Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

This poll may apply to you too. I’ve self-published my first book, Omar Blue and K-9 Town, USA. I’m ready to make it into an e-book but have heard different comments on whether or not I’d be able to accomplish this feat without professional help. I’ve only tried Kindle, but obviously did not complete the task. I’m hoping this poll will help to motivate me and others who want to do the same, to get the job done, one way or another. We’ve come too far to stop now. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Author of: Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy
Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy said: I self published too. I published one of my stories with CreateSpace and also on Amazon Kindle. Then I posted it to Smashwords. Once you've posted to Smashwords, it also goes on Barnes and Noble NookBooks, which is great for exposure.

I've sold as many eBooks so far as I have paperbacks, but you have to network. Don't forget, some readers only want eBooks and others want only paperbacks. Some like both.

To get an eBook on Barnes and Noble, you have to publish as an ePub with Smashwords. All the instructions are there on Smashwords, but publish it with Amazon Kindle first. The folks at Amazon are very helpful and the owner ot Smashwords is really nice and helpful too. He helped me with a few problems.

Go for it, and good luck. You won't regret it. Also if you post on the Kindle forums at Amazon, you get exposure for your paperback too.

Thanks Patricia. I'm taking that as a "yes, we should be able to do it without hiring a professional." Very informative. Thanks again.

If you do get stuck, there are so many people on the Amazon forums that can help. That's what I did. Asked questions. I recieved heaps of great answers. There was one great gal there that helped me with book covers for eBooks.

Good luck.

You're so right Patricia. Don't want to take anything away from them because I got a lot of help when trying to put my manuscript into book form. They were very helpful just as you are being now. That cover gave me a lot of trouble at first.

I originally had to convert my books into ePub format myself to upload through Lulu (distribute to Apple) but when their contract fell through, I went to Smashwords and realized what I was missing.

Anyways, with Smashwords you don't need professional help because you are just uploading Word files.

Even with converting to an ePub file yourself, there is a program called Sigil that does it for you.

If for some reason you need to do that, let me know and I can offer you the links. You shouldn't need them, though.