So I should start by saying the information I provide here applies mainly to those who want to write text dominant ebooks (illustrated books will be another post).  The post also doesn’t apply to people who want to publish books via the traditional route.

The first step, of course, is writing the book.  After that, it’s a pretty quick process to publishing it as an ebook (assuming you’ve decided you want to pursue this route).

The ebook market is evolving rapidly and today it’s easier than ever.  There are 3 basic things to consider when setting out to publish an ebook

1. Getting your ebook formatted correctly in epub and mobi file formats;
2. Distributing your ebook for sale; and
3. Marketing your ebook.

Formatting Your eBook

There are several options for formatting your book.  You can use free and paid services that will convert a Microsoft Word doc or PDF into epub and/or mobi file formats.  The epub format is required for publishing on iTunes, PubIt (Barnes & Noble’s ebookstore) and Google eBooks.  The mobi format is required for publishing on Amazon (also called DTP – digital text platform or KDP – Kindle Digital Publishing).  Or you can use paid conversion services that will not only convert your original document into epub or mobi file formats, but also distribute your ebook.

Do-It-Yourself Conversion Options

Do-it-yourself options include:

eBookBurn – costs $19 to generate both file formats

Sigil – free, but definitely a bit more complicated to use (really more for editing an existing epub file)

Calibre – haven’t used but understand it doesn’t make epub files that well

Mobipocket – free, but have to download it; haven’t used but only creates mobi files

Paid Conversion Services

With these services you’re paying a person or team to do the formatting work for you.

Individuals that do this include Rob Siders and Ray Fowler (does mainly Christian titles).  I have no experience with either, but they are mentioned frequently.

Firms that do this include Telemachus Press.   They’re the publisher for John Locke who is notable for selling over a million ebooks on Amazon.  Telemachus will take what you’ve written, help you with the cover art and put your ebook on Amazon and Smashwords.  They charge a one-time fee of $995 (that doesn’t include cover art work) for ebook publishing.

There a many firms like Telemachus that charge a one-time fee, but the amount charged depends on the complexity of converting your file into the ebook formats, how much you want to preserve fonts, art-work, etc.

Distributing your eBook

Telemachus, as part of their one-time fee, will also place your ebook in the Amazon store and on Smashwords.  Other service providers, however, do the conversion and distribution of your book for free, but do take a cut of your royalties (the amount your ebook sells for minus what Amazon, for example, charges you for selling them).

Royalty Split Conversion Services

This is what companies like Smashwords, Lulu, and newcomer Bookhatchery do.

Other newer entrants, still in beta, threatening to change the space are Vook  and Hyperink  (formerly Hyperink Press) (though they seem to be publishing their own titles).  It’s unclear as of yet if either of these companies will be taking a royalty split.

The advantage of services that take a royalty split is they can place your book in multiple ebook stores without you having to manage them all.  The disadvantage is that they take a royalty split.  While most don’t take a large portion, any portion of an already small portion is something.

Here’s a matrix of your options.
Using a Service

That being said, it’s actually quite easy (and in some cases even easier) for an author to place her ebook in a retailer directly.  Below are your options.

Going Direct

Earnings are typically paid out in 60 to 90 days.  Amazon pays out every 60 days.

What’s the audience for ebooks?  Well you can start with the number of ereaders on the market.  There are approximately 15 million ereaders in the market.  Amazon’s Kindle makes up 41.5% of that number.  Next is Sony’s E-Reader Pandigital Novel eReader with 16.1% of the market and Barnes and Noble Nook with 15.4%.

But the real question is which channels are responsible for the most ebook sales?  Industry numbers say Amazon has 61%, followed by 20% for B&N’s Nook, but anecdotally from other authors I’ve heard 90% of sales they receive are from Amazon.  So this makes using a distribution service seem highly unnecessary.

So should you use a conversion service that also does distribution?  Many authors are opting out of this option.  More and more ebook authors sell through Amazon and B&N direct.  Many have abandoned Kobo given the issues Borders has been experiencing and many don’t even bother with iBookstore because of the difficulty and very limited sales now that there’s Kindle for the iPhone/iPad.

Finally, ebook authors have generally also given up on Google’s eBookstore.  They take forever to process an epub file and it’s completely confusing to set up actually selling your ebook.

In my humble opinion, I think it makes the most sense to simply start where the most market traction is – Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

If you start there, publishing your own ebook is relatively straight-forward and inexpensive.  Your two biggest expenses will be purchasing an ISBN (if you decide to – you don’t need one for Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but do need one for iTunes; here’s where you buy one) and having cover art made.

Marketing Your eBook

The real challenge, as ever, is marketing your ebook.  I’ve found that many use the traditional online methods:

1. Promote via email and social networks (Facebook/Twitter)
2. Write a blog post about it
3. Get someone to review your ebook
4. Do a promotion where it’s free
5. Play with the pricing of the ebook

What’s interesting to me is how many companies exist to convert and distribute ebooks but that’s not where the real need is.  Authors need help marketing their books.  One company, BookHunch, is trying out a method to help authors build buzz about their ebooks.  Some people use sites like Scribd to do the same thing.  You can also publish a pdf easily on Scribd itself and even sell through them.  They take a 20% cut of your ebook’s price.  We’ll see who else takes up the marketing tools for authors challenge.

What’s Coming Soon in eBooks

Lastly, the next frontier is making it easier to produce more dynamic, media rich ebooks.  The next version of Kindle, Kindle Format 8, seems promising in that allows for different fonts, etc.  It doesn’t include video but it’s making more possible in terms of design (a little closer to what you can achieve with an epub file).  So stay tuned for that.

Next up – the steps I took to publish Create iPhone Apps That Rock: A Guide for Non-Technical Folks.  Tune in here!

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