The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6

E-Book Publishing

In the short time since the last version of this book was released, e-book sales have exploded. In 2012, 23 percent of all Americans over the age of 16 read an e-book.48 That’s up by 5 percent from 2011.49 This coincides directly with the explosion of the ereader/tablet market. Between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of Americans who owned either a tablet or an ereader rose from 18 percent to 33 percent.50 In 2012, there were 19.9 million e-readers sold and 124.9 million tablets.51 For Amazon.com alone, e-books are now a multibillion-dollar business category.52

If you still question why you need an e-book version of your book, reread the previous paragraph. Think about those 23 percent of readers. Many of them have moved on from printed books, just like in previous decades consumers replaced VCRs with DVRs or flip phones with smartphones. Once we switch, we aren’t going back. And we certainly aren’t going back from our beloved e-readers or tablets to buy a book by an unknown author if that book is not available in a format compatible with our preferred ereading device.

Additionally, owners of ereading devices read more often and buy more books than people who don’t own an ereader or tablet.53 On a typical day, 56 percent of people who own an e-book reading device are reading a book, compared to 45 percent of the general book reading public.54 Also, device owners buy more books than non-owners, with 61 percent of ereading device owners purchasing the most recent book they read, compared to 48 percent of all readers.55

With e-book prices usually significantly lower than the price of the printed version, more readers will be willing to take a chance on an unknown author. I don’t have any specific study to point you to on this one—just plain common sense. Let’s say your printed book is $14.95 ($19.95 with shipping). This is more than just an impulse buy. Twenty bucks is twenty bucks. But, let’s say the e-book version of that book is $2.99 or $3.99. Even if I’ve never heard of the author, who cares? It’s a cup of coffee.

I can’t imagine a scenario where it would be beneficial to not publish an e-book version of your book. And I always put out my print and e-book versions simultaneously. I want everybody who wants my book to get it when they want it, in the format they want to read it. I don’t believe in the theory that I’ll get more print buyers if I wait to release my e-book until some later date. Those potential readers will simply be gone. Major publishers now also typically release the e-book version right alongside the first print edition (whether hardcover or paperback).56

In recent years, many of the big traditional publishing houses have added digital-first (meaning the book is released originally as an e-book and, if sales warrant, later as paperback) and digital-only imprints. Penguin57 has Dutton Guilt Edged Mysteries and InterMix. HarperCollins’s digital-first imprint Avon Impulse is releasing one title a week. Random House’s Loveswept reissues previously published Bantam, Ballantine, and Dell paperbacks that haven’t yet been released as e-books. There are more, but you get the point.

“But I don’t have an ereader,” you say. So what? You have to provide your books in formats readers want to buy, not just the formats in which you yourself would purchase them. The whole idea here is for you to get your book in front of as many people as possible. Spend the extra money for an e-book version.

E-Book Formatting vs. Print Book Formatting

If you have a PDF of your interior, this means that you already have an electronic version of your book. It seems like this should be all you need to create an e-book, right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

A PDF is actually very different from an e-book. A PDF is the file where your book lives after it’s been designed for print according to specific parameters, like trim size and font choices. Print books and PDFs are essentially immovable. But e-books have a very different internal structure than print books or static PDFs. Unlike a print book, an e-book is meant to be read on an ereading device and is “flexible,” meaning that it can be manipulated in many ways. In fact, this flexibility is one of the biggest draws for people who use ereading devices. Users can choose their own font, change the size of the words, increase line spacing, and set their preferred margins.

For the sake of comparison, a print book or PDF is like a rock, while an e-book is like clay. The contour of the rock will always be the same, no matter how hard you try to change it. Similarly, the layout of a print book or a PDF will always be the same. You cannot move the pages around. If chapter 4 starts on page 56 in the print book, it will start on page 56 in the PDF, and there’s nothing you (or the reader) can do to change that. If chapter 8 in the print book uses a special font for a particular passage— perhaps a handwritten note by one of the characters in the book—then chapter 8 of the PDF will display the same “handwritten” font.

Like clay, an e-book is malleable. Adjustments to settings like font size and style will affect how each word flows and breaks onto the next “page.” Screen size affects how many words appear on the screen at a time as well. For this reason, an e-book displayed on the Kindle may contain more individual screens of text than one displayed on the iPad. Because of this “flowing” nature of the text, each screen or “page” of an e-book will never have a set page number, though some e-readers may automatically assign “page numbers” to each screen. These numbers will not match up with the print version of your book, nor will they be the same from one device to another. They may even change on a single device if you adjust your settings. Like clay, your e-book will reshape itself with every adjustment the reader makes.

Just as your e-book looks different from your print book, a very different process is required to create and edit your e-book files. When a designer typesets your print book, he sees the words on the page exactly as they will appear in the printed book. If he wants to adjust the spacing, it requires simply a few clicks of the mouse. If you need to make an editorial change, you can point out what page the error is on, and the designer can make the change, again, with just a few clicks.

An e-book, on the other hand, is created using HTML code, much like a website. When your formatter works on your e-book, he is not seeing the words exactly as they will appear on the “page” or screen of an ereading device. He sees lines of code, and he must understand exactly how each line of code will translate to the device’s screen as he formats your e-book. Any given revision may require the formatter to change multiple lines of code, transform all of the code into an e-book file, and then see how the change translates when the file is viewed on a device.

To take full advantage of an ereading device’s capabilities—and to give your e-book the opportunity to be sold through the major e-book retailers—you must make your e-book available in one or both of the two major e-book formats, MOBI and EPUB. MOBI is the format for Kindle devices. EPUB is the format for everything else.

Fixed-Layout E-Books

I just told you that your e-book will not look exactly like your print book. Well, there’s one exception to that rule: fixed-layout e-books. A fixed layout preserves the page design of the original book nearly entirely (though the text layout may need to be modified slightly to accommodate the difference in ereader dimensions, and the font may be slightly different). This option is used for illustrated children’s books, coffee-table books, cookbooks, graphic novels, technical manuals, and any other publication that requires a heavily designed, static presentation.

Sounds a lot like a PDF, right? Unlike a PDF, however, a fixed-layout book is a true e-book, in standard e-book format. Fixed-layout books can be coded in the EPUB file format or in the MOBI file format. (Amazon’s newest-generation MOBI files are called KF8—Kindle Format 8—and because they function more like EPUB files and can handle more robust formatting, they are not supported by the older Kindles.)

Barnes & Noble created proprietary software that allowed publishers to develop fixed-layout children’s books, but this software was only available very exclusively. I did some digging, and as far as I can tell, Barnes & Noble still uses their proprietary format for what they call “NOOK Kids” books. This format is not available to the general public, or even to small presses, so it’s really not an option for independent authors. It’s hard to find concrete info on this, but I did find a forum post on the subject from a Barnes & Noble rep.58 The company has recently launched NOOK Press, their new self-publishing platform, which does not currently support fixed layouts.59 There is speculation, however, that NOOK Press might eventually offer tools to build fixed-layout books.

Converting PDFs, Word Documents, and InDesign Files  into E-Books

Since most of us don’t know how to format e-books, we have to have our manuscript converted from its Microsoft Word, PDF, or InDesign file form to the MOBI and/or EPUB formats. If you’ve already published your book and are now wanting to convert it into an e-book, you have the extra burden of stripping the content out of the PDF and then converting it to these other formats.

PDFs to E-Books

If you’re like most self-published authors, you’ll be creating the e-book version of your book from an already completed print version, in which case, the most up-to-date file you’ll likely have is your final PDF. During your book’s journey from manuscript to finished book, editing of some kind likely took place, and that final PDF will reflect these updates. Short of going back to your original Word document, matching it against the PDF, and then updating the outdated material, converting your PDF to the e-book formats is your only option.

Trying to convert your PDF to an e-book can be a frustrating experience. The free e-book conversion options out there will run your book through automated software that can render the resulting e-book unrecognizable. Many e-book conversion companies simply refuse to take PDFs, or they will take them, but won’t guarantee the results—they, too, are using automated software.

Automated PDF-to-e-book conversion can leave your book a mess if not properly executed. Computers don’t exactly “understand” PDFs in the same way that your human eyes can. While you see pages of easy— to-read text in a PDF, computers will often process only parts of the entire book. When this happens during the course of PDF-to-e-book conversion, the final result is often an e-book file that is filled with errors. Run-on sentences, broken paragraphs, and missing punctuation are just a few of the common mishaps that you could experience if you convert your PDF to an e-book using automated conversion. Many companies take the same “meat grinder” approach and charge for a conversion that never even receives a human glance.

If your book is mainly text without many intricacies like excessive lists or drop caps (i.e., when the first letter of the first word of a chapter is larger than the rest), one of the meat-grinder services may work just fine. But if your book doesn’t fit exactly into that meat grinder’s text-heavy comfort zone, the finished product won’t look anything close to what you’re expecting—unless you’re expecting a garbled mess. The only way to make sure the inevitable missing words or paragraphs and extra spacing that come with automated PDF conversion are avoided is to have a human formatter.

It should be noted that the first step in the conversion process is to convert the PDF into the EPUB format. Then, that EPUB format needs to be converted to a MOBI file (assuming you want to sell your book through the one site in the world that uses MOBI: Amazon.com). So, all of that work you did to ensure the EPUB file resembles your print book will have to be done again to the MOBI file, so that it resembles the EPUB version.

 Word Documents to E-Books

Some of the e-book publishers accept only Word documents, which will obviously be a problem if your Word document isn’t the most up-to-date version of your book, or if your book is heavily illustrated and can’t be placed in Word. If you choose to convert your Word document using free automated conversion software, you’ll very likely be required to “code” your book according to a specific style guide before it undergoes conversion. This process can be needlessly complex and confusing, and “free” e-book conversion may lead you to decide it’s worth paying for some formatting help.

Often, e-book publishers also require that the documents you send them conform to strict specifications. If your document does not meet their requirements, your final e-book will be full of conversion-induced errors. You’re then forced to go back and format your manuscript and re-upload the Word document. As with the PDF-to-e-book conversion, your Word document will need to be converted to an EPUB file first, and then to a MOBI file. No rest for the weary.

InDesign Files to E-Books

InDesign has a button that allows nearly instant conversion to EPUB. But don’t start celebrating just yet. In order for conversion to result in an e-book that resembles how your book looks in InDesign, the person who formats your book will need to build the InDesign file with the EPUB in mind. The EPUB file generated by InDesign is written in HTML and covers the obvious stuff, like new paragraphs and section breaks. But to ensure elements like italics, drop caps, and special characters transfer to the new format, your formatter will need to tweak the InDesign file so that the proper HTML code is generated upon conversion. Again, once you have the EPUB file, you’ll need to convert that into a MOBI file.

MOBI vs. KF8 Compatibility Issues

As noted earlier, Amazon’s KF8 is supported by newer Kindle models, such as the Kindle Fire, but the old “legacy” Kindles can still only read MOBI files. This, understandably, can create compatibility issues, especially since the Amazon Kindle store does not differentiate between the two file types. Someone with an old Kindle might purchase a heavily formatted e-book that looks great on a newer model, but looks like garbage on the older models.

To get around this, many e-book formatting companies include two sets of code in a single e-book file—one for the old MOBI file type and one for the newer KF8—and include something called a “media query” in the file sent to the ereader. Basically, the e-book file includes a line of code that checks to see whether the device itself can handle KF8, and serves up the appropriate code for that device. For example, if a book includes a text box, the KF8 formatting might include a nicer-looking box with a shaded background, which would be visible on newer devices, while the old MOBI formatting will simply indent the text to offset the copy.

For fiction and very simply formatted nonfiction, this discrepancy isn’t usually a concern—but for Kindle e-books with charts, graphs, and other heavy formatting, the MOBI-versus-KF8 issues will arise. Until the old-generation Kindles are naturally phased out, this is the game Kindle formatters have to play. But don’t worry—as the author, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of all of this (unless you’re doing your own e-book formatting). But you do need to make sure your formatter is aware of these limitations and has a plan to ensure your e-book (apart from those with a fixed layout) can be read on any Kindle device, no matter how old.

ISBNs and E-Books

In most cases, it isn’t a matter of whether you have to have an ISBN for your e-book; it’s a matter of whether you should. The International ISBN Agency suggests using ISBNs even for those platforms that do not require it, as this will ensure that each e-book version is listed in third-party databases; each unique e-book file (MOBI, EPUB, etc.) should have its own ISBN.60 Currently, ISBNs are optional for e-books for sale on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and Apple, but they are required by most other retailers (Kobo, Ebooks.com, Sony, Copia, etc.).

On a more practical level, ISBNs separate the e-book publishing wheat from the e-book publishing chaff. Given that an e-book is relatively easy to create and put online, an ISBN is one differentiator that can help e-book directories, resellers, and others determine whether an e-book is worth being featured on a particular site. For example, my company owns a book directory site called Published.com. It’s free to list and market your books through the site, but we require that all books, including e-books, have an ISBN that can be verified. Our experience has shown that books with ISBNs are proportionately more credible than those without.

So, to sum it all up, while you don’t always need an ISBN in order to sell your book, if you want your e-book to be available on the greatest number of third-party databases possible, and to command the same respect as a traditionally published title, you’ll want to get an ISBN for each version of your e-book.

Formatting Your E-Book for Distribution

In order to distribute your e-books through Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, Apple, and other retailers, your e-book must be formatted according to their style guides. If you’re handling the formatting, conversions, and distribution of your e-book yourself, you’ll need to adhere to the specific style guides of each retailer. One of the benefits of using a third-party distributor and formatter (i.e., a publisher) is that all of these nuances can be handled for a relatively small fee.

But, if you’re a DIY type of person, the following overview explains the process for each of the major online retailers.

Amazon E-Book Distribution

To list an e-book for sale on Amazon, you’ll need to sign up for a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account. Then, you’ll upload your e-book in one of the following file formats:

• MOBI
• Word
• HTML

Ideally, you’ll have a MOBI file that’s already been formatted. If you don’t, you can upload a Word document and KDP will convert it for you. However, this will only work for books with very simple formatting (though tables and images are supported), and then only if you’ve correctly formatted your Word document according to Amazon’s specifications.61

Formatting an e-book in HTML is a more reliable option, but one reserved for authors who already know how to code proficiently. Once the file has been uploaded, KDP converts the HTML to a MOBI file on the spot.

Barnes & Noble E-Book Distribution

Like Amazon’s KDP, BarnesandNoble.com has a new e-book conversion platform called NOOK Press, which replaces their older platform, PubIt. NOOK Press can convert Word documents, TXT files, and HTML into e-book files and publish directly to NOOK bookstores. NOOK Press also allows for collaboration with editors.62

However, since Amazon is leading Barnes & Noble in book sales, tablet devices, and now publishing, it’s hard to see how NOOK Press will compete with the success of KDP.

Apple E-Book Distribution

If you’re planning to distribute your e-book through Apple’s iBookstore on your own, you’ll need to use an Apple computer—the company’s proprietary software will only run on a Mac. iBookstore only accepts EPUB files.

The process of signing up for an account with Apple is much more involved than with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. First, you need to register for an Apple ID and enter an email address and password that you use for all Apple services, such as downloading apps, or buying music off of iTunes. (You probably registered when you first purchased your Mac.) Then, you have to fill out and submit the application. Apple will notify you by email once your application has been accepted. From there, you must set up an iTunes Connect account, from which you can manage your titles (e.g., changing the price, sales territories, etc.). You also must download a program called iTunes Producer, which you will use to upload your files and metadata63 to the iBookstore.

Apple has very specific formatting requirements. For instance, all image files must be under 2 million pixels, including the cover file embedded in the book—but the separate cover image that you upload must be a minimum of 1,400 pixels wide (putting it well over 2 million total).

For authors who do not know how to create EPUB files, Apple suggests going through an aggregator. Examples of aggregators are PublishGreen.com, Smashwords.com, and BookBaby.com.

Royalties and Trade Discounts

Now that you know a little more about the wonderful world of e-book formatting, let’s talk about the actual publication of your e-book and how royalties are calculated.

If you publish an e-book, you can generally sell it from the publisher’s online store and from third-party resellers like Amazon. Sales from the publisher’s store can provide higher royalties to the author, but sites like Amazon offer the potential to reach a wider audience.

Remember, if you use an e-book publisher/distributor like Smashwords, most will take an additional portion of the royalty. When looking for an e-book publisher, you’ll need to research each company’s royalty structure to understand how the deep discounts given to sales on third-party resellers’ sites—which often account for the majority of an e-book’s sales—will affect your bottom line.

The chart below shows what major third-party e-book resellers make off each e-book sale and how much is paid to the author and/or publisher (who may then keep a portion and pay the author).64 Notice that both Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com pay a higher royalty if the retail price of your e-book is under $9.99.

To show you how e-book royalties work, here are some sample calculations using the figures from the chart above. These calculations are based on an e-book with a retail download price (“RDP”) of $2.99.

If the e-book in question was sold on either Apple or Amazon and the author uploaded the files directly without a publisher involved, the royalties would look like this:

$2.99 (RDP)

–$0.90 (Apple or Amazon’s 30 percent trade discount)

$2.09 (Author royalty)

BarnesandNoble.com takes a trade discount of 35 percent. So, the royalty for that same $2.99 e-book, if sold on BarnesandNoble.com, looks like this:

$2.99 (RDP)

–$1.05 (BarnesandNoble.com’s 35 percent trade discount)

$1.94 (Author royalty)

Using these same trade discounts, this time let’s assume that you are having your e-book distributed by a publisher like Smashwords, which takes 15 percent less any third-party or transaction fees. In other words, your royalty is now 85 percent of net. Sales of Smashwords titles on Amazon or Apple would look like this:

$2.99 (RDP)

–$0.90 (Apple or Amazon’s 30 percent trade discount)

$2.09 (Net proceeds)

–$0.31 (Smashwords’s 15 percent of net proceeds)

$1.78 (Author royalty)

Sales of Smashwords titles on BarnesandNoble.com would look like this:

$2.99 (RDP)

–$1.05 (BarnesandNoble.com’s 35 percent trade discount)

$1.94 (Net proceeds)

–$0.29 (Smashwords’s 15 percent of net proceeds)

$1.65 (Author royalty)

Smashwords is, of course, not the only e-book publisher out there. In appendix C, you will find a chart showing the full breakdown of what several other major e-book-only publishers pay their authors in royalties for sales on the publisher’s website, as well as through Amazon. Remember, the royalty structures indicated may have changed since the publication date of this book. Always verify current fees with each respective company before making any decisions.

DRM Software

If the e-book trade discounts above make your stomach sink, don’t worry: a great way to help offset these cuts is to sell your e-books directly from your website, just like many authors do with physical books. When doing this, you may find it challenging to lock the files with digital rights management (DRM) software.

DRM is a system of limiting who can read an e-book by “locking” each purchased e-book file to the reader’s device or account. Resellers “wrap” your e-book file in their own proprietary DRM software after it has been submitted to their store. Each type of DRM is specific to the retailer who sells the e-book. For example, Apple’s iBookstore has one type of DRM, and Barnes & Noble has another. This is why it is impossible to transfer an e-book from your Apple iPad to your Barnes & Noble NOOK, even if you own both devices. DRM also locks an e-book file to a particular device; this prevents you from sharing your most recent NOOK e-book with five friends who also own NOOKs.

Adobe is the only major company that I know of that can wrap your books in DRM outside of a third-party reseller. However, authors who use Adobe’s DRM have to be able to serve up the file to their readers, and this requires a lot of back-end techie work. The setup/licensing fees to use their DRM technology are in the thousands of dollars. Because of these two hurdles, Adobe’s DRM is not really a feasible option for most authors to implement themselves.

If you sell e-books directly from your blog or website without locking the files, a person who bought the e-book could share it with another person, who’d get to read your book for free. Authors freak out about this, and I really don’t understand why. How is this any different than someone buying a physical copy of your book and passing it around? Yes, a digital copy can be passed around more quickly, but so what? A few people may share it with a friend. You will make up for these few lost sales by selling from your own site and not giving up a huge chunk of the sales price to a third-party retailer.

There are some bad people out there who copy e-books and offer free or dirt-cheap downloads. Virtually all of these people are located in nations like China, where enforcing your copyrights will most likely never be worth the expense. You know who finds your book on these random sites? You do, when you search for your title online to see where it is. The people actually looking to buy your book are going to buy it from you, your publisher, or any of the major e-book retailers.

I sell this book from my website. The e-book version is not DRM protected, and I’ve never spent a minute worrying whether someone got a free copy. It’s worth the risk to make 30 to 45 percent more than I do selling the e-book on Amazon, Apple, or BarnesandNoble.com.

Our company offers a DRM solution for our authors who want to sell directly from their website’s order page that we set up for them. Since DRM needs to be associated with a particular company/device, we use Adobe-based DRM technology. This means that anyone who buys a book from our authors’ personal sales pages needs to have an Adobe account and an associated app/device to be able to read the book. For example, on the iPad, you would not be able to put this Adobe DRM book in your iBooks app to rea