02-23-2011, 04:42 PM | #76 |
HackJOB
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cool thanks for info!
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03-15-2011, 04:07 PM | #77 |
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Sorry, I'm a new user to the forums and don't understand how to use them properly, so this might not be the best place to put my comment. But here goes.
Smashwords is another publisher and distributor of ebooks. Through it you can sell or publish free ebooks (unlike Amazon). Smashwords has its own popular web site, and distributes to barnesandnoble.com, Apple ibookstore, and kobobooks.com. You can self-publish your own epub ebooks on those sites without using Smashwords or paying the 15% commission it charges on sales, but it provides full accounting and a one-stop shop. In addition, Smashwords is one of only two approved content aggregators for ebookstore.sony.com and also the smaller ebook site diesel-ebooks.com. Kobobooks.com feeds the epub from Smashwords to other ebook retailers including borders.com, and handles all the transactions and pays through smashwords. Smashwords' own site posts your book in Kindle (mobi), epub, lrf, PDF, RTF. and plain text. It's machine converters don't produce the nicest books but it's all automatic, you just upload a .doc file (or rtf) and your ebook cover if you have one. All of the above are options and you can select all of them or only specify which options you want. There is much more information available from smashwords.com. Many self-publishers list their ebooks on Amazon and Smashwords. Last edited by abr; 03-15-2011 at 04:57 PM. |
04-15-2011, 03:23 PM | #78 | |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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04-15-2011, 03:57 PM | #79 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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So here's a question I didn't see addressed above -- ISBNs? How to get them and if they are needed and useful or required for self-publishing?
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04-15-2011, 05:51 PM | #80 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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You don't need an ISBN for publishing a Kindle ebook through Amazon. I think you do need an ISBN for publishing an ePub, mostly. |
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04-24-2011, 09:41 PM | #81 |
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Kindle
Almost everyone has a mobile device iPhone or Android that you can use Kindle on. I don't own a kindle but I still read kindle books on my android..
My frustration is with graphic novels, I have yet to see a reader that has the software that can render the graphics correctly for a graphic novel. I have published comics before, now I am moving into the novel realm but there are no eReader software, or no hardware software combos that can. Am I missing something here? Kindle is too low on the totem pole for graphics, iPad has issues even with magazines that end up costing the end user five times the normal amount to read their favorite magazines because apple charges them like 30 percent to make content for iPad.... GTFO in my honest opinion. The only thing that gets close are the new Android tablets with open source software that allows devs to create new content.. lets hope a graphical eReader is in the works from someone. |
04-24-2011, 09:43 PM | #82 |
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I know a few authors who publish via ePublishing, they use Amazon.com for kindle and smashwords.com for everything else. They do all formats including pdf.
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05-02-2011, 12:09 PM | #83 |
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But sometimes Smashwords ePub can be a bit not all that wonderful since they use and automated meatgrinder to do the conversion. Find a place you can put nicely hand crafted ePub and then you'll be in business.
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05-02-2011, 12:22 PM | #84 |
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I found smashwords meatgrinder to be quite poor
Last edited by harold1066; 05-07-2011 at 10:25 AM. |
05-09-2011, 03:59 PM | #85 |
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I bought a book the other day from B&N that came from Smashwords and it was a Word document converted to ePub via Calibre. The resulting document was nasty. This just makes me want to stay away from buying anything from Smashwords since they just don't know what to do properly.
The way to do it is to allow the author to upload a good ePub and any other formats the author wants and any missing formats get converted from the ePub. |
05-09-2011, 04:05 PM | #86 | |
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05-09-2011, 04:13 PM | #87 | |
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05-09-2011, 05:30 PM | #88 |
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Sometimes It is just easier to deal with ePub then it is to deal with Word. My idea is to do the editing in a Word, apply the markdown syntax, save as text and run it through Calibre. That would eliminate all the garbage Word puts in.
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05-09-2011, 06:55 PM | #89 | |
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The mobi made by Smashwords was terrible and I had to delete it, I only allow the epub, .pdf, and .rtf; although the .rtf seems to be corrupt |
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05-09-2011, 07:09 PM | #90 |
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I pay good money no matter how much or how little and I don't like to get an eBook that I could have made better from the same Word document.
Smashwords is causing authors to lose money. There are eBooks I would have bought, but not from SW given how bad they can be under the hood when I want to fix them to how I like. |
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