
and even right answers can change overnight thanks to the speed of change on
the Internet.
What does remain as true is that we each have to evaluate
these options based on our own goals, time frame, and openness to new
opportunities. We are also privileged to
have Joylene Butler’s wonderful blog on which to share what we learn.
© 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and
Pinterest) is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which
is WBENC certified and also builds WordPress websites for clients. Information
on her books and ebooks can be found at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com
* * * *
Thanks, Phyllis, for another informative post.
For those who entered my ice breakup contest, here's an update on what's happening on Cluculz Lake.
Those little white spots on the ice are gulls.
