IEEE Spectrum September, 2012 - 32

hands on
An author's first upload should be
To get the best and most consistent
to Amazon. Amazon is far and away
results, for instance, don't use tabs
the largest bookstore in the world;
or spaces to define where text will be
it's been estimated that Amazon's
positioned (such as at the beginning
sales represent up to 60 percent of
of a paragraph). Instead, use the word
all e-book sales (and about 75 percent
processor's Styles feature to define
of online printed book sales). In the
the arrangement and properties
United States, Amazon's
of different pieces of
royalties to authors
text, such as chapter
are 35 to 70 percent,
headings, quotes, bullet
depending on factors
points, and paragraphs.
such as the book's file
If you've done this styling
size and where it will
correctly, converting
be sold. Authors create
a document into a
an account at Kindle
ready-for-sale e-book
Direct Publishing and
can be simply a matter
follow the prompts to
of uploading the file
upload a book. The KDP
to an e-publisher's
site is very helpful, but
website. Just about
Writers Who Want to
valuable insights are also
everything you'll need
offer traditional paper
available on the Writers
to know about using
books can also benefit
Café of the Kindleboards.
a word processor for
from the revolution in
You can upload
e-publishing is included
publishing technology.
manuscripts
to KDP in
in the Smashwords
a number of print-onseveral formats: Word,
Style Guide, which is
demand services allow
EPUB, .txt, zipped
available free (more about
you to list digitally
HTML, Adobe PDF, or
Smashwords below).
produced books; when a
reader buys one, a copy
of course, MOBI. KDP
If a book contains a lot
is printed, bound, and
will convert the format
of graphics or interactive
shipped. the process is,
as required and check
elements, however, a word
however, a little more
it to make sure the
processor won't be enough.
complex than creating
manuscript conforms
You'll need a desktop
purely electronic books.
to Amazon's standards
publishing (DTP) program.
a short guide to what's
for how the text should
The top professional
involved and a listing of
be arranged. You can
DTP programs-Adobe
some print-on-demand
preview onscreen
InDesign and Quark
services are available at
how your book will
Xpress-both support
http://www.spectrum.
ieee.org/pod0912.
look on the company's
e-book publishing.
various Kindle devices.
They can be used to
If you don't like
insert photos, tables,
what you see, you can reedit the
illustrations, video, or interactive
manuscript and upload a new file.
elements into a book. However, a big
Amazon would like writers
proviso is that different e-book formats
to publish on its site only and
have varying levels of support for
nowhere else. So it offers programs
visual and interactive elements. The
for authors who give the company
more complex an e-book is, the fewer
exclusivity, such as participation
e-readers will be able to display it
in Amazon's "borrowing library,"
properly. Converting a manuscript to
in which the author gets paid
an e-book format is done either directly
every time an e-book is lent to
by the DTP program or when the file
an Amazon Prime member. That
is uploaded to an online bookstore.

Paper Lives!

32

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * SEptEmbEr 2012

exclusivity is for a period of 90 days,
renewed automatically unless you
notify the company otherwise.
The second site that we recommend
is Smashwords, a one-stop shop for
e-publishing (and the same folks
who offer that free guidebook on
e-publishing). A single upload of
a Word manuscript will generate
e-book files in multiple formats-in
addition to EPUB and MOBI, it will
also create files in the PDF and HTML
formats, among others. Like Amazon,
Smashwords will check a document
to make sure it meets the company's
formatting standards (which are
a bit stricter than Amazon's). If
Smashwords determines that the
formatting meets a certain quality
level, then your e-book will qualify
for its Premium treatment. This
means that Smashwords, in addition
to selling your book on its own site,
will submit it to a bunch of online
stores, including Apple's iBooks store,
Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and others.
(Yes, you could submit your work
individually to each of those sites-
and not have to give Smashwords
a cut of your sales in addition to
whatever the stores take-but we have
found the service a nice time-saver.)
In addition, once Smashwords has
converted your manuscript, you can
download and use the e-book files
for your own purposes (including
selling your book on your own
website and keeping all the revenue
for yourself). The royalty for books
sold on Smashwords is 85 percent
minus a transaction fee (which
brings it down to about 82 percent).
Royalties from Smashwords sales
on other sites is 60 percent.
And that's it! Now it's up to you
to spread the word and get people
clicking and downloading.
-Sally Wiener Grotta & Daniel Grotta

A version of this article appeared online
in July 2012.
spectrum.ieee.org
http://www.spectrum http://www.ieee.org/pod0912 http://spectrum.ieee.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum September, 2012
