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Self-Publishing: Easy As ABC Kobo Self-Publishing: Easy as ABC Meredith Bond www.anessabooks.com [email protected] Kobo Like Barnes & Noble, Kobo’s form is easy to fill out. Once again you’ll need an ePub file, and like Amazon, a cover image where the longest side is 2500 pixels. Be sure you don’t miss putting in the categories – it’s a small thing hidden off to the side: Kobo, like Amazon, allows for pre-orders. It’s on the last page before you press the “Publish eBook” button it will ask you what date you want your book published. Self-Publishing: Easy as ABC Meredith Bond www.anessabooks.com [email protected] Smashwords To upload your book to Smashwords, choose “Publish” in their menu. You’ll need two book descriptions: a short version (400 characters) and a regular long version (4000 characters). Again, go through and fill in the form. Smashwords does allow you to set your book for pre-order, although their own store doesn’t allow for that—it will just appear there on your publication date. Again, like Amazon, you can choose two categories under which to file your book. After you submit your Microsoft Word .doc file, they will convert it into all the formats you specify: the default is every format, which is where I leave it. They will send you an email telling you whether or not your book has made it through their meatgrinder or not. After your book has made it through the meatgrinder, it will be submitted for their extended distribution or premium status. Once through that hurdle, it will be distributed everywhere they distribute books— which means that you’ve got to go through and make sure it is only going where you want it to go! In “Channels” from your dashboard, go through and “opt-out” of all the places where you will be uploading your book directly. For your book to be distributed everywhere, you’ll also need to jump through the hoops in their ISBN Manager page. There you can choose whether you want one of their free ISBNs which will list Smashwords as the publisher of your book, or if you are going to use your own (in which case you need to fill in your name and address). One note about selling your books on Smashwords—they do not pay authors directly by transferring money to your bank account the way the other retailers do. Instead, they will transfer the money to your Paypal account. They do this quarterly, not monthly. Self-Publishing: Easy as ABC Meredith Bond www.anessabooks.com [email protected] Apple iBooks Apple iBooks claims to be the second highest seller of e-books in the world. There are a number of opportunities to be promoted by Apple iBooks, but to be considered for this you may have to meet one of their sales reps at a conference. The drawback for Apple is that you must have a Mac to upload a book to iBooks (which really annoyed me because I’ve always had PCs and I’m not interested in spending $1000 on a computer I won’t use except for uploading books—I’ve since gotten a used Mac which works perfectly fine for this purpose). Happily, there is a wonderful website called Macincloud.com where you can virtually rent a Mac for relatively little money (even by the hour). To upload to iBooks on a Mac (whether virtual or actual) you’ll need an Apple iConnect account (which, as I said earlier can take up to two weeks to activate). Through iConnect you can download iProducer. On the first page of iProducer, fill in all of the fields and then drag your 2400 pixel tall book cover to the area that says “Cover Art” on the left. The second page is where you put in your pricing. To do this, click on the plus sign towards the upper left- hand corner. A new window will pop open: If you want your book to be available as a pre-order fill in the release date and the pre-order start date. Choose your Region from the drop down menu under “Choose Region”. There you will find an option for “All”. If you choose “All”, be sure to un-tick “World”, the very last territory listed. It confused their computers if you’ve got both selected. Go to the next page to upload your book – you do this by dragging the ePub file from the Finder (list of files on your computer) to the left-hand space where it says “Book”. Finally, click “Submit” in the upper right-hand corner of the window. One Note: Apple is picky about the size of the cover inside the book. It can only be so big: “The cover art must be in PNG or JPEG format and must be at least 1400 pixels on the shortest side. For an average paperback book, this could be 1400 x 1873 pixels, as these books are generally taller than they are wide.” Self-Publishing: Easy as ABC Meredith Bond www.anessabooks.com [email protected] After your book is uploaded, it is reviewed and the put up for sale or pre-order. Once it is in iConnect, PC users can check on it, your sales and even change the price of your book through iConnect on the internet on your PC. Google Play A good number of authors have not braved the world of Google Play as yet because they automatically reduce the price of your book so you need to know the formula or else Amazon will prize match to the lower price that they switch your price to or because they can’t get an account. Yes, Google Play, for some unknown reason, has stopped allowing authors to sign up for an author account there. For pricing, here’s a table to follow: Set Price = Discounted Price 99c = no change (royalty = 52%) Incredibly enough, Google finally Got 1.49 = no change (royalty = 52%) It and revamped their pricing policy. They no longer discount automatically 2.40 = 1.99 so the price you post is actually the 2.49 = 1.92 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 67%) price that’s charged! Woot!! 2.99 = 2.09 or 3.93 (Discount = 30%. Actual royalty = 74%) I haven’t heard recently if they have eased up on their restrictions on 3.49 = 2.65 (Discount = 24%. Actual royalty = 68%) allowing authors to register to sell on 3.94 = 2.99 (Discount = 24%. Actual royalty = 68%) Google Play, however. For a while, you had to apply and then they took a 3.99 = 3.03 (Discount = 24%. Actual royalty = 68%) long time to approve you, if they did 4.50 = 3.44 (Discount = 23.5%. Actual royalty = 68%) at all. 4.99 = 3.82 or 3.99 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 68%) Even if you upload through an ebook distributor like PublishDrive, you still 5.18 = 3.99 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 68%) need to have your own Google Play 5.25 = 4.04 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 68%) account to publish to there (so, why go through PD if you can go direct?). 5.99 = 4.61 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 67.5%) It’s best to apply for your own account 6.48 = 4.99 (Discount = 23%. Actual royalty = 68%) and publish directly to Google. There are a lot of Android users who buy 7.78 = 5.99 books! 8.32 = 6.99 8.99 = 7.52 (Discount = 16%. Actual royalty = 62%) 9.99 = 7.99 (Discount = 20%. Actual royalty = 65%) 15.99 = 9.99 (Discount = 37%. Actual royalty = 83%) Draft2Digital This ebook distributor has been really expanding recently. It began as a great way to get your books onto Apple iBooks if you didn’t have a Mac, then expanded to include a number of European booksellers and has more recently partnered with Findaway Voices so that you can create an audio book (they have voice actors who you can hire to create your book and will distribute your audio book for you). Self-Publishing: Easy as ABC Meredith Bond www.anessabooks.com [email protected] Like Smashwords, D2D pays through Paypal on a quarterly basis, rather than monthly. They also have a computer program with will convert your Microsoft Word document into an ePub and mobi file for you (they have some new options to add prettiness to your book, but it’s very limited). You can also upload your own ePub if you have drop caps and images or any other interesting formatting. Like all the others, the form is really easy to fill out, just follow the prompts and go through it—easy- peasy. � One note on Draft2Digital – they’re in the process of creating a print-on-demand option of publishing through them. It’s currently in a beta-phase with a limited number of authors they’re allowing to test it out. Personally, I’m really looking forward another option to KDP Print and IngramSpark. StreetLib This is a great place to list your books for sale if you’d like to tap into the international market. They distribute to a lot of online bookstores in Europe and Asia. It’s also a great way to get your books onto Google Play if you can’t get a direct account there – they allow very few authors in now for some reason. Streetlib also has a bunch of interesting tools that you should feel free to play with. I admit I haven’t done so except to list myself as a formatter on their Market page.
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