Indie and Self-Published Author Support discussion

This folder contains helpful suggestions and questions on the subject of preparing and publishing digital or eBook versions 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.

I've used the free Smashwords Guide and never had issues during the conversion process for Smashwords and Kindle. It's easier to follow and there are pictures with the instructions.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

I've also tried the new Kindle Create software that will automatically create a chapter table of contents - unfortunately, it doesn't work well with double chapter headings - which has you doing the chapter headings manually in the software. It does well with picture inserts.

Hi I am new to the group 'a new budding Scottish author & illustrator'. So far I have formatted books for both Amazon E-books & more recently with my MAC for iBooks -Ebook's.

Was very impressed with IBooks the quality of layout and ability to insert my black & white illustrations for my series of Business Books- but after a year I was frustrated by sales conversions and lack of associated platform to market myself.

Have since focused on my E-books for Amazon and delighted with the recent improvements. Recently created two children's picture books- so delighted I went onto create my own paperback (which was extremely professional). Can't beat Amazon due to KDP, Author Central etc. which gives you an edge over iBooks marketing yourself.

Have also formatted for KOBO/ Smashwords but now focusing on using predominantly Amazon (focusing on what seems to be working and slowly gathering sales).

I have found creating lots of standardised templates for each format helps which I use when starting a new book. Got my first review yesterday for my kid's picture book - praising the attention I took at getting the format correct- which seems to be a frustration with customers buying books for their children.

So far I've only published my ebooks in Kindle format. I've not yet experimented with Kobo, Smashwords or any other ebook formats.

I create the epub in Sigil and convert to whatever format I need using calibre.

It's been so long since I laid out a print book that the last time I did it Pagemaker was the industry standard, which predates InDesign. I'm undecided how I will create the pdf for printing at the moment. Perhaps Word. We'll see. That said, I haven't uploaded to a retailer yet. I'm sure I have a lot to learn.

My latest published work was done through Draft2Digital -https://www.draft2digital.com/. I was able to input it from an MS word document. Their program processed it and I was able to choose a variety of different internal formats. After I went through the different steps as outlined, I was able to pick the vendors that I wanted the book would go to.

They partner with Books2Read to showcase your books. They have other partners as well including one for the audiobook version. As I understand it, some of the founders are authors who wanted to make the publishing process as easy as possible for their fellow authors.

The biggest issue that I recall having was that it did not want to go to Amazon. Since I have had previous experience with Amazon, I took the mobi version they provided and uploaded it directly to Amazon.

The other issue was when viewing the formatting as it related to my book, I had to switch from Google Chrome to Microsoft Edge. I suspect it had to do with the settings I have on Google Chrome browser.

I loved that when I went to put the book at a reduced price, it took less than 48 hours for it to go through to all the vendors.

They have lots of videos to help with the different aspects of things you can do. Plus their customer service people respond as soon as humanly possible and are very polite.

I understand they are in the process of setting up beta-testing of their print services.

Hello, I'm new here- today. What doesn't work for me, but I firmly believe should, is calling my middle-grade fantasy, a middle-grade fantasy. I keep getting reviews (even one a few days ago) "This would be awesome if it were a middle-grade fantasy, but it's too thin for adults. It needs editing to expand the characters- so three stars- but it's a great middle-grade fantasy."

?!? I am baffled, frustrated, and saddened to the point of wanting to unpublish the book. I have no idea as to how to fix this, and since reviews can't really be disputed, without even more damage to me as an author, I am trapped in bad review algorithms. Since these two reviews, my sales went from respectable to 0. I can't even get free Kindle Unlimited reads anymore.

Should I put "middle-grade fantasy" in the description instead of something exciting like "In the faraway land......."

Karine wrote: "Hello, I'm new here- today. What doesn't work for me, but I firmly believe should, is calling my middle-grade fantasy, a middle-grade fantasy. I keep getting reviews (even one a few days ago) "This..."

Have you classified your book as YA? I would definitely include "middle-grade fantasy" somewhere in the description, maybe as a sub-heading before the book description.

Also, send me a link to your book. I'll read it & leave a review for you. :)

Thank you, here it is. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRR6VFK

It was classified that way, but not clear in the description. It's been updated now. :-)

Karine, the link goes to "404 Not Found." What is the title of your book?

Karine wrote: "Thank you, here it is. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRR6VFK

It was classified that way, but not clear in the description. It's been updated now. :-)"

I unpublished it. I also write murder mystery novel’s and and I have decided to drop writing the fantasy, even though I love it. It’s just not complementary to what I sell. I can send you a PDF of both of it and the main dragon story. I’m at khollygreen@yahoo.com