Archive for the ‘Ebooks’ Category

Smashwords and Why You Need It

Smashwords is a listing and distributing site for ebook authors. All you have to do is format your ebook according to their guidelines and upload it. Smashwords throws it in their conversion software called Meatgrinder, and it comes out the other side formatted to distribute to all the channels you specified when you uploaded. Smashwords has distribution through the following ebook retailers:

• Apple iBookstore
• Amazon.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• Sony
• Kobo
• Diesel

There will be more. If you are self-publishing your ebook, you WANT to be here. Check out their FAQ to learn more. Oh yeah, and you’ll want to download their Style Guide: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 It’s free of course…because here at PWW, we LOVE free!

Kindle and Nook

You are probably here because you heard somewhere that you can publish your book to the Kindle, Nook, or both. Somewhere would be correct, and if you want to just stick with one or both of these, there is nothing wrong with that. Ignore what I said up there about Smashwords.

I’ve read in more than one self-publishing book that you want to deal with Amazon and Barnes and Noble DIRECTLY even if you do put your book on Smashwords. Both authors have multiple ebooks self-published through tthese services. I’m gonna take their work for it.

Formatting for the Kindle and Nook

…is NOT that fun. All of these sites have conversion software that is very limited. When you put your book in there, it is not going to look right when it comes out. Do yourself a favor, focus on writing the book, not the formatting. I mean don’t even use Tabs ever! Why? Because you’re going to end up taking them ALL out in then end. Here are a few quick tips:

• Use normal boring fonts. Stick to ONE in this list: http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html
• Don’t underline anything. Use bold (limited), italics, and no more than 14 pt font size to show any sort of emphasis
• Use the Paragraph styling in your word processing software to set a first-line indent for your paragraphs. DO NOT use Tab.
• Do not use the Enter key to create page breaks. In fact, just don’t set your heart on page breaks at all.

TRUST ME and the self-publishing books I’ve read recently.

I suggest going with HTML for Kindle and a barebones Word doc for Nook. Here’s a FREE ebook I wrote about how to format your book using HTML. It’s not as hard as it sounds, I promise!

Book Suggestion

It’s Zoe Winters hands down, people. Her book, Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author, lays it out for you. It’s $3.95, and it covers a priceless amount of information that you could only learn through endless trial and error. Click it and go buy it, yesterday!

Why are you still sitting here? Go get started!!!

My good friend and former boss (best boss in the world), Mark Linsenbardt, posed  few questions to me about indie publishing via Facebook. This post is the result of that conversation. Thanks for asking. PWW answers.

The requests are starting to come in. How can I get my books on Kindle? I’m here to help you answer that question, but it’s going to be a process because I’m doing this as I go, people. I have ONE book out. I’m going to be throwing out a lot of commands without a lot of reasons. So, if you’re a person who has to know why you do everything, I understand, but bear with me. I’ve included some brief Whys below to help you. Time is of the essence.

Let’s go with what we know so far, quick and dirty like:

• HTML worked best for me in the Amazon Digital Publishing conversion process
• I wrote a FREE ebook on how to format your book in HTML for Kindle. GET IT HERE
• Barnes & Noble (For the Nook) likes Word .doc files
• There is one more IMPORTANT place to upload and sell your ebook: http://smashwords.com
• Don’t distribute your ebook to Amazon and B&N through Smashwords, deal with these two directly
• Facebook, Twiiter and Goodreads are your best choice for marketing

You need to read some books on Indie Publishing. Don’t read any more than a couple because it can become a form of procrastination. Check out Kindle’s Bestsellers List and find out who’s seeing some success. I’ll tell you a few: Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Zoe Winters, and J.A. Konrath. Two of these people have books out on Indie Publishing. These are the “couple” I read:

I recommend both of these, but moreso Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters. It’s a shorter read and much more concise. Not to mention, she’s entertaining and funny. These are good people who are helping other writers. Both these books together will set you back less than $10.

Why?

Because you will gain a much better insight getting the information yourself than if I regurgitate it for you. If you don’t have a lot of time, seriously, the Zoe Winters book is the only one you need. Also, if you’re that pressed for time, you might not have time for self-publishing. Just saying.

Get established on these sites if you are not already:

• Kindle Direct Publishing
• Barnes & Noble PubIt
• Smashwords.com
• goodreads.com

Why?

Because you are going to need to be there if you are serious about self-publishing. The first 3 sites are distribution sites, and the last one is for marketing.

Bookmark me and stay tuned. Much more to come.

Why?

Because I’ll be telling you more as we go along…or you could just read Zoe Winters’ book. I don’t know her, she’s not my friend, but her book helped me immensely. I have ADD and it was a short and entertaining read. That’s all I’m saying.

I wrote an e-book explaining how to format your manuscript in HTML for easy upload to Kindle Direct Publishing. This is sort of a quick and dirty tutorial with links to information and a few screen shots to help you out. Don’t let HTML scare you, it’s one of the simplest programming languages on the planet. Because of the repetition you will use when formatting your book, I’m confident that you will find it easy to learn.

The most intense (and I use that word loosely) formatting you will do will be your first chapter, then it’s repetition after that. Basically you can format a chapter with less than 20 HTML tags, so don’t let it intimidate you. I would estimate that even a novice could code their manuscript in under 8 hours if it had a lot of images and links. If your manuscript is straight-up fiction or mainly text, it should take you a lot less time than that.

Keep coming back to ProWebWriter to learn more about self publishing through the various channels available to you. If you’ve ever considered self-publishing before, NOW is the time. If you’ve ever thought about writing e-books or even written a couple just throw out there and didn’t have much success. NOW could be the time when your luck changes. E-books aren’t just for people with money-making secrets anymore.

The world is slowly coming around to the idea of reading books in digital format. While I believe the novelty of the printed page is here for a long, long time, e-books are quickly becoming a hot commodity. E-Readers like Kindle and Nook are seeing phenomenal sales because digital books benefit the the reader’s pocketbook with deep discounts on all kinds of books.

The zip folder below available for download is packed with the following:

• The Basic HTML for Kindle Publishers e-book in PDF format
• Sample HTML documents in HTML and plain text format

You don’t need any special software to get started TODAY!

Basic HTML for Kindle Publishers

I can’t emphasize enough (and I’m talking to myself as well) that NOW is the time to get in on the indie publishing scene. Up until recently, the only way to make it as a writer was to gamble and hope against hope that your luck would hold out or take a turn for the better. Becoming a published author entailed a grueling routine of submitting your manuscript to publishers. This task could entail jumping through a series of butt-kissing hoops and hoping you caught someone’s eye. It could be months before you received that letter saying the publisher just wasn’t interested in your blood, sweat and tears.

Amanda Hocking received a stack of rejection letters. She finally decided to try publishing her books for Kindle after doing a bit of research on the subject. It is IMPORTANT TO NOTE that if you are only seeing dollar signs $$$, perhaps you have more work to do on yourself mentally. The money is hard to ignore, but it can’t be your focus in this endeavor. Just trust me on that. Amanda says on her blog, “I decided that even if I only sold a few copies of any book, it’d be better than the pile of rejections I had building up. And the no money I had in my checking account could use a boost.”

Amanda has 9 works available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and Smashwords. In the previous article, we talked about John Locke’s numbers. Amanda is doing just as well if not better. What’s more is that she is transparent regarding her success. She has chronicled the process on her blog and seems very down-to-earth. She’s just as shocked as we are at her success. There’s no need for me to reproduce her numbers here. We got an idea of what kinda money we’re talking about in the previous post. Besides, you can find all that on her site. The link will be included below.

WRITERS, I am appealing to you. It’s worth a try. ProWebWriter.com currently has a book published for Kindle and Nook. You can read about it in this post if you missed it. The first week, I’ve gotten 2 sales. It’s a start. Every sale is a shock…a good shock. My focus is almost completely on producing more books for self-publishing and running this Writers’ Community. Please keep in mind that I am available to consult with you about e-book publishing. In the near future, ProWebWriter.com will be producing A LOT of free information on how you can get in on this scene.

Find Amanda Hocking Online:

Amanda’s Blog

Amanda’s Twitter

Amanda’s Amazon Author Page

No, no. Not that bald guy from LOST who will track you and you can’t really tell him what to do. Not him. Not that English guy from he 1600′s either. I’m talking about the John Locke who currently has 5 books on Amazon’s Kindle Bestsellers list.

The significance of this is, WRITERS, that this fellow has been mentioned a few places because he’s selling self-published e-books. *ding ding* Are you listening? On his Amazon Author’s Page, his bio states,

Every 7 seconds, 24 hours a day, a John Locke novel is downloaded somewhere in the world.

Let’s look at the math. John’s books are all priced at $0.99, so that makes it easy.

How much revenue do John’s books make?

• Per minute – $5.94
• Per hour – $356.40
• Per day – $8553.60
• Per month – $256,608.00

At $0.99, John only gets a 35% royalty on his books, but even so…let’s take a look at his approximate take home pay. Thirty-five percent of $256,608.00 is $89,812.80. That’s not a bad monthly paycheck. Just in case you were wondering, that kind of revenue would make you a millionaire in only ONE YEAR’S TIME. What more is there to say? If you’re a writer today, and you are not interested in getting your stuff on Amazon for the Kindle and Barnes and Noble for the Nook, what is wrong with you!?!

Stay tuned to ProWebWriter.com because in the coming weeks and months, I will be writing about how to publish to these e-book readers among other things. NOW is the time. Don’t wait until this market is saturated and don’t let it intimidate you. YOU CAN do this.

Follow John on Twitter.
Read John’s Blog.

ProWebWriter.com is currently in transition. I have been working to convert this site from a professional site that represents my writing and skills to a community for writers. With the downturn of the economy, thousands of people have turned to the Internet to supplement their income or just to find any kind of work at all. Those of us who just dabbled with writing before have turned to seeking ways to make money by filling the Web with content. It’s not an easy thing.

One of the first steps you need to take to market yourself as a professional writer is to have your own website where you can showcase your work. This also simplifies the task of procuring work in that you can simply link potential employers to your site where they can peruse your samples and get an idea of the range of your writing skills.

I’ve set out to help other writers with exactly that by writing a book on the subject which is available for purchase on Amazon for the Kindle and Barnes and Noble for the Nook. I will also be providing additional information here at ProWebWriter.com for enhancing your website to bring more traffic. I’m also available for consultation regarding how to do a number of things with your new WordPress site including graphics, themes, plugins, and more.

Furthermore, ProWebWriter.com is currently accepting guest posts to get you started writing for the web if you don’t have a website of your own yet. Don’t hesitate to contact me for details.

Want to read the book, but don’t have a Kindle or a Nook?

No problem. Check out these links for how to read Kindle and Nook books FREE…and of course, legally.

• Kindle for PC and Other Devices
• Nook for PC and Other Devices

Click one of the images below to find out more about and/or purchase WordPress Websites for Writers.

Nook Color and The Nook

I did a post a couple days ago called “Free Kindle”. As with that post, it’s important to note that this is not a scam or a lame contest you’ll never win. This is to let you know that you don’t have to own a Nook to reap all the convenience of having an e-book reader. You can still take advantage of the discounted pricing, millions of free titles, and sheer awesomeness WITHOUT having to shell out the $150 to $250 it costs to own a Nook or Nook Color.

As Amazon did with the Kindle, Barnes and Noble has developed several FREE applications to make Nook books available to more people (mostly EVERYONE). They have apps for the following devices currently available at the time of this writing:

• PC
• iPad
• iPhone
• Android
• BlackBerry
• Mac

How about some linkage!

Click the image below to download apps from Barnes and Noble.

No, this isn’t a scammy give away or a laborious contest. Unlike the iPad, you can gain the benefits of ALL Kindle has to offer for absolutely free. That’s right, FREE. Amazon is so confident that readers will dig the Kindle, that they have created FREE applications for a number of devices (including the iPad) so that you can have access to Kindle ebooks WITHOUT owning a Kindle. This gives you access to more than a million FREE ebooks available for Kindle. These cost nothing to purchase and nothing to download.

Many avid readers are apprehensive about relinquishing the experience of the book. You know, the feel, turning a page, the smell of the pages…it is an interactive experience. I urge you to try the Kindle…just try some of this free software. You will find that many of your beloved stories are free and some on your wish list are cheaper than you imagined.

Let’s cut the banter, and get to those free applications.

Here’s where you need to go: CLICKY or click the image below.

Choose you device from the list and find out how to get Kindle software for your device completely FREE. Here’s the list of currently available software:

Give it a try. If you enjoy reading, you will like having access to books no matter where you are.

This is an e-book that I wrote in 2007 as a free download for my first Internet Marketing blog. I eventually combined that blog with another one, moved it to self-hosted WordPress, and sold it.

Feel free to download this book and use it at will. Some of the information is old and some of it is not. It is written for use mainly with Blogger, but has some pertinent links and resources. It also demonstrates my e-book writing skills.