![]() Calibre works on Windows, OSX and Linux so the methods I am about to outline will work for most anybody with access to a computer. You will need a copy of Calibre ( a free open source ebook library and ebook creation program), a word-processor and a novel or short story. You are also going to need a few more things, most of which are free or which as a writer contemplating publishing a novel or short story you really should already have. This time around I am just going to walk you through the process of creating the ebook file you will upload to Amazon. You don’t need to worry about this too much now though. Just follow the link and then follow the instructions. ![]() You’re eventually going to need an account with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. For the moment, let’s just concentrate on getting your work up on Amazon’s Kindle which is right now far and away the biggest game in town. I’ll talk about Smashwords in a future article. Smashwords can get you on to all of these publishers and more such as Kobo, should you desire such things. I am not going to talk about any of the other options such as iBooks or B&N’s Pubbit because I don’t have accounts with them. Today I am going to concentrate on the Kindle. This guide is as stripped down as I can make it, with pictures showing you which buttons to push! If you just follow the steps outlined you should end up with a perfectly serviceable ebook. I recommend reading Mark Coker’s excellent Smashwords Style Guide (available free here) if you want to have a full overview of the technical whys and wherefors of what’s going on but such an understanding is not really essential if you follow the procedures I outline here. I have, however, as of this date, published six of my own novels and a few of my own short stories and I have found the process absurdly simple. I won’t talk about picture books or books with footnotes, citations and references because I have no experience of such things. Honestly, this is really true, with the proviso that you are producing a novel or a short story and that you do things correctly right from the start. It talks about an even easier way to format not only ebooks but print books. Important Note 2 : If you own a Mac and a copy of Scrivener you may want to consider reading this post instead. I have had a fair amount of interest in my posts on this subject over the past few months and I wanted to give some substance to my claim that self-publishing an ebook is not much harder than pushing Save on your word-processor. Today I am starting a series on how to publish your own ebook. Important Note: As of November 2012 Amazon appears to be rejecting some ebooks created using Calibre.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |