self publishing 101
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TRANSCRIPT
Self Publishing 101
http://www.slideshare.net/chadmairn
@cmairn
Agenda
• Understanding formats and DRM issues• Highlight some publishing tools• Options for distributing and selling
Express yourself
Success Story
Source: http://goo.gl/4oGHd
Self publishing author Colleen Hoover with copies of her books. Hoover's novels have made the New York Times bestseller list!
www.colleenhoover.com
Fill these three roles and the potential
benefits are greater than with traditional
publishing!
Formats and DRM
E-formats• We have an alphabet soup of formats:
– AZW, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DJVU, LIT, etc.
• For a thorough explanation/comparison, see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats
• The big ones (right now) are EPUB, PDF and AZW/KF8 (Kindle).
• “Everyone” else uses EPUB and PDF.
Official ePub logo, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
Dueling Formats
The cassette/CD format difference is easy for people to see and understand. But .EPUB
vs .AZW/KF8… ? Not so easy.
Dueling formatsAZW EPUB
Is it legal to convert e-book formats?
YES and NO
“You might be tempted to look for some way to remove DRM from e-books in order to facilitate conversion. A word of warning about doing this: In the USA there is a law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This law makes it illegal to circumvent a copy protection system (DRM is such a copy protection system). It also makes it illegal to produce tools, distribute tools, and aid in circumvention. Not everyone lives in the USA, but many countries have similar laws. Check your local laws and realize that even though you may only want to read an EPUB book that you’ve legally purchased on your Kindle, it may not be legal to do so. If you don’t like this silliness—and I don’t—then speak up to whoever in your country makes the relevant laws.”
So, what’s this DRM thing?
• Digital Rights Management.
• A software “lock” that controls access to a file (e-book, e-music, e-movie). You must have the correct software “key” to unlock it.
Is DRM a good thing or is it an evil thing?
Yes!
• Like speed limits and banking regulations, DRM schemes can be a good thing and can protect an author’s livelihood.
• Like speed traps and unreasonable lending practices, DRM schemes can infuriate and frustrate our readers.
Same Format, Dueling DRMs
EPUB w/ Adobe’s ADEPT DRM EPUB w/ Apple’s FairPlay DRM
Dueling Formats and DRMs
AZW using Amazon’s DRM EPUB using Abode’s DRM
What?!
E-books, I hope, will eventually be like CDs (i.e., they can be played on most any CD player).
Do you think this will happen? If so, when?
DRM-free e-books
http://drmfree.calibre-ebook.com/
http://overdrive.com/
http://www.gutenberg.org/
http://openlibrary.org/
Publishing Tools
Upload local content to “Community Reserve.”
createspace.com
kdp.amazon.com calibre-ebook.com
vook.com/
mobipocket.com
What is calibre?
calibre is a “free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.”
http://calibre-ebook.com/
What can calibre do?• Find an e-book and transfer it to a device.• Manages your e-book collection.• Convert a DRM-free e-book to another format.• Over-the-air (OTA) e-book transfer to a Kindle Fire and others.• Syncs to a variety of e-readers.• Downloads RSS feeds & converts to an e-book.• Comprehensive e-book viewer.• Content server for online access to your collection.
Note: Some titles are NSFW!
live demonstration Calibre
CreateSpace
Source: http://goo.gl/AcVNM
Source: http://goo.gl/f9ttC
self publishing for tons of other resources!
Want to Hangout?
gplus.to/chadmairn