Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

ebooks

Reading Ebooks on Your Smartphone

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Smartphones have exploded in popularity in the last few years, and because so many people own smartphones, publishers are now thinking about how to best deliver digital content to the small screen. As a side anecdote, four years ago (2011) I was sitting in a marketing class at NYU, and the lecturer was telling us about how she read all five A Song of Ice and Fire books (you … [Read more...] about Reading Ebooks on Your Smartphone

What Rights Do Ebook Owners Have?

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Over the last few years, there has been a lot of discussion around the ownership of ebooks. The LA Times reported in 2012 about how ebook owners had few rights when it came to their ebooks. Instead of owning ebooks they purchased, they were merely licensing them: Unlike the owners of a physical tome, they won't have the unlimited right to lend an e-book, give it away, … [Read more...] about What Rights Do Ebook Owners Have?

805 Writers Conference: Self-Publishing Primer and More

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This past weekend, I was one of the speakers at the 805 Writers Conference, held in Ventura, California. 805 Writers Conference is an annual event for writers, and this year had a number of wonderful speakers who covered a wide range of topics, including adapting fiction for the screen, writing a non-fiction proposal, writing mysteries and thrillers, writing articles, how to … [Read more...] about 805 Writers Conference: Self-Publishing Primer and More

Guest Post: 9 Tips to Help Ensure E-Book Success

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By James A. Rose - InstantPublisher James A. Rose gives tips on how to be more successful when it comes to selling ebooks. Indie e-book publishing has exploded in the past five years or so and for good reason. It is the best method for new authors on a limited budget to introduce their book to as many potential readers as possible. Right from your home office you can upload … [Read more...] about Guest Post: 9 Tips to Help Ensure E-Book Success

Displaying Ebooks in New Ways

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It's not just ebooks that are disrupting. Technology that displays ebooks is changing, which has led to some potentially creative new ways to read books, or at least to look at them. On Publishing Perspectives, Bob Pritchett wrote about what needs to change in publishing, including the fact that the length of the book should not be tied to the genre, books should be able to … [Read more...] about Displaying Ebooks in New Ways

Writing and Sounds

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When it comes to writing, people don't always think about the sounds that are involved. But sound is one of the senses you can write about and explore, in both fiction and non-fiction. Live Write Thrive has a great post on sounds in novels, called "The Sound of ... Sound in Novels." It describes different types of sounds, such as natural sounds, which are part of the … [Read more...] about Writing and Sounds

Indie Authors and Libraries

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Libraries are wonderful for indie authors. They open up a whole new audience of readers, but unfortunately the route to getting an indie book into a library is not always very clear. The American Library Association (ALA) has a great fact sheet that goes over what libraries buy, when they look to buy books, what the library market looks like, and marketing opportunities. The … [Read more...] about Indie Authors and Libraries

Guest Post: Piracy on the High Ether

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By Valley Brown - author of Speeding Tickets Piracy can be a serious issue for indie authors of ebooks. Valley Brown explains her personal experiences with digital piracy, and what she did to fight it. The Internet is a vast ocean swarming with pirates. So I had been warned by any number of publishing professionals and experienced authors. Being a newbie author with an … [Read more...] about Guest Post: Piracy on the High Ether

Indie Authors and Kindle Unlimited

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Amazon's Kindle Unlimited (KU) service, where readers pay $9.99 per month and authors are paid out of a monthly fund, seems to be very polarizing. Kindle Unlimited History When KU first launched, many authors complained about it, citing its unfair payment system or how it encourages people to upload short, and often not well written, books (since originally authors were only … [Read more...] about Indie Authors and Kindle Unlimited

Ebook Distribution: Google Play

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There's a lot going on with Google Play lately, at least when it comes to ebooks. About a month ago, Google Play shut down its book publisher program, at least temporarily, to new users while they sort out all the accusations about pirated ebooks on the platform, according to GoodeReader. It's a shame, and hopefully Google will reopen again to new authors soon. For … [Read more...] about Ebook Distribution: Google Play

Smashwords: An Indie Author Guide

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Smashwords is a retailer and an ebook distributor, and a great choice for indie authors. Why? Because the platform lets you upload once and sell on multiple outlets, saving authors a lot of time, and it offers a number of marketing options. If you want a step by step on how to upload and distribute ebooks via Smashwords, read my EPUBZone article, "Ebook Distribution for the … [Read more...] about Smashwords: An Indie Author Guide

New Ebook Fonts Make Ereading More Like Print

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The average reader probably doesn't think a lot about fonts, but they are important contributors to the reading experience. A few weeks ago, Google announced a new typeface for Google Books, called Literata. The Next Web goes into more detail, but the gist is Google ebooks now have a font that distinguishes it from ebooks read on a Nook or Kindle, and it was created to give … [Read more...] about New Ebook Fonts Make Ereading More Like Print

Indie Authors: Digital Comics

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Novels, children picture books, and even cookbooks are often discussed in the digital publishing realm, but another type of book is gaining more prominence: comic books. Comics are generally fixed format, because they are so image heavy and where the text is place matters (or else it doesn't make sense). So, to make an EPUB comic book, you will have to manually code and … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Digital Comics

What Indie Book Publishing and Indie Game Development Have In Common, Part 3

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A while back, I watched Indie Game: The Movie and was struck by how much indie game development and indie book publishing had in common. I had the pleasure of interviewing the talented and inspiring indie game developer, Jonathan Blow. Below is the second in a three-part series that discusses the similarities between developing games and publishing books as an indie. Read Part … [Read more...] about What Indie Book Publishing and Indie Game Development Have In Common, Part 3