Ebook Publishing
From LoveToKnow Online
Ebook publishing is the easiest and cheapest way to get your writing in print today. You can write short or long books, fiction or nonfiction, and if you know what you're doing, you can even sell them on your web site, eBay, or Amazon.com.
Choosing a Topic for Ebook Publishing
You can write ebooks on anything, of course, but your most lucrative sales will come from a niche market that you know something about. What's your obsession? Do you have a hobby, a talent, or anything else you can share with others? Is there an interest you'd like to research and develop?
If you already have a website, you can write an ebook that echoes what you have there, or even incorporates some of your content. By selling or advertising an ebook for sale on your site, you establish your credentials as a guru, too, which will help sales and/or traffic at your site.
Preparing the Manuscript
It's critical in ebook publishing to format your manuscript properly, with at least a table of contents, a cover page, and numbered text pages. An index is also nice.
You have several options for putting your book together, from using Microsoft Word to arranging it as an ebook for distribution on a CD. But most ebooks are distributed as Acrobat PDF files. It gets the book out there in one coherent piece, retaining all of your formatting, and you can set it up so no one can steal your text by copying and pasting it.
If you don't mind learning something new and if you prefer to put your ebook package together for free, one of the best options out there is Open Office. This free fully-functional office software suite includes most of Microsoft Word's functions, with the addition of an option to save your document to PDF. By using this, you don't have to buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat, which you'd normally have to do to save as PDF.
Security (Or Not)
Not all ebook publishers choose to do this, but you can save your PDF ebook in a format that keeps it secure. This means you can lock out unauthorized viewers with a password protection, or you can set your book up so no one can copy any of the text from your PDF. These utilities are available when you convert to PDF format, but the specific manner of applying them depends on the software you're using for conversion.
Getting an ISBN
The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, is the number associated with the barcode you see on every modern book today, and you must have one if you want to sell your ebook on Amazon as a real publication. This is the single most expensive part of ebook publishing.
Right now, the ISBN coordinator of record for the United States, US Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico is R.R. Bowker. You must go through this company if your physical mailing address is in this region. If you live outside the United States, you can look up your ISBN coordinator at ISBN International.
R.R. Bowker currently sells ISBN numbers in blocks, with a block of ten being the smallest batch. You can use an entire batch yourself if you want to publish multiple ebooks, or you can let other people republish under the name of your publishing company for a fee. You may not resell the numbers individually, however, and it is not legal to purchase individually-sold numbers from others. If you choose to go this route, make sure you read the FAQ section at R.R. Bowker.
ISBN numbers are soon migrating to a 13-digit number system, but you don't have to worry about that quite yet.
Hiring Someone To Publish Your Ebook
Largely because of the cost associated with buying a block of ISBN numbers, many people choose to hire someone else to publish their books. These have historically been known as vanity presses and have not been looked upon kindly by the publishing world for good reason.
Today, self-publication of books is undergoing a revolution, and more good self-published ebooks are available every day. If you hire someone else to publish your book, make sure you don't pay more than the service is worth. If they offer editorial services, pin them down to a specific price and make sure they have a money-back guarantee if you're not happy with their work. In any case, your total cost should always be less than a thousand US dollars.
You can also submit your book to epublishers who have a large stock. If your book is of acceptable quality, and they think they'll make at least a small profit from it, they will publish it for you at their website, and offer you a royalty of 50% - 75%. Never take less than this. The drawback of publishing in this manner is losing control of the book. You can sell it on your website, but generally only as an affiliate; the publisher will always take a piece of the profits.
Making Money From Your Ebook
Once you have an ISBN number, the sky's the limit for your new ebook publishing venture. You can submit your ebook to Amazon, who will sell it for you at their site for a large commission, currently 55%, even for ebooks. The advantage is books sold at Amazon gain you readership, and they are sales you probably would not have made otherwise.
Alternatively, you can sell your ebook yourself on eBay or on your own website. The easiest way is to set up a Paypal merchant account to accept payments. Paypal has tools on its website you can use to set up an automated download of your ebook once payment has gone through.
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