Your Free Intro Guide to e-book Publishing

Are You New to Digitial Publishing?
This free guide will help you get acquainted with the basics of digital publishing.

What is an e-book?
An e-book is a book in an electronic or digital format. An e-book is typically read on a device called an eReader or on your computer with eReading software. Some of the more popular eReaders are the Amazon Kindle, the Apple iPad, the Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader. There are also a number of other readers available, including numerous SmartPhones.

How popular are e-books?
e-books have been available for computers for quite some time, but the introduction of eReaders like the Kindle, the iPad, Kobo and the Nook made them more attractive to consumers.

What types of books can be ePublished?
In order for a book to be ePublished, the eReaders have to be able to process and display the content. Most books are suitable for ePublishing. You can produce Novels, Memoirs, Biographies and even Textbooks, Reference books, Picture books, Magazines and Graphic novels.

Why should I publish an e-book?
Reason #1: You want to go where the readers are
Sales data is proving that e-book demand is only going to increase. As more consumers obtain electronic reading devices, it will be advantageous to have your books available in this format. It also gives you flexibility to offer your reader their choice in format – no matter what eReading device they’re using, your book will be available to them.
Reason #2: e-book sales are here to stay
Every trend has a tipping point, and it is obvious that the e-book has made it. Companies like Amazon are reporting record sales for both e-books and eReaders. The consumer is proving that they desire the flexible format that the e-book offers by spending their money. Stay ahead of the curve!
Reason #3: e-books are very cost effective to publish
Removing the added cost of printing and shipping your books will bring you considerable savings.
Reason #4: You want to expand your audience
e-books give self-published or independently published authors an unprecedented ability to reach a wide and growing audience.

What do e-books look like?
e-books look similar to print books. While some typographical features found in print aren’t possible with the current generation of eReaders, most of the formatting you find in print is possible in e-books. Things like paragraphs, headings, and lists generally work similarly to as they would in print. Those who are advanced in their ability to hand format can also develop more advanced formatting features such as hyperlinked footnotes and images that scale as a function of the eReader’s screen size. The best way to get a feel for what it’s like to read e-books is to actually read one. We’ve prepared a number of sample e-books which you can download for free at http://mobile.miiduu.com.

Will my e-book look like my print book?
It can look very close, but not exactly the same. To understand why not, it’s important to understand the differences between print and electronic book formatting. While the formatting possibilities in print are virtually unlimited, the final product – the physical book –is painfully inflexible. Once a traditionally-published book is formatted for print, making changes to the content or the layout of the book is a tedious and time-consuming process. Publishing electronically is different. Instead of the inflexibility of ink on paper, electronic books keep the content and presentation of your book separate. This means that things like fonts and page size can be changed when the book is being read on an eReader, even after your book has been formatted. As you can imagine, this allows for much greater flexibility in how your book will appear to someone who is reading it. The power of this model means that e-books can scale from small, hand-held devices like Apple’s iPhone all the way up to large-format eReaders like Amazon’s Kindle DX. The disadvantage, of course, is that it’s harder to predict exactly how a book will look on any given eReader due to slight differences in each device, like the default font they use and the physical size of their screens.

How do I get my book into the correct format?
Typically the book will start off in some electronic format. You will most likely have a Word Document or a PDF. The eReaders do not “understand” these types of files, and need a unique type of file to properly display your book. Your book will need to undergo conversion into a usable format.

What is conversion?
The term conversion refers to the process of taking a book that is in the form of a Word document or PDF and making it into something that an eReader can display. The current file types that eReaders use are MOBI and EPUB.

What exactly are MOBI and EPUB?
These are simply file formats that allow an eReader to properly display the e-book file. MOBI is specific to the Amazon Kindle. EPUB is a format that is used by the iPad, the Nook, and most others.

I only have a PDF of my book. Can I ePublish?
Yes! If you have a PDF version of your book, you can ePublish. There are automated PDF conversion programs available, but there is strong possibility that there will be many errors. This is where hand formatting becomes necessary. "ebooks and publishing" combines the best features of automated conversion with hand-formatting. This provides you, the customer, with a great looking product at very affordable prices.

What is the difference between automated conversion and hand formatting?
There are essentially three options: convert it by yourself, use an automated conversion program, or hire an ePublisher. Several free guides exist to help you through the process if you decide hand convert it yourself. If you have some basic HTML knowledge you should expect to spend at least 8 hours on formatting. It is certainly possible to hand format without HTML knowledge, but it will take a little longer. Another option is to use automated conversion programs. The existing programs available are good, but there is a very high risk of errors due to these programs having a limited ability to recognize subtle differences in your original file. If you use an automated conversion program and want your book to maintain consistency in appearance, you’ll likely need to go through and fix the errors by hand after the initial conversion. You can expect to see missing text, inconsistent font, and funny looking paragraph breaks. The last option is to hire an ePublisher that doesn’t run your book through an automated conversion program. A good ePublisher will format your book by hand, give you all of the files, and provide you with unique versions of your book that are optimized for specific eReaders. The end result of the formatting process, however you go about it, will be a file that the eReaders can properly display.

What is e-book distribution?
e-book distribution is when your e-book and its title data (author, publisher, price, and other information) is submitted and made available to major online retailers of e-books, such as Amazon.com, Apple’s iBookstore, Kobo, and more. We will distribute your book for you through our publishing contracts with stores like Amazon Kindle or Kobo.

What type of royalties can I expect?
Each retailer takes a percentage of the price of your e-book. Let’s use the round number of $10 as an example. Apple’s iBookstore may take 30% of that $10, leaving $7. The final amount that you get will depend on how you published. If you are self distributing or going through an ePublisher that gives you 100% royalties then you get to keep the $7. Most publishers will take some sort of cut of the royalties (even those that offer free formatting guides). For example, at "e-books and publishing", we offer a program that gives you 90% royalties. This means that you would keep $6.30 of the sale price ("e-books and publishing" takes 10% of whatever the retailer pays us). We also offer a 100% royalties program which would allow you to keep the entire $7. Every publisher is different so you should research different royalty rates and find one that you are comfortable with.

What is DRM?
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a system of controlling who can read an e-book. Each distributor has different policies about how their DRM works, but we have a summary below.
DRM – the Good and the Bad
DRM has some good points, like preventing someone who buys your e-book on Amazon from sharing it with many other people. Amazon recently introduced a policy that allows certain books to be digitally “loaned” one time for 14 days. After 14 days the book will not be available to the person it was loaned to, but the original buyer will continue to have access on their device. DRM also has some bad points, like restricting who may be able to buy your book. An e-book created with a specific DRM scheme in mind is effectively “locked” to that particular class of device. So, if you only have an e-book available through the Amazon Kindle store, someone with a Nook or Sony Reader wouldn’t be able to read your e-book on those devices. In other words, DRM requires that you purchase your Kindle e-books from Amazon and your iPad books from the iBookstore. DRM-enabled e-books may only be read on devices which support that particular DRM-scheme. This means that it’s impossible to transfer a DRM-enabled EPUB from your iPad to your Nook, even though both devices support reading EPUB e-books. We understand that this may seem needlessly complex and limiting. The current state of DRM as it relates to e-books is in its infancy, and this is clearly not a solved problem.

"e-books and publishing"’s DRM support
"e-books and publishing" does not apply DRM to the e-books we create. Because the “wrapping” of an e-book in DRM takes place after the book is formatted and submitted to various distributors, all of "e-books and publishing"’s e-books are created without DRM. This means that depending on where your e-book is submitted for distribution, those distributors may or may not wrap your e-book in DRM, at their discretion. Unfortunately, "e-books and publishing" has no control over the various DRM policies put in place by our distributors. Generally, however, most distributors will apply DRM to all e-books unless the author or publisher who submits the e-book requests otherwise.

The advantages of ePublishing with "e-books and publishing"
We hope you have a better idea of what is involved with the process of ePublishing. The choice is obviously yours, but we honestly think that "e-books and publishing" provides the best product in the industry. Here’s why:
We do the work by hand: We’ll make your e-book look great on virtually every eReader. We can even create device-specific files for the Kindle, iPad, and Nook.
The most formatting options: Hyperlinking footnotes, image placement, and Unicode™are no problem for us.
You own ALL of the files: We’ll give you the EPUB and MOBI files we create. You own it all. You can do whatever you’d like with these files.
We offer complete e-book distribution: We handle all of the distribution for your e-book through Amazon.com and KOBO.. We even create electronic sales reports for you and pay you directly. You can focus on what you’re god at You are a professional writer. You shouldn’t need to worry about formatting and distribution (unless you want to, of course).
You chose your royalty level: We offer 90% royalties by default and for an extra fee you have to option to upgrade to 100% royalties.

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