Have any of you ever tried e-publishing?

What about looking into do it?

Here are some questions I’ve been asking while looking at e-publishing sites over the last week.

  1. Does the publisher allow me to publish on any device (Ipad – Kindle) or service (Google Play – ibook store)?
  2. Do they have an upfront cost or take from royalties?
  3. Can I set my own price?
  4. Do they offer editors?
  5. Do they have a style guide?
  6. Does it offer an ISBN?

To answer some of my question a friend of mine sent me this site by David Gaughran an Irish writer.

His site davidgaughran.wordpress.com offered some good tips about e-publishing and the hassle it can be.

And it can be a hassle.

Here are some of the sites I’ve looked at over the last few weeks:

http://www.aquafadas.com/ –> Upload InDesign documents. Requires an upfront cost but publishes for multiple devices.

https://www.publishgreen.com/  –>can upload word documents. Has editors and people to help convert book to e-book. Can publish over multiple devices but require upfront cost. Price varies depending on service you want.

http://www.epubbud.com/ –>Can upload InDesign and Word documents. Will help convert book to e-book. Must have an ISBN number, you can by one from them for $9 or use your own.

http://www.smashwords.com/ –> Free ISBN or use your own and has a style guide. Takes 15% off royalties but has the ability to publish on multiple devices.

http://www.lulu.com/ –>Gives ISBN or can use your own. Has a Style guide.

https://www.createspace.com/ –> this is Amazon kindle. Has a style guide. Offers editors, and can print paper back versions to order. And take 10% off royalties. Does not require ISBN

Besides the first two, everyone else takes 10 to 15% of your royalties. After doing some research that’s about as much as an Agent or Publishing house would take. So really, you are making a little more if you just cut out the middle man.

If you’ll also notice, there is this whole ISBN number thing. From what I’ve gathered you must have an ISBN number if you want to sell anything in the United States. Some sites offer ISBN or if you want to be a true “Do-it-your-self-er,” you can purchase your own ISBN.

Here’s a site that give you some more information on what an ISBN is:

http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp

And here is a site specific for purchasing ISBN for E-books or Prints:

https://www.myidentifiers.com/

And there is still more to go through. Publishing is like doing the dirty dishes. No one wants to do dirty dishes but they have to be done in order to eat.

E-Publishing looks like another monster I’m gonna have to wrestle with.

So I wanted to put a few questions out there for the writers:

If you’ve published, did you do traditional publishing or e-publishing?

How much of a nightmare was it for you to publish?

And what e-publishing site do you recommend?

And for the readers:

What kind of device do you read from? (Kindle – Ipad)

 

And the last thing,you can go to the summary page and download what I have of my novella right now (38 pages and counting).

 keep in mind. It is not the completed thing. But I would still like to hear what you have to say.