Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 6 Issue 4 | Page 21
THREE NEGLECTED E-BOOK CONSIDERATIONS
CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON - THE FRUGAL BOOK P ROMOTER
A Web site owner was asked what the “three most important components are
for publishing a professionally produced e-book” and he referred the question to
me. As long as I was figuring out the answer to this all-important question, I figured
I’d pass it along to you but the question was just too hard to answer in its original
form. I took the liberty of qualifying it with an introductory clause and here it is.
Because a self-publisher must be a jack of all publishing trades and because
many readers are still not comfortable with e-books, I believe the three most
important components of publishing an e-book are:
1. The cover. Visuals are powerful tools. A great book cover may be even more
important for an e-book (even though it's virtual) than for a paper book. It will
probably be the only visual a reader will have to connect the reader to the author's
(and publisher's) credibility.
CAROLYN HOWARDJOHNSON
2. Great editing. Too many authors and e-book publishers think that great editing
is merely the process of eradicating typos, but it's a lot more. It's grammar. It's the
conventions of writing (like punctuating dialogue correctly). It's even the formatting.
And it’s knowing about the things that your English teacher may have considered
correct, but they’re things that tick publishing professionals like agents and
publishers off!
3. Formatting. I list this last because most e-book services like Amazon,
Createspace, BookBaby etc. make it clear that formatting is essential and provide
guidelines for getting it right. I included expanded step-by-step instructions for
formatting your book for Kindle in the Appendix of (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor) my
multi award-winning book on editing, The Frugal Editor .
Note: You should know that when a reader buys your e-book on Kindle, they get
to choose what reader format they prefer and it costs you no time reformatting and
tracking several different accounts.
PS: The fourth most important component of e-books is marketing. No e-book—
no book!—is truly published if it hasn’t been marketed. It’s part of the publisher’s
job no matter how it is published or who the publisher is. And if it is self-published,
marketing is as much the author’s job as the writing of the book. Everything you
need to know to market your book the way a professional would if you had the
money to hire her is in The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo).
WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
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JULY-AUGUST 2016