Publishing your own eBook

If you are a writer or just starting out as one, going through the grind of getting an end product can be taxing. Writing, editing, finding the right publisher, investing and then crossing your fingers the book sells is not an easy task.

Luckily with progress comes opportunity and the digital age has definitely made things easier. Publishing digital copies before print to get a feel of the response is quickly becoming a trend and why not! With a host of self publishing tools and websites out there, you can be a published author in just a few steps and even sell your book as part of the deal.

Last month five out of the top ten ebooks on the DBW Ebook best-seller list were from self publishers. These included David Baldacci's The Hit, Barabara Freethy's Don't Say a Word and H.M Ward's Damaged. 

With most self publish tools linked to popular marketplaces, this has become cake walk. 


Take a look at some of the popular ones we've listed.

       Smashwords is one of the most popular pioneer and distributor of self published books. With over 125,000 titles to brag about they make the process simple and easy for you. All you have to bring along is your script and cover image. Depending on where your eBook is sold the authors percentage varies.

  

They don’t take a cut in your sale price but instead ask a fee upfront. From the reviews we've heard it’s a great tool if you want some guidance along the way and are willing to pay a bit more for it. BookBaby offers distribution options as well as cover design services.

An easy way to quickly publish your eBook or short story however, It doesn't have advanced options or distribution channels as compared to other listed sites. You have to embed your cover image in the first page of a PDF which Scribd will then covert. Not the most sophisticated tool around but you do get an option to sell your work on Scribd itself.

Lulu is a free service to create your eBooks. They also print publish if that is what you are looking for. Lulu makes its money from the premium customization services it charges for and is one of the official aggregators for Apple’s iBookstore so you can get your book up there along with lulu.com and the Nook store. They have a modest 10% cut from your take away.

  

Barnes & Noble’s has a high royalty rate ranging from 40 to 65% depending on the pricing you choose for your book. The higher the price the more the royalty PubIt gets. They offer free conversion tools which is a plus but the rate could put most off as they stand only slightly cheaper than Amazon which currently takes 70%. 

BookTango allows you a free simple way to upload your manuscript, format it properly, add a cover image and distribute it through the usual eBook stores. It has WYSIWYG formatting ability, which means What You See Is What You Get, hence giving you an idea of what the final product will look like. They have additional custom services for a fee and take 10% of your net profit.