Overview of digital publishing and ebooks for authors. University of Washington literary fiction class. Guest presentation.

1. +
Digital Publishing For
Authors
Date : 25 Feb 2014

2. +
Introductions
Digital
Tonight
publishing (tips,
tools and why you
have to do this)
Q&A

3. About Me

Public Affairs | Tech/Political Writer | Educator | Motorcyclist
@kegill | gplus.to/kegill | wiredpen.com| kegill.com

4. Introductions

Who are we?

What do you want to do?

What is your digital publishing
experience?

5. When Robert de
Graff introduced
$0.25 paperback
books in 1939,
publishers scoffed.

8. History of ebooks

9. History of ebooks

10. 3 in 10
adults read an
e-book last year.
Under 30? 1-in-2

11. What is an ebook?

A distributable digital edition of a book

Text file – project Gutenberg

HTML

PDF

epub/mobi

AZW – proprietary Kindle format

An app – (Al Gore, Our Choice)

Audio books may be digital but they aren’t ebooks

Your experiences? How differ from print?

20. Source: Statista

21. 7 in 10
adults read an
paper book

22. 1 in 7
adults listened to
an audio book

23. Projection:
end of 2014
1-in-2 will have
purchased an
ebook

24. What does this mean for authors?

Go where readers are

eBooks > Kindle (better for text/fiction/BW)

eBooks > iBook (iPad only, better for color/interactivity)

eBooks > Nook/Fire (better for color)

POD > print is a different format!

Audiobooks (beyond scope!)

25. Formats

Kindle/AZW



Fiction, few illustrations, for basic Kindle (B/W)
No control over flow, page breaks, etc
ePub (a standard! – International Digital Publishers Forum)

Images, color, cross-platform

Reflowable

HTML, CSS, XML, zip (compression)

Fixed layout sometimes used for iPad/Kindle Fire

26. Formats

Mobi (a standard!)


PDF


Images, color, cross-platform
Fixed formatting (this is a print spec)
iBook author (enhanced, epub3)

Can also export as PDF or text
See more at Wikipedia

27. How will you be found?
Self-publishing v “being published”

28. Single service providers

Delivers one or more services (formatting, design, editing,
printing, promotion)

You retain control

Kobo, Lightning Source

Writer.ly helps writers find services

Guru/eLance – marketplaces for independent contractors

33. “Pick and mix”

Offers a package with menu of services (critique, editing, design,
print, production, marketing, promotion, distribution)

Lulu, CreateSpace (the author-services company of Amazon)

Photo books > See Blurb

34. Do it all

Like “vanity press” of old

Can be costly

Author Solutions, Lumina Press

35. Emerging models

Kickstarter (crowd-funded)

WattPad (beta-readers+

Crowdspring (crowd-design)

Subscriptions (Safari Books, Scribd)

36. pod!

37. Conversion : complexity rises

Plain text

Plain text with links (this includes endnotes)

Plain text with images or tables

Formatted text (columns), images with wrap-around text, boxed
features, sidebars, etc

Fixed layout

Enhanced

38. Covers!

39. How will you be found?

Not every innovation is worth mastering.

44. Copyright / examples

A word about DRM (Amazon v O’Reilly)

Published author chooses to self-publish – fiction

Published author chooses to self-publish – nonfiction

Fiction: Maria Murnane

The Book Deal (inside view of publishing)

47. +
Contact

Kathy E Gill

kegill at uw dot edu or gmail or @kegill

This lecture: wiredpen.com

http://faculty.u.washington.edu/kegill