5 Reasons to Create an eBook

Readers today have more options than ever before when it comes to consuming content. While many readers still prefer holding a physical book in their hand, that hasn’t stopped the wave of digital books, also called e-books, from storming the market. Here are five reasons every author should have an e-book version of their book on the market even if they already have a printed paperback.an e-reader on a breakfast table.

1. Wider Readership

E-books have made readership available to a broader audience of people who previously had limited reading options.

Readers no longer have to live near a bookstore or pay high shipping costs to send their books to rural areas.

E-books are easier to store, allowing those with limited space to keep a library of books on their handheld digital devices.

Many e-readers offer options for visually impaired readers. There are e-readers with text to speech options that allow the books to be read aloud by the device and the option for readers to adjust the font, print size, and contrast within their e-reader.

These benefits have created a subsection of readers who primarily or solely consume e-books.

2. E-books Are Efficient

When a self-publishing author prints books to sell, they have to get them to readers physically. This can include taking them to places like conferences for direct sales and shipping them to readers who order online.

E-books sales are as easy as the click of a button. Customers click a link, and the book is loaded onto their device. This means that e-books create no added shipping and handling work for the creator. E-books also require no physical storage space. This makes them ideal for self-publishing writers who don’t have the storage for even short-run printing. Once an e-book is created, there is no more labor involved in the self-publishing author’s production, which means they have more time left over for marketing.

3. Cost-Effective

E-books are cost-effective to create. Paperbacks and hardbacks must be printed in batches, but an e-book file is created once and sold again and again.

The extra costs to create an e-book are minimal, and once the book is made, it exists without the need for batch reprints as books are sold. The amount of copies an e-book can become is infinite.

4. International Markets

The world wide web has created an international marketplace with buyers all over the globe.

E-books have opened international markets to self-publishing authors. The nature of e-books allows an author in the United States to sell their book to a reader in Australia without the costs of international shipping and without the physical movement of books across oceans and continents.

Self-publishing authors with e-books can cast their reader net more comprehensive than ever before and reach customers and markets that were once cost-prohibitive to self-publishing authors without expensive professional distribution networks.

5. Clickable Links

One of the beautiful things about e-books is that authors can include clickable links within the pages. These allow readers who enjoy the e-book to click a link within the book and sign up for the author’s newsletter or follow them on social media. It also allows authors to include links to sites where their backlist is sold,  making purchasing other books by that author as easy as clicking a link.

E-books are an essential option that self-publishing authors should offer their readers.

InstantPublisher can easily take your paperback content and turn it into an e-book ready for sale.

Visit our website and learn how InstantPublisher can meet all your self-publishing needs.

eBook Publishing with InstantPublisher

Q: What is an e-Book?
A: An e-Book is a digital version of your book that can be read on different types of e-Readers like iPhones, Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad, etc.

Q: What does it Cost?
A: Most e-Books can be converted and assigned an ISBN for $129.99, unless your particular book requires extra formatting. This usually only applies to very long books or books with a lot of photographs.

Q: What will my Royalties be?
A: Instantpublisher will offer two variations the yearly listing plan or the per book listing plan.

Royalties for my eBook The Yearly Plan will cost a $50 flat fee per year to list on both Amazon and Itunes.

Royalties for my eBook The Per Book Plan will cost you 10% of your royalties. It is up to you to decide which option will work best for your book.

Keep in mind these are current royalties from Amazon and iTunes and could change. If they make that decision, we will notify all our e-Book sellers. Selling on Amazon, with a standard price range between $2.99 and $9.99, you will receive 70% with the $50 yearly plan or 60% with our per book sold plan of your retail price. Prices outside the standard price range only receive 20% of the retail price on the yearly plan or 10% with the per book plan. So we do recommend staying between the $2.99 and $9.99 prices, unless you are simply trying to distribute the book to as many people as possible.

Q: What is Delivery Cost for Amazon?
A: Amazon charges a $0.15/MB delivery cost based on the file size. For instance, if file is a plain text file at 0.4MB, the delivery cost will be 0.4MB x $0.15 = $0.06. The Amazon delivery cost can only be figured and added to your account when Instantpublisher has the eBook file ready.

Q: What is the payment plan for selling on iTunes?
A: InstantPublisher.com will make payments once a quarter when your account reaches $25.00.

Q: Do you offer Cover Design?
A: Yes, we have 4 cover options:
1) you can submit your own cover design specifically for your e-Book.
Cover Size= in Photoshop size (650 x 870pixels) at 72 DPI (resolution);
Save File as .JPG {Note: For Saving JPG files= FILE>> SAVE FOR WEB>> JPG/High}.

2) we can pull the cover design from a book you have previously printed with InstantPublisher.
3) you can choose one of our stock cover designs and add your name and title.
4) or we can design your cover for you from scratch for $65. Optimal display size for your cover is (650 x 870pixels).

Q: How long does it take?
A: Most e-Books can be completed in 5 business days; but, custom covers and e-Books requiring special formatting might take a little longer to complete.

Q: What is an ISBN number and do you provide one?
A: ISBN numbers are simply a way to catalog books. Yes, you need an ISBN number and it must be specific to your e-Book. You cannot use your ISBN number from your printed book. InstantPublisher can provide you with one of our ISBN numbers to use or you can supply your own ISBN number with your publishing name if you plan on selling the e-Book yourself.

Q: Will my e-Book look exactly like my printed Book?
A: Currently, this is the most difficult part about e-Book publishing. Being from a printing background, InstantPublisher prefers to set a book up to look correct and remain that way. Unfortunately, the only way to do this for e-Book creation is to actually convert the pages to images.

PDF Method — This method has images only. The downside to this is for small readers, like the iPhone, an 8.5×11 book will appear tiny and cannot be read. This can even be a problem on the Kindle at times, if you take a large book and scale it down to this size. The other way is to import raw text. This is the default way we will create e-Books, simply because it is a more user-friendly platform for the reader, as they are able to blow the text up and manipulate it. Unfortunately, this can wreak havoc on your formatting.

Text Method — This method has text only. *Note, your eBook can include images on the pages if they are formatted correctly. [See Formatting eBooks below.] This is why we offer both types of formatting and let you make the decision. If you have a lot of charts, pictures etc., and if you don’t think your e-Book will be that popular on the smaller screens like the iPhone, then the text conversion method is the way to go. We recommend the text conversion method.

Q: How do I Prepare my file for Submission?
A: InstantPublisher.com prefers a Word file for e-Book publishing. You need to include [page break] before each chapter and anywhere you would like a new page that does not run together.

Document Size= in Microsoft Word (5.5″ width x 8.5″ height)

*Note: margins are .75″ left and right; and .7″ top and bottom

Word Template for eBook Download eBook WORD Template

Q: What e-Book file Types do you provide?
A: InstantPublisher will provide both EPUB (native to Apple and most other devices) and the MOBI (native to Amazon Kindle) file types.


eBook Formatting—

Follow five main formatting rules, before you publish your eBook. You must format your Word document correctly, before we publish it. The end result is a downloadable EPUB and MOBI file for the Ipad and Kindle devices.

1) Document Size and Layout= in Microsoft Word (5.5″ width x 8.5″ height). *Note, your layout must be portrait or a vertical layout for your ebook. *Note: margins are .75″ left and right; and .7″ top and bottom. *Note, books with a landscape layout are not accepted.

Word Template for eBook Download eBook WORD Template

2) Cover Size= in Photoshop size (650 x 870pixels) at 72 DPI (resolution). *NOTE: You may use 300 dpi for resolution.
Save File as .JPG. {*Note: For Saving JPG files= FILE>> SAVE FOR WEB>> JPG/High}

3) All Graphics on All Inside Pages (this is optional; and only if you have photos/graphics on the inside pages)= in Photoshop size (324 x 432pixels) at 72 DPI (resolution); Save File(s) as .JPG {*Note: For Saving JPG files= FILE>> SAVE FOR WEB>> JPG/High}

*Note, if you want your graphics/pictures/charts to appear in your eBook, you must resize them in Photoshop or similar editor, then save them and reinsert into Word. Also, in Word please do not wrap text around images. All images should be set “in-line” with text as seen below. Also, please do not include text under each photo or graphic. This type of layout does not work for eReaders like iPAD or Kindle. The text or paragraphs must be under the photo or graphic as a normally typed sentence as seen below.

no wrap RULES

*Note, be aware that special symbols may not convert properly to eBook formats (EPUB & MOBI), unless they are characters in a standard font set. For this reason, we ask that you choose a font like Times New Roman for all text and symbols.

4) Page Breaks= in Word please include [page break] before each chapter.
In WORD put your cursor at the end of the last paragraph (after the period), before the next chapter, then go to>> Insert >> Page Break.

5) Style Chapter Names= in Word, highlight all the Chapter names individually one by one. Style each Chapter name with “Heading1” Style, as seen below. Then save your document.

Heading1 Style

 

How-to-Write-and-Publish-your-Own-eBook-in-As-Little-As-5-Days >>