MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What is the go to guide/software to cheaply publish e-books for the market

gmw · 10-13-2015, 12:29 AM

AFAICT not much has changed in the timeframe you suggest. I'm still working off the same work flow I was using three years ago: I write using LibreOffice, then use a plug-in to export to epub. Then I tidy that up using Sigil, and test. Then convert to mobi with kindlegen and test again.

But there are many other ways to manage your work flow. Many write Word documents (with Word or LibreOffice) and just hand off to Smashwords for conversion. Many use Scrivener, which can export epub. But given that epub is only really glorified HTML, you can use pretty much anything you like to produce it, and then transfer the result into Sigil or Calibre (or one of many other tools that I've not tried) to produce the epub. I'm guessing there are many tablet/mobile offerings around now too, but I have no interest in those.

After that. Smashwords still won't do Amazon for you (unless you're already selling a lot), so direct to Amazon is recommended - and for many going only to Amazon may make sense (take a look at the latest Author Earnings reports thread). If you have free time there are lots of other places you can place your book, but nowhere else is going to come even close to matching the exposure of Amazon.

My novels are direct with Amazon and Kobo, and submitted to Smashwords for distribution everywhere else. My free shorts I only do with Smashwords at the moment (which means they don't show on Amazon). ... But I don't make a good example, the only marketing I do is on the self-promotion subforum here - and it shows

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For a guide to publishing you could do worse than reading the offering at Smashwords, in addition to the upbeat hype it also has a lot of useful information. (If you are actually going to use Smashwords then this goes from "could do worse than" to "must".)

In short, anyone can write and publish a book now (as has been the case for a few years), and this is proven by the fact that (it seems) almost everyone is doing so. This means there is not really a good time to publish; it's always a bad time, just do the best you can. The telling factors in success are: how well you write, how well you present (editing, cover etc.), how well you market, and how persistent you are (keep writing and it may happen eventually). It's not something that will happen quickly, and it's highly unlikely to happen with your first book.

10-13-2015, 12:29 AM	#5
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	AFAICT not much has changed in the timeframe you suggest. I'm still working off the same work flow I was using three years ago: I write using LibreOffice, then use a plug-in to export to epub. Then I tidy that up using Sigil, and test. Then convert to mobi with kindlegen and test again. But there are many other ways to manage your work flow. Many write Word documents (with Word or LibreOffice) and just hand off to Smashwords for conversion. Many use Scrivener, which can export epub. But given that epub is only really glorified HTML, you can use pretty much anything you like to produce it, and then transfer the result into Sigil or Calibre (or one of many other tools that I've not tried) to produce the epub. I'm guessing there are many tablet/mobile offerings around now too, but I have no interest in those. After that. Smashwords still won't do Amazon for you (unless you're already selling a lot), so direct to Amazon is recommended - and for many going only to Amazon may make sense (take a look at the latest Author Earnings reports thread). If you have free time there are lots of other places you can place your book, but nowhere else is going to come even close to matching the exposure of Amazon. My novels are direct with Amazon and Kobo, and submitted to Smashwords for distribution everywhere else. My free shorts I only do with Smashwords at the moment (which means they don't show on Amazon). ... But I don't make a good example, the only marketing I do is on the self-promotion subforum here - and it shows . For a guide to publishing you could do worse than reading the offering at Smashwords, in addition to the upbeat hype it also has a lot of useful information. (If you are actually going to use Smashwords then this goes from "could do worse than" to "must".) In short, anyone can write and publish a book now (as has been the case for a few years), and this is proven by the fact that (it seems) almost everyone is doing so. This means there is not really a good time to publish; it's always a bad time, just do the best you can. The telling factors in success are: how well you write, how well you present (editing, cover etc.), how well you market, and how persistent you are (keep writing and it may happen eventually). It's not something that will happen quickly, and it's highly unlikely to happen with your first book. Last edited by gmw; 10-13-2015 at 12:31 AM.