e-book publication in 10 steps

     

Here's a quick 10 step guide to e-publishing - just the bare bones and a few useful websites.

1. Fact or Fiction?  Practical subjects are the way forward if you want to make some quick cash.  See http://www.blurb.com/.
2. Research your subject - to make sure it's not been done to death already.  You don't want too much competition.  See both http://www.wordtracker.com/ and http://www.mobileread.com/.
3. Structure - give each idea its own chapter and keep it simple.  A good guideline would be 10 chapters with 10 clear points under each heading.
4. Short and Sweet - It's an e-book so it doesn't need to be encyclopaedic!  15-70 pages is an acceptable range.  Publish small and often.
5. Editing - Love it or hate it you won't get anywhere without editing your work.  If you prefer someone else to do it for you, there are people out there who will do it for free.  See http://www.bookoven.com/ and http://www.savvyauthors.com/.
6. Image is King - They say never judge a book by it's cover, but your cover image can affect your sales by as much as 25%.  It needs to be strong, relevant to your subject and simple.  You could hire a designer for around £60.  See http://www.elance.com/. 
7. Set the Price -  Kindle allows you to set your own price (dependent on size of the book) and the price you set determines the amount of royalty you receive.  You get 70% for books priced between £1.49-£6.99.  Either side of this earns you a 35% royalty.  My advice - be realistic about what you are selling and think about what you would expect to pay for it.
8. Website - build a platform for selling your book.  Give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer.  Including the book's table of contents could boost your sales by up to 28%.  See http://www.moonfruit.com/.
9. Distribution - You need to get your book out there.  Upload your book on the Amazon Kindle site and smashwords.  See http://www.kdp.amazon.com/ and http://www.smashwords.com/.  Also set up a paypal account for when the big bucks start rolling in!  http://www.paypal.co.uk/.
10. Network - It's all about building a platform for yourself - website, blog,twitter, facebook, linked-in - and letting the world know what you have for them.  You can also enter discussions in relevant forums.  How about releasing a teaser of your work?  See http://www.isnare.com/.