My classmate Phe is an amazing guy. He exudes peace and harmony with every breath. I hope someday that I will evolve enough to be reincarnated as Phe (though as that is not likely possible, I would settle for someone Phe-like).
The good: It’s Amazon and not only do a lot more folks have a Kindle but sales for Kindle are growing faster than Nook. The Cloud reader for PC is also easy to use allowing you to reach folks who don’t have an eReader. You can expect that 50% of the folks who buy your book will read it on their PC instead of an eReader
The good: The tagline says it all-“Create an account, then upload your eBooks and cover art. It’s fast, easy, and it doesn’t cost a thing”
Smashwords will put your book just about everywhere except on Kindle (but a deal with Amazon is allegedly pending). Your profit rate is 85% of your posted price or 70.5% if the sale is made through an affiliate (This is after the retailers and paypal takes a cut). I’m planning to cover affiliate marketing in a future post.
BookBaby will get your books on to Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and iPad for $99-199. The retailers still take the cuts mentioned above.
Lulu will publish your books to the Nook and iPad for free. They keep 10% of your profits on top of the retailers cut.
Apple has developed a format that will someday be widely used for children’s books and textbooks. The Alice for iPad book is a fun example of the possibilities and I think we will see more and more books becoming interactive over the next 5 years.
Don’t pay 100+ for your ISBN!
Phe writes a lot of poetry in English and Vietnamese. A while back, he published a book of his poetry and gave all proceeds to charity. He’s looking to do it again except this time he wants to keep more trees alive and do it electronically. To serve this purpose Phe can go with eReaders or Apps. Today we’ll go over the eReader options. I’ll cover the Apps in a future post.
The big players
The bad: Amazon’s instructions are full of amazing options. This translates to a possibility for information overwhelm if you are a non-techy type. Fight the urge to close your browser and give up because you can make it through the instructions. Just buckle in and pace yourself.
The ugly (real price): You set your price but what you actually earn is determined by this formula- Royalty Rate x (List Price – Delivery Costs) and the royalty rate is determined by what country you sell to.
For example, if you sell an eBook in the US for $9.99 and it requires a 1MB download here is the formula: (Delivery Cost is .15 per MB)
.70 x ($9.99- 0.15) = $6.88If you sell to your eBook to users in many other countries the formula would be:.35 x $9.99 = $3.49
Barnes & Noble pubit!
The good: The tagline says it all-“Create an account, then upload your eBooks and cover art. It’s fast, easy, and it doesn’t cost a thing”The bad: Limited customer base compared to Kindle
The ugly (real price): You set your price. They take 65% for books priced between $2.99-9.99 and 40% for books priced below $2.98 or greater than $9.99
For example, a book listed at $9.99 would net you $3.50 and a book listed at $10 would net $6.
The bad: If you use this tool you are handing over pub rights to Apple. This means you cannot distribute in any other way besides going through the iBookstore.
The ugly (real price): Apple takes 30%
Small Time
First-A word of caution: If you plan to sell on Amazon or B&N do not self-pub on these!
These are eBook repositories where you can submit your work for free download:
Free-eBooks According to the site, you can earn money through the Google AdSense ads which can be shown around your book page. I wouldn’t bet on bringing in substantial $ with this.
wattpad has a very simple interface that functions just like blogger. You can type up your eBook and publish each chapter to the cloud as you go.
Shortcuts- Pay the middleman
Lulu will publish your books to the Nook and iPad for free. They keep 10% of your profits on top of the retailers cut.The Future-Apple’s Fixed Layout Format
Apple has developed a format that will someday be widely used for children’s books and textbooks. The Alice for iPad book is a fun example of the possibilities and I think we will see more and more books becoming interactive over the next 5 years.
I can imagine reading one of Phe’s poems while listening to his guitar play in the background on my iPad in some not so distant future.
Action Steps
1. Sign-up for Barnes & Noble pubit! and get your stuff online for free. This one is the easiest and a good way to get your feet wet without paying any cash out that could go to charity.
2. Sign-up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing next. Yes, there is a ton of info on the page but don't get hung up on all the choices. You can do this. Prep your manuscript according to the directions and upload.
2. Sign-up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing next. Yes, there is a ton of info on the page but don't get hung up on all the choices. You can do this. Prep your manuscript according to the directions and upload.
Resources:
Don’t pay 100+ for your ISBN!
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