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Questions on ebook formatting

by John P. Schulz
(Rome, Georgia)

Requiem for a Redneck

Requiem for a Redneck

Self publishing a book has been a wonderful learning experience. (Read John's original post, Redneck Novel.) We started a publishing company with the idea was that a physical book should be produced in such a manner that it looked, read, and felt as good as anything the big guys put out. We did that and we have enjoyed satisfactory sales. We even won an IPPY award. Now it is time for the ebook.

Our physical book was designed with indesign and stored in pdf form. Stupidly, we seem to have gotten rid of the ms word version. We thought we had everything to download for Kindle and then found that it needs to be in html or ms word. Conversion in process. I just hate to lose the wonderful formatting.


My question is about formatting. How does one format for Barnes and Noble.com? What about all of the other marketing services? Who is best and what format does one use?

Steve, I think that if you are going into a section on ebooks some discussion should center on the questions of how as well as why and where. I'm very happy that you are heading in this direction. The wave of the future is here. It doesn't hurt to have both a physical book and an ebook.

I think also, that prospective authors need to know that you don't have to pay a publishing company to present your ebook. A bit of research and determination will provide the necessary information.

Also, what one needs to market is a platform.

Thanks for coming back
john

Visit Requiem for a Redneck.



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Questions on ebook formatting

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Dec 20, 2009
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by: Steve B. (webmaster)

John, thanks for the kind words. Always good to hear from you!

As is usually the case with this site, I have to defer to the real experts, some of whom I hope will chime in to answer your questions.

It pains me to hear about your lost Word file. It used to be I would have said you should have had Google Desktop installed; maybe you would have found some deleted but magically saved version of the file. But alas, my impression is that Google Desktop is a pale imitation of its former self. (I'm not sure why.)

So I am going to put in a plug for Mozy. I've been using it for about a year now, and it seems to me the long sought after answer for document backup. Remote document backup, i.e. your house burns down, your life is ruined, your dog is singed, but your files live on.

Benefits:

-It operates silently and automatically
-They provide amazing technical suppport even if you sign up for the 2GB FREE version of the service
-They pay ME a dollar even if YOU sign up for the FREE version

Blah, blah, blah. Moving on...

John is right! Anyone who wants to answer questions about formatting for the various services, please do so! Either start a new post or comment on this one, and include your website and Amazon page so I can link to it. Oh, and another question: is anyone using Google Books to their advantage?

And...John is right again. Self publishing ebooks means having a platform is even more important than the bricks and mortar world. No one goes to a book store to find an ebook. First they have to find you, and it'll have to be online.

Your online presence is your platform. I use Site Build It to build this substantial platform, and John is beginning to use it to support his landscape business.

Thanks for coming back, John!

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