Francine Craft

E-books are the fastest growing segment of the book market.  And self-published authors are fnding an audience of readers for their titles due to the low cost of setting up a title on an e-publishing website such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Pubit, Apple’s itunes or Smashwords.

Self-publishing e-books isn’t expensive nor is it difficult.  All an author needs to create an e-book is Microsoft Word, some photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop Elements for their covers, an e-mail address and a bank account to deposit royalty payments in.  Most e-publishing websites such as Amazon or Pubit  will convert the Word Files to e-pub or Mobi, the two leading formats used by the markeetplace.

However, before an author self-publishes, he or she needs to understand that the formatting of an e-book is different from a traditional paperback or hardcover.  E–books don’t have front matter.  So they don’t require title pages  or blank pages in between l like the paperbacks or hardcovers have.

Nor do they need multiple returns to create “white psace.”  Since text shifts from device to device in an e-book, keep the formatting of an e-book is simple.  Small indentations, (0.3″) works best along two returns on the first page when a chapter starts and no spaces between the lines of a paragraph.

A PDF e-book like the Smashwords Style Guide will help an author format e-books that will look great on any e-reader.  (Available for free on Smashwords.com.)

After formatting their e-books an author has several venues they can self-publish and sell e-books from.  An author can take their work to Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Pubit or Smashwords.

An author should use as many venues as possible to sell their work.  Using all the e-book venues possible ensures an author can have maximum exposure for their titles.  Plus venues like Smashwords allow an author access to popular e-book sites like Sony and Apple bookstores.

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This is the first part of a truly useful three-part article that gives you an overview of just about anything you want or need to know about the e-book publishing field.  Once you master this, you can not only put author after your title, but publisher, if you so desire.  The next two parts will run approximately three-four weeks apart, and three to four weeks after this one.

Treat yourself to this info for free because  it’s among the best you’ll find, and I trust you’ll come back for the other two parts that give you more of the nuts and bolts of e-pubbing.  Youll be glad you did.

The author of many books, Shawn James gives you this article.  Mr. James is a graduate of Monroe College, and has many years of experience in as author, illustrator and publisher.  If you wish, you can contact him at sjsdirectamerica@gmail.com.  He’s a very accomplished man and knows something about just about anything you want to ask about the publishing field.  He is available for professional guidance.

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