9. Resources

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Epubbing Pathways

Here is Epubbing Pathways, a one-page pdf table comparing the costs, benefits and drawbacks of the major ebook retailer and distributor channels.

The table summarises the information on the Pathways and Details pages, and I hope to keep it as up-to-date as possible. So if you notice anything that needs changing, please feel free to email me on kate (at) seabooks.net, and I'll be happy to send you a free epub or mobi copy of one of my ebooks as a thank you.

Jane Friedman's chart on traditional and independent publishing is a good high-level view of the game of play, and a nice adjunct to the detailed information above. Below are some useful new links, as well as those already mentioned in these pages (in one place to save you hunting around).

Antipodean Issues

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Australian authors meet a few stumbling blocks from some of the channels but we've got other options. Here's what we need to keep in mind:

• Barnes & Noble don't supply Nook Press services to Australians.
• Lulu won't provide Amazon or Kobo formatted ebooks for Australian authors.
• Australians and non-US residents have to submit a W-8BEN declaration to get tax treaty concessions, but still lose an extra 5%.

But we have one small advantage: Australian ISBN numbers are much cheaper to buy than US ones.

Ebook Resources

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Jane Friedman's great list of resources.
Regularly updated discussions of ebook economics.
Reviews of electronic and print channels.
Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer.
Joanna Penn's The Creative Penn.
Reddit group Selfpublish.

Opinions and Blogs

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Jane Friedman's blog.
J. A. Konrath's blog.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog
Hugh Howey's blog on writing and sailing, The Wayfinder.
AuthorEarnings on ebook market share.
Hugh Howey on renting vs owning your own house
Mark Coker arguments against KU.
Hugh Howey arguments for KU.
David Gaughran on KU non-action against spammers.

Channel Links, Support, Reviews

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This is not an exhaustive list, so always check for more recent information. Some of the reviews from Independent Publishing Magazine are several years out of date but are still useful. Pronoun is too new to have a review yet, others simply don't rank well enough.

Kindle Direct Publishing – KDP support – KDP review
iBooks Author – iBooks support
Nook Press – Nook Press support
Kobo Writing Life – KWL Review
Pronoun – Pronoun support
Draft2Digital – Draft2Digital support – Draft2Digital review
Smashwords – Smashwords support – Smashwords review
Booktango – Booktango support
Lulu – Lulu support – Lulu review
eBookIT – eBookIT styleguide and support – eBookIT review
BookBaby – BookBaby support – BookBaby review
IngramSpark – IngramSpark support – IngramSpark review

Creating EPUBs

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IDPF validator for EPUB files.
Sigil – free program for creating epubs from doc files, all platforms.
Calibre – free software for reading epub and mobi files, all platforms.
Jutoh – ebook editor, convertor and creator for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Scrivener – word processor & project management, Windows and Mac.
PressBooks – online book writing and layout software.

For Linux or LibreOffice Users

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Word to Clean HTML – generates clean html files for KDP.
Notjohn's KDP guide, plus Linux and LibreOffice tips.
Smashwords formatting guide for LibreOffice.
Series for Linux users on ebook formatting.

Book Structure and Design

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Traditional print book structure.
David Gaughran on ToC location.
The Book Designer competition for ebook cover design.
Gimp – free, multiplatform image processing software.
Canva – inexpensive book cover design resources.
Typewolf typography blog.
Free fonts: FontSquirrel, DaFont.
Free stock photos: Pexels, Unsplash, Stocksnap, Pixabay, Flickr vintage photos.

Details

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Thorpe-Bowker Identification Services.
W-8BEN – Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals).
MA Demers on confusion over foreign tax exemptions.
Wikipedia on DRM.
Mark Coker on DRM drawbacks.

Promotion and Marketing

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David Gaughran on ebook pricing.
Mark Coker on ebook pricing.
David Gaughran on marketing.
Marketing Onion on marketing.
KDP: Useful basics, plus information on KDP Select promotions etc.
iBooks: helpful basics. Apple's guidelines on how to use their material in any promotions.
Nook Press: blog articles.
Kobo: general promotional tips.
Pronoun: good marketing suggestions. Pronoun also provides detailed keyword and genre information.
Smashwords: Book Marketing Guide and Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, two great free ebooks.
Draft2Digital: interesting and helpful blog.

Where to Now?
Just keep writing (of course) and start epubbing!

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