How To Publish Your Book In Kindle - Part I

As promised I will try and give a step by step pointer on publishing a book on Kindle. However before beginning, I should take the time to answer the comments made on my previous post If You Are Going To Publish Your Own Work... These comments were important and deserve some space.

My personal opinion, is that I have absolutely nothing against the query--->agent--->normative publisher route. Indeed, I still think after all these  years that this is the route one should always attempt to follow. I do not personally agree that reputable agents are either greedy or do not earn their money. The exact opposite is true. I have dealt with and dealing with an agent who is straight, honest and does not try to BS at all. I think having an agent is still very critical and certainly necessary if you sell a book to the big publishers, and then have to deal with them about rights and subsidiary rights. I also think having a lawyer here is critical, (no matter what the agent and publisher tell you. Unless the agent has a law degree and has kept up with the legal ramifications in publishing.)

HOWEVER, I also believe that if your book for whatever reasons, cannot, will not, or is not making it into the normative "print" market, for whatever reasons, either objective or subjective, that currently, the market offers you, as an author, a viable alternative, to publishing that book ELECTRONICALLY. I never mentioned that this is a viable alternative to "print" and at this moment I honestly have no opinion on that one. There are many negatives to vanity publishing or self-publishing a book in "print", that do not exist in publishing it electronically and these should be explored in their own series of posts.

Additionally, any new author who expects to make "real money" from their first few attempts in KDP or in any of the electronic book markets is dreaming. Yes there are exceptions. But these exceptions prove the rule. What you are out to do, is to "brand" your name as a serious author in whatever genre you wish to be in. That should be your goal. If money comes, then consider yourself lucky and blessed. But your initial goal should be to equate  your name with that of the title of "Author". 

As to the comments made about Amazon and then the environment. 

I have heard this environment claim before. I don't go for it in this case. Computers, tablets, Cell phones all are extremely non-green friendly. They are the tools we use today. Additionally, at least for the next generation, reading a book that is actually printed on paper, is still a very important thing. Or a magazine. Electronic publishing has not yet replaced totally the print medium. (Thus by the way the lack of a finely tuned "financial and marketing model" by the publishers and agents.)

Like it or not, the choices today, though not limited are certainly among the big names. Amazon, Apple, B&N, Smashwords etc. If you are an author you MUST pay attention to these markets simply because not doing so will guarantee failure. There may be other markets out there and viable alternatives, but to ignore the big names is catastrophic to any author who desires to get their work "out there".

Why begin then with Amazon & Kindle? Well that is simple and complex. There are a myriad of reasons for this and I will try to explain them all.

Let us assume, hypothetically, that you as the author, own a computer and do not own any of the tablets or devices.

Let us also assume that you are starting out and do not have any money.

1. Amazon is associated with books. The Kindle, though not the most widely used tablet, has entered the big-boy market with the Kindle Fire.

2. B&N in its e-Pub, and Apple demand from the author a CC and other information. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) makes no such demands except for a valid email and an address. (B&N makes some outrageous demands but we will get to them in a later post.)

3. The Ipad, Iphone and all Android phones have a Kindle reader application. This extends the reach of KDP books and all Kindle books to many platforms.

4. Producing a book in Kindle format can be done with absolutely NO COST (if you own Word) and even if you do not own Word it can be done. This is CRITICAL!

5. Finally, Amazon has made it the easiest and most cost effective to create and publish an electronic book. Like it or not, KDP, even if a lot of the documentation on publishing and formatting a book is not good, is still the best documented way of creating one, and does not demand any other outside sources that cost you money. Amazon also does not demand you join KDP. You can publish your book without adhering the KDP 90 day exclusivity. This denies you certain "perks" but then again, that is business. You publish with KDP enabled, you get the perks. You publish without, you do not get the perks. But in the end it is your choice, and  you can always publish.

Caveat: Smashwords, will allow you to do all this, but with certain pre-conditions.

Now in order to lead to the next post of the first steps, this is what you will need to do as follows:

1. Go to Amazon KDP Select and open up an account. Make sure you read the terms and conditions so you do not violate their TOS when you publish your book or books. I will get into the more salient ones in the next post.

2. On the main KDP page scroll down and click to get to their FAQ. 

3. Give it a reading - Top to Bottom - so you at least will be familiar with terms.

4. The next thing you want to do is to go to the Help Topic (Left hand side of the page) called Conversion Resources

5. You should download them all, BUT for now you will need the following for a PC on XP, Vista or W7

At the very least the Mobipocket Creator & the Kindle Previewer. (Links here are for PC if you need for a MAC links are on the Conversion Resources page). Install these programs on your computer.

***IF YOU ARE WORKING WITH WINDOWS 7 & INTERNET EXPLORER 9 READ THIS

Mobipocket is an old program. There is a conflict between Internet Explorer 9 and MobiPocket, which will not allow MobiPocket to work correctly. The only workaround I have found for this that really works, is to uninstall IE9. Since I do not use IE at all that was not a big problem for me. However, if you use IE and need MobiPocket you will have to go back to IE8. (I have found no other solution that actually works besides this!)

6. Now get out  your MS. make a copy load it in Word (or in Open Office or whatever program you have, as an RTF file) and REMOVE all headers and footers. Electronic books have no page numbers the way we are used to them in Word or PDF format and these will not translate correctly. Save that file under a name you will know. This is the file we will work with!

Ok this is enough for one blog post. Next with pictures and steps I will show you how to convert that Word Document of yours into an Ebook ready for uploading to Kindle.

Meantime of course, I have do my own PR.

So..."Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" has had really good success so far. The books are priced @ $1.99 in the USA. (Other countries Amazon adds VAT etc.)

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

A Tale That Is Told - Part I (The Chronicles Of The Children Of Heaven Series)

Please remember to write a review as well!

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Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

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Tags: books, novels, poetry, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction

If You Are Going To Publish Your Own Work...

As I said in my previous post, the digital explosion in Ebooks has certainly created many an opportunity for those who want to get their feet wet. But first let me make this clear. It still is an excellent idea to attempt to publish your material via the "traditional" method of query letter ---> agent ---> publisher. However, whereas 3-4 years ago I would not have put caveats in that statement, today with just a cursory look around and reading the material that comes in, there is a big difference. So as not to disappoint my old readers of this blog I still do not follow the tried and true path, and I will just give some impressions here, before my next few posts which will try and explain in a step by step method of exactly where and how you can publish your E books. The three dirty words here are:

1. Self-Publish
2. Vanity Publish
3. Indie (a fairly new buzz term or old depending upon what you consider new and old!)

Now Down To Some Pointers & Observations:

1. Agents are more bitter about the business then they were a few years ago. The model they are used to has gone topsy-turvy on them and they are scrambling to keep up. 

What does the above mean? 

It means still the best way to be published is the old query letter--->agent--->publisher route. I will not argue with that point. It is definitely the way to go if you can. 

[As an aside, and I am sure I am not the first person to say this, the fact that some agents and publishers today still "demand" snail letter queries and snail mail ms. is just ludicrous (and a few more choice adjectives can be put here, none of them endearing). But it does show how deep the publishing industry is entrenched in its own hype.]

However, the ability to write electronically - even just doing a blog post, has turned the writing world on its head. We consume more "information" whether needless or important, than any generation before us. We Facebook, Goggle+, Twitter, Blog, LinkIn and everything else you can imagine. Thus the actual "act" of writing a book is also part of this scenario.

The following may seem a digression but please follow. Any book on telling you how to sell and market your work, will tell you that even after you have a contract with a publisher, you will need to do a lot of your own self PR, unless you are a major league author, and even then - you still have to do it.

That little fact has come back actually to bite both publishers and agents in the good ole' backside. Technology passed them. People who know technology moved way faster than agents and publishers. So it was not a big leap of intelligence to say:

"I have to suffer this agent route, where half of them do not bother even answering me. I have to suffer the fact that my query letter must be one page, printed, sent in an envelope, and then wait 4 months for an answer. Then I have to wait until the agent does find a publisher. IF they find a publisher. Then I have to wait another year before the book may come out, if it is not cancelled. Then I have to market my own book which I have to do anyway if I self-publish. So forget that!"

Thus Ebook publishing, with self-publishing, indie, vanity publishing, whatever you want to call it was born. And it is exploding. Because there are now blogs, forums and web sites which actually recommend books to people. Books no one would have ever knew existed before. And these blogs and Facebook groups, and Lord only knows who else, do NOT look at who published they look to see if people actually read and liked the book to give their recommendations.

Agents and Publishers both, do not yet know what to make of this revolution. They do not know yet how to produce a "financial model" in which they can co-exist with the new technology.

One thing is clear. Beforehand the role of Agent was akin to God. Now they are not even ministering angels. Before they could be very picky, not answer email, let queries languish on their desk for months and months, or just junk them - and make an extremely good living. Now they have to figure out just how to fit into this model, where slowly, though not very slowly, they are being tossed aside for the direct route. They now have to rely on agenting and negotiation of rights that go beyond the scope of a digital book.

Why? Because most people reading this, can do more in "electronic PR" than any agent can. Because any person can learn or hire an SEO expert, take their book, whether it is junk or not, and upload it to a myriad of places for sale or free. They can "brand" their name better than any publishing house or agent can do at the moment. In other words the sanctified, mysterious and snobbish world of "Publishing" is slowly being taught a lesson or two in what happens when you wait too long and do not follow what is going on around you.

Writing is a lonely experience. Some, the lucky ones, manage to go that agent-->publish route without much frustration along the way. Others can rely on their names having already been "made". Some, each year will find fame and fortune and satisfaction in this route. And it surely is the way to go if you have time, patience and are very lucky.

Make no mistake. Go the electronic route by yourself and you still have a 99.9% chance of being delegated to oblivion. That is simply fact. 


But it still gives you another option. And that option, once shunned, has certainly entered the world of legitimate.


In the next posts, I will share some of the experiences I have had with publishing and the actual HOW-TO of how to publish on Kindle, at the very least. 

Meantime of course, I have do my own PR.

So..."Ancient Tales, Modern Legends" has had really good success so far. The books are priced @ $1.99 in the USA. (Other countries Amazon adds VAT etc.)

Ancient Tales, Modern Legends

A Tale That Is Told - Part I (The Chronicles Of The Children Of Heaven Series)

Please remember to write a review as well!
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Tags: books, novels, poetry, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction

The World Of Electronic Publishing

Many authors and would-be writers essentially shy away from submitting to electronic ezines and publishing venues. They want to write, get an agent and fly off into the wild blue yonder of fame, fortune and wonderful things. This is a given, and none of us can claim exclusion from this dream.

The number of online magazines has skyrocketed in the last fifteen years, from 25 in 1992 to over 4000 by 1999 (according to The Book of Zines). Today, with e-zines appearing and vanishing like fireworks (or pop-caps) the number has become too large and too fluid to accurately measure. Those of us who do use the short story as a means of writing, even though we are involved in writing the next Pulitzer Prize winning novel, face even a worse problem. The number of magazines publishing in print media short stories, has severely dwindled over the past 30 years and thus there is just that much more competition to find a slot in one of these magazines. Of course it is true that every year people do break into this field, they do find their short story published, in the Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review and New Yorker - it is a long shot with the odds clearly not in favor of the "unknown" writer. (Some of this is covered in the post - The Short Story Market here at Cobwebs Of The Mind.)

Recently, I have recieved quite a few email letters pointing out various ezine publishers etc. Today in a perusal of the blog run by CyberCobre over at The Deepening, she put in a blog post simply directing readers to the on-line editorial at "Allegory"which has been publishing SF, Fantasy & Horror short stories for quite a few years now.

Under the title - "E-publishing: The Struggle Continues ..." the editor of Allegory displays some interesting figures. Now I am not a SF or Horror author, and the only Fantasy writing I do, is in regard to the "The Chronicles of the Children of Heaven" however, I find these figures illuminating.

He writes (bold is mine):

The number of online magazines has skyrocketed in the last fifteen years, from 25 in 1992 to over 4000 by 1999 (according to The Book of Zines). Today, with e-zines appearing and vanishing like fireworks (or pop-caps) the number has become too large and too fluid to accurately measure. Regarding book length work, more and more book publishers are appearing, many with unique (sometimes clever, often less so) approaches to the sticky questions of marketing and copyright protection.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that, if I am to be honest with you (and myself) electronic publishing simply isn't there, yet.

He follows this with the normative and quite common list of complaints against ezine publishing. I suggest you read the article if you are indeed considering to an ezine - electronic magazine venue.

All this is very true. Ezines are not there. "Yet" is an operative word which even on the "yet" the jury is out. People simply do not want to read off of screens. (Which by the way is the genius in Bellow's new endeavor where he takes digital media and puts it into print format. See: The New Pamphleteer).

Ezines have a long way to go and their hardest and most difficult battle will be with the "psychological" aspects of getting people like you and me to read on line.

So the question remains for short story writers. How do you get something out there and published under a legitimate credit? How do you begin the career in short story writing? How do you create any type of "buzz" around your writing and name? How do you deal with the need to be published and cannot get an agent to publish you?

The bad news is that, if I am to be honest with you (and myself) electronic publishing simply isn't there, yet. Ezines - and I admit it depends on which ezine - are becoming a legitimate way to go. They will not buy you the prestige of publishing in the New Yorker. Often, they are here today and gone tomorrow. Often they are run by people who cannot read let alone be editors. BUT, the right ezine, the right electronic magazine can buy you some "credits". It can buy you some "prestige". It can legitimately be used to give "credits" to a perspective agent. Miss Snark for instance has said over and over again, if she can Google your name and find you have been published in a legitimate source, even on-line, that is a "legitimate" credit.

I do not think ezines will buy you a career in publishing. They will not make you famous. 100 stories in the best of the best ezines are simply not equal to one story in The Paris Review. But they can give you a platform for starting off. They can give you a way to get your writing "out there". And as your popularity grows, and as Ezines become more and more entrenched and accepted, your work will be up there in the Internet, in the search engines, and on copyright as well.

Is this the magic carpet ride for authors? No way. No how. Is it something to use for your career - most definitely.

The good news today is that there is an unannounced movement going on among ezine owners, where they are attempting to create an organization, which will further legitimize ezine publishing.

If you are a short story writer, and you want to see your work published, and are not willing to hold out for the New Yorker, then perhaps the time has come to consider the good and established ezines out there. But do not think this is your magic ticket into the world of traditional publishing. It is a legitimate way to build credits. It is a viable way. And thus should not be discounted.

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Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

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Tags: books, novels, poetry, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction

Looks Like We Touched A Sensitive Spot...

In a few posts at Cobwebs Of The Mind - Article Submissions - Worth Your While or A Vast Waste Of Time? and at T3 - Teddy's Techie Tips - "Article Submission As Part Of The Viral Process", I recently discussed article submissions as a process in two different veins. One was the standpoint of being an author and the other from the standpoint of trying to get your name, blog, web-site out into the public eye, e.g. "name recognition".

I was pretty clear about it. To use article submissions as a way to gain more people for your blog and web-site is a great idea. If you think that it will help you with agents, publishers and the normative publishing world - forget it.

Well it seems that over at ezinearticles.com Cobwebs Of The Mind may have just stepped on a few sensitive toes. In a post on the official ezinearticles.com blog entitled: Ted Gross Wonders About Article Submission Validity and quoting my original posts, Chris Knight, owner of ezinearticles.com made it clear that:

"Yeah, that does make Ted’s previous comments more valid in the right context because submitting to EzineArticles or our competitors does not make sense if done for the wrong career reasons. I think the real issue that many have told me that irritates them off about article submission is that you don’t get rich quick. It takes time and effort to build market demand for yourself, no matter who you are.

In closing, the real reason you should submit your quality original articles to EzineArticles.com directly is to generate qualified visitors and traffic back to your website from us directly and if you get a boost from syndication land, call that a bonus.

Mr. Knight made his point clear. Though I tend to doubt that even Mr. Knight would put his job in the same venue as a professional publishing house editor, I can respect the need to present his very popular site as a legitimate outlet to get articles published. And it certainly is a legitimate venue for article publishing on the Internet.

Mr. Knight asks the following:

"Geez, if a person writes an article, if they are not an ‘AUTHOR’, then what exactly are they? :-)?"

They are not authors any more than writing a letter to my parents, or kids or girlfriend makes me an "author". Because it was incredibly clear the context and meaning of authors here in my original piece - Article Submissions - Worth Your While or A Vast Waste Of Time?. It is talking about the "normative" publishing process, and those people who are using the normative agent-editor-publishing route to get their written works into print. Article submission does not make one an author. It may point to a desire to be an author or a writer. And the producers of articles are technically the "authors" of the articles they have written. But anyone reading my original piece understood exactly what was meant by "author".

But obviously there are the article writers themselves. When I discovered the Posts above had been made the subject of a post on Ezinearticles blog, I made a comment on that blog, explaining again exactly what my POV was. This did not seem to sit well with some article authors who have produced a great many articles for article submission sites. And it seems that some people even in the world of publishing as it stands today, still think that writing, editing and publishing their own material, in ebook self-publishing ventures, makes them "legitimate" voices and authors in the world of normative publishing.

For the record I am going to say this again. Self-publishing is just not going to earn anyone credits with an agent or publisher. This is NOT my rule. This is publishing. Call publishing outdated, a dinosaur, or just plain stupid. Call it whatever you want. But that is the way it works.

And thank goodness it does work like this. Imagine if we had to wade through hundreds of thousands of ebooks, all self published, all not edited, all filled with the musings of the "author", without the benefit of professional editors. Imagine if just being able to produce a few thousand words a day made you into an author for the New York Times bestseller lists.

There are few legitimate sites that cater to self-publishing. Lulu.com is one of them. They do not scam. They do not sell dreams. They tell the author of the self published book exactly what the story is. And so does ezinearticles.com. They do not scam. They do not promise dreams. For pete sake just read the quote at the beginning of this post from Chris Knight, the owner of the ezinearticles.com web site.

I am incredibly sorry. But no matter how publishing goes, whether electronic or paper, the fact remains that you do not become an author simply because you were able to put together your very own ebook or series of articles. You do not make it as a bona-fide "author" because you list 1000 ebooks in your CV. You are not literary and you do not become a respected poet simply because you wrote 40 poems and created the "Great Poetry Ebook" or put them in, may the Lord help us, up in poetry.com. Just is not going to happen. And for a damn good reason to boot.

Article submission is great for its original purpose. But no matter how great and successful article submission is - it is not Random House or Doubleday. It does not get listed in Amazon.com. As an article author, you do not automatically get an agent and a book contract - or advances or royalties. Don't turn article submission into what it is not. Because no matter how hard you try, it simply is not, will not, and should not be - ever recognized as real publishing.

Unfair? You bet it is. Thank goodness it is unfair. Thank goodness somewhere along the line there is still some type of straining and weeding process going on, getting rid of the chafe.

I am sorry to all the article submission authors who think of themselves as true, bona-fide writers. I truly am. You could be the next O'Henry for all I know. But until you go through the normative process and work with the professionals, no matter how outdated you think the system is, your masterpiece is going to be just another self published ebook. Which in the literary world means nothing and will only collect negative points for you in the long run.

Peruse agent blogs. Take a look at Miss Snark. Read the people who are in the industry if you do not believe me. I also strongly urge you to read the Post A.C. Crispin - 40 - Giving Your Work Away? - up at the well-respected blog of Crispin & Strauss - Writer Beware Blogs!. Now NO ONE is in any way implying that article submissions are a scam. Indeed I have written that they are a great, legitimate way to go for web-site "name recognition". They are simply not, no matter how much you think it deserves it, considered publication credits for your list to agents or in a query to write an article for the Atlantic Monthly or Cosmopolitan.

Honestly, I never expected someone who writes an article, puts it in a site to be published, never goes through a real editing process, and sees that article appear on the Internet - I truly never expected anyone to really think of themselves as an author on the par with published authors in The New Yorker, for example.

It is frustrating. It is hard. It may be unfair in your eyes. You write and write and still are not listed in Amazon or at B&N. Yep, that is the reality. That is how it shakes down. You think you should be recognized for your 1000 articles? Maybe you are right. Prove it. Get an agent to look at you. Get the publisher to publish you. Don't rant and rave because your articles are all over the net and you still don't have one contract and no one in the literary world will take you seriously or refer to you as an "author".

And for pete sake, don't get upset when no one asks for your autograph!

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Posted On: Cobwebs Of The Mind

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Tags: books, novels, literary, agents, short stories, memoirs, fantasy literature, legends, tales, erotica, short story, romantica, publishing, writers, fantasy, literary agents, blogs, blogging, writing blogs, Absolute Write, writing, freelancing, non-fiction, fiction