I want to thank everybody who’s emailed me lately asking how much I charge to produce an ebook. (I apologize to those who ended up in the spam box–I don’t know why gmail is doing that, but I am now checking my spam box regularly)
I appreciate your compliments about my ebooks. I’m very proud of them and it thrills me no end to be noticed for something I am so passionate about. It also thrills me to know that so many of you are finding this blog useful and you’re using what I’m learning to lift your ebooks out of the “ugly cousin” ghetto and into the “hot chick everybody wants” high rise. Ebooks can be beautiful and we’re proving it, aren’t we?
With that said, I posted a page listing my prices.
Because I’m a reader first and foremost and I treasure the written word–no matter what form it takes–every one of my ebooks is a custom job. No templates, no assembly lines, no same ol’ same ol’. I enjoy challenges. (This does make me a little nutty at times, but the best thing about being self-employed is that even when the worker-bee is off her nut, the boss has to suck it up–ha!)
When I take an ebook into production, it’s from start to finish. I’m the Queen of Clean, so I’ll scour your manuscript file, stripping out all the little nasties that make ebooks hiccup and making sure your punctuation is consistent and up to standard. Your ebook will be a custom job, laid out the way you want it, as fancy or plain as you desire. You’ll get a validated EPUB file (suitable for uploading to Barnes&Noble and Kobo or selling direct off your own site), a MOBI file (for Amazon) and a clean doc file you can use to format a Smashwords file or an ARC or whatever else you might need it for. I can also format the Smashwords file for you, but it will be plain since currently the major concern with Smashwords is getting it through the Meatgrinder in one piece–the fancy bits just make trouble. You have the option of doing the proofreading yourself or hiring me to do it.
So, again thank you for your queries. If you need me, I’ll be right over there, figuring out new ways to make ebooks even better.
QA Productions 
Excellent! So glad you did this. 🙂
Thank you.
Working table of contents? Sorry if that’s a “but of course!” sort of question, but that was the piece that made me wish I’d just paid someone instead of pulling my hair out learning how to do it myself.
Ain’t it the truth, Sarah. It’s the littlest things that make us bald before our times. Did you figure it out or do I need to do a blog post about this?
Oh, I did figure it out, but I would definitely pay $150 not to ever have to do it again. Especially for someone like me, when the only books I’m formatting are my own and I’m not a very fast writer, learning how and then keeping up with the changes is time and effort that’s probably better used elsewhere if having someone else do it is affordable.
After I wrote that, I thought, hmm, but if Jaye wrote a post, I could bookmark it and then next time I could just find the bookmark. So sure, a post would be great! Although that said, I think I’d probably prefer to just pay you the $150 if you include a TOC. How far out in advance do you think you’ll be scheduling?
I’m a huge believer in do-it-yourself and ebook formatting isn’t brain surgery. Anyone smart enough to write a book can learn to format the book. IF they want to. IF they have the time. IF that is mental energy they want to take away from their writing.
DIY is an option. Hiring a formatter is an option. That’s what’s being a writer today is all about. Options.
Great post! And it gives one ammo when coming up with the “slightly-more-scientific-than-throwing-darts-at-a-dartboard” way of analyzing one’s costs to come up with the price one assigns to one’s e-book.
Now, if I could just figure out from where that errant hyphen is coming…. 🙂
You had me obsessanating over that one, Jon. Shees, i wonder if some of the hiccups that turn up in devices are little jokes played by the device makers. Sort of like the factory worker who dropped a marble in the window well of a Rolls Royce then left a note: So? How long did it take you find this?
Hi Jaye: Nice story about the Rolls Royce worker!
I still have not solved the errant hyphen issue. The last thing I can think of trying is putting that section in a span with an nh class, defined thus:
.nh
{ hyphens: none;
}
And, as soon as I try this, I’ll let you know the results! 😉
Dear Jaye – thank you for your services! Second to none!
Hi Jaye, I’m one of the people who ended up in your Spam box. My query was about formatting a paperback for Amazon. Do the prices you cited apply to that as well as to the Kindle – and, if so, is there any point my emailing you again with more details so that we could agree on a price?