1. Future Authors
Tools & Tips
for
Publishing
eBooks
Dr. Cynthia Calongne
CTU Student Support Community, Oct. 11, 2014
Image by Lyr Lobo; book design by Imagechef.com
2. Agenda
⢠Your Career
⢠Terminology
⢠Advantages
⢠Publishing Tips
⢠Resources
3. Terminology
⢠Digital Publishing vs. Self Publishing
â Both involve publishing your own work
⢠Digital Publishing focuses on eBooks
⢠Self publishing includes printed material
â Distribution concerns
â Print on Demand â CreateSpace
â Book signings
4. Self Publishing
⢠Amazon CreateSpace (2014)
â Writing the book
â Hiring an editor â content and typographical
â Book cover design, including the flyleaf
â Converting to .epub, .mobi, .doc
â Marketing
⢠Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (2014)
â Do it yourself guides
â (Jacobs, 2014, April 25)
â (Writerâs Digest (2013, February 21)
5. Digital Publishing
⢠eBooks â you are responsible for
â Writing the book
â Hiring an editor â content and typographical
â Book cover design, including the flyleaf
â Converting to .epub, .mobi, .doc
⢠Unless using Smashwords
â Marketing
â Back Matter
7. Digital Publishing Advantages
⢠Larger % of the profits â up to 70%
⢠Control of your book cover
â The best marketing tool is a good cover
â Donât forget the fly leaf for print and icon readability
⢠Control of your content and brand
â Ensure quality control â back matter
⢠hire an editor & a graphic artist
⢠For authors - printing your backlist
â eBooks do not have to go out of print
â eBooks can be updated â new covers, back matter
â Preorders! (Hoffelder, 2014, July 7)
8. Smashwords
⢠Mark Coker (2014a, 2014b)
⢠Smashwords â free eBook publishing & distribution
â Every writer deserves the right to publish
â Can upload MS Word .doc or .epub for conversion
â Distribution to major eBook retailers and libraries
â Free resources
â Tools that help readers discover your book
10. Smashwords Earnings
⢠Authors edit & upload their work (Coker, 2014a)
⢠Smashwords distributes it
â iTunes, Nook, OverDrive, Scribd, Oyster, Kobo
â iBooks, Flipkart, Blio, Diesel, Baker & Taylor, Aldiko
â Axis360, Page Foundry, and more
⢠Earnings
â Authors earn 60% of list price (60%-80% list)
â Retailers earn 30% of list price
â Smashwords earns 10% of list price
11. Smashwords Reports
⢠Readers prefer longer eBooks â 2014 survey results
â Romance rules! (Coker 2014a)
â Top 70 Bestselling Smashwordsâ romances 96,197 words
â 70% of the top 100 Smashwords bestsellers
⢠Romance authors experiment, write series & publish more books
⢠Romance genres: Contemporary, General, Paranormal, Young
Adult, Historical, Suspense and other
12. eBook Tips
⢠Hire a professional editor
⢠Design a great cover
â Hire a graphic artist or cover specialist
â Use a good font for the cover title
â Make sure that the book cover icon is easy to read
â Publish in several formats (ePub, Mobi, HTML, PDF)
⢠Write books, release a new one every few months
â Increases your author visibility, readership & rankings
â Increases discovery of your books
â Authors with more books tend to sell more books
⢠Readers prefer longer books
13. Bestseller Lists (Gow, 2014, February 3)
⢠The New York Times (NYT)
⢠ABA IndieBound (ABA)
⢠Barnes & Noble (BAN)
⢠Publishers Weekly (PBW)
⢠The Boston Globe (BOG)
⢠USA Today (USA)
⢠The Denver Post (DPO)
⢠The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
⢠The Los Angeles Times (LAT)
⢠WalMart.com (WAL)
⢠BN.com
⢠Amazon.com
14. Bestseller Tips
⢠Amazon Bestselling Hot Releases, Teen List
⢠For NYT, need x sales in a week, not total sales
⢠Pre-orders for 7-12 weeks count as 1st week sales
⢠Attractive pricing
â Free first book in a series or promotional sales
â $3.99 is a popular price for fiction
â Can get up to $6.99 for fiction, but fewer sales
â Non-fiction tends to be priced higher
â Amazon pricing strategy for Kindle Direct Publishing
â NYT (2014). Best Sellers. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-
books/overview.html
15. Fiction Pricing
⢠Free books - 39 times more downloads (avg)
⢠Was 91 times in 2013 and 100 times in 2012
⢠Great for intro to a series of books â platform builder
⢠35 million free downloads of Smashwords titles at iBooks
in a 12 month period
⢠Prices â to increase unit sales - $3.99 is most popular
â Most common are $.99, $2.99 and $3.99
â $1.00-1.99 and $4.00-10.00 have lower sales
16. Non-Fiction Pricing
⢠Most downloads
(Coker, 2014a)
â Over 140% for
prices $.99, $2,00-
2.99
â Over 110% for
prices $9.00-9.99
17. 2013 Author Earnings (Coker, 2014a
⢠Prices; 100% = average earnings
â 155% for prices $3.00-$3.99
â 126% for $6.00-6.99
â 125% for $4.00-4.99
â 120% for $10.00+
â 113% for $2.00-2.99
â 112% for $5.00-5.99
18. The Writerâs Journey â Analysis (Vogler, 1998)
1. Ordinary world
2. The call to adventure
3. The refusal to take the call
4. Meeting the mentor - the supplies and confidence to
continue the journey
5. Crossing the threshold - committing wholeheartedly
to the adventure - you gotta want it - hard on your
ego and heart
BAT. (n.d.). The writerâs journey: Mythic structure for storytellers & screenwriters by Christopher Vogler. Retrieved
from http://bornagaintechnologies.org/ohs/moodledata/8/Summary_of_Hero_s_Journey.pdf
Vogler, C. (1998). The writer's journey: Mythic structure for writers. Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions.
19. The Writerâs Journey - Analysis II
6. Test allies and enemies â who is part of your tribe?
Lifelong allies
7. The approach to the innermost cave - progress
among all the rejections
8. The dark night of the soul - the hero accepts
rejection (and death)
9. The reward -the consequences of surviving death -
celebrate it!
20. The Writerâs Journey â Analysis III
10. The road back - to the ultimate destination - smell
like authors, researchers, game designers, players
11. The resurrection - the final moment of death and
rebirth
12. Return of the elixir - to improve the ordinary world
21. Writersâ Tools
⢠Writerâs Diet â to identify balance in writing
â http://writersdiet.com/WT.php
â Use the tool, refine, re-evaluate
â Focus on the areas that are read first
⢠Word Frequency Counter â ID trends & overuse
â http://www.textfixer.com/tools/online-word-counter.php
⢠Grammarly â to evaluate with 250 grammar rules
â http://www.grammarly.com/
23. Additional Tools
⢠Text2Mindmap
â http://text2mindmap.com/
⢠13 browser-based tools for writers
â http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/13-browser-based-tools-writers/
⢠Distraction-free writing tools â FocusWriter, Pen io
â http://www.gradhacker.org/2011/09/07/distraction-free-writing-tools/
â 7 apps to catalogue home library
⢠http://www.gradhacker.org/2014/06/13/7-apps-for-cataloguing-your-home-library/
â Using Evernote to store research records and notes
⢠http://www.gradhacker.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gh-Evernote.png
⢠Writerâs Digest
â http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-basics-of-diy-e-book-publishing
24. APA References
Amazon CreateSpace. (2014). CreateSpace: Authors are at the heart of what we do.
Retrieved from https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/
Amazon KDP. (2014). Kindle Direct Publishing. Managing your sales: Sales reports.
Retrieved from https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3VJZKPUQXAU57
Apple. (2014). Working with iTunes: Authors & Book Publishers: Frequently Asked
Questions. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/sell-content/
books/book-faq.html
BAT. (n.d.). The writerâs journey: Mythic structure for storytellers & screenwriters by
Christopher Vogler. Retrieved from
http://bornagaintechnologies.org/ohs/moodledata/8/Summary_of_Hero_s_Journey.pdf
Coker, M. (2014a). Hit the ebook bestseller lists with preorders. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/hit-the-ebook-bestseller-lists-with-preorders-a-guide-to-
preorder-strategy
Coker, M. (2014b). Money Money Money: Facts & Figures for Financial Payoff: New 2014
Data. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/2014-smashwords-survey-how-
to-sell-more-ebooks
25. APA References 2
Gow, K. (2012, February 3). What being a âbestselling authorâ really means. Retrieved from
http://www.fastcompany.com/1813678/what-being-bestselling-author-really-means
Hoffelder, N. (2014, July 7). Smashwordsâ new 2014 survey shows the value of pre-orders.
Retrieved from http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/07/07/new-smashwords-2014-
survey/#.VDmyvRai-1V
Jacobs, D. (2014, April 25). How to self-publish your book through Amazon. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2014/04/25/how-to-self-publish-your-book-through-amazon/
Smashwords, Inc. (2014). Slideshare Presentations on Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/smashwords/presentations
Vogler, C. (1998). The writer's journey: Mythic structure for writers. Studio City, CA: M.
Wiese Productions.
Writerâs Digest (2013, February 21). The basics of DIY e-book publishing. Retrieved from
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-basics-of-diy-e-book-publishing
26. Questions?
Future Authors
Tools & Tips
for
Publishing
eBooks
Dr. Cynthia Calongne
CTU Student Support Community, Oct. 11, 2014
Image by Lyr Lobo; book design by Imagechef.com