Digital Publishing (ebooks) for Independent Authors

Digital Publishing for
Independent Authors
Em Gibson
@CorbasLtd

© Corbas Consulting Ltd

This afternoon, let’s …
• Get a feel for how ebooks work on different
platforms
• See what’s possible in an ebook
• Look at ebook production pathways
• Understand what an EPUB is and how it
works

An ebook is
• A distributable digital version of a book, e.g.
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PDF
HTML file
EPUB
Proprietary format (Kindle)
App (e.g. iPad/phone, Android)
Text file (Project Gutenberg)

“Ecosystems”
• Apple: “gorgeous”

• Kobo: “social”

• Amazon: “easy”

• Others: “niche”

What you can do with an ebook
• You are limited to what the hardware
supports (e.g. an ebook for an e-ink reader
can’t have video)
• You need to check your ebook on multiple
devices because they all support different
elements of layout/design and multimedia
(video, animation, etc.)

Types of publishing services
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Single service
“Pick and mix”
Complete package
Other models

Single service providers
• Delivers one or more of the various
publishing services (formatting, design,
editing, printing and promotion)
• Efficient and cost effective
• You retain control over the process
• Examples:
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KDP
Kobo
Lightning Source
Freelance designers, editors, formatters, etc.

“Pick and Mix” providers
• An array of services offered, usually a basic
publishing package with a menu of additional
services (e.g. critique, editing, design, print,
production, marketing, promotion,
distribution)
• Costs can add up
• Examples:
– Lulu
– CreateSpace

Package providers
• Complete package of self-publishing services
• Like the "vanity publishers" of old, they will do
everything for you
• Can be extremely costly and some are very
poor value
• Examples:
– Author Solutions, Inc. aka ASI (umbrella group for
various providers such as Archway, Xlibris,
AuthorHouse, etc.)
– Lumina Press

Other models
• Collaborative working
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crowd-funded (e.g. Kickstarter)
crowd-edited (a.k.a. beta-readers)
crowd-designed (e.g. crowdspring.com)
crowd-written (e.g. WattPad)

• Author co-operatives (e.g. Triskele, Book View
Cafe)
• Assisted publishing with an agent or trade
publisher
• Hybrid/partnership (risk-sharing) with publishers,
with some author investment (e.g. BookCountry,

Conversion: complexity
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Plain text
Plain text with links, incl. endnotes
Plain text with images or tables
Columns, images with wraparound text,
boxed features, etc.
• Fixed layout and enhanced

… and tables can be
challenging

A word about PDF
• Meant for printable documents
• Preserves layout, fonts, graphics – fixed
width
• Easy to create a low-res version for
distribution digitally
• Cannot sell on most trade e-bookstores
(Kobo, iBooks, etc.) or on Amazon

What is EPUB?
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A format for reflowable text
Based on web technologies
An industry standard for digital books
Maintained by the International Digital
Publishers Forum (IDPF)
• Used by all ebook readers except Kindle
• Kindle uses Mobi/KF8 format (use free Kindle
Previewer software from Amazon to convert)

So what, technically, is EPUB?
EPUB is based on existing technology:
• HTML – format used to create web pages
• CSS – technology used to style web pages
• ZIP – file compression (incl multiple files)
• XML – metadata, TOC and reading order

In a nutshell, what is HTML?
• HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) was
developed in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee as
presentational mark-up for text documents for
the world wide web
• Each piece of text is contained within
opening and closing tags that describe that
content
• If you right-click on any webpage, you can
“view source” to see the raw HTML

HTML looks like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>First level heading</h1>
<p>Some text content here. You could maybe add some
<strong>bold</strong> text or <em>italic</em>text.</p>
<ul>
<li>First list item</li>
<li>Other list item.</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

And what is CSS?
• CSS is a style sheet language used for
describing the presentation semantics (the
look and formatting) of a document written in
a mark-up language like HTML
• It can describe layouts, colours and fonts

CSS looks like this:
body {
font-family: arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 75%;
line-height: 2;
color: black;
margin: none;
padding: 0;
}

Another view
An EPUB file is just a ZIP file that contains a
simple website along with a list of the files in it
and what order they should be read.

Fixed layout ebooks
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Looks like PDF but uses EPUB technology
Usually designed for iPad or Kindle Fire
Pixel-specific page size; text does not reflow
Allows you to choose fonts, text sizes,
position images, and design spreads

“Enhanced” ebooks
• EPUB3/KF8
• Multimedia (video, audio)
• Scripting (quizzes, location-based content,
interactivity, 3D, etc.)

From Word to EPUB
• Use Word Styles (not direct formatting)
• Follow conversion requirements for your
chosen system
• Conversion options can include:
– online (e.g. Smashwords’ “Meatgrinder”)
– software (e.g. Calibre, InDesign)
– DIY (guidance available e.g. Liz Castro’s EPUB
Straight to the Point; online video tutorials)

Editing an EPUB (the techy stuff)
• To crack open your EPUB and make
changes, you will need:
– An EPUB file
– A text editor (e.g. TextEdit, Notepad, BBEdit,
Notepad++ … but not Word), an HTML editor
(e.g. Dreamweaver) or an XML editor (oXygen,
Xmetal, XMLSpy)
– Something to zip your EPUB back up (e.g.
WinZip)
– An ebook reader (e.g. Adobe Digital Editions)

A brief word about images
• Check http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Ebook_Reader_Matrix
• For most basic ebooks, it’s the images that
cause the most problems when converting
• In EPUB2 and Kindle you are limited gif, jpg,
png
• Most readers are 800 pixels high x 600 wide
• The dpi value is ignored by all reading devices
• JPG is best for photographic art
• PNG is recommended for line art

Image handling

Screenshot from iBooks – landscape map, image size not
optimised

EPUBcheck
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Checks for validity
Is the XHTML correct?
Are the metadata files valid?
Is the zip file structured correctly?
Are all the files present?
Are all the files in the zip file listed in the
manifest?
• Do all the internal links work?

Remember:
You can’t depend on
EPUBcheck to find
all the errors!

Ebook DRM and distribution
• DRM is usually applied by the distributor
• Most publishers distribute their ebooks via a
distributor like OverDrive or Ingram (or both)
• Many self-publishers start with online author
communities
• Both may also distribute via their own
website, directly with Amazon, and on sites
like ebooks.com

Some resources
Networking and advice
• Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)
• Byte the Book
Creation and distribution
• DIY: Liz Castro (EPUB Straight to the Point, and
others)
• Author communities that release via multiple
distributors (e.g. Smashwords, BookCountry)
• Direct to distributor (e.g. Kindle Direct
Publishing, Kobo WritingLife)
• Plus many others in the Wild West of Ebooks!

Recap
• This afternoon we have
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Looked at ebooks on different platforms
Seen what’s possible in an ebook
Looked at ebook production pathways
Thought about next steps (ms conversion, sales,
distribution, etc.)

Digital Publishing (ebooks) for Independent Authors

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Digital Publishing (ebooks) for Independent Authors