7 Tips To Make E-Publishing Less E-tensive.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the EPublishing Intensive, The Tech-Savvy Author workshop hosted by Sanstree’s Deborah Bayles and David Congalton.  It featured guest speakers Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay it Forward author and Anne R. Allen, How to Be a Writer in the E-Age and comic mysteries author. I am currently working on a marketing how-to book for local business and came to the workshop looking for some guidance and some shortcuts to getting my book on the web. Here’s what I learned:

1. Before you write your e-book, read these three books on self-publishing, which are available, you guessed it, in paper and Kindle formats.

Oddly enough, I discovered that before I can sell my book, I need to buy some books. I think of the cost as dues to the e-book writing family.

·      How To Be A Writer In The E-age And Keep Your Sanity  by Anne R. Allen and Catherine Ryan Hyde

·      APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

·       Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should by David Gaughran

2. Your Mom isn’t a great judge of your work.

Sorry to break the news to you. Depending on your mom, the feedback could be severe (think Cinderella’s Mom) or sugar-coated (think the Brady Bunches’ Mom). If you want honest feedback for your work, check out Critique Circle.

3.  Self-publishing comes with many advantages but at a price.

While you enjoy total control with self-publishing, you also enjoy the cost that comes with that responsibility, man-hours. You are in charge of funding, editing, marketing, distribution and foreign rights, in addition to the writing.  In the workshop, I learned the average cost of producing an e-book is $4,700. Those are the hard costs.  Add your time into that equation, and you are making quite an investment. 

4. There are tools available to make a tortured writer’s life less tortured.

Self-publishing your book electronically takes work. Here are some tools to make it a bit easier.

• Microsoft Word – to format correctly
• Evernote – to keep your thoughts in order
• Dropbox – to send large files easily
• You Send It – to send large files easily
• Chicago Manual Of Style – to format your book correctly
• Predators And Editors – to find publishers and publishing services (more on that later)
• Book Cover Archive – to find inspiration for great book cover art

5. Writing your e-book might be the easiest part of self-publishing

You have just completed writing your book.  Congratulations. Now, the real work begins. First, you need to package it. Make sure your book has a forward, table of contents, testimonials and endorsements.  If your book is missing these elements, you’ll brand yourself as an amateur.  This is also true for plastering a copyright on every page.  The copyright should be on the second page after the title page.

After you finish writing, you need to submit your book to a content editor (someone who helps you make your story--and how you wrote it--much stronger), a copy editor (someone who makes sure your story complies with the rules of English grammar) and a proofreader (someone who makes sure you have dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s).

Make sure your book has an ISBN number. You can get yours at Bowker.  You’ll also want to copyright it. Check out these sites for copyright help.  There’s the official government site, Copyright.gov, where you fill out some forms, pay 35 bucks and you’re in business. There’s also thecopyrightsite.org, centerforsocialmedia.org, creativcommons.org and fairuse.stanford.edu

Then, you need to format your book. I told you this was a lengthy process. You can do it yourself or hire out. Deborah Bayles, the leader of the workshop, suggested getting a copy of Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker. So, make that four books you need to read if you plan to make a go of it yourself. From what I gathered, there are very specific formatting rules. For example, you must use boring fonts like Times Roman. You can’t wrap text. You can’t use tabs or the space bar to format paragraphs and lines. This is the short list. Frankly, unless you’re into this kind of thing, hiring out sounds like a good option. 52 Novels was a recommended formatting service.

Next, you need to convert your book for multiple platforms like Kindle, Apple Ipad, Nook and other e-readers. Again, there are services to help you through this process: Adobe Digital , Calibre and Sigil.

Once you have all your formatting and converting ducks in a row, you are ready to publish.  Amazon was the overwhelming favorite amongst the presenters, specifically KDP select.  There is also Lulu.com, Book Baby and Create Space.

 But, that’s not the end of your e-publishing story.

6. Just because you wrote it, formatted it, converted it and published it, doesn’t mean anyone will read your book. Okay, except for your mother. You’ll have to market it.

When it comes marketing your book, all the presenters agreed social media is the number one way to get the word out. That’s not to say, you should tweet every 15 minutes for your followers to buy your book. The rules of good social manners apply. Engage your friends and followers. Let them get to know you. When you have news about your book, they will be happy to hear about it.  As a social media practitioner, I loved Catherine Ryan Hyde’s advice about engaging on social channels, “Just be interesting.”  I couldn’t have said it better.

7. A writer’s work is never done.

After spending six hours getting advice and hearing stories from these established authors, I walked away with a greater appreciation for the craft and the dedication it demands. Whether you go the big publishing or self-publishing route, there are no shortcuts. That goes for established authors, too. Catherine Ryan Hyde and Anne R. Allen confessed that while some parts of their profession have gotten easier with recognition, they face another set of challenges. With that said, I don’t think any of the authors would choose a different vocation. Writers write, self-published or not.

I have to admit I walked into the workshop thinking e-publishing was my easy ticket to getting my book out to the masses. After all, I work all day long writing in the digital world.  I write posts, tweets and blogs. How hard could it be? Well, e-publishing is plenty hard, as it turns out. Maybe it’s not as hard as getting picked up by a big publisher.  You don’t have to worry about rejection when you self-publish.  But self-publishing is no walk in the digital park. Luckily, I got some great tips and resources to make the process less intense. If you have interest in self-publishing and live on the Central Coast, I highly recommend one of Sanstree’s informative workshops.