Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm writing a short story of about 4K and want to upload it on Amazon as an "ebook." This is all new to me. Need ideas regarding cover, ISBN, etc. and generally how to go about it. Thanks.

Hi Wanjiru! There are loads of resources around here for covers, formatting, and the ins and outs of publishing. As regards the ISBN, it depends on where you are located. I know in America, Bowker pretty much is the go to place, while in Canada our ISBNs are free.

ISBN isn't really required if it is only an e-book format, as Amazon says. And for covers, Amazon provides a cover creation tool, which I didn't not find as impressive and flexible as, per say, Canva.

Sekhar wrote: "ISBN isn't really required if it is only an e-book format..."

I've published two as e-Books and didn't do the ISBN thing. Like Sekhar said, it's not necessary on Amazon as they have their own similar thing.

For book covers, I used pre-made covers that I bought online. Pre-mades are the least expensive option if you don't want to do it yourself and there are a lot of options as to where to get them and how much they cost. I bought several from the same place at one time, which made them end up costing like $25 apiece, compared to over $300 for the custom covers I had made for longer works.

I've posted books on Amazon, both paper and ebook. You don't need to purchase an ISBN unless you're going to publish it elsewhere, too.

As others have said, there are great options out there for covers, depending on what you want to spend. I don't like Amazon's cover creator, it's pretty basic and won't put the best foot forward for your story. Spend the money and do something nicer. I like 100 Covers, but it's more expensive than some of the others.

I agree, the ISBN is not worth it. Readers don't care and Ebooks open up to the first page anyway.

When I publish a regular book, I use my imprint's ISBN (bought from Bowker) and have print & e-book covers done by a cover designer. But I wasn't sure whether I follow the same route with an ebook for a short story or not. It seems to be similar (although I may choose to save my ISNB in the short story case).

If you are only using Amazon for publishing, forget paying for ISBN and publish under the Amazon label and save the money. The ISBN is if you publish elsewhere and are doing paperbacks and hardcovers. That is also when you need to have your own imprint. Remember, you do need a different ISBN for each type of book: E-book, paperback, hardcover and audio, so allow four for each book if you are doing all of them. Again, with short stories, if you are only doing Amazon, use their free number. If you use Draft 2Digital they also offer free numbers if you are using them exclusively.

I

B&N had a book signing for local authors. They bought our books and all we needed to do was talk to readers and sign books. But B&N refused to order or display books from authors whose books showed other publishers other than their own imprints.

Which explains why I use BAM Publishing and my own ISBNs. It gives you a better chance of getting into those stores. I don't stick to Amazon. It's good and it's big, but it's also putting all your eggs in one basket. I actually stop at B&N store when I'm in Flagstaff looking for new books to add to my re-expanding library. I got rid of most of my books prior to moving and now I'm add to it all again. I like that I can find books with unheard of publishers which are well written, edited and formatted.

B.A. wrote: "Which explains why I use BAM Publishing and my own ISBNs. It gives you a better chance of getting into those stores. I don't stick to Amazon. It's good and it's big, but it's also putting all your ..."

I hope your library won't be full by the time my next book comes out in mid-2020. It's a book I would like to recommend.

Sekhar wrote: "ISBN isn't really required if it is only an e-book format, as Amazon says. And for covers, Amazon provides a cover creation tool, which I didn't not find as impressive and flexible as, per say, Canva."

I've never heard of Canva. What is that?

It's a website for creating promotional graphics. Comes very highly recommended. You can create ad images, book covers (if you want), and other things. Check out Book Brush and Easil to if you like for comparison purposes.

Cool. Thank you.!

No problem Jeffrey! A lot of authors love Canva. Personally, I prefer Book Brush, but there is a lot to like on both sites. And Easil also has features not available on Canva - like text masks :)