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DreamWriter · 08-25-2011, 01:27 PM

It's not that authors/publishers don't provide ePub (and other formats) because they want to exclude readers. It just isn't as simple as offering an e-book in Kindle format. Amazon makes the process very easy. Some of the other distributors certainly don't!

I started a separate thread asking where ePub users purchase their books. The answers so far:

Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Baen
Feedbooks
Fictionwise
Smashwords

Nobody's mentioned the Sony store yet. So then, the question becomes, which outlet do I choose? Someone's going to feel left out because I won't be including all outlets.

For my husband's Kindle book, I created a .prc file from HTML and submitted that to Amazon for the DRM-free Kindle version. It turned out great. But I'm going to have to tweak the HTML for ePub. For me, there will be a learning curve, as I've never created an ePub before. And I don't have a device to test it on. Smashwords only accepts MS Word files. Well, my MS Word file is not "clean," so I would have to completely re-do that according to their guidelines. That would be very time-consuming. Most authors report very few sales from Smashwords directly. It may be worth it just to get into some of the other outlets from there (such as Apple), but that is a very small share of the market. PubIt, at Barnes & Noble, seems author-friendly. Kobo, not so much.

Whether you like the company or not, Amazon is the Big One. They will be coming out with new Kindle(s) and a tablet soon. They already have a large e-book market share, and I think their share is going to increase tremendously in the months to come. You don't even need a Kindle device to read their e-books. There are free Kindle apps for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android, as well at the new web browser-based Kindle Cloud Reader.

I realize that not everyone is familiar with Calibre or wants to bother with it, but it is quite easy to convert between formats, especially if the file is DRM-free. I don't hate on ePub, but the choices really aren't as straightforward as some think.

08-25-2011, 01:27 PM	#220
DreamWriter Books are brain food. Posts: 2,950 Karma: 4836916 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: U.S. Device: Paperwhite · Fire HD6/HD8/HD10 · Galaxy Tab A7	It's not that authors/publishers don't provide ePub (and other formats) because they want to exclude readers. It just isn't as simple as offering an e-book in Kindle format. Amazon makes the process very easy. Some of the other distributors certainly don't! I started a separate thread asking where ePub users purchase their books. The answers so far: Barnes & Noble Kobo Baen Feedbooks Fictionwise Smashwords Nobody's mentioned the Sony store yet. So then, the question becomes, which outlet do I choose? Someone's going to feel left out because I won't be including all outlets. For my husband's Kindle book, I created a .prc file from HTML and submitted that to Amazon for the DRM-free Kindle version. It turned out great. But I'm going to have to tweak the HTML for ePub. For me, there will be a learning curve, as I've never created an ePub before. And I don't have a device to test it on. Smashwords only accepts MS Word files. Well, my MS Word file is not "clean," so I would have to completely re-do that according to their guidelines. That would be very time-consuming. Most authors report very few sales from Smashwords directly. It may be worth it just to get into some of the other outlets from there (such as Apple), but that is a very small share of the market. PubIt, at Barnes & Noble, seems author-friendly. Kobo, not so much. Whether you like the company or not, Amazon is the Big One. They will be coming out with new Kindle(s) and a tablet soon. They already have a large e-book market share, and I think their share is going to increase tremendously in the months to come. You don't even need a Kindle device to read their e-books. There are free Kindle apps for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android, as well at the new web browser-based Kindle Cloud Reader. I realize that not everyone is familiar with Calibre or wants to bother with it, but it is quite easy to convert between formats, especially if the file is DRM-free. I don't hate on ePub, but the choices really aren't as straightforward as some think.