How do you design and publish an ebook?

paulsgirl

Hi,

I would like to create an ebook. I have the content but I don't have a cover designed for it.

I also have no idea how to go about putting it from a word document into an ebook and publishing.

Is there any step by step guide out there that may be easy to follow? I'm a total beginner.

Thanks!

alfa beta

check out this article - I think it goes through the process pretty well

http://socialmouths.com/blog/2011/06/23/get-your-ebook-on-the-amazon-kindle-store/

alfa beta

re your cover design - that's probably best done in Photoshop or Indesign or another design package and saved as a J-peg before uploading.

The right photo and the right font - and not a great deal more is needed for a good cover design.

but do spend time on it - there's no doubt about the fact that people do judge a book by the cover!

paulsgirl

Thank you both. Thats been a great help.

Gryphonboy

In terms of designing and publishing an ebook I can't sing the praises of fastpencil.com enough. I self published a short story on amazon with them and their website makes the whole process really easy. Publishing on amazon costs money, but you can publish on their marketplace for free.

If you are willing to throw a little money at it, there a literally thousands of super talented artists on deviantart.com who will happily take book cover commissions.

I went down that road for the cover of my WIP novel, which you can view here

It's just the main image without any title text as I haven't actually decided what I'm going to call the novel yet or whether I will be writing under a pseudonym.

I did do a proofing print of the novel with formatted cover art which you can see here

alfa beta

Gryphonboy wrote: »

Publishing on amazon costs money

no it doesn't - just follow the steps in the article I linked to above and you can have your book for sale on Amazon in a matter of hours - for free.

Gryphonboy

alfa beta wrote: »

no it doesn't - just follow the steps in the article I linked to above and you can have your book for sale on Amazon in a matter of hours - for free.

It does in the context I was referring to. ie. Through fastpencil http://www.fastpencil.com/company/pricing
"FastPencil Marketplace, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, iPad and Ingram Digital = $249.99 for eBook only, $299 for both formats (print and eBook)."

alfa beta

i gotcha.

but jaysus, that's a lot of money gryphon.

considering you can publish on amazon for free through kdp and get your stuff into barnes and noble etc through smashwords also free.

Gryphonboy

alfa beta wrote: »

i gotcha.

but jaysus, that's a lot of money gryphon.

considering you can publish on amazon for free through kdp and get your stuff into barnes and noble etc through smashwords also free.

Does the kdp imprint give you an isbn. No.?

alfa beta

no thats true

A self-published friend of mine ordered a block of 10 off Nielsen recently - think that was the minimum you could get direct. Think it was about £120 for ten.

re your earlier post by the way (and the links therein) - print version looks very good

Gryphonboy

alfa beta wrote: »

re your earlier post by the way (and the links therein) - print version looks very good

I was blown away with it. Cost around 60 euro so completely just a one off, but it's basically a book printed on glossy photo paper instead of pulp.

speedboatchase

My book is nearly finished (more info soon!) and I'm going to go with BookBaby as they'll do all the formatting and set me up on 11 ebook stores. For extra they will design your cover etc.