How to publish an eBook: A Step By step Guide
Gone are the days where you'd have to slaughter a bunch of trees to publish a book on paper. Ebooks have been on the rise in recent years, with the United States reporting a 169 percent market growth annually, ensuring that ebooks are no longer just a niche market. This article will guide you, step by step, on how you can publish your ebook, and how you can use ultimate ebook creator to your advantage.
Unfortunately, publishing an ebook can be hassle when you have to adapt to different companies and their own rules and regulations, along with their complicated systems. Companies such as Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble have been dominating the ebook market, with Amazon being the clear leader; reports suggesting a 60% share of ebook sales.
Luckily for you, Ultimate Ebook Creator solves a lot of the problems; you can create ebooks in different formats, including MOBI, EPUB, Word and PDF. It also allows you to create ebooks for Kindle, Kobo, iPad and all kinds of Android devices! Let's get to the step-by-step guide on how to publish your ebook.
1) Write a book
This is a no-brainer. You will need to type up your thoughts and words to form a book. Amazon's requirements for an ebook friendly format are quite complicated and this is where you can use ultimate ebook creator to bypass all the hassle.
2) Create Multiple versions
The master .doc file of your ebook is the one you should keep. Using ultimate ebook creator, you can also save your ebook in multiple formats such as MOBI, ePUB and even PDF. You will also need excerpts of your ebook ready on the go. It's highly recommended that you save the first few pages of your ebook as a separate file in order to create an excerpt. You will need this once you publish your book to sellers online.
3) Create a breath-taking cover for your book
Yes, we know that your book is electronic. But even an ebook requires a nice cover to catch the audience's eye. A 300 dpi, full-size cover will ensure high quality and a pleasurable presentation of your ebook. Luckily, ultimate ebook creator also offers an ebook cover design service, where they have a beautiful portfolio on display for you to view their work. An alternative option would be to design one yourself, using Adobe Photoshop. A back cover, along with a spine, will come in handy for you too as some of the services also require these because you can publish your ebook to them. Getting the back cover and spine would also come in handy if you decide to print your book on paper some day.
4) Finishing Touches and Setting a Price
Remember when you visited the library and each book had an ISBN? An International Standard Book Number is a unique number assigned to every book that has ever been published. The bad news is that getting one for your book can be quite pricy; however the good news is that having an ISBN for an ebook is optional. Apple is the only brand that insists on you getting one. It costs about $125 for a single ISBN.
A good sales tip would be to create a publisher website. It would be nice to have your own website set up where you can list your ebooks and tell us where they are being sold. Having a blog on your website would increase engagement with the audience, which is always a plus.
Unless your ebook is a one-off, highly unique and very technical, your ebook should be on sale for a price of $9.99, the general price of an ebook in the market today. Pricing it cheaper will make your ebook appear of low quality, and pricing it higher will reduce your sales considerably, considering the fact that most of the ebook publishers opt for the same price when selling their books online. If your ebook is significantly short, lets say 40,000 words or less, you can opt for a lower price in the hope of increasing sales.
Having a bank account ready where your money will be wired is a no-brainer. Most ebook sellers use PayPal or wire transfers to help you get your money.
5) Protect your book with DRM
Ebook piracy, in present time, is a growing concern. Therefore, protecting your book with the digital rights management technology is a must. What this does is locks your ebook to the customers accounts and the seller which he purchased from. It's definitely recommended!
6) Promote your book
One of the key aspects of online publishing is also using social media to your advantage, especially when marketing your ebook. Gather people around on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to get them to review your product. A review blurb or a few of them on your ebook sales page will definitely help you increase sales. The only drawback is that most reviewers prefer a paperback manuscript. This is where, had you also gotten your back cover designed, might help. Getting a few scripts printed for reviewers to read will go a long way in your sales and increase your profitability. As stated before, ebooks are no longer a niche market and the competition is quite high; with optimal marketing strategies you can always stay a step ahead.
7) Make revisions
Probably the biggest advantage any ebook has over paper is the fact that you can upload and edit content anytime. So make sure to proof read and go over your work regularly.
8) Publish your book on Kindle, Apple and other services
Your first go to place for publishing your ebook should be Amazon, simply because of its dominance in the ebook market along with its exciting royalty system; you should be making about 70% on your ebook here. Visit the websites for Kindle, Apple and Barnes & Noble to find out the various specifications they require for you to publish your book. Ultimate ebook creator helps you simplify your ebook publishing process and it is something that is highly recommended you use.
There you have it, a simple step-by-step guide to help you get your first ebook published!
