e-Publishing Services
e-book conversion, marketing, distribution and sales
E-publishing embraces a variety of non-printed solutions to getting your work published. As a publishing option, it is growing and gaining greater acceptance every day. There are a number of reasons for this: for the most part it is either free or highly affordable and also, open to everyone. For many, it represents the future of publishing.
First-time authors and independent publishers with limited resources can and do use e-publishing as a platform to getting their work published. Initially, it might just present an affordable means to build an audience for your work, gain recognition as a writer, establish a reputation and so on. In time, it can be used to generate a reasonable and steady income from just a small financial outlay, without the associated risks of tying up money in stock, inventory, overheads. This really is one of the biggest attractions of the e-book as a publishing solution.
The key to success in this field really is to understand the medium. Those considering the e-publishing option need to acquaint themselves each of the four main elements of the process:
Choosing a Publishing Platform
Using both Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords, you can make your e-book available through all the major international online retailers, which include Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, among others. Your e-book will be formatted so that it is accessible to users of all the popular e-reading devices (Kindle, Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, a PC, tablet or laptop) and apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others.
ClickBank is another popular publishing platform for information-based digital products (e-books effectively, formatted and outputted to PDF standard). Their global network of affiliate marketers assist in the process of distributing and disseminating your work across the worldwide web. Unlike Kindle and Smashwords, their platform is not entirely free to publish on (there is a small, once-off set-up fee), but affordable nevertheless. Their approach is particularly oriented to non-fiction works and How To ... titles.
We can also help you to create your own publishing platform, marketing and selling your books through your own dedicated author website for example. See our section on managing your web presence as an author, writer, independent publisher as well as the section to follow on converting your manuscript to all of the common e-book formats.
E-book Conversion
In order to make your e-book readable on the all of the various e-reading devices and apps (Kindle, iBook, Nook, your PC or laptop), you will need to be convert your manuscript to acceptable e-publishing formats.
The most commonly used format is e-Pub, which is accepted by most of the commercially available e-reading devices. Except, that is, for Kindle, which uses mobi as its format. Kindle is currently the most popular of the commercial e-book formats, in the sense of having the largest market share. Portable Document Format or PDF is another commonly used e-book format, readable on any PC, tablet or laptop that has Adobe Reader installed.
At The Manuscript Publisher, we take care of all of your requirements in this area, converting your manuscript to all the common formats and suitable for upload to publishing platforms that include Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, ClickBank. We can also undertake the editing and proof-reading of the your manuscript (see section on Manuscript Preparation). Our fees are based on the state of the manuscript when we receive it and the amount of work involved in order to get it ready for publication.
e-Book 'Cover' Design
Designing a 'cover' for your e-book is not necessarily the same thing as designing a cover for a printed book. An e-book 'cover' has a much different function to the cover of its printed counterpart - a much simpler function but an important one nevertheless. You need to consider how your 'book' is going to be portrayed in an online environment. Sometimes the visibility will be no more than the size of a thumbnail.
The Manuscript Publisher offers cover design solutions that are professional, affordable and effective in both print and digital media. Designs can be template based or bespoke and also, adapted for print, if your intention is to bring out both a print and e-book edition.
Sales and Marketing
Despite what you may have heard about the e-publishing phenomenon and the rise of the e-book market, the truth remains that a lot of e-books fail to sell in appreciable quantities. The reason for this invariably comes down to marketing strategy - or lack on one. Our goal is to help you to understand how to to market and promote your book in an environment that is mainly, but not exclusively, online.
Sales of digital content in the form or e-books represent the fastest growing segment of the overall book trade. While many readers and book buyers have eagerly embraced the medium of the e-book, to the exclusion of printed matter, many have yet to do so. Some remain unconvinced while others will probably never be convinced. People who own e-readers tend to be among the most avid group of readers. Of course it is also worth remembering that people don't always buy books with the intention of reading them.
For more information about this topic, see our series of articles on E-Books and the Future of Publishing, which are available to read online from this website:
For assistance and advice on how to turn your manuscript into a e-book and take advantage of this emerging market, talk to The Manuscript Publisher today. You can Contact Us by phone and by e-mail and you can even Get a Quote online.
e-Books Published under the imprint of The Manuscript Publisher
For e-books published by The Manuscript Publisher and available to buy online, from Amazon and Smashwords, see below or visit our Online Bookshop (printed editions available too).
Available on Amazon (see below) and Smashwords (visit link - opens in external window or tab)