The end of the experiment

... but not the end of eBooks.

For one I am looking forward to pulling together the World Yoga Festivals Guide 2012 with findyoga.com and secondly I have another book in the pipeline. A new venture where I'll check out Lulu.com. Yes, it will be available in print and as an eBook. It will be interesting to see which medium prove to be most effective.

The most surprising outcome from the experiment - the kudos! Among friends, students, and peers, my eBooks were held in the same regard as a book. Something I had not anticipated, but a nice surprise nonetheless (who doesn't enjoy the odd pat on the back?).

So, the experiment has drawn to a close. I hope it has provided you with tips on how to make your own eBook a success.

Interested in what next? Follow me on twitter or check my website for more details and stories. 

It has been a pleasure sharing my eBook experiment with you.

Is it too early to rely on eBooks?

As a writer with four eBooks under my belt - I have come to the realisation that you cannot ignore print. (Good news really, as that's mainly where I work.) A lot of eBooks out there at the moment are simply versions of their print siblings, and many of the 'solo' eBooks out there are written by non-professionals, or businesses keen to promote their point of view.

It's a whole new arena for someone with a freelance journalist background...not used to selling anything other than my story idea to my editor.

However, it is an area that keeps developing and moving forward. Amazon launched it's lending system in December 2010. They kept it pretty straightforward with the only major drawback that it cannot be done through the Kindle device. (Wierd, given Kindle is their platform.) All of the management aspects take place in the web browser.  Then they canned it.


Far too complicated for a newbie like myself to comprehend, but eBook expert Steven Lewis is all over it. Lendle even now looks like it's back.  Only keen eBook readers will be following the debate this closely - but from my point of view it's merely interesting to see how the eBook market is being shaped from both the big players and readers alike.

I have learned something important though: it pays to know your market and identify your niche. Reference material seeming to work better than fiction, which may still need to be underpinned by a print version.

The World Yoga Festivals Guide proved to be the perfect launch pad for 2011. Despite the drama of getting the premium listing, it has generated quite the buzz in the yoga community. I am keen to be collaborating with findyoga.com to develop an even better, grander and more informative festival guide for 2012.

World Yoga Premium Listed

It's June! Easter is long behind us and our last post was April 4. But we are (very!) pleased to report that since our last post, World Yoga Festivals Guide is premium listed. However, it took a few more attempts after the hopeful submission on April 4. Two weeks of desperation, frustration when relief finally presented itself with the approval stamp on April 18.

Why it was rejected so many times* and why it was finally approved on April 18? Great question, and we too wish we knew exactly what went wrong.

The best advice and lesson learnt is to keep the document, especially the formatting, as simple and standard as possible. A World Yoga example, the first rejection was in part because we had introduced a different colour for the headers ... a no no. Message - stick with black.

Second best advice - don't give up. Persistence pays off. It may get frustrating, annoying, confusing, but when you finally see the word "Approved" - you cannot deny the sense of achievement you'll feel.

* many is many - 9 rejections before approval

A step closer to Premium?

Points to Mark at Smashwords - we promptly received a response to our distress call.

To: Sue White
From: Smashwords

Hi Sue,

When I view the book in Adobe Digital Editions, it's all red. Please see attached screen shot.  I'm also seeing inconsistent font sizes in the EPUB.

I think your document has minor corruption in it. Try the Nuclear Method, documented in the Style Guide.

Also, note that you're applying Times New Roman 12pt on screen, yet the underlying definition for your Normal style (see step 7 in Style Guide) is defining 11pt Calibri.  I this is helping to conspire to add corruption.

It's best to define the font and font size you want directly within the Normal style

Once you reformat, upload and receive the confirmation, check the book in Adobe Digital Editions and let me know what you learn.  If it looks fixed, I'll jump in there and review it for you.

best,

mark

On our way to Premium

I (Skadi) have this morning cleansed the text, cleared the formatting and built the World Yoga Festivals Guide back up. It is currently in the queue on Smashwords being converted into its various formats. Hopefully all will look good when I check it in Adobe Digital Editions later today. Surely we are now on our way to Premium.  

Smashwords + Premium = Confusion

Skadi here, Sue's assistant.  I'm in despair over Smashwords. Sue, while making sympathetic noises, is more excited that my current dilemma will make a great blog entry. So here is my premium confusion post.

A little background

Four eBooks have been published on Amazon and Smashwords. One of the attractions of publishing your eBook also on Smashwords is getting listed in their Premium Catalogue. If (!) you are listed, Smashwords will automatically distribute your eBook to major online retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson Australia (both powered by Kobo).

Being listed is thus very attractive and desirable.

However (!) to get Premium, you have to abide to the Smashwords style guide ensuring your document is compatible on a variety of readers and computers in a range of formats. Makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is that three out of four of eBooks got immediate premium listing, but one is being continuously rejected.

My desperation with Premium

The fabulous World Yoga Festivals Guide 2011 is the one that got rejected. Again. Three times. (Yes, I do take this more to heart than I probably should). I have dutifully revised and updated as per the reviewer's suggestions, but it appears we are now stuck on the review of 20 March. And so today we decided to email Mark of Smashwords directly to ask for his advice ...

From: Sue White 

To: Smashwords

Dear Mark,


It's great having my eBooks published on Smashwords. Three are premium listed (yey!) - but one is continuously rejected.


World Yoga Festivals Guide - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/44783


All suggestions have been addressed - yet the same rejection of 03/20/11 is given for a resubmission of 03/29/11. I am confused.
Attached what was submitted on 03/29/2011 and (again) rejected with the 03/20/11 review. My comments on the review in italics:

If you view your book in EPUB you can see that your text is converting into a red font color.
When I view it in EPUB font is black.

Also, your book contains multiple font styles, and these styles are sending conflicting and inconsistent instructions to our converters. To see how the problem manifests, view your book through EPUB. Please fix the consistency of your font styles.
It has only one font style - Times New Roman.

#2 Please activate "show/hide" many of your paragraphs terminate with a manual line feed (the backward arrow), when they should instead be a hard paragraph return (what you create when you hit ENTER key). Please strip out all manual line feeds and replace with paragraph returns. This will ensure more consistent formatting of your ebook.
All manual returns have been removed and replaced with paragraph returns.

In addition, not all e-reading devices can handle color well. Please don't use colored fonts. When you're finished correcting your book, go to Dashboard: "upload new version" to upload the new version. Thanks.
It only has black colour font.

I'd greatly appreciate your feedback and advice as to what next. 
Thank you.

Kind regards,
Sue White

Stay tuned for Mark's response.  

Downsides of being an early adopter

As we’re fast discovering, there are a few downsides to being at the fore of a movement.  Yes, eBooks are the next big thing in publishing, but our initial promo efforts have shown that - just like me about 6 weeks ago -  most members of the general public have no idea how to download them.

I’m thankful to those who have let me know of their technical troubles downloading eBooks. (These have ranged from the comment that Amazon link to download eBooks to pcs isn’t as user friendly as they’d hoped, through to people who are simply just stuck.)

My solution has been to give people better guidance on downloading on my website, as this is the place I’m mainly sending people interested in my books.  

I’ve also realised that for iPhone users it’s simple to download eBooks to a Kindle app (this appears to be a great solution).  I'm also coming clean that there’s a PDF on Smashwords – a fantastic distribution network that is currently zapping my books out to Apple, Barnes and Noble et al.  I’d previously avoided doing this just to keep  life simple (actually, eBook authors earn slightly more if buyers buy from Smashwords, but as it’s not yet a household name I’ve resisted heavily promoting it’s presence there to date.) Hopefully those solutions will cure buyers' downloading dilemmas.

For other eBook authors/authors-to-be, here are a few more early challenges to expect once your own books are live: 

Problem #1: People don’t yet know how to access eBooks. 
Current solution:  Be proactive.  Help them!I think time will resolve this issue within the next twelve months (says the optimist!).  I didn’t realise I could download Kindle eBooks without a Kindle, why would anyone else?  I think iPhones and iPads are part of the solution – as these are essentially ‘computer’ users who are finding ways to access eBooks on a digital device that is convenient for them.  In the meantime, authors with the same issues as I've had should keep explaining it as SIMPLY as possible, so non Kindle owners don’t feel like eBooks are a hassle for them to access. Plus, remember everytime you promote a book to give them downloading instructions (say, in the bottom of an email, or on your website where the books are promoted).  A drag, I know, but you need to make life easy for people to get onboard.

Problem #2:  eBook technology is only “Sort of” amazing.

Current solution:  Live with it. 

Skadi (uber assistant) put it perfectly: You can do a lot with eBooks, but not everything.  Yep, you can write and publish an eBook fairly easily – this is amazing. But you can’t yet make it look as nice as a simple PDF.  I’m not talking style sheets and specialist fonts, I mean basics like page breaks/chapter breaks/splash colour to make headers stand out etc.  As someone whose work is usually represented beautifully in colour magazines, where it's laid out by a professional designer and wrapped around gorgeous images, this utilitarian vibe is taking some getting used to.  I’m basically hoping that eBook readers realise I can’t do much to make it an easier read (beyond writing good content!), so they don’t think I’ve got no aesthetic sensibilities.

Problem #3:  Some stuff in eBook world is just plain frustrating

I’m talking Smashwords rejecting the World Yoga Festivals Guide twice for Premium listing (which we need to get before they’ll send it to Apple, Barnes and Noble etc on my behalf).  Despite the fact that the formatting is THE SAME as the other 3 books of mine which have received premium listing.  We’ve gone through Smashwords’ instructions (twice) and are convinced nothing’s wrong at this end.  Next step is to make human contact with Smashwords to sort it out.  Buyers, don’t worry, just by it from  Amazon – we posted it there direct in anticipation of problems.

Don’t even get me started on the process of getting a US tax exemption (more on that another time) basically as an Aussie if I don’t do this I’ll be paying lots of tax twice. Instead of a little bit in the US, where the eBook sellers are based, and a lot in Australia, where I’m based.

Current solution:  Breath!  And wait.  And hope the nice auto vetter at Smashwords realises a premium book when it scans one.

Your solutions are welcomed!

More next week.

Sue :)

Initial eBook surprises

Surprise #1:  People (I care about) aren’t yet convinced by eBooks.
Professionals in my field (editors and the like) seem to be doing a whole bunch of thoughtful nodding when I let drop I’m going to publish some of my work as eBooks.  I’m not yet sure what the nodding means, but I suspect it means, “That sounds suspiciously homespun, I think you’re crazy”.  I could be wrong.  It could mean, “Wow, you’re an innovator ahead of the bell curve, and I wish you all the best.”  I am hoping it’s the latter.  When I need to reassure myself it’s not the former, I remember the recent move by TEDTalks into Kindle Singles.

Surprise #2: No-one has the first clue how to get started.
So here’s how:

First, write a book. Duh.  Sounds dumb, but it’s easy to say and hard to do. Journalists and authors hear this all the time.  “I’d love to be a writer.”  The answer is, write something. Preferably, write something good.  I’ve yet to discover what ‘good’ means in terms of subject (Do people buy more eBooks about travel than health? – this is something that needs to be explored).  Given the lack of guidance on this topic, I’m currently allowing myself to be guided by two key rules:

Rule #1 when writing an eBook: Write good content.  Bad content is bad content, whether it’s in a newspaper, on a website, or in an eBook.  So write well, wherever you write. (If you don’t know what that means, do an online course at the Sydney Writers’ Centre and they’ll teach you.)

Rule #2 when writing an eBook: Keep it short. My eBooks will be under 20,000.  Most will hover around 10,000, which is the length of 7 typical feature articles.  Some will be even shorter (like the World Yoga Festivals Guide, which is only 3500w, but I’m only selling it for 99c).  I’ve basically developed this rule for two reasons. First, we’re not used to reading on screens yet for long periods of time.  If an eBook can be enjoyed on the bus ride to and from work over a few days, maybe it’s a nice little niche.  Second, I’m a features writer, not a novelist.  This means I’m really good at writing stories that are 1000 words, 2000 words, or even 3000 words.  I’m less experienced at writing something (like a novel) that carries a story for 40,000 words.  I’m building most of my eBooks in 1000-2000 word chapters, each chapter being a complete story within itself.  I figure that abiding by Rule #2, Keeping it short, should help me follow Rule #1, Writing good content.

Second, publish your writing on Amazon (easy) and Smashwords (slightly less easy). Here’s why:
Amazon is the name in e-publishing.  It’s easy to remember, it’s not too finicky to put together a book for them, and the results are up within a few days. Smashwords is an online platform that will ‘mash’ your eBook and distribute it to a bunch of different forums – including Apple for iPads and iPhones, Sony, Barnes and Noble and Kobo (another place where eBook lovers buy books). It’s quick to get your book onto Smashwords, but slower to get it via Smashwords out to Apple etc (think 6 weeks not 6 hours.) Much more on the in’s and out’s of Smashwords later.

If you’re wondering what eBooks look like on these platforms, check it out for yourself:
Amazon.com – select “Kindle store”.  Search on Sue White if you want to find my books, or just poke around to see what’s out there. Find my books on Smashwords.  Or just poke around and see what Smashwords is all about.