What Makes Self-Publishing Fun

Alert: for the second time this week, this post is not about producing ebooks.

It’s not my habit to use this blog to promote books. I’m not big on marketing and promotion. I do urge my friends to read books all the time, sometimes to the point of obnoxiousness and sometimes will resort to gifting them books from Amazon so they HAVE to read whatever I’m excited about. But other than an occasional tweet or talking about books on my other blog (which I haven’t done enough of lately) I rarely do that with strangers.

Today, though, I want you to buy a book.

It’s a short story and it’s only .99 cents on Amazon. It’s about zombies, so it may not appeal to everybody. Maybe you could gift it to a friend. Or give it a tweet or a mention on Goodreads or whatever it is you happen to do. You could even read it and review it.

Let me tell you why.

I get emails from folks who solved a problem or learned a new trick from reading this blog. They say thank you. I’ve had emails from folks who’ve dipped their toes in self-publishing waters and found out the water is just fine, and they say they got up the nerve to try because this blog encouraged them to do so. They say thank you. I’ve made friends who’ve helped me and I help them and there are thank you’s all around. I look at the search queries that bring visitors to this blog and it gives me a good feeling knowing they are finding some answers. It makes me feel useful and for that I feel thankful.

None of this would happened without one person. If you’ve learned something or felt inspired to self-publish or to make more beautiful ebooks or striven to meet new challenges because of something you’ve read on this blog, you should thank Marina Bridges.

I met Marina many moons ago on the eBay blogs. Our senses of humor clicked. When I found out that not only was Marina funny as could be, but that she wrote, too, I started bugging her for stories. When I began looking at self-publishing. I asked Marina if she’d be interested in being the “test” case, so to speak. She said yes and that’s how it started. We bought Kindles. We got hooked. I started the process of learning how to produce an ebook. Marina trusted me to get better. That’s a terrific quality in a friend, by the way. I’d propose something nutty and she’d say, “Um… okay,” and then I’d scamper off to do the nutty thing. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but she always had faith that I’d figure it out.

She’s still my biggest supporter. Most days the chat box is open and she gets to “hear” me bitching about my computer or railing against my own idiocy when I screw something up. Whenever I figure something out or produce something nifty, I send her screenshots and she listens while I crow. It must bore her to tears when I’m problem-solving “out loud” about formatting issues, but she never says it does. She listens. When I’m feeling down, she writes stories and sends me snippets to make me laugh. (somehow, ahem, always forgetting to issue a spew alert)

She is the number one reason book production and self-publishing is fun for me. She doesn’t let me get too serious–she mocks me heartily when I do. She encourages me when I feel stupid and out of my league. She’s always ready to say, “Oh go ahead, you can do that.” She keeps it real and she keeps it fun.

There is no Thank You in the world big enough for that.

So. If you have ever felt the urge to say thank you to me for this blog, the very best way you can do that is to thank Marina and buy her short story. It’s a little thing, but it would mean the world to me.

Junk Mail, a Kindle short story, on Amazon.

What Does A Self-Publishing Service REALLY Do?

Two articles jumped out at me this week: David Gaughran’s blog post, “The Author Explotation Business,” about how traditional publishers are finding new ways to rip off writers, and a piece in Salon by Ted Heller, “The future is no fun: Self-publishing is the worst,” wherein he bemoans his lack of success with a self-published book. Heller’s article seems (to me) to answer the question raised by Gaughran’s post:

How can anybody be so dumb as to fall for that shit?

Here is what Heller says:

As I write these words, I am now in my seventh week of attempting to spread the word about “West of Babylon.” I have sent emails to many newspapers, from the Boston Globe down to the Miami Herald across to the San Francisco … well, to just about everywhere. I’ve sent emails to newspapers and magazines in England, too, and to websites and book blogs. In each email I send, I announce that “West of Babylon” will be available online only as of early May 2013. I attach the cover image and stellar reviews of my three novels. I do everything I possibly can in about four or five paragraphs to inspire interest in whomever the email is sent to.

The author didn’t fall for a publishing scam, but he easily could have. He very easily could be ripe for plucking in the future. I know why. He does NOT understand the Chain of Happiness.

In Traditional Publishing, the Chain of Happiness works like this:

• WRITER has to make the EDITOR happy
• EDITOR has to make higher-up editors, the marketing department and the accountants happy
• Higher-up editors have to make MARKETING happy
• The marketing department has to make REVIEWERS and the NEW YORK TIMES book editor happy
• The sales department has to make BOOK STORES happy
• Everybody has to make the PUBLISHER happy
• The PUBLISHER has to make the STOCKHOLDERS and BOARD OF DIRECTORS happy

Contrast that with the indie’s Chain of Happiness:

• WRITER has to make the READERS happy

Notice what’s missing in the first chain of happiness? If you said “readers,” give yourself a gold star. If that list gives you some hints about why traditional publishing is in such disarray and why some self-publishers are succeeding beyond almost everybody’s expectations, give yourself another star.

And yes, I know there are many traditionally published books that make readers very happy. The point I’m making is about focus and priorities. With most publishers, and especially the Big Publishing Houses, reader happiness is a side effect, not a priority.

The author of the Salon piece is locked in the Trad-pub mode of thinking. What he doesn’t realize is this: Reviewers don’t buy books. Sure, reviews can help get the word out about a book, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that reviews SELL books. By focusing all his energy and attention on people who don’t matter, the author is neglecting the only people who do: Readers.

Which takes us back to David Gaughran’s blog post. Go read it. I’ll wait. Are you back? Did you follow all the links? Got a queasy feeling in your guts now?

Did this passage jump out at you the way it did me?

And it’s much harder to tell the scammers from the legitimate organizations when they are owned by the same people.

Think about the traditional publisher’s chain of happiness. Who does a publisher have to make happy? Stockholders and the board of directors. What makes them happy? Money. Not that there is anything wrong with making money. Money is good in that it can be exchanged for coffee and cookies. So I have no objection to money. When your sole concern is making money and making more money and the desperation creeps in that you need to make even more money (come on, even I have limits to how much coffee and how many cookies I can consume!) then strange and ugly things happen. Such as once legitimate publishers ripping off writers with overpriced or useless “services.”

Self-publishing “services” are in the business of taking as much money as possible from you. That’s it. That is their sole reason for being. They will do anything, say anything, play into all your hopes and fears and dreams and desires in order to get you to pony up the cash.

What you, my friends, need to do is NEVER FORGET YOUR CHAIN OF HAPPINESS.

Before you sign any contract, or fork over a single dime, you have to ask yourself: How will this make my readers happy?

Don’t sit there moon-eyed and slack-jawed and force me to go all Gordon Ramsay on you. Come on, ya donuts!  You’re a reader, aren’t you? What makes you happy?

• A good book
• Professionally presented
• Available
• At a reasonable price

That’s it. That’s your focus. That’s where all your energy (and your cash outlay) belongs. Writing the good book is entirely on you. Making sure it’s professionally edited, produced and packaged are fixed, one-time costs. Making it available (distributed) is easy through online sales channels; more challenging (but not impossible) in print. Determining a reasonable price for your work is a matter of market research.

There are no tricks or gimmicks or shortcuts. I won’t lie to you. Publishing is a tough business. Successful self-publishers are tough nuts who work their asses off. You can’t buy success. You have to earn it.

Let me tell you what’s really expensive in this business: Ignorance. With so many weasels out to entangle your rights and licenses for the life of the copyright (your life plus 70 years), that ignorance could cost you and your heirs for decades.

Learn the business. Learn about packaging and production. Learn about distribution. Learn about getting the word out and building a reader base. Learn to question big claims and bigger promises. Most importantly of all, learn to recognize anything that stands between you and making your readers happy. If it does, walk away.

 

 

 

Changing Ereader Landscapes: What Can It Mean?

I don’t usually post unless I have reached a conclusion of some sort–even if it is wrong (I trust my readers to set me straight). Now I’m just puzzled. This started when I was trying to figure out yet another bug in my Kindle Keyboard. For those who don’t know, that’s the older Kindle model with the tiny keyboard on the casing. Sturdy, reliable, GREAT battery life, and here recently, full of bugs. This time it affects bold face type. Sometimes it displays, sometimes it doesn’t. And I found an instance where it partially displays.

That same day Jon Westcot sent me an email about Nook ereaders. I couldn’t suss out what was going on, though was able, as usual, to come up with some wild-ass conspiracy theories. Here is what Jon sent:

Here’s an interesting situation (meant in the truest Chinese curse way):

With most of your journal postings, you talk about formatting issues, and most of the conflicts come from the support of the “standard” that the various device developers produce and maintain.

But I have found yet another layer to this mess that I wanted to tell you about. I am currently working towards freeing my Nook Tablet from the restrictive yoke of Barnes and Noble’s operating system and replacing it with a basically fully implemented version of the Android OS. (It’s a long, geeky process, but it’s been informative, frustrating… and even fun. And yes, I know I have a “unique” idea of fun.) As part of that process, I’m trying out various ePub readers.

Oh my freaking God!

What a mess! I first downloaded the Nook for Android application. It can’t even find my library of books because I choose to keep them on the secondary memory card. I can’t even contact B&N support because what I’m doing with my Nook violates its warranty, even though the question has to do with their non-device software.

So, I turned to the Google Apps Store to look for ePub readers. The first one I grabbed, while having a huge number of downloads and a nearly 5-star rating, decided to display everything with a Chinese font!

The next one was okay — at least, it showed readable text! But the formatting was all wrong. It took a lot of wrangling to finally find the setting that lets the user accept the publisher’s formatting defaults! Preposterous!

So, I’m still looking for a good e-reader. Until then, I won’t fully migrate my Nook Tablet to the Android OS. But this whole process really surprised — and disheartened — me. It just never occurred to me that the independently-developed e-readers would be so… crappy. I would have expected just the opposite.

I guess this means that we have more things to worry about than “just” the way device developers create e-book reading software — now we have to worry about the software developers, too.

To which my mind leapt to one truly dark scenario and one big conspiracy theory.

I’ve suspected all along that much of what goes into programming and creating platforms for ereaders is created by people who have little concern–or perhaps little awareness–of end users. Is there any other industry that works this way? Maybe high fashion dress designers.

The industry WANTS us all to move happily into the land of tablets. Tablets are cool, but for reading, the dedicated ereaders are far superior. From the industry point of view, all the ereaders can do is, you know, books. Tablets offer chance after chance after chance to sell the user something.

So no, I don’t honestly think dedicated ereader device makers give a shit about the quality of the books that end up on them. In fact, the crappier the ebooks look, the higher the chance that users will turn to tablets. Case in point, I spent time this morning trying to figure out bugs in the eink Kindles. These are bugs that showed up in the latest update. Now for the longest time my Kindle was perfectly stable. Ever since the Fire came out, every update–and there seem to be a lot lately–makes the eink readers work worse and worse. There is no good reason for that. None.

On a side note, I think the Nook is dead. It might be a great device, but B&N has given up on it. The new ‘owners’ (Google? Microsoft?) don’t care because content is king and they aren’t making money off the content going onto a Nook. The only way they can cash in is to lure Nook users into buying tablets. A really nasty sneaky way to do that is to ensure that cross-device apps DO NOT WORK. I think B&N is going to collapse, too. When it goes, that is basically going to leave Amazon and Apple.

I love my eink, but I suspect the bugs are going to get worse while the Fire gets better. Kobo might have a few years while it worms its way into the international market, but in the end the only dedicated readers are going to be shoved into the obsolete closet and there they will stay.

What a state of affairs, eh?

To which Jon replied:

The fact that B&N doesn’t want people using the NC or NT for anything other than what they intend. But these devices are hackable, no matter how hard B&N tries to lock them down. And they do try; every new release of the OS has blocked previous exploits. But those who hack these devices are brilliant. They figure out ways to get around everything, it seems. And that is a good thing! These are OUR devices that we bought and paid for, and we should be able to use them as we see fit.

What shocked me was… well, it was really two things. First, I was surprised at the number of ePub reader applications I found. Most of them are free, which leads into my second shock — just how bad these applications are! I guess one really does get what one pays for. I don’t think I could write an ePub reader (but it might be fun to try), so I can’t imagine why someone would so do and not charge for it, even a paltry $0.99.

It saddens me to think that the Nook may be going away. I really like mine, but I must admit I have thought about saving up for a tablet, though I would really hate to give up my Nook. I really like the new, larger device B&N released, but I haven’t seen anything about its hackability. I looked at it in-store when it first came out and really liked most of the improvements they made to the OS. I asked the rep at the store if the OS would be upgraded for the older devices and he looked at me like I’d just shot a flaming porcupine from my butt. “That’s old tech,” he muttered in defence. More like in ignorance; there was no reason these devices couldn’t run at least 99% of the new OS’s features. I could have argued it with him, but there wouldn’t have been much point to it.

I do think the dedicated ereader makers (at least Amazon and B&N) do care about how ebooks look on their devices. If they look like crap, that reflects badly on their devices. In my opinion.

To which I replied:

You’d think Amazon and B&N would be more concerned, but the evidence says otherwise. Apple is fanatical about quality control, but I suspect it has more to do with protecting the integrity of their devices. Making attractive ebooks is a side effect.

The rest seem happy to let the producers and consumers duke it out. Meaning, it’s up to the producers to play catch up (if they can) and for consumers to keep buying newer, better, fancier devices. It’s weird to me, but I’m not a business person and don’t pretend to be one.

********************************

So that’s it. Something is going on in the land of ereaders and ebooks, but hell if I have a real clue about what it all might mean. My suspicions are two-fold: One) B&N is circling the drain (my bets are on them showing up in bankruptcy court before the year has ended); Two) Dedicated ereader devices are going the way of the 8-track tape player.

I don’t know for a fact what any of this means for me and thee. I probably wouldn’t even know something was up if I didn’t have three models of Kindles so I could watch as one wildly improves (the Kindle Fire) while the others (eink Paperwhite and Keyboard) slowly degrade with every update. Jon’s experience leads me to suspect that nobody cares enough about the Nook to invest in apps and other support for its users.

Make of this what you will.

Does Style Matter In Ebooks?

Back in my traditional publishing days it was always a big cause for celebration whenever a writer got a hardcover deal (I never got one). It was a sign that the writer was moving up, that the publishers took her more seriously, and that the book itself was important. Bigger price tag, more room on the shelf, and readers who not only read, but collected. It was a Big Deal.

Or was it? Words is words and stories is stories whether they are bound in cardboard or paper. Right? What real difference does it make when a mass market paperback reads the same as a hardcover?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it is a Big Deal. There is an aesthetic beauty to a well made hardcover book. From the binding itself, to its weightiness, to the extra care taken in typography and layout. It is that “experience” I’ve talked about before. How the look and “feel” of a book can affect how readers experience the text.

You can make a strong argument for “words is words” and the format doesn’t matter. But it’s not an argument that works with me. For instance, I’ve produced a lot of manuscripts. I have read a lot of manuscripts from others. When I am reading a manuscript it makes no difference how good the story is, the reading experience is Work. My inner editor flips to ON and there is no way to turn it off. If I want to read for pleasure, which means getting sucked into the story-world and engaged with the characters, I want a book–in some form–and not a manuscript.

I’m strongly affected by how my ebooks look, too. While getting this post ready I searched through my Kindle for examples and realized I have very few poorly formatted ebooks and not many serviceable-but-plain ebooks either. It’s because I download samples before I buy. If the sample doesn’t appeal to me visually, I probably won’t buy the book. Here’s one I did buy because I happen to like the author’s stories very much, but I absolutely hate the formatting.

This is “page” one.

The problem with this format is that the start of the book looks exactly the same as the rest of the book. Every time I Go To the beginning, this is where I land, then it’s swipe, swipe, click click, trying to figure out where the real beginning is. Even though I enjoyed the story, the lack of visual clues and the text-only formatting bugged me.

Contrast that sample with this one:

Any questions that this is the beginning? Turns out this ebook is actually ‘broken’ so I was forced to read it in ugly font and couldn’t change the line spacing, but despite that the formatter made a real effort to make the book look interesting.

The next example is from an ebook that truly did it right, on every level.

It works properly, the headers tell a story by themselves, and the formatter used some interesting techniques throughout which I’ve been busily trying to figure out how to do.

Contrast that with an example from a sample that I did not buy.

Not only is this ebook badly broken–none of the user features work–but the layout looks exactly like a manuscript. In fact, I suspect the person who formatted this mess took a Word document with manuscript formatting and ran it through MobiPocket.

My mother was never one for good advice, but one thing she said stuck: “Nobody is going to care more about you than you care about yourself.” That applies to books, too–print or digital.

Go back to hardcover versus mass market paperback. The format proclaimed the hardcover as the better book. The more important book. Readers might not articulate it, or even consciously realize it, but they trust the hardcover more. The fact that a publisher cared enough about the book to produce it as a hardcover automatically made it ‘better.” This is perception, not reality. We are talking about taste where perception matters very much and reality takes a back seat.

One reality, reading devices are getting better. I’ve started using color in my formats. Why? Because it’s fun and it’s visually interesting and because it makes the books look fabulous on a tablet.

Because I’m too much of a derp de derp to figure out how to take screenshots off my Kindle Fire, you’ll have to take my word for it. The above example has a hot pink header. It looks fabulous on the Fire.

Now, does your ebook have to be all fancy pants, tarted up like it’s heading to the hottest club in town? Of course not. Different styles for different books. Take a look at the following example. Simple, elegant, but serious to match the tone of the book.

As reading devices improve, readers will grow increasingly demanding about the quality of ebooks. Not only will they expect (and they should!) that the ebooks work properly on their devices, but they’ll start expecting the ebooks to look better, too.

Writers need to ask themselves: Do they want their work perceived as a “cheapie throwaway” or is it “hardcover worthy?” The more YOU care, the more others will care in response.

What about the rest of you? How much does style matter to you?

Book Templates From the Book Designer!

This isn’t an ad–it’s a public service announcement. Joel Friedlander aka the Book Designer has launched a new service for indie publishers. It looks like a good one.

BOOK DESIGN TEMPLATES

If you don’t know who Joel is, pop over to his blog for a minute and look around. Not only does he post interesting and informative articles, he also does the monthly cover awards–open to all–AND he does the Carnival of Indies, a monthly round-up of the best blog articles for indie publishers.

His new service offers templates to help you create a professional looking print book using Word. Yes, that bane of the formatter’s existence, MS Word. What makes these different and better than the templates offered by CreateSpace is the heart and mind of an experienced, artful book designer behind them.

If you are interested in DIY print book formatting, you should at least check this out.

What The Heck Is A Book Anyway?

This post doesn’t seem to be about ebook formatting, but it is, sort of.

In the evenings, here of late, I’ve been taking my formatting-fried brain over to Wattpad. Browsing, snooping around, skimming stories, seeing what the kids are up to. It’s fascinating, actually. I suggest anyone who writes YA and wants to know what matters most with kids today, spend a few hours on Wattpad. Thousands, maybe millions of young people are pouring their hearts out on the virtual page, using stories as social activities and developing communication skills via the written word.

It’s a free-wheeling, free-for-all, and I’d say the majority of writers on Wattpad not only don’t know the “rules” of writing, but don’t really give a shit that rules exist. (This appeals to my inner-anarchist.)

Every once in a while I run across a kid who is struggling to be a “real” writer, as in one day he or she hopes to write something that others will willingly pay to read. They are interested in the “rules.” They seek feedback and ask questions.

One question–”How many chapters should a novel have?”–started me thinking about the nature of fiction. I was tempted to reply, “As many as it needs,” but with a bit of thought, what I really wanted to ask was, “Why do novels need chapters?” Seriously. Who established the rules in the first place?

A lot of conventions in fiction–the rules–have come into being for reasons that have nothing to do with storytelling. Flash fiction, short stories, novellas, novels, series, serials, poetry–those are story forms. But where do the length and structure “rules” come from? Printing and shelf space. It’s about costs, profits and loss.

Novels became the preferred method of storytelling (for publishers) not because it’s what readers wanted most, not because it was what writers wanted to write the most, but because it makes the most sense economically. It is expensive to prep, print and ship a book. It is expensive to shelve and sell it in a bookstore. The publishers have focused on the story form that made the most economic sense. “Standard” word counts for genre fiction don’t have anything to do with storytelling–it’s all about the size of the paperback. Poetry “fell out of favor” not because of a dearth of poets or people who love poetry, but because of economics. It takes a long time for a poet to build enough of an audience to make it economically feasible to print-publish their poems. We’re talking years. If a bookstore has to choose between a book of poems that might sell one or ten copies a year and the latest Twilight rip-off that will move hundreds of units in a month, which makes more economic sense? Shelf space is valuable real estate.

Ebooks, all digital publishing (blogs, websites) for that matter, don’t have to take into account the two major economic factors that have driven (and limited) traditional publishing: shipping and shelf-space. After the editing and cover treatment, formatting an ebook is a hell of a lot cheaper than setting up a print run and binding a book. Another factor that affects print, but is a non-issue in ebooks, is “too-thin” and “too-thick.” Readers have been trained, so to speak, into the mind-set that a “proper” sort of book is a certain thickness. Word counts and page lengths are constructs of printing, not storytelling. If a story can be told well in 30,000 words, it is only the demands of print that insist it must be padded to a minimum of 60,000 words before it is economically feasible to publish. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s no reason to limit a story’s length. Ebooks make it possible for people other than Stephen King to publish a 500,000 word novel.

I’ve published two of my short stories as singles. They only sell a few copies a month. It doesn’t matter. They’ll be available for as long as I want them available (or until the zombie apocalypse). If I were a poet, I’d be e-publishing them as fast as I could compose them. Why not? Shelf space is essentially free. I own a fairly large collection of eddic poetry. I’d love to see a resurgence in the form. It’s perfect for ebooks. Print publishers might turn up their noses because of economics, but there is an outlet now for the storyteller who enjoys the challenge.

I think it’s time to chuck some of the “rules” of storytelling. Especially those rules that came into being because of the economies of print and shelf space, and NOT because of storytelling. The kids on Wattpad have the advantage. They haven’t been tainted by print publishers. They don’t know enough about the rules to worry about them. As a result, they are coming up with their own story forms and structures. Not all will work, but I predict some interesting new ways to tell stories will eventually emerge.

So. I promised this post would sort of have to do with ebook formatting. Instead of a conclusion or a how-to, a question: “What is a book, anyway?” Modern publishing has defined the “book” and the fiction forms that go inside them. Digital publishers don’t have to abide by those definitions. Size and space and frequency and sell-by dates–all those are moot considerations. They do not matter. As fiction writers AND as ebook producers, we can make our own rules. Theirs no longer make sense.

TWO Files For Smashwords?!? Not So Fast With The WTF, Folks

I’ve been one of the noisy gripers bitchin’ about the Smashwords “Meatgrinder.” My complaint was not what Mark Coker of SW was doing, but that MS Word makes lousy ebooks. Now, Coker has made it possible for ebook producers to submit validated EPUB files for distribution wherever fine EPUB-platform ebooks are sold.

This is terrific news.

Now I’m seeing complaints all over the ‘net that in order for an ebook to be fully distributed in the SW catalog one must also submit a Word file along with the EPUB file. A lot of WTF going on and people acting as if they’ve been somehow buffaloed.

Back off a minute and put down your pitchforks and torches. In order for SW to do what it’s been doing, it’s had to take a one-size-fits-all approach (could not have afforded it any other way). Using Word as the source file for conversion made sense for two reasons:

• One) SW is mostly a self-publishing platform for WRITERS who use WORD PROCESSORS to create DOCUMENTS;
• Two) Ebook files are based on html coding (they are essentially little websites) and most word processors are based on html which can be converted so they can be read on various and sundry devices.

The problems were not so much in the conversion. The problems came from the ereader devices. Every one of them is different. Some use older technology, some use the newest technology. Many have user interfaces, allowing readers to customize (to an extent) the way they read an ebook. (Ever wonder why mobi files are so big compared to an EPUB file? It’s because they are actually several different formats–eink, tablet, keyboard, touch screen–all of which display differently and give the reader different options on the various Kindle devices.)

Smashwords also offers readers different options, such as PDF and (essentially) text files for reading on the computer. They offer formats like LRF and PDB for people with older, almost obsolete devices.

A mobi file can be converted from EPUB, but it requires some adjustments to the css, the cover image and navigation coding. You can do things on a Nook you can’t do on a Kindle (for instance), and vice versa. Much different platforms. I can convert an EPUB to a mobi file and read it on my Kindle, but in order to make it work properly on all Kindle devices, in order to make it convert through Kindlegen without errors, I need a different type of EPUB file.

Then you get into the platforms that aren’t based on EPUB at all. Can I convert an EPUB file into a pdf file? Well, sure, but it’s ridiculously convoluted and requires more clean-up than conversion. The reason is in the name: “Portable Document Format.” Word files convert easily into pdf files because both of them are document files.

The beauty of what Smashwords has done is that if you have a validated EPUB file (and that means error free according to IDPF–International Digital Publishing Forum–standards) it is going to work on the various devices using the EPUB platform–namely Nook, Kobo and Apple products. It will work the way users (our customers) want them to work and the way the device makers intend them to work.

What it boils down to is quality control. I can control the quality of EPUB files in ways that are not possible with a Word file. It’s not about the bells and whistles, it’s about the formatting and making sure my ebooks are stable and functional across devices.

If you understand how ebooks work and how other file formats work, then you know it is not feasible for SW to convert EPUB files into other formats such as mobi or pdf or rtf. That’s my job. These are my ebooks and my readers/customers, and it’s up to me to figure out the best way to make the ebooks I create compatible with their devices.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to ebooks and ereading devices. SW made a valiant effort when it tried to force Word into that role, but it was doomed from the get-go because Word is not the right tool.

EPUB is only one format out of many, and it is not Smashword’s or Mark Coker’s fault that the retailers and device makers cannot get their shit together and settle on a standard.

You do not have to submit two files to SW if you don’t want to. You can go EPUB only–which shuts out those who don’t have a device based on the EPUB platform. You can submit a Word file only–take your chances that your ebook is going to glitch, or settle for an ebook so generic it might as well be a text file.

Something else, too. Smashwords is a distributor. It reaches markets that indies cannot always reach on their own. I suspect the number one reason many of those avenues are closed to direct distribution from indies is because those outfits don’t want to deal with buggy, broken, half-assed ebook files created in word processors. SW could have insisted that those who wished to use their distribution service must provide files in compliance with the different platforms. That would have set back the ebook revolution several years. Instead SW came up with concept that mostly worked. So to those who are bitching that they now have to provide TWO files to SW, take a deep breath, step back and consider the alternative–the market could demand that you create up to ten different formats in order to reach all your potential readers. That, my friends, would be real cause for cries of WTF.

 

Happy New Year, Happy Day: Smashwords Now Accepts EPUB Files

It’s finally happened. Thank you, Mark Coker.

Smashwords Supports EPUB Uploads With Smashwords Direct

“One year ago in my 2011 annual year-in-review here at the Smashwords Blog, we committed to support direct EPUB uploads to the Smashwords platform in the second half of 2012.

Today we fulfilled that commitment with the launch of Smashwords Direct.

This new capability allows our authors and publishers to upload their own professionally formatted EPUB files for sale at the Smashwords store, and for distribution to the Smashwords retail distribution network….”

Read the rest at the Smashwords blog.

What does this mean? Why is this a happy day? A portent of wonderful things to come? At its heart, it means the most important thing:

Stable ebooks

I’ve spent the past year learning how to make stable ebooks. The biggest learning curve lay in figuring out how ebooks work. I’m handicapped because I’m NOT a computer savvy person. I’ve used computers for writing since the 1980s, but quite frankly I’ve used them as glorified typewriters and fancy bookkeeping ledgers with nary a thought about the inner workings or what was going on behind the scenes (behind the screen?). I had to learn a foreign language (html) and figure out who the smart people were so I could learn from them. It’s mostly been trial and error along with plenty of indulgence from some good friends who had enough faith in me to allow me to experiment on their books.

As much as I love the bells and whistles and trying this trick and figuring out that one, the most important lesson I’ve learned is this: If the ebook isn’t stable, none of the fancy stuff matters.

Is it possible for a Do-It-Yourselfer to make a stable ebook with Word? Or Scrivener? Possible, but not probable. Word processors are the wrong tools. You can follow all the directions and be meticulous, but speaking non-tech layperson to non-tech layperson: Shit happens.

A lot of that shit comes from the hardware side of the aisle. Every device maker is dreaming that his device is going to rise as Number One Preferred By Consumers Everywhere. Retailers like Amazon and Apple want their proprietary platforms to be the One Ring That Rules Them All.

With their Meatgrinder conversion program Smashwords struggled mightily to serve a lot of masters, all of them squabbling, and many not playing nice. The goal was to make it possible for anyone to self-publish and get wide distribution. The problem inherent with trying to satisfy everybody, though, is that compromises and narrowing parameters result in an overall lower quality. Ebooks had to be stripped down to the bare bones and great care had to be taken to lessen the chances that shit would happen.

It was backward and upside-down. Here we have increasingly sophisticated ereaders and tablets, full of possibilities that have barely been touched. The wrong tool (Word) makes it too dangerous to attempt exploiting the technology.

In order to reach greater heights, in order to really open up the possibilities, to look under the hood and see what these babies can really do, the ebook must be stable.

A validated EPUB file is stable. When the end user opens their ebook, no matter what the device, it will work. If the user wants to change the line spacing or the font or whatever else their device allows them to do, the ebook will oblige. It will look good on a small screen and it will look good on a big screen. If a user has multiple devices, the ebook will be stable across the devices. The ebook will continue to work even as devices are updated, improved and changed (as long as the devices continue to base them on EPUB–knocking wood here).

What does this mean for the Do-It-Yourselfer? I’m not going to lie. Building a validated EPUB file is NOT the easiest thing in the world. I have heard on good authority that the program called Sigil does a good job and is user-friendly. Having not used it myself, I do not know. Anyone who wants to discuss it, please, feel free.

By opening up Smashwords to EPUB files, my prediction for the New Year is that we’re going to start seeing a serious uptick in the overall quality of ebook formatting. Readers will demand it. They will grow increasingly dissatisfied with bland, generic looking ebooks and unhappy with ebooks that cannot be customized by their devices. We’ll start seeing innovation, too. Right now ebooks are a digital imitation of print. Face it, printed books are just about the perfect medium for conveying text. For that purpose, there’s not much room for improvement. What I’m thinking is how ebooks are different. That’s where the innovations will arise. With a stable platform, a solid foundation from which to build, ebook producers are free to innovate.

So thank you, Mark Coker and Smashwords. I predict your Smashwords Direct publishing option is going to result in benefits far above and beyond whatever it is you envisioned.

What the BLEEP is Wrong With You, Harper-Collins?

Get your BLEEPING substandard BLEEP off my BLEEPING Kindle!

You know what I think about shitty ebooks? It makes me want to start channeling Chef Gordon Ramsay. “Come on! What the BLEEP is wrong with you?”

What set me off? What transformed me from laid-back, easy going, tolerant and generally all ’round good ol’ gal and unleashed my inner-Mad Chef with a potty mouth?

This.

Before I go totally off my nut, let me state, categorically, Stuart MacBride is one of my favorite authors. He’s on my recommended reads list, he’s made my two of my top ten lists, (here and here), and I’ve blogged about his books and characters. AND because I know how publishing houses work, the majority of my wrath is directed at

HARPER-COLLINS

Yeah, that Harper-Collins. You know, the big publisher who curates fine fiction and offers so much value to authors and readers with their editing and covers and marketing and brand name? Yeah, that one.

HARPER-COLLINS–MORE SPECIFICALLY, HARPER-VOYAGER

When I bought my first Kindle the very first book I purchased was Shatter the Bones by Stuart MacBride. Paid a premium for it, too. Despite how little I knew then about ebook formatting, I knew that book was an utter embarrassment. I could make a better looking ebook by running a Word file through MobiPocket. Along with setting me on a journey of learning how to produce a fine-looking ebook, it also taught me the value of downloading samples. Thusly I learned how much contempt Harper-Collins has for its authors and readers. They put out some of the shittiest looking ebooks around.

So why I did buy Halfhead? It looked good and I’m an optimist. I thought, well, finally! HC realizes ebook readers deserve decently formatted ebooks. It wasn’t until I settled in for an enjoyable read that I realized

THEY DIDN’T PROOFREAD THE EBOOK!!!

So to channel my inner-Gordon: “What the BLEEP is BLEEPING wrong with you? Get the BLEEP out of my BLEEPING Kindle! You should be BLEEPING embarrassed! Come on!“

Split words, joined words, backward quote marks, mixed up homonyms, and no consistency in hyphenation. That’s proofreading 101. Halfhead is filled with mistakes a sixth grader could have spotted and fixed. It’s embarrassing.

My goal as a self-publisher is to produce a book with fewer than five typos/gaffes per 100,000 words. That’s a freakin’ high standard and damned near impossible to achieve, but it’s a standard borne of respect for authors, literature and readers. The only way to even get close to meeting that standard is to proofread the ebook until my eyeballs bleed. It means loading a PROOF COPY onto my Kindle and going through the book line by line, word by word, and punctuation mark by punctuation mark.

IT MEANS GIVING A SHIT.

Having not seen a HC contract, I have no idea what kind of royalties they are paying authors. I imagine it’s around 25% net (with publisher accounting that can mean only pennies per unit sold). So figure roughly that authors–for the privilege of being published by HC with all its supposed services and benefits–are giving up anywhere from 82.5% to 94% of the cover price. My question for Mr. MacBride (and any other HC author) is WHY? Why do you let them treat your work like this? Why do you let them abuse your readers with sub-par production? Proofreading is so elemental, so necessary, and to let a book go out the door without it is completely, utterly inexcusable.

ANY ENTITY THAT ALLOWS AN EBOOK TO GO LIVE WITHOUT BEING PROPERLY PROOFREAD DOES NOT DESERVE TO CALL ITSELF A PUBLISHER

No proofreading… Are you BLEEPING kidding me?

Thank You For Your Queries

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.