How many times have you thrown the idea of putting your words into an eBook out of the window because you don’t know how to go about it? Or, how about the thought of trying to subject your ideas to the hands of an agent that would consider helping you through the process? No thanks; too tedious.
Truthfully, there is nothing worse than having these issues stand in your way of becoming an accomplished writer. The good news is that you could very well get your ideas out there without as much as consulting an agent.
Yes, you could be your agent and publisher with the next few steps and trust me; it’s not as tedious as you thought. So now that you’ve got this brilliant e-book idea to let’s publish one.
Create, Design and Choose a Format
The first step to publishing an e-book is writing one. It is important to note that when writing, you must:
- Have a target audience in mind
- Make it as short and impactful as possible
- Proofread and try your hand at visuals for easy readability
Then, the next step is to choose a professional, eye-catching design for the cover of the e-book. This helps attract readers to the book quickly. You should consider the color, the format, and the fonts used.
Carefully choose your format. Currently, some of the most commonly used formats include EPUB, MOBI, PDF, AZW, and TXT. You should note that these formats are image, font and DRM protection-sensitive. So, when choosing the format, consider your writing style and target audience.
Pricing
Of course, you could choose to let people read your e-book for free. However, if you’d like to earn money from it, you might as well consider pricing. This, though, is not as straightforward as it seems, because you have to consider numerous factors.
These include your book’s length, its quality, genre, delivery costs and most importantly, book royalty percentage, which is a percentage of the book’s retail price, dependent on costs and the retailer.
Ready, Set, Publish!
You have to note that apart from self-publishing, you could still opt for an e-book aggregator or an agent to take the extra load of formatting, publishing, and distribution off you. Regardless of which option you would like to go for, it is important to ask the what, where and how questions.
And so, the first three questions should be what option is more cost-efficient, where to start the distribution process and how much you want to earn after all. If you’d like an agent, you could try out Smashwords or Draft2Digital; though I must warn you that their services come at a price.
If self-publishing is the way to go, you can start publishing with some of the top players in the retail e-book market: Apple, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and Barnes & Noble Press.
For Apple iBooks Author, you have to download the app simply; set up iTunes Connect for iBooks and then, iTunes Producer. Make sure you read their terms and conditions for the right format and other distribution requirements.
Amazon Kindle Publishing simply requires that you sign in in your Amazon account or create one if you don’t have one already. Then, go through their KDP platform, read through their terms and conditions and, finally, upload your books in the right format.
You can do the same for Barnes and Nobles by signing up for an account on the website and going through their terms to publish.
Good luck, and happy publishing!
