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  1. sbmonsey

    sbmonsey New Member

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    Kindle publishing help

    Discussion in 'Self-Publishing' started by sbmonsey, May 22, 2012.

    hi everyone i am new here but i have already published several books and my friends tell me that i need to publish them all on kindle but i am not so good at this stuff do you guys know of someone good or a company that would do the entire job for me

    thanks
     
  2. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    you've already 'published' them how?

    if they were published by a traditional [paying] press, you probably can't do anything with them without their permission...

    if you meant you self-published them, then just go to kindle and follow the instructions given there... it's so easy to do, it makes no sense to pay someone to do it for you... i put several of my own books up there and it took no time at all, was simple even for non-technical me to do...
     
  3. sbmonsey

    sbmonsey New Member

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    thanks for your reply. i have all the rights on my books i did publish them myself but the problem is that i see that if you want the book to look nice on kindle devices you need to format them which i have no idea how to do and there are some ways to get a lot of sales for your books by optimizing them somehow on the kindle marketplace that i also cannot do myself so that's why i am looking for a company/website that offers to do the job from A-Z

    thanks
     
  4. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Sorry, but promoting sites or service providers is against the site rules. You'll have to settle for general advice.
     
  5. CH878

    CH878 Active Member

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    Do you have a kindle?

    If so, you can email your document to the device, and if you put 'convert' as the subject of the email then it will automatically convert it to the kindle format. This will at least give you an idea about the formatting.

    If you don't have a kindle then I strongly suggest investing in one if you're thinking of publishing through this medium.
     
  6. tinkerbelll

    tinkerbelll Member

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    When you publish your book on kindle do you have the rights?
     
  7. Edward M. Grant

    Edward M. Grant Contributor Contributor

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    If you self-publish, Amazon is just a retailer, not a publisher. You need to have the rights for whatever you publish, and you retain those rights after uploading to Amazon. You can remove the book at any time, they won't have any right to sell it after that.

    Obviously it's different if you go through Amazon's actual publishing arm. And note, of course, that if you self-publish something through Amazon you can't then sell the first publication rights to a publisher or magazine because you've already used them.
     
  8. tinkerbelll

    tinkerbelll Member

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    Thank you Edward
     
  9. Egor

    Egor New Member

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    You know, it used to be that a person needed to know how to write, then they needed to know how to type, then they had to know how to use a word processor, now they have to know how to format and publish for e-books. It's like one of the skills required of a modern writer. I would certainly encourage you to take the time to learn the process.
     
  10. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    You don't need to know the ins and outs of e-book publishing, any more than you need to know the mechanics of page layout for print publishing. That's the job of the publisher, not the writer.

    Of course, if you wish to split your time between being a writer and being a publisher, then you DO need to know all the aspects of publishing, or pay those who do: lawyers, marketing and distribution professionals, advertising, legal, cost management, typesetting and layout, binding, cover design, and e-book production. With all that, you probably still won't the market penetration you would with an established publisher.

    So would you prefer to expend your time and effort writing, or trying to do it all? Consider also, if you insist on doing it all you must expend money as well as time.
     
  11. Egor

    Egor New Member

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    You're absolutely right about all of that. No matter how good a job a person does publishing, as an indi or micro-publisher, one will never have the market penetration to get really big. Of course, there is what I call the Hocking phenomenon, where Amanda Hocking made a million dollars writing Kindle books before she was picked up by a major publisher. And that's kind of where I'm coming from. It seems that to break in, one needs to write and self-publish and show that they've built some kind of readership before a big publisher or an agent will either offer them a contract or buy the publishing rights to their books.

    Do you think there is any validity to that, or do you think it still pretty much works the traditional way?
     
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