Do-It-Yourself Ebooks

For authors who wish to create ebooks to sell or give away on their websites, this is a summary rather than a step-by-step guide, and assumes a working knowledge of image editing software, HTML, and the ability customize and install simple scripts.

Maybe you, like me, have the rights back on out-of-print books and want to sell them yourself rather than go through an ebook publisher. Or maybe you have a short story or novella related to your published books and wish to give it away for promotional purposes. Whatever your reason, the following tips and suggestions should help you get started in creating your own ebooks.

Copyright, ISBNs, Business Forms, and Taxes

I live in the USA, so I only have links to US-related information. If you're reprinting out-of-print backlist titles, then your publisher has probably already registered the book's copyright in your name. New work is automatically copyrighted upon publication, but in order to pursue legal action against copyright infringement, you'll need to officially register a copyright through the US Copyright Office. It is possible to use an online service to handle this process, such as Click and Copyright.

If you're just selling books through your website or LuLu.Com, you won't need an ISBN number. ISBN numbers are only necessary when selling through third-party retailers.

Business permits and tax issues vary from state to state. Check with your accountant for advice or refer to the US Small Business Association for more information.

Bare Bones Approach: Freebies

Creating a PDF file that can be read in the standard Adobe Reader is quick, easy, and free. All you have to do is format the document to look like a book. I single space the document, format paragraphs to add space at the end, select a standard font (Tahoma, Helvetica, or Times New Roman at 12pt), justify the text, and then hyphenate the document. Format chapter heading to your liking; I change the font size to 16pt, then center the text and bold it. Then I add a header (title, name) and footer (page numbers), a cover image, and a title page with copyright and rights information.

Adobe also offers a helpful guide: How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks. It's free to download and provides a lot of detail.

Save your document and then export it in PDF format. Newer word processors include this export feature, but if you're working with software that doesn't, you can:

» Convert documents at Adobe PDF Online.

» Download the free OpenOffice Suite; the word processor component includes a full-featured PDF export utility.

» Use a third-party online converter, such as PDF Online.

Once you're done converting your document, you have an ebook. You'll only need to upload the file and create a URL link for readers to download the ebook.

Bare Bones Approach: Selling

If you want to sell a PDF ebook yourself rather than go through a third-party ebook publisher, you have a couple quick options:

» Create and sell your ebooks through LuLu.Com.

» Sell your books on your own site using a basic PayPal "Buy Now" button.

LuLu.Com

LuLu is a free service that makes creating and selling ebooks very easy, even for technophobes, although they do charge a small percentage on each ebook sale (the author retains about 80% of the profit.) Conversion, cover creating, and a store front are handled through your LuLu account. Drawbacks include 1) readers having to create an account at LuLu in order to buy your books, 2) LuLu only handles the PDF format, and 3) LuLu sending payment checks to ebook authors only when they've earned $20 within a payout cycle.

If you have a PayPal account, however, monthly payment transfers can be sent if you've earned at least $5 the previous month. Depending on how many books you're selling and/or which payment option you choose, it could take a while to see any money. Refer to their Basic FAQs and Revenue and Earnings FAQs for details.

PayPal's BUY NOW Service

PayPal makes it easy to use the "Buy Now" button feature, but readers are redirected to an unprotected page on your site, which means unscrupulous people can pass along the page URL to friends, email groups, message boards, etc. You'll also have to set up a PayPal account before you can use the "Buy Now" feature.

Adding Different E-Reader Formats

PDF is one of the most popular and widely used formats for reading documents across multiple OS and browser platforms. However, there are other popular formats that readers may prefer to use on their handheld reading devices or their computer's ebook software: LIT (for Microsoft Reader), PRC (for Mobipocket Reader), PDB (for eReader, formerly Palm Reader), and HTML (multi-platform.)

LIT Format

Newer versions of Microsoft Word (but not MS Word 2007) include the option to add a utility to export a document in LIT format. If you have a version of MSWord that does not support the addon, or use another word processor, you can download Overdrive's ReaderWorks to convert your documents to LIT format. There's a free version as well as a commercial one. In the free version, you can't add a book cover image.

Microsoft offers a free Layout Guide covering various means of formatting a LIT document. According to Wikipedia, MS Office 2007 doesn't support the LIT conversion addon.

PRC Format

To convert your file to a format that's readable in Mobipocket Reader, you'll need to download the free Mobipocket Creator.

PDB Format

To convert your file to a format that's readable in eReader, you'll need to download the eBook Studio. It's not free, but it's inexpensive ($29.95) and you can download a free demo version to try it out first.

HTML Format

Some readers prefer to download an ebook in HTML format, since HTML can be read on a variety of hand-held devices as well as on any computer's internet browser.

Random Tips and Tricks for File Conversions

The eBook Studio is very easy to use. You can copy your original document and paste it into the ebook software, and basic formatting like bolding and italics are preserved. You'll have to add page breaks and mark chapters. The software automatically creates a table of contents from the marked chapters.

You'll need to create a plain HTML document out of your word processor document before exporting it to PRC format (or LIT format, if you don't have the MS Word LIT conversion utility.) This can take time, but once it's done, building the ebooks in Mobipocket Creator and ReaderWorks goes quickly.

The Table of Contents wizards in Mobipocket Creator and ReaderWorks are buggy. I've worked around that by creating a table of contents within the HTML document itself and using jump links with anchor tags.

You can also use bookmarks in a PDF document, providing you've formatted your original word processor document with anchors/bookmarks at each chapter heading.

It's possible to add levels of security or encryption to PDF, PRC, and PDB files. Doing so isn't likely to deter digital pirates and will probably annoy readers. You can disable printing for PDF documents as well.

I use OpenOffice Writer to export my documents to HTML (and PDF) format, then "Search and Replace" to remove extraneous HTML formatting. This may not be necessary; I strip out most formatting because I worry not doing so could cause problems with various ebook readers.

Adding Covers

It's not necessary to add cover art for ebooks, but they'll catch more interest if you at least include a nice-looking cover on your site. LuLu makes it easy to add a no-frills cover, but you can also upload your own. Cover art can be added to PDF documents. You can also add cover art in eBook Studio and Mobipocket Creator (and the commercial version of ReaderWorks) during the ebook building process.

Creating a cover requires decent image editing software — usually Adobe Photoshop or Corel's Paint Shop Pro — and the ability to use it. Without either one, skip the cover because the end result will look too amateurish.

If you know how to edit/resize and add text to images, you can create a respectable-looking cover from inexpensive stock photo images. It's best to keep it simple.

Using an image editor's layers feature, it's possible to blend multiple images, edit and manipulate an image, add text, brushes, and other effects. There are many plugins and filters available that can make the end result look more polished. I don't recommend image editing newbies try anything this complex, though, and graphic tutorials are far too complicated to cover in a quick summary.

Creating An Online Store

Selling your books on your site is easiest if you first install a store front for digital products, such as Vibralogix's Linklok for PayPal IPN or Within the Web's PHP-IPNMonitor.

These scripts protect the download pages from unauthorized users and easily integrate with PayPal's payment gateway. I use Linklok because it doesn't require readers to register for an account in order to download a book, and it was easy to set up. I've not tried PHP-IPNMonitor, but it appears similar to Linklok. The scripts aren't free, but they're inexpensive and come with full documentation and decent vendor support.

In my experience, PayPal is the easiest payment gateway to use, and its processing fees are reasonable. You'll need a merchant's account to use these scripts. PayPal also offers a listing of compatible shopping cart systems just for digital goods.

If PayPal is not a desirable option, consider Google Checkout. It works much the same way. Several more options, with or without PayPal, are listed here.