How and Where to Publish Your Ebooks

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The thing with Feedbooks is that their conversions are overall better than Smashwords. So (personally), I'd prefer books from Feedbooks overall.

And we're working on making our books even better right as we speak. I'll finally release our support for dropcaps and footnotes (links to a non-linear flow).

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

And we're working on making our books even better right as we speak. I'll finally release our support for dropcaps and footnotes (links to a non-linear flow).

Is PDF generation via LaTeX not practical to achieve?

Your PDFs are pretty good, but the basic aesthetics could be improved another small step via LaTeX generation... the main trick you'd probably want, in order to avoid overfull lines (at the expense of many usually not nearly as egregious underfull ones), is to set \tolerance to 9999. That way, while less than perfect, the LaTeX output is all but sure to not be blatantly erroneous on account of text being cut-off.

- Ahi

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by ahi

Is PDF generation via LaTeX not practical to achieve?

Your PDFs are pretty good, but the basic aesthetics could be improved another small step via LaTeX generation... the main trick you'd probably want, in order to avoid overfull lines (at the expense of many usually not nearly as egregious underfull ones), is to set \tolerance to 9999. That way, while less than perfect, the LaTeX output is all but sure to not be blatantly erroneous on account of text being cut-off.

- Ahi

Our PDF output used to be based on LaTeX but we switched to Prince XML a year ago. The new 7.0 version for Prince will have better hyphenation support (Liang's algorithm, like TeX), kerning and various typographical improvements. We'll move to Prince 7.0 as soon as the final version is available.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Our PDF output used to be based on LaTeX but we switched to Prince XML a year ago. The new 7.0 version for Prince will have better hyphenation support (Liang's algorithm, like TeX), kerning and various typographical improvements. We'll move to Prince 7.0 as soon as the final version is available.

Very cool. I've read about Prince XML before. Can I ask what the reason for the move was?

- Ahi

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by ahi

Very cool. I've read about Prince XML before. Can I ask what the reason for the move was?

- Ahi

We have various tools to white-list, validate and transform XHTML in our workflow. It's much easier for us to use the same core technology for EPUB, Mobipocket and PDF.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

We have various tools to white-list, validate and transform XHTML in our workflow. It's much easier for us to use the same core technology for EPUB, Mobipocket and PDF.

Makes sense. Thanks for the explanations!

- Ahi

[BearMountainBooks]

Apparently (so I read on another forum and on several blogs) it's likely that Smashword books will also be integrated into Fictionwise as well as B&N. Details are pretty scant. And while I can find articles that mention the B&N partnership, not enough details to know exactly how this will work or how things will change.

Maria
Sage: (multiple formats; Amazon or Smashwords--$1.00)
Catch an Honest Thief (Kindle only format: $1.99; a cozy mystery)

[Hadrien]

For authors distributing their books for free: "How to disappear completely" just reached > 10.000 downloads on Feedbooks.

http://feedbooks.com/userbook/3115

I believe that this is a very good example that our distribution system works very well for self-published titles.

[BearMountainBooks]

I did look at Feedbooks, but I didn't easily find a spot where it talked contract details, number of books uploaded there...some of those details. I'll have to go check back when I'm doing my next experiment!

[Moxie Mezcal]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I did look at Feedbooks, but I didn't easily find a spot where it talked contract details, number of books uploaded there...some of those details. I'll have to go check back when I'm doing my next experiment!

I think the details you are looking for aren't on Feedbooks because everything on the site is free, unlike Smashwords.

For what it's worth, I've used both Feedbooks and Smashwords and have been very happy with both - easy to use, intuitive, not requiring a lot of technical knowledge. I've had a little more traffic on Feedbooks.

I've also published on Amazon's Digital Text Platform, which is also very user-friendly but has the drawback of not offering the option to make your book free or increase the sample size like Smashwords. The minimum charge is $0.99 - you keep $0.35 of that.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

For authors distributing their books for free: "How to disappear completely" just reached > 10.000 downloads on Feedbooks.

http://feedbooks.com/userbook/3115

I believe that this is a very good example that our distribution system works very well for self-published titles.

I can attest to that, I've just reached the 8,700 mark (overall) on my short stories in just over 6 months of publishing. A number I don't think I would have reached even if I'd gone the traditional print route.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I can attest to that, I've just reached the 8,700 mark (overall) on my short stories in just over 6 months of publishing. A number I don't think I would have reached even if I'd gone the traditional print route.

Congratulations, Moejoe!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dreams

Congratulations, Moejoe!

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I looked at the numbers the other day. I'm not writing novels, I've not even put out any novellas yet, and we're continually told by the big pubs that short-stories aren't read and don't have an audience. I would have been happy with 50 downloads, so this number is ridiculous and goes beyond all my wildest dreams

[peajayar]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Hello all, excuse me for sneaking into this writers-only chit chat.

Over in "News and Commentary" Ficbot began an interesting thread, and zelda_pinwheel suggested I bring the conversation over here, so here I am.

Ficbot had noted that so many new authors seemed to publish exclusively for the Kindle, and that this frustrated him as a non-Kindle owner. My response was that the publishing learning curve might be pretty steep for newcomers to the industry.

We might want to consider adding a series of wiki articles that explain the steps in publishing. Everything from creating books in different formats, pro's and con's of different publishing web sites, and even opportunities to market your book without spamming. In the interest of starting this effort, zelda_pinwheel suggested this post. I welcome your inputs to a guide for writers. Please feel free to add your thoughts and comments to this thread, or even to add pages to the wiki that we can pull together into our writer's guide.

I am looking for both topics that writers need to understand as well as explanations and/or suggestions on those topics.

Here is my initial list of topics / wiki pages

First, an intro to ebook publishing that introduces the key concepts and links to separate pages that then explain:
1) Different formats for ebooks and the tradeoffs
2) How to convert between formats: Calibre, Sigil, and more
3) DRM and the problems of using it
4) Web sites that accept self-published books; the pro's and con's of each and where to go to submit books.
5) Options for setting up your own store using your own web site and paypal or ebay or google checkout????
6) Marketing your ebook including does and don'ts on Mobileread

Your thoughts?

P.s. If you'd prefer to simply contribute your thoughts as a new page in the wiki, then go here:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Main_Page
In the search box to the left type in the name of your new page. When it comes up as a missing search term, you will be given the option of creating a page with that name. If you do take that approach, please report back to this thread to let us know what pages you have added.

Smashwords.com already does most of the things suggested. It also publishes (free, but you do the work yourself before submitting and they give full instructions) in a heap of formats, including the one for kindle and epub.

[jeremy_ahn]

i want to make ebooks and have people pirate the free ebooks i put out to spread my name like bubonic plague throughout prague and beyond