Indie and Self-Published Author Support discussion

This folder contains helpful suggestions and questions on the subject of preparing and publishing physical copies of your book. Feel free to post thoughts, concerns, experiences and questions. Please keep your posts friendly and helpful. This group is about authors helping authors.

When I published Universus Respondet, I used a workflow that compiled out of Scrivener and used In Design to produce the final PDF for KDP Print. I documented that process, and am working on putting together a blog series dedicated to that workflow. I am not an In Design expert, but I do have some experience with it, and I will do my best to answer any questions about ID, Scrivener, or the process!

I use BookDesignTemplates.com for my book formatting, Bowker.com for my ISBN numbers, and IngramSpark.com for my ebook and POD editions. I have been well pleased with each company for their support and great customer service when answering an newbie indie author's questions. I also used Yourbooktrailers.com for a professional looking book trailer.

To date, I have only used KDP print, although I see that many other authors, such as Donna above, use IngramSpark.

Has anyone used both KDP and IngramSpark? Advantages and Disadvantages of each? What about Nook press in conjunction with KDP or IngramSpark?

New Apple Literary Services wrote: "Has anyone used both KDP and IngramSpark? Advantages and Disadvantages of each? What about Nook press in conjunction with KDP or IngramSpark?"

I get my ISBNs through Bowker. I publish both through KDP (and Create Space earlier) and IngramSpark. I haven't done anything with Nook.

First, I get my interior pages and ebooks (both mobi and epub) formatted through Bookow.com So uploading to KDP and IngSpk is reliable and easy thanks to the good work of Bookow.

KDP has the advantage of being integrated with Amazon which means it's easy to sell to individuals on the world's biggest online store. The disadvantage is that you have to put up with Amazon's whims, and you cannot sell directly to libraries and bookstores.

IngramSpark is a distributor, not an online market for individuals. It has the advantage of selling to bookstores and libraries. If a librarian wants to buy multiple copies of my book, s/he can go to Ingram iPage and order there. Libraries typically get a discount (the author chooses how much of a discount). Libraries can also get ebooks for check out through Overdrive. Author access to Overdrive is through Draft2Digital or Smashwords.

Research indicates that the top 3 ways readers choose books is a) choosing a book by an author you've already read and liked; b) a friend's recommendation; c) the book cover.

This suggests that: 1) writing more books is a good strategy to sell more books; 2) 50% of readers who check a book out of a library, read it and like it, will go on to purchase a book by the same author. Therefore, selling to and through libraries is worth it.
~Shane
www.cjshane.com

I use Scribus for PDF generation. Works like a charm and it's free, though you have to be wary of its memory usage for large files. That's easy to get around if you have lots of memory. But if you don't do ~100-page sections (or n number of chapters to get close to that page count) and stitch them together using PDFToolkit (also free).

J.N. wrote: "I use Scribus for PDF generation. Works like a charm and it's free, though you have to be wary of its memory usage for large files. That's easy to get around if you have lots of memory. But if you ..."

Is Scribus Mac and PC compatible?

I also used a template purchased from BookDesignTemplates.com to put together my book's interior. It came out looking really nice.

I publish through KDP. I use the MS WORD template I got from CreateSpace for the hard copy. I run the MS WORD file through KDP's KindleCreate to optimize for Kindle. I use Photoshop for my covers.

New Apple Literary Services wrote: "Has anyone used both KDP and IngramSpark? Advantages and Disadvantages of each? What about Nook press in conjunction with KDP or IngramSpark?"

I have. My wife and I started a small press in 2010. We're now shutting it down, but over that time we published about 30 books (a few of ours but mostly other authors'). We released the ebooks through KDP and Nook Press.

I'm now in the process of moving my works to IngramSpark. I decided to go that route for two reasons: (1) To have a one-stop place to set up distribution; (2) Ingram's global distribution network, which reaches online and brick-and-mortar distributors and libraries.

If you set up your book as a PDF file using Adobe InDesign or a similar tool, then KDP and IngramSpark are very nearly identical. They both ask for the same kinds of information, so it's just a matter of getting used to the interface. With Ingram, you can choose to create a print book, an ebook, or both together. I do both together. You upload an epub file for the ebook. You don't have to create the Kindle file yourself. Ingram will send the files to Amazon, and they will convert it for you.

Another plus that I don't think Amazon has: Ingram does both an automated check of the files at the time of upload and has someone review them before the print editions are made available for purchase. This means the print edition may be delayed by a couple of days, but if you plan for this, it's not an issue.

There is a setup fee with Ingram, but they run frequent promotions and send out codes you can use to get free setup. They sent me a code back on November 15 in honor of NaNoWriMo (the code is "NANO") which gives free setup through March 31 - four and a half months of free setup. Not bad at all. I've used it twice so far and probably will use it one more time before it expires.

Ingram also has a marketing program through which you can purchase (for about $100 if I recall correctly) a listing in their catalogue, which goes to thousands of retailers and libraries.

I don't particularly like their online reports. They let you pick from some parameters to generate sales reports, but I find some of the parameters a bit cryptic for newcomers, and you're limited to one choice per parameter for online viewing, although you can select multiples and get an emailed report.

When moving my novels from KDP to IngramSpark, I had to contact KDP Author Central support to get them to link the Ingram editions to the KDP editions so I didn't loose reviews. After that, I was able to unpublish the KDP editions, and all was well. This may not always happen, though; it may depend whether there are any differences between titles, subtitles, and series information between the two systems.

I find the costs associated with IngramSpark's print-on-demand service to be similar to costs associated with ordering a small print run through a local printer. I haven't done a direct comparison to the KDP cost, because we never did print-on-demand with them. A nice feature with Ingram that usually is not available with other POD services is that you can set books to be returnable. Bookstores generally will not order books that are non-returnable. Of course, you eat the cost on this, but you can also choose to either have books destroyed upon return (the cheaper option) or shipped to you (the more expensive option).

I think that's everything I know about it right now, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I use Scrivener to write my books, both ebook and print. I also mind-map them before I start writing. I currently use Mindnode 5 for the mind-mapping.
When I self-publish I use KDP and Smashwords for ebooks. For print books I use IngramSpark and whatever CreateSpace is now called.

I use the open source software called Scribus to layout hard copy books for printing. The interface is a bit clunky but it's serviceable and reminiscent of other types of layout software, and the price point is perfect particularly when compared to InDesign.

I use Sigil, also open source software, to layout ebooks in epub. KDP does a good job of converting epubs to kindle formats. If I need a conversion that I haven't put through KDP then I use calibre.

I am an Author Representative to RWG Publishing, an indie publisher that I've used for 3 years/5 books. RWG has taken my books to unbelievable heights in my author career, creating audio books and translating my books in different languages.

Because of RWG, my 7 books have landed on the Best Seller lists on Amazon in the U.S., U.K. and Canada (landing top 10 and top 5 on lists)!

If you use promo code: SUNSHINERODGERS, you can get 30% off any publishing package.

Here is the site if you just want to look around: www.RWGPublishing.com

Signing a book contract with RWG was just the start of my author career and hopefully, it can be a blessing to you too!

Sunshine