Ebook Conversion (2)

I’ve been carrying out a fair amount of research in terms of what different ebook publishers offer and I’ve come to some basic conclusions. The point to remember is that, if you don’t have a publishing contract with a print publisher, you pretty much need to self publish, i.e. pay for it yourself. OK, there are free options – you can submit a Word document of your text to Amazon and they will convert it to a Kindle format for nothing. They will then list it on the Amazon site, but, unless you take a fairly active part in promoting the book, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not knocking Kindle or Amazon, but it’s a case of you get what you pay for. For example, unless you provide a cover, you will get their basic text only on a yellow background cover on your ebook; it’s a bit of a sink or swim scenario. (And as regards getting a decent cover, you really need to be thinking in terms of spending at least £200 if you’re going to use a professional artist – unless you know of one still ‘on the way up’.) To be fair, Amazon do give Kindle books a fair bit of exposure – but they give an equal amount to those that they are selling for other publishers (they’re in the book selling business, when all’s said and done).

However, if you want a bit more for your bucks, in terms of a professional cover, along with placement with not just Amazon, but also the likes of iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Waterstone’s, W H Smith, etc, you’ve got to start looking at the publishers that offer ebook conversion. The level of support varies a lot: some offer a basic service of conversion of the text to epub or mobi and distribution to online retailers, but that’s it – cover designs are extra, along with proof reading and any kind of promotional campaign. Others offer all of the above, but at a significantly higher price overall. The point is that, really, you do need an effective cover design and a book that isn’t peppered with typos or other editing glitches. Once it’s out, you need to spread the word – the book has to be featured on websites (your own along with the publishers and retailers), you’ve got to get some decent reviews together (my books actually did gain some good reviews in the literary press when they came out in print, but you also need positive feedback from readers) and get the book mentioned as much as possible on social media – Facebook, Twitter and so on. Basically, you’ve got to depend on ‘word of mouth’ to give you as high a profile as possible.

To be honest, the best way of promoting your book is to get a PR company involved – again, more expense, but they know all the dodges. If you do want to make at least some money, you’re not going to achieve that by simply getting the book converted and then hoping for the best. I’ve been looking into the possibilities here, as well as sorting out a cover designer.

It all seemed so straightforward when I started…

 

 

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