The E-Book Handbook: A Thoroughly Practical Guide to Formatting, Publishing, Marketing, and Selling Your E-Book

By Douglas Klostermann

The E-Book Handbook is a comprehensive guide that will help you create, publish, and market your own e-book and sell it online through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Apple - all easily and inexpensively.

As one reader has said, "I wish I had found this e-book and read it first, before starting to self-publish, blog, or anything else. The author's advice is the best I’ve read so far. I can’t even count the number of times I said, 'Oh!' 'wow,' or 'that’s perfect' out loud while reading this book." -MMK

Using the knowledge, tools, and tips gained from the author's experience as a best-selling e-book author and publisher, The E-Book Handbook clearly and thoroughly explains every step of the e-book process from formatting through marketing.

With this guide you will learn:

-HOW TO REACH the widest audience by properly creating and converting your text for multiple formats including PDF, Nook, Kindle, iPad, and other tablets and e-readers.

-SELLING YOUR E-BOOK on major retail websites with step-by-step instructions for uploading and selling on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Apple's iBooks and iTunes all at no cost.

-Creating compelling e-book DESCRIPTIONS AND AUTHOR PAGES to promote sales.

-AUTOMATING SALES AND DIGITAL DELIVERY directly from your own website and blog using reliable, low-cost services.

-MARKETING your e-book through the Internet and social media, plus optimizing search engine results so that your e-book and sites are found.

-Setting up a WEBSITE AND BLOG for sales and marketing.

-Using advertising and affiliate programs to earn additional income from your website and blog.

-Evaluating, monitoring, and keeping track of sales, income, and expenses.

-Includes screenshots and direct Internet links throughout the text to every website, publisher, and retailer discussed, as well as comprehensive lists in the Appendixes.

The E-Book Handbook is a detailed, illustrated e-book guide that can help turn you into an e-book author and publisher.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING about Doug's previous e-book camera guides:

It's clear, concise and gets to the heart of the camera's multiple and often confusing options. Very highly recommended - for experienced user and beginner alike.-GSA

The author writes clearly and concisely, and his approach is accessible and friendly.-Jay M.

This book, together with the manual that came with your camera, is all you need to start discovering the full potential of the D7000.-Max M.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas Klostermann
• Release date: Sep 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452404745

Douglas Klostermann

Douglas Klostermann is a travel, culture, and humanitarian photographer, as well as the best-selling author of Full Stop photography guides including Nikon D850 Experience and Canon 5D Mark IV Experience. He has photographed for numerous organizations in the United States and Latin America, been recognized by the United Nations Development Programme for his humanitarian photography, and been published in magazines, books, and websites including Conde Nast Traveler, NationalGeographic.org, Sherman's Travel, South American Explorer, and Viva Travel Guides. Doug is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). Learn more about photography techniques and equipment on his blog Picturing Change at blog.dojoklo.com and view his photography at dojoklo.com.

Book preview

The E-Book Handbook

A Thoroughly Practical Guide to

Formatting, Publishing, Marketing, and

Selling Your E-Book

by: Douglas J. Klostermann

Published by Douglas J. Klostermann / Full Stop.

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 978-1-4524-0474-5

Version 2.1 – January 2012

Copyright 2011 Douglas J. Klostermann

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or in print, without expressed permission from the author. Every effort has been made to make this e-book as complete and accurate as possible, but no warranty of fitness is implied. The information is provided on an as-is basis. The author shall have no liability or responsibility with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information provided in this e-book including but not limited to the use of any of the materials or methods described, the products, retailers, Internet web sites, or links provided.

All contents including cover design, text, and photographs, with the exception of logos and content shown in Internet screenshots, are copyright by the author.

All logos and content of screenshots property of the respective websites.

Use of terms which are trademarks or service marks in this e-book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Author’s website: www.dojoklo.com

Author’s blog: http://blog.dojoklo.com/

Published by Full Stop.

a division of Douglas J. Klostermann Photography

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

http://www.dojoklo.com/Full_Stop/

Contents

Author’s Note

Preface to the 2012 Revised Edition

1. So You’re Ready to Write an E-Book

1.1 My E-Book Story

1.2 Your E-Book Story

1.3 Exciting E-Book Statistics

2. Laying the Groundwork

2.1 Creating Your Blog and Website

2.1a Setting Up Your Blog

2.1b Setting Up Your Website

2.1c Installing and Setting Up WordPress on Your Website

3. Formatting Your E-Book

3.1 Creating Your Text

3.2 Formatting Your Text

3.2a Formatting in Word

3.2b Formatting Headings and Table of Contents

3.3 Formatting Your Cover and Images

3.3a Creating a Cover to be Judged By

3.3b Including Images and Illustrations

3.4 Converting to PDF

3.4a Converting DOC to PDF with Word

3.4b Converting DOC to PDF with Acrobat

3.4c Creating a PDF Preview

3.5 Formatting for E-Reader Devices

4. Publishing Your E-Book

4.1 Pricing Your E-Book

4.2 E-Book Publishers and Retailers

4.3 E-Junkie

4.4 Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

4.5 Barnes and Noble PubIt!

4.6 Using Calibre for Conversion

4.7 Smashwords (Including Apple and Sony Reader Store)

4.8 Apple iBooks and iBooks Author

4.9 Google Preview and Google eBooks

4.10 Creating a Print on Demand Version

5. Selling and Marketing Your E-Book

5.1 Selling and Marketing on Your Website and Blog

5.2 Marketing on the Internet

5.3 Guerilla Marketing

5.4 Amazon Author Central and Product Pages

5.5 Book Reviews and Communicating with Customers

6. Getting Found: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

6.1 Optimizing Your Webpage

6.2 Optimizing Your Blog

6.3 Copyright Infringement and Internet Piracy

7. Affiliate Marketing and Advertising

7.1 Amazon Associates

7.2 Other Affiliate Programs

7.3 Google AdWords and Google AdSense

7.4 Your Own Affiliate Program

8. Tracking Your Success

8.1 Keeping Track of Sales, Income, and Expenses

8.1a E-Junkie Sales

8.1b Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Sales

8.1c Barnes and Noble PubIt! Sales

8.1d Smashwords Sales

8.1e PayPal

8.1f The E-Book Handbook Spreadsheet

8.2 Owing and Collecting Taxes

9. Sharing Your Success

9.1 The E-Book Handbook Facebook Page

9.2 The E-Book Handbook Updates Page

10. Conclusion

Appendix 1 – Internet Links

A1.1 Creating a Blog and Website

A1.2 Retailers and Payment Processors

A1.3 Software

A1.4 E-Book Formatting and Publishing

A1.5 E-Book Viewers and Previewers

A1.6 WordPress

A1.7 Amazon Author Central

A1.8 Search Engine Optimization

A1.9 Affiliate Marketing and Advertising

A1.10 The E-Book Handbook

Appendix 2 – E-Book Publishers and Retailers

Appendix 3 – The Daily / Weekly Routine

Author’s Note

All of the Internet links and the publisher, retailer, terms of service, formatting, and royalty information in this book are current, to the best of my knowledge, at the time of publishing. As this information can and does change, please be sure to verify it by reviewing the most current information available on the Internet and checking for the latest updates on the publishers’ and retailers’ websites and terms of service agreements before registering with websites and submitting and publishing your e-books.

Regarding the websites, providers, and software I discuss throughout the text, I focus on the ones I use to create and sell my e-books and which I also feel are the best ones for most of you to begin creating and publishing your e-books quickly, easily, and inexpensively. I know there are other options and I will mention a few, but based on my research and my experience I have found the sites, companies, and software that work best for me. They are low cost and reliable and I recommend them all without hesitation. If you are familiar with other options that have worked well for you, feel free to continue using them. I include a full list of Internet links to products and websites in Appendix 1 at the end of this book. Other important links provided throughout the text are also listed by categories in the Appendixes. The list of all Internet links in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 is also available on my blog Picturing Change at:

http://blog.dojoklo.com/ebooks/the-e-book-handbook-links/

Figure 1 – Detail of the Amazon Kindle e-reader device

I am not sponsored by any of the companies or services discussed in this book and my enthusiasm for them is solely due to my positive experiences. I have not asked for nor received any compensation for mentioning them. (I did contact some asking for discount codes for my readers to use, and one kindly responded!)

I am not a financial or tax expert. Please consult an accountant and/ or a financial professional to discuss the financial and tax issues that you may encounter due to the income and expenses related to publishing and selling e-books and earning affiliate income. The advice and information I offer in this book are not a substitute for professional financial and tax advice.

Throughout the text I call attention to a few especially important and helpful tips that I have learned through my e-book publishing experience. Typically these are small, quick, simple, or time-saving actions or advice you can follow that may have the potential for relatively large impact on your sales or success. They are noted throughout the text by (Tip!) immediately following the tip. While all of the advice and information I provide throughout the text is important, some of it is optional, more advanced, or could be applied later once you have gained some experience creating and selling e-books. But these small action/ big impact tips should typically be applied from the start.

Thank you for choosing The E-Book Handbook. I am confident that it will help you to create, format, publish, market, and sell your own e-book as inexpensively and efficiently as possible!

Preface to the 2012 Revised Edition

The previous year, 2011, proved to be an exciting period for anyone interested in reading or writing e-books. The Nook Simple Touch and Kindle Touch were introduced, as well as Amazon’s tablet, the Kindle Fire. These advancements in e-readers provide new and better ways to present content to the reader. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing brings authors’ works to new audiences in France, Italy, and Spain, and their Kindle Format 8 now allows more versatility and control over content such as tables and layouts. Apple introduced iBook Author software which allows authors to quickly and easily create interactive iPad e-books by simply dragging and dropping content and widgets.

Despite all of these developments, the process of self-publishing a basic fiction or non-fiction e-book had not dramatically changed. E-reader screen resolutions may necessitate higher resolution images and foreign sales may require additional effort to set up and monitor, but new uploading options have made aspects of the process even easier.

Be sure to keep track of new e-book developments throughout 2012 by checking the websites I describe in the Sharing Your Success section at the end of this guide.

1. So You’re Ready to Write an E-Book

1.1 My E-Book Story

One day, several months ago, I was in a bookstore reading some of the latest digital camera guides. As I looked through various books from different authors and publishers I became increasingly frustrated. Very few of them, it seemed to me, really seemed to get it. Only one or two of the books or series of guides appeared to be truly helpful to a new digital SLR user looking to not only learn to operate their camera, but to understand when and why to use the various controls and settings in real life. I thought back to the process I went through as I learned how to use my first digital SLR, and all the knowledge I continued to accumulate from experience, books, blogs, and forums, and was convinced I could do a better job of explaining how to use one of these cameras to their full potential.

Over the next few days I contemplated writing an e-book user’s guide for the latest digital SLR that had recently been released. I wondered how many e-books I could sell and tried to determine if it would be worth my time and effort. I concluded that based on the time I would have to invest in researching and writing the guide and the couple dozen copies I would probably – at most – sell, it would fall far short of being a profitable exercise. But I was still convinced that I could write a better guide, so I began working on it. After a couple weeks of intense effort I had completed the guide, put it up for sale using a shopping cart and digital delivery service called E-Junkie and informed the world about it on my photography blog. Two days later I made my first sale.

Figure 2 – One of my e-book camera guides for sale on Amazon.com.

Additional sales slowly followed, and then after two more weeks I discovered that I could also put my e-book up for sale online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for free and with a minimum amount of additional effort (see Figure 2). Six months later I was offering five e-books, had sold over 1,500 copies of them, had spent less than 3% of the net profit in costs, and had recently learned I could also offer them for sale on the Sony Reader Store and on Apple iTunes and the iBooks App via an e-book distributor (or aggregator) called Smashwords. Eight months after my first sale my e-books were regularly at or near the top of the Photography Equipment and Photography Reference bestseller lists for Kindle e-books on Amazon and I was earning enough profit to be able to dedicate myself full-time to pursuing my personal interests including photography, continuing to write e-books about photography, and contributing to my blog – the primary marketing tool for my rapidly growing e-book empire.

1.2 Your E-Book Story

While I hope that your e-books are as successful, I’m not trying to imply that every e-book venture will have the same immediate results. Several aspects of what I lightheartedly refer to as my e-book empire were already in place and had developed slowly over long periods of time. I had started my blog in 2008 and developed it into a successful site about photography, photography equipment and techniques over the following couple years, and thus already had a small audience of potential e-book readers. I also participate in forums discussing photography and camera equipment and I have acquired photography and digital camera expertise from working as a professional photographer and through my experience as a salesperson in a camera store. I have always enjoyed writing, and have honed my technical photography writing skills with my blog. I have computer, Internet, Word, PDF, formatting, and HTML skills which I had learned over the previous decade or so, as well as graphic design, web design, and Photoshop skills from my careers as an architect and photographer. My website was already in place and I possess the basic knowledge needed to create new webpages. And I already owned a computer and the software required to write an e-book document (Word), create a cover (Photoshop or Photoshop Elements), and convert it all into a secure PDF document (Adobe Acrobat).

But I can tell you that if you have information, knowledge, or a story that others are interested in reading and the skills to write, format, put on sale, and market an e-book, much of the rest is both straightforward and free or very low cost. Even the types of software I mention above are available in free versions such as the OpenOffice software suite (http://www.openoffice.org/). Using a digital delivery site coordinated with a payment processor like E-Junkie and PayPal or an e-book publisher like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing or Barnes and Noble’s PubIt!, the transactions and digital delivery occur automatically with a minimum amount of participation by you once they are set