How to publish an e-book

E-books

Are they the future of our business, a danger to book stores and publishing houses, or the world’s biggest slush pile?

The answer is--yes.

I have published three e-books. My motivation was very basic. It was not to make a million dollars, and it was not to retire in Tahiti. It was much simpler. I was looking over some old files in the computer one day and saw that one file consisted of a manuscript finished eleven years ago. It was book one of a trilogy. The trilogy itself had been completed six years ago.

It was just taking space in my computer, so I decided it should sit in someone else’s computer and maybe make me a few bucks. I began to look at e-publishing and this is what I found.

The eight hundred pound gorilla in the publishing world is Kindle. Amazon will not release the figures, but the industry’s best guess is, as of December 2010, that there were thirteen million Kindles in the hands of readers. And that doesn’t count this year’s sales. Their closest competitor is the Barnes and Noble, Nook. About five million of them have been sold. The Nook is more expensive, but the controls are easier to use. It will even display color--though how important that is for novels is a good question. Its battery life is not nowhere near as good as Kindle’s.

World wide, I’m told Sony is the leader, but in this country they are a small player. In fact Apple is bigger.

The Apple I-pad has I-Books, just as the I-Pod has I-Tunes. To get your book in the Apple, or Sony catalog, you need an ISBN number (more on that later). Strange to say that you can download a Kindle app to the I-pad which allows you to bypass Apple’s requirements and go direct to Amazon. This may change. As of the first week of August, Apple and Amazon are in an argument.

When it is about E-books, it always seems to come back to Amazon. To e-publish on Kindle you must download Kindle for PC (OR Mac) and set up an account. This is very important and basic because you will need to download some instruction books that are both free and available. Once you have signed in you go to FORUMSKINDLEDIRECTPUBLISHING.COM and choose bookshelf. On the right side of the page you will see a button labeled New Title. Click on that and they will walk you through the process. At the proper place they will ask you to upload your cover and then manuscript just as you would attachments.

MORE NEXT WEEK