Anyone here publish an Ebook?

[lorenicole]

I was just wondering if anyone here has published an Ebook through Barnes and Nobles' Nook page or Amazon's Kindle site? If so is it an easy process and how successful has it been?

[Batesblogger]

Publishing the book itself isn't a terribly difficult process. The hardest part is the formatting. I found the best way was to completely write and finish the book, delete ALL formatting, and then start from the very beginning. There are a lot of guidelines you have to follow. Smashwords was the best I found because it puts it through the meat grinder and finds all the errors and formatting issues.

Each chapter title has to link to/from contents page, paragraphs and line spacing and indent all need to be set a certain way. I believe there is a guide on smashwords that takes you step by step through the process. If one small bit of formatting is off your book won't look correct or be readable in the ebook reader so its pretty important. Once you have the formatting correct then its just a matter of publishing the book on the site, and then promoting it and getting views and reads and reviews.

Good luck!

[Avid SciFi Fan]

Yes,

It's a very easy process if your just doing an e-book and does not cost you anything. I can't speak for the B&N process, but as for Amazon, they will automatically convert your MS word file into their format. As Batesblogger mentioned, the trickiest part is getting the formatting right, so you may have to tweak your file and upload it a few times (Always check the conversion file for quiality). If you don't put any special formatting in the word file and its just straight typing it seems to go much smoother.

If you want to publish paperbacks or hard covers, there are plenty of shops that will do that for you, but it can be very pricey (Unless your picked up by a publishig company). You also have to deal with distribution issues.

[lorenicole]

Thanks you two for all your great tips! I hope to be using them soon