I have a story I'm working on. As to self-publishing, I like this idea very much: starting my own company to publish my work. I am also considering PDF. I'd to know what any of you think about publishing in PDF form.
Would you JUST do PDF? Distribution would probably be an issue. Most self-publishers depend on Amazon pretty heavily, so that'd mean using the Kindle format...
Where would you put it? As far as I know, you can't offer PDFs for sale on any of the major book retail websites. Even if you found somewhere to sell it, I don't think many people would buy a PDF, or even download it for free. It's VERY hard on the eyes to read long stretches of text on a screen, hence why readers overwhelming buy paper books or have an eReader. You can self-publish in other formats for free, although you can still expect to sell only in the double digits. Generally 20 or fewer copies.
Agree with the above, and point out that it’s easy to make your book available in PDF and other formats, so restricting to one doesn’t make much sense.
Or you can market yourself properly and sell more than that .. its like saying that as a trad author you can expect to earn less than minimum wage (because that's what the average tells us)... if we took the stats at face value no one would ever publish anything.
That point aside - if you only publish in PDF you are limiting yourself to sales from your own website only. It makes far more sense to publish in mobi and epub and have your book on amazon, kobo, B&N, apple etc ... you can output the files from scrivener , or you can use a service like draft to digital - which is free at point of use but takes 15% of the net royalty
I have stories in PDF Adobe Reader. I feel good about this, so good that I feel my present story will work out there just fine. I'm not saying I'll do just PDF, though. I was publisher/editor of my own small circulation magazine for a time,, so I can try another go at that, most likely online. For the publication of only my stories.
Yeah. I sold a lot more than that and didn’t even do a great deal of marketing. Those kinds of stats are worthless because they take self-publishing as a monolith and don’t account for differences in quality of the work, cover, marketing, and the like, which is VAST in self-publishing.
I would, more than anywhere else, I think, place my PDF in Acrobat (Adobe) Reader. Distribution would be among family and friends. Other marketing would possibly be on the Web. I'm not concerned with how much money I make, or how many copies I sell , with this. I Am concerned with what I consider to be the proper place for it.
I think if you're not concerned with wide distribution, there's no problem with PDF. If it's what you're comfortable with, go for it.
PDF kind of makes sense as a starting point, with the possibility of other options later on should you ever change your mind. It's good to see someone pacing themselves rather than taking on all possible options head-on in the shortest time possible. I imagine Windows, IOS and Android tablets all have PDF display functionality, while most dedicated e-readers may require specific formats. But that's something you may want to consider further down the line. Of course, should you ever decide to go down another route (KDP, Smashwords, Kobo, etc) there's nothing stopping you hosting a free PDF sample on your site, something sensible like 5% - 25% of the story so visitors can see if they like it before committing to a full purchase.
Not really - unless you are just distributing to friends and family as the OP is (which is hardly publishing in any meaningful sense of the world) its the worst possible starting point because it is incompatible with all the major market places.
Why not starting with epub? You can export your book in this format from gdocs with just one click. And it keeps you doc's formatting and chapters, etc. Also, there is a bunch of editor software (some free as well) that allows to convert to other popular formats (mobi, fb2). I use Calibre, for example. It's not very user-friendly, but does the job well.
Of course. I forgot I was on the internet where my opinion doesn't matter. What I should have said was: There, now everyone can rest easy knowing I have given the only correct advice.
It'd work fine if you're planning on rolling your own everywhere - e.g. driving your own traffic to a sales page and having people pay you through PayPal or similar. You don't get a pre-existing marketplace's inbuilt credibility or traffic (though God knows you won't see much of that if you're not pushing it yourself anyhow) but you also won't be paying them 30%. That said... Dude, chill. Accusing Moose of all people of being a trad-pub fanboy shows you've clearly not been around here a lot.
Interesting attitude - your opinion matters just as much (but no more) than anyone elses, you feel that PDFs are the one true way, I feel they are the worst possible option apart from paper print runs (not PoD) Everyone else can make up their minds on the information presented (also I don't know where you get the self publishing is insane bit ... I'm self published. What is a bit nuts is picking a medium no one much sells and reading devices can't easily access. - and also thinking that sending your work to mummy and uncle bob really qualifies as any kind of publishing) There is a difference between your opinion not mattering, and everyone having to accept you (or I or anyone) are completely right without challenge
Yeah that ... readable by most ereaders and reader apps except kindle... Frankly I'd do it that way even if i was just sharing it with mummy and uncle bob because its a lot easier for them to download it to the reader of their choice (you can set it to free on say kobo for a limited period)
I'm still waiting for Amazon to process my tax form (the one saying that I'm not the USA tax resident), so didn't look closer into formats they require. Google books wants epub. But for my mom who uses kindle I converted everything to fb2 and it worked well.
Odd that should be near instantaneous - did you do the tax interview thing on the upload page rather than just sending them a W8-BEN ? That aside they require mobi - but can convert other files themselves in their upload process (I didn't as that sometimes buggers up the text formatting)
Hmmm.. I filled it, but then It said I needed to print it out, sign and send by mail. I did so a moth ago, and since then they are still processing it. I'll take a look if there is an option to redo it online. Frankly speaking, I was puzzled that at modern days I was even offered to send a paper form ) thank for your prompt!
When did I say PDFs are the one true way? I believe what I said was: I get the feeling you stopped reading after the first five words.
That'd be when you started throwing all your teddies out of your cot because i suggested it wasnt. That aside PDFs make no kind of sense as a starting point for publishing (unless you are uploading them for PoD services) if you want to have them on your own little corner of the internet to share with mummy feel free .... but that's not what self publishing looks like IMO
There ought to be an option to do the whole thing on line It shouldn't be necessary to print anything out so long as you tick the box to allow e signature helpful guide here http://www.myebook.co.za/mastering-the-amazon-kdp-tax-interview-everything-you-need-to-know One point is it can get more complicated if your country doesn't have a tax treaty with the USA. If you're a Portuguese national that's no problem because the EU does. However if you are a national of an eastern bloc state (no offense just going by your name) just resident in portugal it can become more taxing (no pun intended). The IRS have a full list of countries with tax treaties and what withholding rate if any is applied on their website. In essence if your country doesn't have a tax treaty worse case the IRS will retain 30% of royalty payments, and you'll still be liable for tax in your country of residence/ nationality too .... in these cases its worth consulting an accountant
I'm beginning to sense some hostility. I'm only trying to support the OP by suggesting they stick to their plan at first before looking into other options for distribution rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. Besides, they have said they won't stick exclusively to PDF, so I suppose my original comment was a little redundant. If you want to belittle people, that's your deal. I'll untick the little box for this thread so I don't get notified. That way you can have the last word and I won't read it.
