Has anyone published an ebook?

[MissStache]

I'm curious to know if any Mustachians have published an ebook. 

I'm in the process of writing a novel and am considering foregoing the typical publishing route and just doing it myself via Amazon or somesuch.  I'm not really looking to make any money, but it may be a nice side hustle since the investment cost is basically $0 except for my time.  Mostly I just want to create something!

If you've done it (or are planning on doing it), what's the experience been like for you?

[FunkyStickman]

I did, about 2 years ago. I used Smashwords.com to publish the e-book, and Amazon's CreateSpace.com to make the print copies. The formatting was a little tedious, but I did it all myself. It wasn't that bad.

I wrote a short article about my experiences with Smashwords, you can check it out here.

Let me know if you had any specific questions. I'm sure others will chime in, too.

[MissStache]

Damn!  Now I want to throw out what I've written and concentrate on an Amish Space Vampire novel! 

Seriously though, this is a great article.  Thank you!

[chicagomeg]

A good friend of mine is blogging (really well) about just this topic here: http://jwethne.wordpress.com/

And, shamless plug, the first book of her fantasy series is on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Winged-ebook/dp/B00BRLW0PO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380842670&sr=8-1&keywords=colleen+houser

[NumberJohnny5]

I don't have anything useful to contribute, however my mom has written a book and is trying to figure out how to get it "out there" so to speak. It's a parenting book written before ebooks were a thing, so it might need a bit of updating.

Anyways, any resources on exactly where to start, how to actually publish it, etc. would be appreciated. So far my recommendations have been to clean it up some, maybe rewriting certain sections. Pick out some parts to publish on a related website for free. There'll be a fine line; give enough away to be actually useful and help drive sales because they want more' don't give too much away or else why buy the book' and give too little away and it looks like ad copy.

She gets excited anytime she thinks she's found an easy solution. Email marketing, autoresponders, etc. I'd like to send her a nice detailed email saying "ok, do this, this, and this, and we'll go from there; oh and check out this site and this forum thread for some more good ideas." I'd like to give her some actual useful information for once. Some good resources already posted here, I'll dive in when I have some free time (says the guy who apparently has so much free time, he can spend hours posting here...).

[FunkyStickman]

First off, if the book is intended to be a serious effort and professionally done, you're going to want to have it edited. (Coercing English majors with food does count as "professional editing")

After that, it's just formatting, and submitting the file. Each e-book or print retailer will have different requirements for formatting, so read up on their style guides and do what they say.

That's about it.

[MissStache]

First off, if the book is intended to be a serious effort and professionally done, you're going to want to have it edited. (Coercing English majors with food does count as "professional editing")

After that, it's just formatting, and submitting the file. Each e-book or print retailer will have different requirements for formatting, so read up on their style guides and do what they say.

That's about it.

I am very lucky that SO was a professional editor in his former life- JACKPOT!

[Sparafusile]

I have written and published 4 books. The last of which was an Amazon ebook exclusive. I have two others in various states of completeness.

The first three books I wrote were pretty hard. 600 pages in 8 weeks. I was under pressure to complete it on time with several editors. It was certainly an interesting and rewarding experience, but not one I would be eager to experience again.

The ebook was the complete opposite. There was no rush and little reward other than myself patting my own back.

For general advice, I would say write your book on Google Docs - it makes the transition to ebook pretty simple. If you want some advice to make money, I would say don't do what I did and pick a topic that has broad appeal. Otherwise, pick something that you don't already know and want to learn. While learning write the book. Converting to Amazon's format is dirt simple once you've done it. If you need help with that send me a message.

[Christiana]

First book:  Lulu.com.  It was a little complicated to work through their layers of instructions/FAQs/forum posts to figure out how to get things done (this was a few years ago), but you can do both print books and e-books there.

Second book:  Smashwords.com.  They only do e-books, but they have a single style guide that walks you through all the formatting and submission steps.

Next book:  I plan to make the e-books myself using the Scrivener software package, and sell them through Amazon.

The hardest part of self-publishing is marketing the book.  My books are how-to/why-to, so can be found by keyword search.  Other authors send out a lot of review copies, and hope that good reviews bring in sales.

[Nords]

I'm curious to know if any Mustachians have published an ebook. 
If you've done it (or are planning on doing it), what's the experience been like for you?

Working on it.  My first book came from a traditional publisher, so everything that I've learned from there gets better in self-publishing.

I've learned a tremendous amount about the eBook field from Guy Kawasaki's APE.  You can pick up tips & tricks piecemeal on forums & blogs, or read all about everything in APE.

[MissStache]

Thanks for all the info, everyone!  I'm still far away from publishing, but I figured it was good to start thinking about it now.

[boy_bye]

hiya missstache ... i published an e-book last year and it was a blast! i had been writing for a ladies' website, which i loved (thehairpin.com), and the editor at the time agreed to publish my intro, because it fit in really well with the kind of stuff her readers wanted to see.

the intro was a bit hit, got tweeted and shared thousands of times, and i sold hundreds of copies. at that time. since then i've been blogging and selling a dozen or two copies a month.

the thing that surprised me about this is that, even when something goes viral-ish, you still don't necessarily sell tons of copies. it's a constant effort to keep your name and your ideas out there (something i've been okay but not awesome at), and you have to make a huge splash to sell even a moderate number of copies.

it's just something good to keep in mind as you're doing this -- you're going to have to spend at least as much time marketing the book as you are writing it ...

hope this helps! and good luck!

[thelamb]

Couple years ago, started with lulu.com.  Formatting was challenging; the first print edition was 600 pages cuz I struggled with getting rid of the double space.  Second edition much better.  Overall, bad experience though.  Initially, many friends said they bought the book but when I checked the numbers for royalty purposes, they in know way reflected the amount of feedback.  Then, for some unknown reason, my account got locked out.  It literally said it had been deactivated.  At the time, lulu had no customer support other than an email address.  Nobody to call, no reply on repeated emails.  I don't think I ever received a royalty check, which would have been paltry at best. 

I then moved on to createspace.com.  Overall, it was easy to use, easy to do multi formats and then distribute directly on amazon.  My only problem has been that I've had people purchase, literally show me the hard copy, and then I check the sales figures and don't see anything. 

So big piece of advice when you're at this stage.  Do a controlled roll out and test to make sure the sales figures reflect the actual sales.  Like, keep it all hush hush, sit down with your SO and other testers, have them buy a copy, and check the #'s.  Do it again and again.

[4alpacas]

Damn!  Now I want to throw out what I've written and concentrate on an Amish Space Vampire novel! 

Seriously though, this is a great article.  Thank you!

Sounds amazing!