Quick guide to ePublishing

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
– Both involve publishing your own work
• Digital Publishing focuses on eBooks
• Self publishing includes printed material
– Distribution concerns
– Print on Demand – CreateSpace
– Book signings

4. Self Publishing
• Amazon CreateSpace (2014)
– Writing the book
– Hiring an editor – content and typographical
– Book cover design, including the flyleaf
– Converting to .epub, .mobi, .doc
– Marketing
• Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (2014)
– Do it yourself guides
– (Jacobs, 2014, April 25)
– (Writer’s Digest (2013, February 21)

5. Digital Publishing
• eBooks – you are responsible for
– Writing the book
– Hiring an editor – content and typographical
– Book cover design, including the flyleaf
– Converting to .epub, .mobi, .doc
• Unless using Smashwords
– Marketing
– Back Matter

6. ePublishing Sellers
• eBooks
– Amazon
– Nook (B&N)
– Smashwords
– Kobe
– iTunes, iBooks
– And many others

7. Digital Publishing Advantages
• Larger % of the profits – up to 70%
• Control of your book cover
– The best marketing tool is a good cover
– Don’t forget the fly leaf for print and icon readability
• Control of your content and brand
– Ensure quality control – back matter
• hire an editor & a graphic artist
• For authors - printing your backlist
– eBooks do not have to go out of print
– eBooks can be updated – new covers, back matter
– Preorders! (Hoffelder, 2014, July 7)

8. Smashwords
• Mark Coker (2014a, 2014b)
• Smashwords – free eBook publishing & distribution
– Every writer deserves the right to publish
– Can upload MS Word .doc or .epub for conversion
– Distribution to major eBook retailers and libraries
– Free resources
– Tools that help readers discover your book

9. Smashwords’ eBooks (Coker, 2014a)
• 2008 – 140
• 2009 – 6,000
• 2010 – 28,800
• 2011 – 92,000
• 2012 – 191,000
• 2013 – 276,000

10. Smashwords Earnings
• Authors edit & upload their work (Coker, 2014a)
• Smashwords distributes it
– iTunes, Nook, OverDrive, Scribd, Oyster, Kobo
– iBooks, Flipkart, Blio, Diesel, Baker & Taylor, Aldiko
– Axis360, Page Foundry, and more
• Earnings
– Authors earn 60% of list price (60%-80% list)
– Retailers earn 30% of list price
– Smashwords earns 10% of list price

11. Smashwords Reports
• Readers prefer longer eBooks – 2014 survey results
– Romance rules! (Coker 2014a)
– Top 70 Bestselling Smashwords’ romances 96,197 words
– 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
– Hire a graphic artist or cover specialist
– Use a good font for the cover title
– Make sure that the book cover icon is easy to read
– Publish in several formats (ePub, Mobi, HTML, PDF)
• Write books, release a new one every few months
– Increases your author visibility, readership & rankings
– Increases discovery of your books
– 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
– Free first book in a series or promotional sales
– $3.99 is a popular price for fiction
– Can get up to $6.99 for fiction, but fewer sales
– Non-fiction tends to be priced higher
– Amazon pricing strategy for Kindle Direct Publishing
– 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 – platform builder
• 35 million free downloads of Smashwords titles at iBooks
in a 12 month period
• Prices – to increase unit sales - $3.99 is most popular
– Most common are $.99, $2.99 and $3.99
– $1.00-1.99 and $4.00-10.00 have lower sales

16. Non-Fiction Pricing
• Most downloads
(Coker, 2014a)
– Over 140% for
prices $.99, $2,00-
2.99
– Over 110% for
prices $9.00-9.99

17. 2013 Author Earnings (Coker, 2014a
• Prices; 100% = average earnings
– 155% for prices $3.00-$3.99
– 126% for $6.00-6.99
– 125% for $4.00-4.99
– 120% for $10.00+
– 113% for $2.00-2.99
– 112% for $5.00-5.99

18. The Writer’s Journey – 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 writer’s 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 Writer’s Journey - Analysis II
6. Test allies and enemies – 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 Writer’s Journey – 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. Writers’ Tools
• Writer’s Diet – to identify balance in writing
– http://writersdiet.com/WT.php
– Use the tool, refine, re-evaluate
– Focus on the areas that are read first
• Word Frequency Counter – ID trends & overuse
– http://www.textfixer.com/tools/online-word-counter.php
• Grammarly – to evaluate with 250 grammar rules
– http://www.grammarly.com/

22. Digital Publishing Resources
• Calibre eBook Management - free
– eBook Conversion tool
– http://calibre-ebook.com/
• Scrivener
– http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
• WriteItNow
– http://www.ravensheadservices.com/
• Delve Writing
– http://www.delvewriting.com/
• Writer’s Digest – tutorials, webinars, job opportunities
– http://www.writersdigest.com/

23. Additional Tools
• Text2Mindmap
– http://text2mindmap.com/
• 13 browser-based tools for writers
– http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/13-browser-based-tools-writers/
• Distraction-free writing tools – FocusWriter, Pen io
– http://www.gradhacker.org/2011/09/07/distraction-free-writing-tools/
– 7 apps to catalogue home library
• http://www.gradhacker.org/2014/06/13/7-apps-for-cataloguing-your-home-library/
– Using Evernote to store research records and notes
• http://www.gradhacker.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gh-Evernote.png
• Writer’s Digest
– 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 writer’s 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 “bestselling author” really means. Retrieved from
http://www.fastcompany.com/1813678/what-being-bestselling-author-really-means
Hoffelder, N. (2014, July 7). Smashwords’ 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.
Writer’s 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