How is an e-book produced?

Fluffy66

Hello All

I desperately need some additional income and have always had an urge to write for money. Not quite up there with the novel writers (would rather cope with something smaller).

The idea of producing an ebook seems fairly straightforward, in theory, but I am a little lost with the processes of producing one.

The `How to ...' website is helpful but I start to lose my understanding when it mentions having some basic knowledge of web language.

Does anybody have an idiot's guide of how to go about it? i.e. from the initial idea through to selling on Amazon, etc.?

I would be most grateful for any suggestions and assistance.

Thank you

DS4215

I've not seen the "How To" website, but I think its just a case of writing the content in your word processor and then using a "print to PDF" utility (CutePDF for example) to produce the output in the most popular format.

I think Calibre can convert between the different formats (to Kindle, etc), but don't know how you would go about actually selling it.

Sparhawke

Avoiding the technicalities of how to actually produce such a thing (as information is already out there) I would advise you not to immediately sell your stories for money right at the beginning, reason being there are thousands of such writers out there and how do people choose what to buy when actually spending money?

What I would do in your situation is write a series of 10-20 books which follow on from each other and offer them free...this will be your catch net; people who pick up one will likely pick up another for free and if they like it they will recommend it...what you then do is start selling a few further books for a few quid each. If you have had a few books say by some obscure woman called...lets call her JK Rowling, you are far more likely to spend money if you like the books, but you may never have found them or taken the plunge on a new writer if you had to pay money.

ALWAYS have a link to your own hosted website (NEVER use a free website builder) which you can get for a few pounds a month and list all your books on there, free and paid for. You could also simply get a domain for a year (Coupon codes are everywhere) and use a site such as noomle.com to hosted your links which is free; but if you do ever start making money make sure you contribute something

Whenever someone acquires one of your books they will see the website link and all those thousands will be funneled to a page of your choosing, the best thing of this is that if you are savvy enough you can even link to your books using an affiliate link and whatever someone buys regardless of whether it was what they were searching for originally you will get commission

(Even more savvy if you are getting commissions from items being sold when you are offering something for free lol)

Gazing_On_Sunsets

There are different file formats for different ereaders. If you wish to sell on Amazon, as Kindle books, then look here at the files they can accept: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2GF0UFHIYG9VQ
It includes Word docs so you don't need to get too technical but PLEASE pay as much attention as you can to formatting. A badly formatted ebook won't get you repeat sales.

Calibre, as mentioned above, will convert to other formats.

Or you could create a PDF and sell direct from your own website. I like Sparhawke's advice to offer for free first, and build a following.

Hoody

If you have a dig around on youtube, there are a ton of vids that show how to create ebooks. And how to publish them on Apples site along with Amazons.

Fluffy66

DS4215 wrote: »

I've not seen the "How To" website, but I think its just a case of writing the content in your word processor and then using a "print to PDF" utility (CutePDF for example) to produce the output in the most popular format.

I think Calibre can convert between the different formats (to Kindle, etc), but don't know how you would go about actually selling it.

Thank you - yes, I've read that you just need to convert your Word doc. to PDF, but then having to use and understand the basics of html is the point as which my eyes have glazed over!

Perhaps, then, there are different methods that can be used in the production. Think I just need to fiddle around to have a better understanding.

Fluffy66

Sparhawke wrote: »

Avoiding the technicalities of how to actually produce such a thing (as information is already out there) I would advise you not to immediately sell your stories for money right at the beginning, reason being there are thousands of such writers out there and how do people choose what to buy when actually spending money?

What I would do in your situation is write a series of 10-20 books which follow on from each other and offer them free...this will be your catch net; people who pick up one will likely pick up another for free and if they like it they will recommend it...what you then do is start selling a few further books for a few quid each. If you have had a few books say by some obscure woman called...lets call her JK Rowling, you are far more likely to spend money if you like the books, but you may never have found them or taken the plunge on a new writer if you had to pay money.

ALWAYS have a link to your own hosted website (NEVER use a free website builder) which you can get for a few pounds a month and list all your books on there, free and paid for. You could also simply get a domain for a year (Coupon codes are everywhere) and use a site such as noomle.com to hosted your links which is free; but if you do ever start making money make sure you contribute something

Whenever someone acquires one of your books they will see the website link and all those thousands will be funneled to a page of your choosing, the best thing of this is that if you are savvy enough you can even link to your books using an affiliate link and whatever someone buys regardless of whether it was what they were searching for originally you will get commission

(Even more savvy if you are getting commissions from items being sold when you are offering something for free lol)

Thanks ever so much - this is all very interesting.

I have lots of ideas (non-fiction) to start with. Thought I'd try a subject that would interest residents in my local town. For example something of an historical nature and thereby enabling me to research the information quite easily. Therefore, subject matter for subsequent books may be random too. I'm just taking the advice of some websites I've looked at and they suggest you write about what interests you.

To be be honest it never dawned on me that I may require my own website (or it this just an advantage to have rather than a necessity?). Anyhow, there seems to be a lot more to this than I initially thought but it's something that really interests me (away from the drudge of my day job!).

Thanks again

worthy2beloved

Congratulations on making the decision to pursue a new income stream through writing. Like you I would like to earn money in a more exciting way and writing is one option I'm pursuing.

Remember to consider your e-book cover.

Take a look at some covers that are available on MS Word. To find these open a word document, click on insert and select cover pages from the drop down box to the left of your screen. alternatively you can try myecovermaker where you can have a go designing your ecover before purchasing.

If I think of anything else I'll share it with you.

Fluffy66

worthy2beloved wrote: »

Congratulations on making the decision to pursue a new income stream through writing. Like you I would like to earn money in a more exciting way and writing is one option I'm pursuing.

Remember to consider your e-book cover.

Take a look at some covers that are available on MS Word. To find these open a word document, click on insert and select cover pages from the drop down box to the left of your screen. alternatively you can try myecovermaker where you can have a go designing your ecover before purchasing.

If I think of anything else I'll share it with you.

Thank you

I'll let you know how I'm getting on. May take me a little while because I'm usually bushed after a day's work (in a very stressful role!). Would be fabulous to earn money from doing something I enjoy.

Good luck with your endeavours too!

Sparhawke

While I somewhat agree with the point that you should write what you know, you have to also know that sometimes what you write is not at all profitable; I like all kinds of different topics for instance from body language to quantum mechanics and they simply make no money whatsoever especially if you mix and match subjects like one day you write about your local town and the next you are writing about the teletubbies.

If you notice a lot of the big name writers they all have their own niche and therefore their own following which they have steadily built up, if you were suddenly to find Stephen King writing ridiculous soppy romance novels then you would likely lose all faith.

The key to kindle ebook writing is having a subject that follows on progressively and also has enough juice to keep going...

Anyways, about the owning your own website, it is very important, if you are putting a link into your books showing people where to buy or find your other works the last thing you want to be doing is pointing to a page on a website that is not your own, which you are only able to add to. What if they decide that they simply do not like you anymore? All your links would then be dead and simply giving the website in question free traffic.

mikeashworth

Fluffy66 wrote: »

Does anybody have an idiot's guide of how to go about it? i.e. from the initial idea through to selling on Amazon, etc.?


Thank you

with regard to the actual production of the e-book itself, save yourself lots of formatting hassle and use Vook. yep it costs a little bit of money per e-book, but the time and headaches saved is amazing!