Top 10 Digital Publishing Tips

by Nicole Munoz

Turning an idea for a book in your head into a successful digital publication requires co-ordinating a whole lot of different steps to create that one hit. Tens of thousands of digital books are published every month, but only a fraction of them will sell more than a thousand copies.

How do you make sure your book is on
e of the few that succeeds? How do you hit the top charts? How do you sell and sell and sell your books, even if you don’t have a brand or a reputation to rely on now?

These ten digital publishing tips will help you do just that.

Tip #1: Everything You Need to Know About Pricing

How you price your book makes a big impact on your sales and your ultimate profits. Here’s what you need to know about pricing.

Most first-time authors should price their books at around the $2.99 price range. Go a little higher if you’re in a high end market or if your book is especially thick.

On the other hand, if you’re a well known author or if you’re publishing highly specialized knowledge for which there are no other alt

native titles, then price your book more towards the $9.99 range.

If you’re looking to use your book to get as many readers as possible without much care for how much profit you actually make, then by all means go ahead and publish it for $0.99 cents or for free.

Tip #2: More on $0.99 Cent Books

It’s very difficult to make a profit on $0.99 cent books. The commissions you’ll have to pay to the bookstores will cut your profits down even further until the amount you make per sale is completely negligible.

If you plan on making a living selling books, this price point just doesn’t work. For example, on the Amazon Kindle store when you price your books at $0.99 you’ll only get paid a 35% royalty. That means that when all is said and done, you’ll only be making around 30 cents per download.

However, the one notable exception is if you want to use this price to get more people into your sales funnel or brand umbrella. For example, you might sell your primary book for $8.99, then publish 5 much smaller books on specific topics all priced at $0.99. People who buy your cheaper book who want to learn more can do so by purchasing your more expensive book.

Use the $0.99 price point as a marketing tool, rather than as a profit strategy.

Tip #3: Hire a Professional Proofreader

Proofreading your own books is not a good idea. Neither is sending it to your friend to see if they spot any mistakes. A professional proofreader can turn a good piece of content into something truly phenomenal. If you’re serious about your book’s success, hire a great proofreader to look your work over.

There are a few different ways to find proofreaders.

For one, you can use a service like Proofreading Pal to do it. These kinds of companies hire dozens of proofreaders and make them available for projects for a small markup.

Alternatively, you can head over to a freelancer marketplace like eLance and find a proofreader to hire. Make sure you look through their before and after samples before making a decision.

Tip #4: Read it on the Digital Device

If you’re publishing your book on the Kindle, read it on the Kindle. If you’re publishing it on the Nook, read it on the Nook. The same goes for an iBookstore book.

Just because your book looks great on screen doesn’t mean it’ll look good on a digital device. Make sure you read your book the way your audience will be reading it.

Both Barnes & Nobles and Amazon have basic devices you can purchase for under $150. If you don’t care to own the devices, you can just buy the device and sell it on Craigslist or eBay immediately after testing your books. The difference between purchase price and sale price usually won’t be more than $40.

Tip #5: Plant a Teaser for Your Site

Put a teaser for your site in your book. For example, let’s say you’re publishing a book about fishing. Your book goes in depth into details on everything from rod selection to actual fishing techniques.

However, there are a few things you don’t cover. You don’t cover how to choose a fishing boat. You don’t cover how to predict the best weather for fishing.

Instead of putting these things in your book, you tell them you’ve put them in a separate report that’s available for free on your website. People who read your book will then go to your website to get those freebies.

You can require people to give you their email address before they receive the freebies. Because they’ve already paid for your content and already have a level of trust built in for you, your opt-in rate will be very high.

Tip #6: Make Your Samples Pack a Punch

It’s not uncommon in physical books for people to spend the first few pages ramping up. You might talk about fundamental concepts or use the first few pages to get your readers in the right mindset to learn.

With digital books however, this is a bad strategy. Your first few pages are going to be your preview pages, which means that for first few pages have to pack an emotional punch. People who read just your first few pages should feel inspired or excited. They should want to get the rest of your book.

Don’t write your first 5 pages for people who’ve already purchased your book. Instead, write them for people who’re considering buying your book. Consider it a sales-oriented piece of high quality content.

Tip #7: Outsource the Formatting Cheaply

If you’re not great at formatting your books, why not just have someone else do it for you?

Head over to Fiverr or eLance and look for people who offer to format digital book. You can easily find someone who’ll format your digital book for under $20. In fact, on Fiverr you’ll often be able to format your books for just $5.

They’ll insert the page breaks, create the Table of Contents, make sure your chapter headings appear correctly, so on and so forth.

Formatting eBooks is one of the most common obstacles writers face in getting published. There are people who specialize in doing just this. Why not let the specialists handle it (cheaply) so you can focus on writing and marketing?

Tip #8: Target Peripheral Markets

One great way to get more people to read your books is to target peripheral markets.

For example, let’s say you have a primary book about weight loss that’s selling for $8.99. Instead of just continually publishing books about weight loss, why not target a few peripheral markets?

For example, publish a book about weight loss over 45, publish a book about weight loss for people with diabetes and publish a book about weight loss for mothers who’ve just had a child.

Each of these books can help build your brand, as well as get more people to purchase your main product.

Tip #9: Participate in Platform Communities

Each platform has a community. For example, there are many places where Kindle authors can go to network with other authors. Be an active member of these communities.

There are a few powerful ways that these communities can help you:

You can learn a lot from past questions and posts. If you have a question, chances are someone else has already asked that question at some point.
You can ask questions. If you ever get stuck in the publishing or marketing process, just reach out for help.
You can ask for feedback. Not sure if your book, your cover or your marketing strategy is up to snuff? You can just ask.
You can find partnership opportunities. If you and another author are in the same market, why not pool your resources so you both come out ahead?
You can ask for reviews. Ask other authors to purchase your book and review you, and you’ll do the same.

The list of potential benefits goes on and on. Participating in these communities is a key to success on any platform.

Tip #10: Watch Your Reports and Optimize for What’s Working

Watch your sales reports carefully. Track all your marketing activities and try to draw links between your sales and what you did to generate those sales.

If you go on several internet podcasts to market your book and see no spike in sales, you probably won’t want to spend time doing podcast interviews in the future.

On the other hand, if you write a few guest articles for industry websites and suddenly see a flood of sales, that’d probably be a good avenue to focus on in the future.

Watch for unexpected stats. For example, if you’re publishing your book primarily for the US market but suddenly notice an influx of sales from the UK, ask yourself why. Did someone in the UK pick up and promote your book? Did it strike a cord among an unexpected audience?

Try to figure out what’s working and do more of that. Also, try to figure out what doesn’t work and stop doing it.
If you follow these ten tips, you’ll be one of the few self-published authors who knows both how to write a great book and how to run a great book business. Follow these tips and you’ll create a fantastic product that generates sales, month in and month out.

Nook Publishing Checklist

by Nicole Munoz

So, you’re ready to publish a book on the Nook. Not so fast! Have you covered all your bases? Miss one crucial step and you could botch your whole launch.

Before you upload your book, look through this checklist to make sure you’ve taken every necessary step.

Have You … Said Something Truly Unique?

For your book to really take off, it has to have something really different about it. People can’t pick up the book and think it seems like every other book they’ve ever read.

Becoming a bestseller on the Nook is only slightly easier than becoming a bestseller in paperback. Your book must stand out.

Give your book to a few people in your target market before launching. When they give you feedback, are they excited? Or do they simply say it’s good? Keep working on your book until people you show it to absolutely love it.

Have You … Formatted Your Document?

Formatting for the Nook is different than formatting for the Kindle or for the iBookstore.

One of the biggest differences is that you can’t use page breaks; but have to use section breaks instead.

Most of Word’s basic features, such as underlining, bolding and bulleting will work on the Nook. However, other features, like symbols or image wrapping won’t come out properly.

Make sure you’ve formatted your document properly before uploading. You can upload in HTML, DOC or TXT files.

Have You … Tested Your Cover Image?

Your cover will have a bigger impact on your sales than just about anything else in your description. Have you tested it to make sure it’s the best cover you can possibly have?

The best way to test your cover is to have 5-6 different covers done, then have your friends look over them. Get different opinions from 10 to 20 people and choose the one that people consistently say is the best.

Have You … Got an ISBN Number?

An ISBN number isn’t required to publish on the Nook. However, having one can add a lot of credibility for your book. If you’re serious about making your book a success, the $25 ISBN fee is a small price to pay.

Have You … Honed Your Pitch?

Why should someone buy your book? Barnes & Nobles advocates this approach to writing your description: Imagine someone asked you what your book is about at a dinner party. You have to “sell” your book in 30 seconds. What would you say?

Now take that pitch and turn it into your book’s description. It should catch attention, tell people what the book is about, hook their curiosity and get them to buy.

Have You … Got an Inspiring and Credible Bio?

Before someone buys your book, one of the first things they’re going to look at is who you are. Do you seem like a credible person? Do you have the credentials to write the book you wrote? Why should they trust you?

When you’re writing your bio, focus on the credibility building aspects. For example, if you’re writing a business book, people will care a lot less about where you grew up or what you’re passionate about than what your business track record is. Even if you’re writing a fiction book, you should still focus on your track record as an author.

Make your bio “snap” and fun to read, but make sure it also adds credibility.

Have You … Collected Blurbs and Testimonials?

Blurbs and testimonials should go in the beginning of your book, as well as at the bottom of your description. They can help convey other people’s excitement and get your readers excited as well.

Getting testimonials is easy. Just send the book to a few of your friends, have them email you their thoughts and put those thoughts in your book.

Have You … Got Editorial Reviews?

In the Nook, editorial reviews get a section of their own.

That means there’s a huge opportunity to build credibility by adding a few editorial reviews.

An editorial review is a review by someone who’s respected in your industry. For example, a journalist, a well known author, an editor of a well known publication or a CEO of a prominent company.

Have You … Leveraged Bloggers, Reviewers and Reading Groups?

One of the best ways to sell a Nook book is to get a ton of reviews, both on the web and in the Nook store.

To get reviews on the web, contact bloggers and review sites that write about your industry. Offer to send them a free copy of your book to review.

To get a lot of reviews in the Nook store, look for reading groups. These are groups of people who read Nook books. They often focus around specific categories of books. Find one of these groups and offer your book for free to the entire group, in exchange for reviews.

How to Publish E-books for Nook Readers

by Nicole Munoz

The Barnes & Nobles Nook device is an Android-based e-reader device that incorporates Amazon’s pioneering E-Ink technology. The price of the device ranges from $99 for the Simple Touch reader to $249 for the Nook Color.

One difference between the Nook and the Kindle is the Nook’s “GlowLight” technology. This makes it easy for people who own a Nook to read books in the dark, something that the Kindle is completely incapable of doing.

Publishing on the Nook gives you access to millions of highly active readers. The Nook and the Kindle are often neck in neck in terms of sales. If you’re publishing your book on either the Kindle store or the iBookstore, there’s no reason not to also publish on the Nook bookstore.

Here’s how to publish your eBook to the Nook bookstore.

Step 1: Click Create an Account

Go to: http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com

In the upper right corner, click “Create an account” to begin the account creation and book creation process.

Step 2: Creating Your Account

Fill out the PubIt registration form on the next page.

Give PubIt your contact information.

If you have a publisher, enter your publisher’s details.

Enter your bank account information. This is used to deposit your payments. You need a US-based bank account to use the Barnes & Nobles Nook bookstore.

Give PubIt your Social Security number or your Federal Tax ID number (if you’re a corporation.)

Finally, give PubIt a credit card. They do this primarily to verify that you are who you say you are. They also use it as a protection mechanism, if your book refunds happened to exceed the amount of sales you make during a payment period. (This is highly unlikely.)

Once you hit “Submit,” your PubIt account will be created. You can then begin creating your first book.

Step 3: Enter Your Title and Author Details

Enter your title. Then choose your list price.

Look through the Nook bookstore to see what other comparable books are charging. Unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, you should try to list your book for about what other people are listing them for.

If you’re using your book as a loss leader to get more people aware of your brand, you can sell your book for a much lower price just to get more people to buy.

Your title needs to stand out among the sea of other books that your book will be swimming in. It should say something so unique that people can’t help but wonder what the description says.

Finally, list your author name and publisher details.

Step 4: Upload Your Book

Click “Browse” to find the book on your computer. Then click “Upload & Preview” to upload your book.

Step 5: Preview Your Book

You’ll be taken to a preview of what your book looks like. You can click the “Next Page” button to see what the other pages in your book look like. Make sure your book’s formatting came out the way you want it to before continuing.

Step 6: Upload Your Book Cover

Upload your book cover.

Remember when you’re designing your cover that people really do judge a book by its cover. Much of your book’s ability to make sales will depend on the strength of your cover.

Your cover should convey credibility, as well as make a strong promise. It should have good overall design aesthetics as well as be a strong marketing piece.

Step 7: Publishing Details

Barnes & Nobles needs a few bits of information before it can publish your book. It needs to know if you have an ISBN number, whether it’s part of a series, whether it’s in print and whether it’s a public domain book.

Step 8: Age & Language

What age is your book geared towards and what language is the book written in?

Step 9: Rights & DRM

Let B&N know whether you have worldwide rights, or rights in only the USA or the USA and Canada.

Choose whether you want to DRM encrypt your book. This helps protect your book from being stolen or passed on.

Step 10: Categories and Keywords

Choose the categories and keywords you want to use to market your book. You can choose up to five categories.

Try to list your book in the most obvious categories, as well as one or two non-obvious categories. Get your book into categories that your competitors might not necessarily think of, but are shared by your target market.

You can also try to pick a category that you think you can dominate. In other words, pick a category that isn’t too competitive and try to get your book to the top.

Your keywords will help people who’re performing searches to find your book. Use tools like the Google Keyword Tool to identify keywords that people search for on a regular basis.

Step 11: Description & About the Author

Write a compelling description of your book. If your book’s an informational book, try to titillate people by hinting at some of the things they’ll learn in the book. If your book is a non-informational book, try to give people an emotional dose of what they’ll experience once they’re reading your book.

Your “About the Author” section is the perfect place to demonstrate your credibility. Talk about your past experiences that make you uniquely qualified to read this book. Give specific figures (E.g. “helped over 8,000 entrepreneurs raise startup capital”) and drop names wherever possible (E.g. “helped raise capital for Groupon, eBay, Dropbox and more.”)

Step 12: Submit!

Once you’ve confirmed that all the information you’ve submitted is correct and complete, click the checkbox and hit “Put on Sale.”

That’s all there is to submitting a book to the Nook! What comes next is the hard part: Marketing and promotion.

Leverage your social networks, your email list and you website to get the word out about your book. You need to get some attention to your book first, before people will start to come to your book on its own. Once your book gains some momentum however, at some point it’ll be able to swim on its own and become a real money earner for you without you having to constantly promote it.

Proper Formatting and Conversion for Nook

Formatting for the Nook is all about making your text appear the way it appears on your screen, on the Nook. While the Nook can convert most .DOC files and formatting to the proper format, there are a few things you need to do beforehand to get your document ready.

For the purposes of this guide, we’re going to use a .DOC upload, as that’s the most common format used. You can also upload a as an EPUB document, .HTML or .TXT.

Step 1: Fix Your Spacing

If you’re using two return carriages at any point in your text in order to create a new paragraph, that’s going to come out wrong in the Nook. While on screen two returns might give you the look you want, on the Nook it’ll look like too much space.

For example, this is what spacing looks like to a lot of people in Word:

The single spacing doesn’t look like it creates enough space above it for a new paragraph. So people do two return carriages instead. This works in Word, but not on the Nook.

Instead of using double returns, select the text whose spacing you want to change, then click “Paragraph.”

Change the spacing. Usually the field you’ll want to change is the “After” field.

Step 2: Change Your Indents

Tab indenting doesn’t work on the Nook. If you want to indent the first line of a paragraph, again use the paragraph tool.

Right click, select “Paragraph” as shown in step 1, then change the indent using the “Indentation” section.

To indent the whole paragraph, use the left side controls. To indent just the first line, use the “Special” section.

Step 3: Insert Section Breaks

The Nook converter cannot read Page Breaks. You also can’t start a new page by just pressing return until you get to the next page. In order to have your page breaks be properly formatted for the Nook, you need to instead use a section break. Use this at the end of chapters and when you want to start a new page.

To insert a section break, position your cursor where you want the break to appear. Then go to “Page Layouts,” click on “Breaks” and select “Next Page” under “Section Breaks.”

Step 4: Lists

If you have lists, such as bullets or numerical lists, make sure you’re using Word’s built in list tools. Don’t try to create your own lists by placing numbers then a dot, or any other makeshift method of creating lists.

Step 5: Change Your Font

Use either Arial, Times New Roman or Courier New.

Step 6: Format Images

Your images can be aligned in the middle, the left or the right. Text should be above and below the image. Don’t use formatting that causes words to wrap around the image. By and large, choose the “In line with text” wrapping style (it’s on by default.)

Step 7: Remove Symbols

Remove any non-standard symbols from your text. Remove any superscripts and subscripts.

By default, Word converts the “th” and “st” texts that come after a date or a fraction into superscripts. If this is the case with your text, you’ll need to go through all of them and remove them. Having symbols or superscripts can disrupt your book’s formatting.

Above are two examples of Word automatically creating superscripts. To change it, just backspace over them and re-write the text. If Word tries to change something, just press CTRL+Z to undo it.

Once you’ve made all these changes, your .DOC file will be ready for publication on the Nook!

Submitting Your eBook to the Kindle Store

by Nicole Munoz

Getting your eBook on the Kindle format is a powerful way to get exposure to a group of people that may never actively search for your book online. You’ll be exposed to people who are ready and willing to spend money and can purchase your book quickly and easily at the click of a button.

Amazon’s process for submitting an eBook used to be long and complicated, requiring an ISBN number and a lengthy application process similar to its physical book process.

With the Kindle’s new Digital Text Platform (DTP) you can now submit your eBook to the Kindle quickly and easily. Here’s how.

Step 1: Sign In to the DTP

Go to: http://dtp.amazon.com

You’ll be presented with the introduction page. Sign in to your Amazon account.

Step 2: Add Seller Information

When you log onto the DTP system, you’ll immediately be presented with a screen that says “Your account information is incomplete.”

That’s because you currently have an account for buying books on Amazon but not for selling books on Amazon.

Click the “Update Now” button to give Amazon the necessary information to have an account that can submit books to the Kindle.

Step 3: Fill Out Your Account Information

You’ll be presented with an account information page that should be mostly self-explanatory. Fill out your name, tax ID / SSN number and how you’d like to receive your payments.

Step 4: Add Your First eBook

Once you save your changes, you’ll be returned to the main screen. Click “Add a new title” to add your first eBook.

Step 5: Fill Out the Book Details

When you click the add button, you’ll be presented with a long page of options for your book. Here’s what each section means.

1) Provide the title of your book and the description. Remember that these are two of the most important things people will use to consider whether to buy your book or not. The title and description should be both descriptive and compelling.

2) Book contributors – Who are the authors?

3) Publishing Details – What language is the book in? Everything else is optional.

There’s more when you scroll down …

1) Do you own the rights or is the book in the public domain?

2) What category does the book belong in? This will help people who don’t know of your title find your book. If you’re unsure, look for books similar to yours and see what categories they put themselves in. You should also add a few keywords to make the book easier to find.

3) Your book cover. Perhaps more than any other factor, your book cover is what will catch attention and get people to buy your book.

4) Upload your book. Amazon prefers HTML format, though they can accept PDF format as well.

Click Continue when you’ve completed everything on the first page.

Step 6: Set Your Rights and Pricing

When you hit continue, you’ll be taken to the rights & pricing page:

Here you’ll set whether you want to sell the book all over the world or just in certain parts of the world. You’ll also set your royalty percentage and your listing price.

Once you hit submit, your book will be reviewed by Amazon. Once you receive approval, your eBook will be live on the Kindle store!

How to Publish on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

by Nicole Munoz

Amazon’s Kindle bookstore is one of the fastest growing platforms for getting your work out into the world. Digitally published content is Amazon’s fastest growing segment. More and more authors are coming on to their publishing network every day. More importantly, more and more people are purchasing Kindles and making digital book purchases every day.

The Kindle bookstore can be a fantastic way to both bring in a new income stream, as well as introduce new people to your ideas and product funnel.

People often see publishing on the Kindle as much more difficult than it really is. The reality is, submitting your book to the Kindle store takes just a few hours.

Here’s how to publish your book on Amazon Kindle’s bookstore.

Step 1: Sign In

Go to:

https://kdp.amazon.com

This is Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing platform. Sign into your Amazon account. You don’t need a specialized account to begin selling on the Kindle store.

Step 2: Click Add New Title

Once you’re in your KDP account, click “Add New Title” to begin the process of adding your new Kindle book.

Step 3: KDP Select

Do you want to enroll in KDP select? KDP select allows you to share in library revenues when people borrow your book, as well as to offer your book for free on the Kindle store for 5 days. In order to enroll in KDP select, you need to offer your book only on the Amazon Kindle and no other digital book platform.

Step 4: Book Title

Enter the name of your guide. There are a few things you should be thinking about when you choose a title:

It should be catchy. If someone hears the name, it should immediately get stuck in someone’s head.
It should suggest a benefit. Let people know what they can get from reading your book.
It should be unique. Don’t use a generic title that others have seen a dozen times already.
It should catch attention. If someone’s looking at your book in the Kindle store, the title should draw their eyes and rouse their curiosity.

Good examples of this include “The Four Hour Workweek,” “Made to Stick,” “The Tipping Point” and “Good to Great.”

Step 5: Enter Your Description

Your description is your best chance to sell someone on buying your book. Your headline catches attention and your book cover helps build the vibe and brand. But people ultimately decide whether or not they want to buy your book after reading the description.

Your description should focus on the reader. Explain how your book can change their lives or benefit them in some way. It should highlight the juiciest aspects of your book.

Don’t write this all at once. Instead, sit down and write your description from a few different angles. Then pick the best one and really refine it over the course of a few days before publishing.

Step 6: Publisher Details

Enter details about the publisher. Most of this information is optional, but it does help lend some sense of credibility to your book. Note that to publish on the Kindle bookstore, you do not need an ISBN number.

Step 7: Publishing Rights

Verify with Amazon that you have the rights to publish the book you’re publishing.

Step 8: Categories and Keywords

Click “Add Categories” to add categories. Enter your keywords in the keywords section.

Your categories and your keywords are some of the most important aspects of getting found. Customers will browse books by categories as well as search for books using keywords.

If you don’t know which categories or keywords you should use, look into what some of your competitors are using. You can’t go wrong doing what your top 5 competitors are doing in terms of categories and keywords.

This is what the category selection screen looks like:

Step 9: Upload Your Book

Check whether or not you want to enable Digital Rights Management (DRM) to help protect your book from being shared and/or pirated.

Then upload your book’s contents by clicking “Browse for Book” then “Upload Book.”

Once Amazon receives your book, you’ll see the converting screen.

Click “Save and Continue” to continue with the book creation process.

Step 10: Publishing Territories

If you only hold the rights to the book in certain territories, you’ll have to restrict the sales to just those territories. Most people can leave this option on “Worldwide rights.”

Step 11: Royalty Options

Choose which royalty option you want to use to promote your book. Amazon has two different royalty plans that you can choose from. If you’re selling for between $2.99 to $9.99, the 70% option is probably your best choice. If you’re selling for $0.99 or if you’re selling a very high end book, then the 35% option is your only choice.

Step 12: Set Your Prices

Set the prices for your book in various different markets. When you’re setting these prices, try to take a look at what your competitors are charging in those markets before you make your decision.

It’s not unusual for a book that sells for $2.99 USD to sell for £2.99 GBP, even though the pound is worth $1.58 dollars. It’s just how the market works.

In other words, don’t just convert your US dollar prices into pounds or Euros. Instead, research each market individually before crafting your prices.

Step 13: Allow Lending?

Should people be able to “lend” their friends your book? If so, they’ll be able to give someone else your book for 14 days. Amazon will then automatically deactivate the book after the two weeks has passed.

Some people believe this helps increase brand and exposure, while others believe it decreases potential revenue. It’s your choice as to how you want to treat borrowing.

Step 14: Save and Publish

Once you’ve entered all the details for your book and selected all your publishing options, just click “Save and Publish” to finalize your submission!

Amazon will then take some time to review your Kindle book. If you wrote the book yourself, you’ll almost always get approved. Amazon’s primary reason for disapproving books isn’t poor quality, but copyright issues.

Congratulations! After following this submission process, your book will soon appear in the Kindle store. Watch your account carefully and soon the sales will start rolling in!

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How to Be on iBooks Digital Shelf

by Nicole Munoz

Apple’s iBooks platform is one of the three largest online bookstores. Publishing to the iBookstore will make your digital book available to anyone who has either an iPhone or an iPad. To date, over 500 million iOS devices have been sold – Putting the number of iOS users at higher than the United States population.

If you’re serious about publishing a digital book, the iBookstore is simply a platform that you can’t afford to ignore.

Unfortunately, publishing to the iBookstore on your own can be quite a difficult task. For one, you must have a Mac, not a PC. Even if you have a Mac, Apple’s procedures for publishing to the iBookstore are not crystal clear. Perhaps the best (and fastest) way to get your book into the iBookstore is to use an approved third party publisher.

This publisher will help format your book for you, then submit it to Apple. They’ll screen your book for any errors and let you know if there are any issues before your book is submitted, so you don’t risk getting rejected.

Lulu is one of the largest approved publishers in Apple’s network. They publish over 20,000 books every single month. Founded in 2002 by Bob Young, to date they’ve helped publishers from over 200 different countries get their works into the world.

Here’s how to use Lulu to publish your digital book on the iBookstore platform.

Step 1: Getting Started

Go to http://www.lulu.com

Click “Publish.”

Then scroll down to “eBooks” and click “Start your eBook.”

Finally, click “I’m ready to publish” to begin the publishing process.

Step 2: Create Your Membership

Fill out the membership profile. Creating a membership is free. Lulu makes money from publishing your book, not from memberships.

Step 3: Title and Author

Write your book’s title and the names of the authors. If you want to add more authors, click the “+” button next to “Author.”

The title you enter will be a working title. Unlike other book publishing platforms, you can save your progress and not publish right away. If you want to change your title later, you can.

Your title should be carefully thought out before you launch. Try to brainstorm at least 25 potential titles before you settle down on one. Your title should pack an emotional punch. Someone who reads your title should be compelled to check out what the rest of your book is about.

Step 4: Check Sell on iBooks

You’ll be asked what you want to do with the project. If you’re ready to submit right away, click the third option. If you want to work on the book for a while before submitting, select the first option.

Keep in mind that you need to have everything right before you submit your book. About 50% of the books submitted to Lulu get disapproved because they did something wrong. If you’re not 100% confident in your book yet, wait until you’re ready before submitting it for approval.

Step 5: ISBN Number

You’ll be asked whether you want a free ISBN number, to use your own paid ISBN number or to use no ISBN number at all.

By and large, most people can get by with Lulu’s free ISBN numbers. However, if you really don’t want to list Lulu as the publisher for your book, you can choose to buy your own ISBN number from ISBN.com.

If you choose the first option, your new ISBN number will be displayed on the very next page.

Step 6: Upload Your Book

Upload your DOC, RTF or EPUB eBook to Lulu. Before you upload, make sure that your book is formatted properly. Make sure your chapter titles are preceeded by a Page Break and that your images are centered. Follow the guidelines on Lulu’s formatting page to the letter before uploading your book.

Once your book is uploaded, you’ll see the file on the bottom of the page. Click “Save & Continue” to continue the publishing process.

Lulu will then begin formatting your book for you. Go get a cup of coffee while you wait for Lulu to finish this process.

Step 7: Create Your Marketing Image

Create the image you want to use as your marketing image. Your marketing image is what people see as the preview for your book in the bookstore, as well as what people see as your front cover.

Your marketing image is not actually inserted into your book as the cover. Your cover page inside your book is. The marketing image, as the name suggests, is used purely for marketing your book.

You can customize the background and the text to a great degree. Once you’ve created your image, Lulu will turn the graphic you created into a real graphic to be uploaded to the various bookstores your book is being uploaded to.

Step 8: Enter Your Description

Write the description for your book. Try to add as many credibility builders as you can, such as reviews from well known people or high quality testimonials from people who’ve read your book. Try to also highlight the best things that your book has to offer.

Download the iBooks app on an iOS device and take a look at how other people are writing their descriptions. How are they catching attention? How are they demonstrating credibility? How are they getting people to buy?

Your description is one of the most important selling tools you have in your arsenal. Don’t let it go to waste.

Step 9: License and Edition

Enter the name of the person who should hold the copyright to the book. Choose what kind of license you want the book to be published under. Choose what edition your book is currently in.

Step 10: Digital Rights Management

Lulu offers Digital Rights Management (DRM) services to its customers – For a fee. If you want to protect your book from being sent to others or from being “ripped” and uploaded to pirating sites, you’ll have to pay $0.25 cents per download to protect your book.

Step 11: Set Your Price

Set the price you want to sell your book at. Lulu will tell you what you’ll receive in royalties when someone buys your book on Lulu and anywhere else.

Step 12: Review, Save and Finish

Finally, you’ll be presented with all the options you’ve selected so far. You’ll be able to edit your working title, as well as preview how your book currently looks.

Look over everything on this page and make sure that everything looks the way it should. Once you hit “Save and Finish,” your eBook will be submitted to Lulu.

Once your book is submitted, you’ll need to wait a few days while Lulu manually reviews your book. If there are any errors in your submission, you’ll have to re-do your book and re-submit your book before it goes live.

One of the great things about Lulu is that you actually get real people you can interface with about your book submission process. If your book is having trouble getting approved, with Apple it’s very hard to get in touch with anyone. With Lulu however, you have a dedicated customer service team at your beck and call.

What are you waiting for? If you have a book ready for submission, getting it up and running on Lulu takes just a couple hours.

How to Publish a Paperback Book with Lulu

by Nicole Munoz

Lulu specializes in print on demand items which include hardback books, paperback books, brochures, photo books, calendars, cookbooks, poetry books, ebooks, images, CDs, DVDs, and digital files. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a print on demand paperback book and set up a free Lulu shop.

You will need:

Book graphics (plus front and/or back images)
Prewritten Book – contents in .doc, .docx or.rtf, but preferably in.pdf. format
Adobe Acrobat is highly recommended; alternately you may use their conversion service and pay to have your document converted. This can cost $99 or more. You can also create a PDF version with Microsoft Word.

Step 1: Create a member account

Create a member account by supplying information including your:

Full Name
Email Address
User Name
Password
Country
Language

Read and agree to the Membership Agreement and click the signup button. You will be taken to your “My Lulu” dashboard.

Scroll to the My Account section in the sidebar and edit your preferences.

Step 2: Select your project

Under “Start a new project” click on Paperback book if you want to create one.

Add a working title and your name.

Select who has access. You may want to keep it private until you get a bit of practice.

Click save and continue.

Step 3: Choose your project options

In this section you can select your preferences for your book’s paper type, size, binding, and printing color.

Paper

This book will be approximately letter size.

Binding

Color

Click save and continue.

Step 4: Upload your PDF file

Check the PDF you’ve created, to make sure it meets the requirements for this book. If you want to make sure your PDF prints correctly, you may want to download this template in Word.

Once your document is formatted correctly, you may upload it.

When your document is uploaded correctly and without errors, you should see a success message at the top of your page. If you don’t have fonts embedded or something else is wrong, you will see an error message instead.

Click the “Make Print-Ready File” link. You’ll see a success message when it’s done and you’ll have a link to download and check it. Then click save and continue.

Step 5: Add the book’s covers

Now you will be taken to a cover wizard where you can create your cover pages and add images. If you created a full image for the cover, you may want to upload it and then drag and drop it on to the front cover and just use solid colors for the back and spine.

1. Select parts of the book to edit.

2. Choose background and text colors.

3. Upload images to drag and drop into the photo areas.

When you’re done, click the preview and make print-ready button.

When it’s finished, you’ll see a success message and two links for you to preview both the cover and the book’s content.

Review, click save and continue.

Step 6: Review your project

Review your project and make any needed changes. The items you can change have a “change” button beside it.

After choosing the options you want, click the save and finish button.

You will then see a success page because your book has been published!

Next, you’ll need to set the preview for potential buyers.

Step 7: Set custom preview

The default preview is up to 10 pages. You may or may not want people to view that many pages of your book.

Make your changes. Click save and continue.

View the preview pages. Click the save and finish button. You then see the product page as potential customers would see it.

Once you have your book edited to your liking, you will need to change the private access (Step 6) so that you can set up your shop. Just go to your dashboard, click the revise next to the project and edit the access.

While you’re revising things, there is one more thing you’ll need to edit – your royalty fee! Click edit and add your royalty to the product price. Then click the “save changes” button.

Before you log out, make sure you’ve edited all of your account settings so you’ll be sure and get paid. That’s all there is to setting up an account and creating a paperback book.

How to Submit Your eBook to iBooks

by Nicole Munoz

Getting your eBooks into the iBookstore will get you exposure to a wide audience on Apple devices. Your book will be available to people on both PC computers and Macs as well as people on iPhones and iPads.

In order to submit your own eBook to iBooks, you’ll need a Mac running at least 1G of RAM with QuickTime 7.03 installed. Unfortunately, you cannot do this on a Windows computer.

That said, if you’re on a Windows computer, you can use one of the many third party Apple aggregators to help take care of the process. They’ll take care of just about everything for you, though you’ll have to pay a premium for the service.

If you want to do it on your own, you’ll also need a U.S. Tax ID. Anyone can get a Tax ID by filing for a DBA / Sole Proprietor business in the United States. You don’t even need to be a U.S. resident.

Once you have all the requirements, here’s how to get started with publishing your eBook on iBooks.

Step 1: Get Your ISBN Number

In order to publish your book on iBooks, you’ll need an ISBN number. This number is like a calling card for your book. It allows bookstores like the iBookstore to track exactly how many books were sold and it also allows you to track your statistics.

Any book sold in a regular bookstore needs an ISBN number. While some online stores don’t require this, iBooks does. To get your ISBN number, go to:

http://www.ISBN.org

When you arrive, you’ll see the page below. Click “Get Your ISBN Today!” to start.

Step 2: Get the Basic Version

While there are several different versions of the ISBN service available, the most important thing is that you get the number. For our purposes, the most basic package is usually enough.

Step 3: Checkout

Continue to checkout and follow the on screen instructions to complete the purchase of your ISBN number.

Step 4: Install an ePub Conversion Application

In order to submit your eBook to iBooks, you need to convert it to the ePub file format. There are several programs that can do this.

Calibre and Sigil are two free options. iStudio Publisher ($49.99) and Adobe InDesign ($699) are two paid options.

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll use Calibre’s free converter to create our ePub file.

Download Calibre from:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Install the software and continue.

Step 5: Add Your Books

Once you open Calibre, you’ll be presented with a screen with a variety of options. A good way to acquaint yourself with the interface is to just hover your mouse over various areas and see what each button is.

To get started, click “Add Books” in the upper left corner. Select the book(s) you want to convert into ePub file format to add it to the list of titles in Calibre.

Step 6: Change the Meta Data

Your meta data is data that comes with the ePub file that tells the book reader basic information like who wrote it, the title, the ISBN number and so on.

Highlight the book whose data you want to change. Then click on the “Edit Meta Data” button.

You’ll then be taken to the edit meta data screen, as shown below:

Input as much of the data as you can. Add in your front cover image. This is the image that will be shown to people browsing the iBookstore.

On the right you can add comments. You can leave this blank for now.

Click OK when you’re finished.

Step 7: Save Your ePub Book

When you’re ready to export your ePub file, click on the “Save Book” button.

You’ll then be taken to the save page, which gives you a ton of options.

The best way to play with these options is to just save your file and see how it looks afterwards. You can choose how text display looks, how your table of contents are structured and a whole lot more options.

The only critical thing you need to select is the Output Format. Make sure it’s set to EPUB before you hit OK.

Once you save your file, you’ll have a file that’s ready to be submitted to the iBookstore!

Step 8: Submit to iBooks

To submit your ebook, go to iTunes connect at:

https://itunesconnect.apple.com

Select “Books” from the dropdown menu and click continue.

You’ll then be walked through a series of steps to upload your ePub file and submit it to iTunes. Follow the on screen instructions.

That’s all there is to it! Setting up your Tax ID, getting an ISBN number and converting your file may be a bit of hassle at first, but getting your eBook onto the iBookstore will make your effort well worth it.

How to Use Public Domain Content for Digital Books

by Nicole Munoz

One of the easiest ways to get high quality content to turn into digital books for Kindle, iBooks, Nook or any other digital ebook store is to repurpose content that is free of copyright, or public domain works. By using content in the public domain, you can just use content that was created by someone else for your digital ebook. This guide will who you how to use public domain content for digital books.

Locating Copyright Free Works

The first thing you need to do is find the public domain works. While these suggestions are intended to be compliant with U.S. copyright law, you should always do your due diligence to ensure content is in the public domain.

Older Works

Generally speaking, any work that was published before 1923 is copyright free. Because of a law enacted in 1998, works created in 1923 will become public domain in 2019. In 2020, works created in 1924 will have their copyright expire and so forth.

There are certain circumstances where older works, published after 1923 might also be in the public domain.

For more information, review the U.S. Copyright Office guide here:

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf

U.S. Government Works

One place to look is government websites. Any document published by the US government is free of copyright, but be aware that if documents were created under government contract with a 3^rd party, they are protected by copyright.

You should also be aware that many logos and emblems, while not protected by copyright, are protected by other laws.

Still, if you do your homework right, you’ll find many government websites will have some top notch content up for grabs completely free. From detailed reports on improving health to high resolution photos of the galaxy, from declassified cold war documents to environmental health reports, all of it is public domain. You just have to dig.

Look through the websites of various government institutions that are related to your field. You can also try searching with “inurl:.gov” to do a search only through government websites.

Public Domain Archives

Another place you can look for public domain content are public domain archives. One of the most popular ones is Gutenberg.org. Just make sure you do your own research to check that the content really is copyright free before you use it.

Second Hand Bookstores

One last place to look for public domain works is to try and locate truly unique and rare works that are no longer protected by copyright. These are public domain books that haven’t been digitized and aren’t being used by anyone else right now. If you can locate such a physical book and have it transcribed, you’ll literally be the only person on the internet with that book.

You can find these old physical books at local used and arcane bookstores, as well as some internet stores that specialize in older books.

Make Sure You’re Compliant with the Ebook Store Where You Plan to Publish

Before publishing your works on the Kindle, the iBookstore and the Nook store, make sure your work is compliant with their policies on public domain works.

At the time of this writing, you can publish on the Nook store without restrictions. Kindle stores allow public domain works, but will only give you 35% of the royalties instead of 70%. They also require that the works are either annotated, illustrated or translated to be considered. The iBookstore allows public domain works, but requires documented permission from the creators of the content.

Resources:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2OHLJURFVK57Q

http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-providers/book-faq.html

http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=support

How to Adapt Public Domain Works

Just publishing a piece of public domain work on these digital bookstores is not a great way to get buyers. For one, there’s a good chance someone else has published it already. Also, many of these books are outdated, don’t have photos or use an older or more formal version of English.

In order to launch a public domain work that’ll actually sell, you need to adapt it. By adapting it, you make the work your own. You add value to it, rather than just use what’s already there. You greatly increase your chances of success.

Here are a few different ways to adapt public domain works.

Add an Action Plan

For “how to” books, add an action plan.

For example, Chapter 1 might talk about the basics of how to train a dog. At the end of the chapter, add your own “action plan” that tells people exactly what to do. Do this for every chapter.

You can then rename the book to something more action-oriented. For example, instead of “Dog Training 101,” you could call your book “A Step by Step Plan for Dog Training.”

Add Images

Add relevant images to an older book. For example, if the book is talking about dog training, hire an artist to draw out all the various tricks and positions you want to teach your dog.

There are a lot of different ways you can get images. You can use stock images. You can hire an artist. You can even do it yourself.

Add Step by Step Photos

At least once every chapter, add “step by step” photos.

You know those safety cards behind every airplane seat? Remember how every instruction is illustrated with cartoons, step by step?

Do something similar. If you’re publishing a fishing book, make an image that visually shows how to bait a hook.

Add Sidebars

You can add a lot of value to a book just by adding sidebars. A sidebar could include miscellaneous tips on the side, warning labels, references or just about any way you can think of to help facilitate the book’s content.

One great example of this is the “For Dummies” book series. They make ample use of sidebars to give warnings, extra tips, background information and a whole host of other kinds of information.

You could just add these sidebars to public domain works and make the work your own.

Make Dry Text Fun to Read

A lot of public domain works have great ideas and great content, but sound very dry. You can make it a lot better just by rewriting the text in an easier to read, more fun way.

Sometimes all you really need to do is rewrite old English to modern English. At other times, you might want to add in your own brand of personality.

If you don’t want to do this all yourself, you can outsource it quite inexpensively.

Translations

Introducing a popular work in another language can be a great way to bring new life to a public domain work. By publishing in different languages you can reach different audiences.

Publishing Your Book

Once you’ve found the public domain work, you’ve checked to make sure it’s compliant with the store you want to release it on and you’ve added value by making your own adaptation, the last step is to go ahead and publish it.

Rename the book or give the book a new spin. For example, instead of “Think and Grow Rich,” a popular wealth building book that’s now in the public domain, you might call your derivative work “Think and Grow Rich: The Updated Action Pack.”

Then just package your book, upload it and you’re done!

How to Be a Detective for Hot Topics

by Nicole Munoz

One of the best ways you can guarantee profits for your digital book is to make sure it coincides with a hot topic. A hot topic is basically anything that a lot of people are talking about right now.

For example, when Tim Ferris’ “Four Hour Workweek” came out, that started a whole explosion of people who were trying to work virtually. When George Bush announced the war on Iraq, a whole host of books on both sides came out. As social media began to take off, a whole host of books came out about that as well.

What you don’t want to do is write a book after the topic has cooled. For example, playing online poker was a huge topic a few years ago. Today, such a book would have virtually no chance of success.

So how do you find hot topics in your genre? Here are a few tips.

Browse the Amazon Bestseller Lists

Look in your genre in the Amazon bestseller lists and see what kinds of books are selling. Whenever you choose a category in the Kindle or regular Amazon bookstore, you can choose to sort by popularity:

If you’re in the health industry and you see that 12 of the top 30 books are dealing with how to build abs, then you know that that’s currently a hot point for your industry.

If you’re in the graphic design industry and you notice that books on photo editing on iPhones are taking off, you might want to do something on that topic.

Use Google Tools

There are a couple of different Google tools you can use to help find hot topics.

Google Trends: This tool will tell you exactly what the hot trends are on a day to day basis. You can also type in a keyword and see whether it’s on an upward or downward trajectory.

This is great for researching a topic after you’ve already decided you’re interested in it. For example, if you decide you’re interested in iPhone photo editing, you can type a few related words into Google Trends to check to make sure it’s actually trending upwards.

Google Keyword Tool: This tool allows you to get exact traffic numbers for how many times certain words are typed into Google. You can also find related keywords to make a better assessment of the popularity of the topic.

This tool is great for evaluating the maximum amount you could earn from your book. However, it’s not a great tool to evaluate trends. Ideally, you want to get in on a trend in the beginning, when search volume is just beginning to rise, rather than when it’s already high and there are a hundred other competitors.

Watch What Magazines Are Saying

You can really stay on top of industries and trends by reading magazines. Magazines are usually updated monthly, which means you’ll be getting up to date information. Unlike internet sources however, magazines contain content that’s vetted by multiple people. There’s rarely any repeat information; instead real journalists go out into the world to look for a real scoop.

Get in the habit of reading a couple different magazines that focus on your industry or niche. If you notice that a lot more articles are suddenly being written about a certain topic, you can bet that that topic is getting hot.

You might also find that http://magazines.com is a great source of finding a variety of magazines in given niches. Most of the magazines have current covers shown on the site, so you can see the hot topics for recent issues. If you click on any magazine cover image, it will open up to a larger size so it’s easier to read.

After finding a magazine at Magazines.com, you can search for the magazine’s official company website to find more in-depth information on the current stories.

Watch Audible’s Sales

Audible is an Amazon subsidiary that sells audiobooks at http://audible.com. What’s great about Audible is that its audience tends to be early adopters. Also, in order for books to be adapted to audiobook, it usually already needs to be a success or the publishers feel very confident that the book will be a hit.

Because of these two factors, Audible is a great place to look for the hottest new trends. Look in the bestselling sections and the new releases sections of specific categories.

You can also find “Customer Favorites” in the categories that you browse through.

Doing Your Homework

These are a few different ways you can find hot topics to write digital books about and the key is to continue to do research over time. Finding hot topics is all about watching and understanding trends and as you watch them over time, you come to understand how things work.

While it’s very possible to write a successful book even if you’re not writing about a hot topic; your chances of writing a blockbuster are much greater when you’re talking about things that people are already talking about…so do your homework. It’s worth.