E-books versus Paperbacks

[Laer Carroll]

I've self-published three ebooks and four "pbooks" (printed on demand) to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In my experience both are about equally easy to do. Both do require some technical expertise, but there is a lot of help with that on the Web.

Traveling to publicize your books is not needed. I'm not sure it does much if any good unless you're a celebrity or a celebrity writer (who are rare).

... POD is more expensive to manage than e-books, since sites like Amazon will let you e-book market for nearly nothing.

Could you expand on this? Both Amazon and B&N seem to do the same amount of marketing of POD books as ebooks.

[KatG]

Could you expand on this? Both Amazon and B&N seem to do the same amount of marketing of POD books as ebooks.

I don't know that much about the POD costs, but my understanding was that the services through sites costs more of a fee than e-books. But since you have practical experience with it, you can give that info.

[Laer Carroll]

The print-on-demand service I use for my POD books is CreateSpace, an Amazon affiliate. The basic service is free. CS does sell editorial and illustration services such as copy-editing and cover creation.

Once the book goes online at CS it automatically becomes available at Amazon through their regular channels. And through Barnes & Noble, even though they are not an Amazon affiliate. In fact, B&N takes only a day to automatically add a new POD book to their site, but Amazon may take 3-5 days.

Any third-party vendor can use CS to sell your books. This is entirely legal, as long as they go through CS. The author's cut is the same.

This topic warrants a thread of its own, I think. Here is that thread.

http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35310

[Erebus]

Can't believe how long ago I started this thread. No wonder I feel so old these days! So much has happened since. Interestingly, our little family-owned POD, and now Kindle also, publishing business is still chugging along and in its eleventh year, and at times, we sell more eBooks than printed books per month. How things have changed. We have found that Kindle versions through Amazon seem to be best for what we do, so that is the only format eBook we currently offer, along with our print editions of course.

[tmso]

So, you went with Amazon, eh? Our local bookshop (Copperfields) went with Kobo to sell ebooks through via their online store. How exactly does that work? I don't quite get it, but I've seen other booksellers do that. Can you explain?

[Erebus]

How exactly does that work? I don't quite get it, but I've seen other booksellers do that. Can you explain?

Don't know anything about Kobo, but it is a fairly easy process to set up an account with Amazon Digital Services, and then after that it is as simple as preparing the file, uploading it and waiting for the sales. There is quite a bit of info on the Amazon site that may help explain in more detail. We were one of the first commercial publishers in Australia to offer eBooks in PDF format and on CD in 2002, but it didn't set the world on fire back then so we stopped offering them until late in 2011, when we went solely with Amazon Kindle given how easy it is now to set up, and of course Amazon's global exposure. We have not regretted that decision.

[NicoleDreadful]

So, you went with Amazon, eh? Our local bookshop (Copperfields) went with Kobo to sell ebooks through via their online store. How exactly does that work? I don't quite get it, but I've seen other booksellers do that. Can you explain?

A quick check on the Kobo website shows that they have a program for "Retail Partners" - http://www.kobobooks.com/retail_partners
Seems like smart marketing for them, if they can capture customers through little sellers like your local bookshop, and big sellers like Walmart...