All Entries Tagged With: "ebook"
Ebook Publishing
Ebook formatting isn’t easy. I know this. I put out my own book, Playing For Keeps, on Kindle, and the formatting has garnered some one star reviews on an otherwise popularly reviewed book.
I know this because I’ve seen horrible books put out on Lulu (this starts with a PDF, so I still count it as ebook formatting.) When my and JR Blackwell’s book Her Side was formatted by a professional, Daniel Solis, (more on that project in a later post), I had editors and authors at Balticon commenting how utterly awesome it looked. This didn’t feel like a backhanded compliment, “Wow, that looks good for a self-published book!” They really liked it. And it looks awesome because Daniel is a professional and knows how book formatting works.
I have a project I’m toying with self-publishing via ebook. I would like to format it in a way that, well, doesn’t suck. So I figured, I’ll get a book that tells me how to format. I may not be a pro, but at least I’ll know what to avoid.
I was horrified when I got to Amazon. I felt like I was being shouted at by plaid-clad used car dealers. MAKE MONEY ONLINE NOW WITH EBOOK PUBLISHING! WRITE AND PUBLISH FOR OUTRAGEOUS PROFIT.
Yesterday I was watching an episode of Carnivale and a lawman said to a carny, “I’ve never heard an honest man say the word, “Legit.”" Similarly, I have an alarm that goes off when someone is screaming MAKE MONEY MAKE MONEY. The people who usually scream that are needing you to give them money.
The final alarm bell came when half of the MAKE MONEY WITH EBOOKS (most of them outrageously priced paperbacks) are not available on the Amazon Kindle…
So. Does anyone have any advice on how I can learn ebook formatting that doesn’t suck?
Special fundraiser- buy an ebook, help a cause
Beloved SF writer Spider Robinson’s wife Jeanne has cancer, and the community is moving together to help them pay the medical bills. 100% of any money used to purchase Larry Santoro’s excellent e-book, “Lord Dickens’s Declaration,” will go directly to the Robinsons. (More information at the link.)
Dec 31st is the last day that people can buy Larry’s story. Today there’s a big push to drive the fundraiser: why December 30th? Because if there’s only one day left people won’t put it off and say, “I’ll do it later. I still have time,” it’s that.
If you’ve got a blog, please spread the word. Tell your friends that are into speculative fiction ahead of time and ask them to blog as well. One last big push to help some good people in a bad situation.
ISBW PDF and more
You thought I forgot, didn’t you?
The deal with freelancing and spinning a lot of plates means some inevitably get neglected. I continue to update the ISBW PDF but I just hadn’t gotten around to actually editing and getting it turned into PDF format. Thankfully, the mighty Phil Lunt has come to my rescue and created some awesome ebook files for me! You can get the first three chapters now in PDF or PRC format.
Did I mention it’s free?
- (intro, chapters 1,2 and …) Chapter 3- Ideas are EASY. Work is HARD (Direct PDF download — Direct PRC download)
