How does your digital book get discovered. Can libraries help? What is the future of e-book marketing through libraries. Presented to the Mahwah Library author's group

1. Introduction to Ebook Publishing
How to Produce, Publish, Price,
Distribute, Promote and Sell an Ebook
Plus being discovered
April 21, 2015
Patrick McCarthy
Owner, Benefit Communications, Ltd.
This event is free and open to all.
Sponsored by Mahwah Library Writers Collective

2. Let’s start with a definition: e-book
Wikipedia
• An electronic book (variously: e-book, eBook,
e-Book, ebook, digital book, or even e-edition) is a book-
length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or
both, readable on computers or other electronic
devices.[1] Although sometimes defined as "an electronic
version of a printed book",[2] many e-books exist without any
printed equivalent. Commercially produced and sold e-books
are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-book readers,
however, almost any sophisticated electronic device that
features a controllable viewing screen,
including computers, tablet computers, and smartphones can
also be used to read e-books.

3. Another definition: Publishing
Wikipedia
• Publishing is the process of production
and dissemination of literature, music, or information —
the activity of making information available to the general
public. In some cases, authors may be their own
publishers, meaning: originators and developers
of content also provide media to deliver and display the
content for the same.
Publishing includes the stages of the development,
acquisition, copy editing, graphic design, production –
printing (and its electronic equivalents),
and marketing and distribution … including the electronic
media.

4. The Problem: Why Traditional
Book Publishing is Broken
• Publishers judge books based on
perceived commercial merit
• they can only guess what readers want to
read
• Publishers unable to take a risk on every
author
• millions of writers rejected
• Print books are too expensive
• limits affordability and accessibily

5. Back in the Dark Ages (7 yrs
ago), Publishers Controlled
Everything
• They controlled the …
• printing press
• distribution
• knowledge to professionally publish

6. Mark Coker’s Answer:
Smashwords
• * FREE * eBook Publishing Platform
 Free ebook printing press
 Distribution to major ebook retailers and
libraries
 Free learning materials help writers
become professional publishers

7. Amazon
• * FREE * e-Book Publishing Platform
 Free e-book printing press
 Distribution to Amazon e-book devices
Plus:
Free Print On Demand (POD) production
Free Audio book production

8. An Amazon company
• Print paperback books on demand POD
 Cost: Free to costly depending on services
and pricing you set.
 Books have to sell for at least $5.00+ for a
70 page book to cover all distribution costs.
An Amazon company
Distribute audio books
 Cost: Free to costly depending on
services and pricing you set.
 Audiobooks have to sell at $10 to $12
just to cover distribution costs at
Amazon

9. Ebooks published at Smashwords
Amazon data not available

10. How Smashwords and Amazon
Work
• UPLOAD
 Word .doc or .epub Word .docx
 Instant, free ebook conversion Same
 Instantly for sale Same
• DISTRIBUTE
 Distribution to retailers and Distribution
libraries to Amazon
devices
• GET PAID
 Author earns 60-80% list 35 – 75%
Smashwords Amazon

11. Quick Overview of The Ebook Market

12. Source: Association of American Publishers, publishers.org. 2012-13 Smashwords estimate

13. Publishers losing their monopoly
• Writers no longer need publishers to
publish, distribute and sell books
• Writers asking two questions:
1. “What can a publisher do for me that I can’t
do for myself?”
2. “Will a publisher actually harm my ability to
reach readers?”

14. Indies are hitting the bestseller
lists
• Self-published ebooks scaling all the
bestseller lists
• Self-published titles on the NYT list
nearly every week
• Prediction: Within three years, over ½ of
ebook bestsellers on NYT list will be indie
ebooks

15. Advantages of Indie Authorship
• Indie ebook author advantages
• faster time to market
• creative control
• better distribution to global market
• immortal ebooks never go out of print
• lower expenses
• lower prices to consumers
• earn more per book

16. Indie Ebook Authors Earn Higher
Percentage of List Price
• Indies earn more at lower prices
• At $2.99, indies earn ~$2.00. Traditional author
would have to price over $10 to earn $2.00
• Lower price = reach more readers = more sales at
higher profits per sale
60-80%
35-75%
12-17%
Indie Traditional

17. Let’s learn how to publish, distribute and
sell an ebook!

18. Checklist for Publishing an Ebook
 Finish a super-awesome book
 Format the book prior to conversion
 Prepare cover image * (Keep the original art work)
 Prepare the metadata
 Ebook conversion to multiple formats
 Pricing
 ISBNs
 Copyright
 Distribution to retailers, libraries
 Piracy
 Marketing

19. Finish Your Super-Awesome Book
• Ebook publishing tools make
publishing fast, free and easy …
• … but they don’t make it easy to
write a great book
• Your book must move the reader to an emotionally
satisfying extreme
• You are the author and the publisher
• Edit, revise, edit, revise
• Involve beta readers (then revise again)

20. Ebook Formatting

21. Formatting is the layout and design
process to prepare your book for
publication

22. Formatting for Smashwords
350,000+
downloads!

23. Formatting for Amazon

24. Formatting Secrets
• Forget (some of) what you know*
• Don’t try to make e- look like p-
• Ebooks consumed differently than print
• Design for reflowability, small screens
• Less = more with ebooks
*Keep an original plain text file or other
uses (POD, audiobook, etc.)

25. Reflowability: Ebook devices
(and customers) shape shift text
• Example of Smashwords novel, Heller
by JD Nixon as viewed in iBooks e-
reading app
• Users can select font style, font size and
nightime mode, or view in portrait or
landscape mode. Reflowability enables
this!

26. Cover Image

27. Create Your Ebook Cover
• Covers are important
• First impression
• Great covers make a promise
• Make it:
 engaging, matched to target audience
 professional
 good as thumbnail

28. Don’t be sloppy

29. Don’t do this either

30. Great covers make a promise

31. Great covers make a promise

32. Great covers make a promise

33. Great covers make a promise

34. Great covers make a promise

35. Great covers make a promise

36. Great covers make a promise

37. Evolution of the 36 Week Jam
Session cover
• Start with a good image
• Speak to the promise of what the
reader will experience.
• Following slides show the development
of 36 Week Jam Session cover

38. Which Book Cover Do
You Love?
This is a potential e-book
cover for an anthology of
36 short stories targeting
the young adult market

40. 36 WEEK JAM SESSION

42. 36 WeekJamSession
byAimeeMcCarthy
Race
Yi Yi
Yippee
Yi Yo!
Graffiti
Friendship
Weird
Cooking
Ultimate
Courage
True
Character
There’s Gold
in the
Backyard!
The Red
Evidence
¿Animales!
The
Nearly-
Permanent
Label
Manufacturing
Mommy
How to
Marry
Stubborn
For the
Fans
Blorange
Around the
World at
Hare Speed
…

45. Race

47. Follow link to Survey to cast your vote:
• https://www.surveymonkey.com/
s/MDPPJSX
• This the survey question:
Flower
Stack of books 1
White paper
Circles
Stack of books 2
Open book small
Open book large
Band
1. Which Book Cover Do You Like?
This is a potential e-book cover for an anthology of 36
short stories targeting the young adult market.
Review the images below and select one.

48. A case study…
The evolution of one cover

49. to this cover

50. … to this cover…

51. The cover sparked a breakout at Apple

52. And landed her on the NY Times Bestseller List

53. Metadata

54. Metadata is data that makes your
book discoverable in a store
Book title
Book description
Author name
Book category
Price
Publication dateISBN
Language Tags

55. Metadata for 36 Week Jam
Session
• Smashwords:
 girl scouts, gold award, homeschool,
emotions, surprise, shock, suspense, joy,
love, contentment
• Amazon:
 surprise, shock, suspense, joy, love,
contentment

56. Ebook Conversion

57. Conversion = Turning your formatted
manuscript into an ebook file readable on
multiple ebook reading devices

58. E-reading Devices

59. Automated Ebook Conversion
Smashwords Amazon
•Your masterpiece uploaded
as a Word 2013 docx plus
Word (DOC)
•HTML (ZIP, HTM, or HTML)
•MOBI (MOBI)
•ePub (EPUB)
•Rich Text Format (RTF)
•Plain Text (TXT)
•Adobe PDF (PDF
KDP
Conversion
MOBI
)
Your masterpiece
uploaded as an epub or
Word .doc document

60. Pricing

61. How Price Impacts Units Sold

62. What Price Yields the Greatest
Author Earnings?

63. ISBN
Amazon
(ASIN: B00P0CCQ78)

64. What’s an ISBN and ASIN?
• ISBM is:
 Unique digital identifier
 A 13-digit number
 Helps supply chain communicate about book
 Required for Smashwords distribution to Apple,
Kobo, others
• Where to get an ISBN:
 FREE at Smashwords
• ASIN
 Amazon’s unique 10 digit identifier
 FREE at Amazon
 Automatically assigned by Amazon

65. Copyright

66. Copyright Simplified
• By publishing something you created,
you have copyright
• Copyright entitles you to an exclusive
bundle of rights
• The notation of © is optional
• For best legal protection, go to
Copyright.gov and register copyright
online

67. Distribution to retailers and libraries

68. Smashwords Distribution Network

69. Amazon Distribution Network

70. Piracy

71. Everything you need to know
about piracy
• Don’t worry about piracy
• Obscurity is your biggest risk
• Black hat pirates who steal your book
wouldn’t have purchased it anyway
• Most piracy is accidental – think of it
as enthusiastic fans marketing your
book for you
• Combat piracy by making the ebook
easier to buy than steal

72. Marketing

73. Marketing
• Marketing is a catalyst, not fuel
• Your book is your best marketing
• Reader word of mouth determines your success
• Focus on discoverability
• Viral catalysts amplify word of mouth

74. What’s a Viral Catalyst?
• A viral catalyst is something that makes your
book more available, accessible, desirable
and enjoyable to readers
• Read the Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (it’s
FREE!) to learn how viral catalysts spur word-of-mouth

75. Viral Catalysts
• Every thing you do right increases
virality
Great cover
Great book
Broad distribution
Fair price
Good categorization
Professionally edited
Great formatting
Great title
Great author biography
Great book description
Great marketing
Social media enabled
Sampling enabled
Multiple formats
• Fall short anywhere and you create
unnecessary friction
LUCK!

76. Discoverability via libraries
• Smashwords library distribution:
• Two models:
• Traditional model: Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, etc.
• "Douglas County Model.“
• Library Direct is available to libraries that host and manage
their own ebook checkout systems, typically using Adobe
Content Server, and that are capable of acquiring a large
opening collection.
SELF-e, Library offers a discovery service:
• Cuyahoga County Model from Library Journel
• Mass. State Library pilot.

77. http://www.slideshare.net/Smash
words/2014-smashwords-survey-
how-to-sell-more-ebooks