† Emotional Outlet Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 So, I discovered a few things over the past few days.1) Scrivener can compile my files into an ebook format that my Kindle can read, which led me to...2) Kindle Direct Publishing and this article.Rachel Yu is a 16-year-old author of children's books, and she earned $6,200 from the KDP Select fund in the month of December.The Grabarchuk family earned $6,300 from the KDP Select fund in December from their puzzle books.3) Eventually leading me to this article on ebook pricing and other blog posts on the experiences people have had with ebooks.The artistic goodness of the work isn’t tied to the price point, so don’t be offended if you make more money at $2.99 than $9.99. Instead, shut up and cash the check, friend.One person mentioned that he had published his first or second ebook at $9.99 and was curious why he wasn't getting a lot of sales. It later dawned upon him that he himself would never buy an ebook at $9.99, but for some reason thought that he was above that. It is interesting to think about, though, especially considering the phenomena wherein ebooks are actually priced higher than the hardcover copies of books.It is difficult, I imagine, to come to terms with the idea that pricing an ebook between $0.99 and $4.99 is not below you after so many years of buying books at $14.99 and $39.99 for so long. The article on ebook pricing has some data that suggests that pricing a book between $1.99 and $4.99 is the sweet spot for ebooks (take with a grain of salt, of course--that data is a year old) since it's well within that impulse buy range.Some people have expressed concern that the selection of ebooks, since it's so easy to self-publish, would become inundated with $0.99 garbage and people would get lost in the crowd, but I'm not so sure that it's as much a big deal as it may have been in the past, where you would invest a lot of money into getting a book published only to have copies sitting around for months or where you would find yourself denied by publisher after publisher. People are saying a lot of the benefits that come with going with a publisher are starting to diminish, and I can definitely see that.It doesn't take much to go viral on the Internet. A lot of indie musicians have gained notoriety and fans without record labels, so why not the same for authors? You don't have to put a lot of money into advertising--you get a blog, you get a Twitter account, you start posting on fora, you reach out to other authors with blogs. Social media is so prevalent and it's so easy to get people to start spreading the word about your work. How many times have you shared a link on your Facebook? How many times have you clicked on a friend's link because, hey, that seems interesting?The idea of it certainly appeals to me. I also admit that I compiled my current project to see what it looked like on my Kindle and I am so tickled with the whole thing. Seeing my work in a place that isn't computer paper or my monitor is certainly different and refreshing, haha. I'm certainly playing around with the idea of self-publishing ebooks for my own work.Thoughts from you guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Shazi Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 this is perfect!, i have always wanted to see if i could sell my stuff online, it makes me happy to know there is a place where people will buy it!, now i have to just get my story to the perfect stage to sell!i have looked through and their payment methods do not account for the australian dollar =S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Emotional Outlet Posted January 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 A very quick Google search landed me on an article on tax information for people outside of the US and payment options, but yeah, I haven't found anything on Australia.Another popular ebook publisher I kept coming across was Smashwords. I don't know if that's much more help to you, though.They're interesting programs. Some caveats like usual, but I think they might be helpful for new authors at the least. After reading some anti-KDP blog posts, some of them strike me as being kind of... alarmist, perhaps? There were complaints regarding the limiting of publishing once your ebook is on KDP, but I don't see how that's much more different than with traditional publishers. They're not just going to publish your book and then let you run off to another publisher at the same time.I've read through the terms for KDP once, but I'll probably go back later and check out Smashwords more in-depth.I hope you get your novel out there, Shazi, haha. I've asked my husband to make a cover for me, so that just leaves editing costs. Part of me wants to be cheap and leave it to friends to do, but I can't shake that feeling that I need a "professional" to do it. People read voraciously blogs that aren't edited by "professional" editors, so why not books? Ughhh, haha.ETA: Found a few random things regarding exclusivity.When you publish with either Smashwords or Amazon, you retain all rights. You can use both sites, or just one. They don't own any rights to your work, so if you were to publish with Amazon first, you could still sign up and publish an edition with Smashwords. What you can't do, however, is take the Kindle file generated when you upload to Amazon and upload or sell it elsewhere. Same goes for files generated by the Smashwords meatgrinder. I assume this is to prevent people from simply using them to generate a file, then taking said file and selling themselves for 100% profit.Link.Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it.1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights. Link.Mind that KDP Select is different from simply publishing to Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Shazi Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 "I'm currently going through my story now to get it ready to publish!, I will get some people to go through it for me to catch any typos, the first of them being dart. As for the cover, I am capable of making my own, so I will do so As for payments, the best I can hope for is to find somewhere that will cash international checks for me. I'm positive there are places somewhere that will do that for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Mute point Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 This is an interesting idea... one that I never considered before... I will think about it more carefully now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkie Pie Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 oooo this is something I would love to look into more. It wouldn't be the same has having something I've written in traditional print, but it spreads ideas all the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Emotional Outlet Posted January 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 Another epublisher is PubIt. From what I've read, people are posting to Amazon, Smashwords, PubIt, and, presumably, their own blogs all at the same time and collecting royalties from all of them. The general trend seems to be higher profits from Amazon, but with the ebook industry still in flux, it's hard to say that's going to stay that way forever.There's also BookBaby, which, unlike the other three options, is not free. It's $99 per book you want to publish (for the basic service), but you get 100% royalties. I haven't looked too much into it, but I'll see what the deal is with that, since I haven't had a chance to look at their terms yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoclazmMJR Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 Wow! Everyone here is so talented!I noticed that there are no guys here? C'mon guys get writing!I have been working on a series of novels for the last year or so but have not yet published any of them. How do you guys recommend that I go about doing so? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Shazi Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 keep trying! that the only advice i can give. if you don't succeed after sending it to a bunch of publishers, revamp the story and try again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoclazmMJR Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 keep trying! that the only advice i can give. if you don't succeed after sending it to a bunch of publishers, revamp the story and try againMy problem was not that my novels had been rejected but rather that I was unsure as to the procedure for even getting them published. But thanks anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Emotional Outlet Posted February 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 If you want to go with a traditional publisher, a quick Google search lands you quite a few resources. Here's one--it has some links to other resources as well.If you want to go with any of the ebook publishing options I posted here, let me know if you need any help with that. I know Shazi has been submitting her stuff to Smashwords, so she'll likely be able to get you spun up on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† Shazi Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 My problem was not that my novels had been rejected but rather that I was unsure as to the procedure for even getting them published. But thanks anyway!most publisher's have a submission guide on their website as to how you send manuscripts to them. more often than not i have found they don't like unsolicited material (work like ours) or work from people who haven't previously been published. which while it may sound disheartening, there are people called literary agents that will send your manuscript to the right publishers and worm their way into the publishing house. though they aren't nessicary, they can be a BIG help.otherwise stick to the publishers that will accept your work and send send send! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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