

Ask HN: What is the most profitable way to self-publish e-books? - kmfrk

With services like Lulu taking a cut of almost 50% for what is basically a hosted shop with decent SEO that sends e-books upon purchase, there must be services where I can upload a .pdf, .epub and similar documents for a (much) better price.<p>Additionally, it would be preferable with a means of applying an ID and/or purchaser's name to one of the book's first or last pages to discourage people from throwing up the e-book on a sharing service - while maintaining the incentive to share with people whom you trust.<p>I recall 37signals hosting one of their e-books themselves and selling it on Lulu, so maybe there is something to be learnt for setting up the service yourself.<p>With such a burgeoning self-publishing revolution, there must be someone who offers this service.
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mikecane
eBooks are my area.

1) Piracy is going to happen no matter what, so stop losing sleep over it.
Count on the fact people _will pay_ for books and concentrate on _selling_
them.

2) Every eBook DRM has been cracked. But most who do that do so in order to be
able to format shift. Get an eBook at $9.99 from Kindle Store vs $$ more from
Sony or Kobo, then strip DRM and use Calibre to reformat to ePub for a Sony
Reader or Nook.

3) As others have already pointed out, there's B&N's nascent PubIt! service.
What that has going against it is that B&N uses a mutant form of the DRM that
was common for ePub until B&N stuck its nose in. B&N books are stuck on Nooks
for the average person (similar to Kindle) who doesn't want to learn how to
DRM strip. You limit your market.

4) Kindle is THE monster. It's where the majority of eBook sales take place.
If you know HTML, you can create your own eBook. If you need help, get
Tallent's book: <http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/self-publishing-read/>

5) I'd stay away from Smashwords & Scribd. The first has a format meatgrinder
that will drive you insane for trying to make things look good. The second has
had that whole Archiving "error" marring its rep.

6) Make sure you have an ISBN so you control your metadata.

Any other questions?

~~~
jessejmc
_6) Make sure you have an ISBN so you control your metadata._

Could you go into more detail? I understand what an ISBN is, but why is it
important for self publishing ebooks?

~~~
mikecane
Answering several questions in one reply:

There are no shelves people can browse to stumble on your eBook, so owning
your metadata for discovery and SEO is vital. Don't let someone assign one.
They then own the metadata and can bork you, intentionally or accidentally.

I think outside the US, ISBNs are free or low cost. Here, RR Bowker has a
monopoly and prices them unreasonably high (to be fair to them, they are used
to dealing with businesses, not writers).
<http://www.bowker.com/index.php/supportfaq-isbn>

No one will want to read your book, so don't push it on them with emails
asking them to review it. Everyone already has a huge backlog.

I don't know what your subject matter is, so what Tucker Max just wrote about
might not apply, but some might:
<http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/09/28/tucker-max/>

Don't join social reading sites and befriend people only to pimp your book.
People _hate_ that.

There are really only two formats for eBooks: Kindle format and ePub. Both are
based on HTML, more or less. PDFs are another matter and are suited best for
desktop, notebook, and possibly tablet (iPad) reading, but aren't considered
eBooks per se. For PDFs, it's also good to customize them for eInk devices so
people don't have to do reflow. See Sony's guide here, but there are now eInk
devices with 5" screens, so keep that in mind too.

Direct PDF link:
[http://www.sonystyle.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetSt...](http://www.sonystyle.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetStore/pdf/reader_createPDF.pdf)

Check out also Self Pub Review and Publetariat.

<http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/> <http://www.publetariat.com/>

Stay away from all the "services" that charge. I think HN readers have the
skills to do all that themselves -- and better.

This all I can think of at the moment. I'm battling a cold and am groggy. Hope
it helps.

~~~
krabat
"PDFs are another matter and are suited best for desktop, notebook, and
possibly tablet (iPad) reading, but aren't considered eBooks per se."

If you publish poetry, you wouldn't want the text to reflow. You want it to
stay exactly where it is. Just give it a 3:4 format (1:1,35) at eg. A4 paper
size or larger, have it on screen in eg. an iPad size, and you will have a
book that looks spectacular - and in 5 years too. And you can even have a
cover on your book...

~~~
mikecane
Oh, poetry is a whole other issue with controversies of its own due to reflow.
I'm not going there. Not my area.

------
devmonk
First off, why limit yourself to only publishing electronically? You'll have a
much larger audience if you offer paperback.

A few other options:

<http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/books.aspx>

<http://publishing.booklocker.com/>

<http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home>

Or for amazon, email digitalrights@amazon.com or one of the several how-tos.
This might be outdated: [http://patdoyle.com/internetbusiness/publish-an-
ebook-in-ama...](http://patdoyle.com/internetbusiness/publish-an-ebook-in-
amazons-kindle-book-store/)

Then drum up more sales in facebook, posting info and links in forums and
mailing lists, etc.

~~~
jeremymcanally
In my experience, most people don't care about paperback if they can get it in
PDF (granted my books have been technical in nature).

If they discover it online, they probably don't mind reading it on their
computers. If he's planning on doing some marketing in traditional channels,
then you're right. It just depends on who he's targeting.

~~~
Xurinos
We cannot neglect the masses who like the feel of a paperback, who will read
it on the airplane, on the bus, or on the pot.

On the technical book side, I have continued to see a market for people who
want their own hardcopy of SICP, TAOCP, Feynman's physics books, and other
greats.

~~~
metageek
I read my ebooks in all those places.

~~~
Xurinos
Me too. How representative are we of the population?

~~~
metageek
Maybe not very. I can say that I see plenty of people with ebook readers on
the bus, subway, and commuter rail. 'Course, I work in Cambridge (MA), which
I'm sure skews things.

------
FraaJad
Learn it from the masters: <http://www.johntreed.com/HTWP.html>

He maks his money by self publishing Real Estate newsletters, which are
information dense and there is a niche market for that kind of stuff.

He has a lot of sensible tips on self publishing.

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vaksel
are you sure you can even sell the book? If I were you I wouldn't care about
the commission just yet...publish it on the most popular service....see if
anyone actually bothers to buy it...then if you see a ton of sales start
looking for better alternatives

------
ScottWhigham
I did an ebook earlier this year and the whole post-creative process was just
horrible. I did self-publishing and trying to work around the various formats
was just so not worth it. I had planned on doing several books along the same
lines but, after dealing with how to make it look good on the Kindle, in PDF,
on the Nook, etc, it just wasn't worth my time to write the other books.

~~~
LaPingvino
Did you try Calibre?

~~~
ScottWhigham
I can't remember - this was March/April and, TBH, my memory is fuzzy now :(

------
naner
_Additionally, it would be preferable with a means of applying an ID and/or
purchaser's name to one of the book's first or last pages to discourage people
from throwing up the e-book on a sharing service_

\- I could just remove the first/last page.

\- I could overwrite the ID/info

\- I could run the PDF through OCR software to produce a new untagged PDF.

Unfortunately, ebooks and piracy go together like bread and butter. PDF is a
_portable_ document format and epub is just text. Your best bet is just to
make it as pain-free to purchase as possible.

~~~
krabat
Besides, why shouldn't I be able to give away my book or re-sell it?! This
bullshit about paying for a book is really just the borrowing price... just
new techno babble to go with the copyright disputes.

I want to re-sell any ebook I don't want to own anymore. And I am not going to
just dump it without trying to find another home for it.

How do we go about doing that - technically, I mean - never mind that "they"
don't want you doing that?

I seem to remember reading something about an English service, which somehow
made book swopping possible... ? Anyone?

------
cromulent
I believe Amazon offer up to 70% through Amazon Digital Text Publishing:

<https://dtp.amazon.com/>

[http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?e...](http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=453)

Although that is also "basically a hosted shop with decent SEO that sends
e-books upon purchase", I guess ;)

------
araneae
There are almost certainly other services out there, but the advantage of Lulu
is that you have a much wider audience. Sure, 50% is high, but it's better to
have 50% of something than 20% of nothing.

As an alternative, you might want to consider finding a niche online retailer,
i.e. one that only sells certain kinds of books. These can have a loyal
customer base. But I wouldn't know if they're any cheaper.

------
iworkforthem
I beta tested Pulley - <http://pulleyapp.com/> Quite good.. They just
officially launched in Oct 2010... For $6, you get 100 MB storage, Unlimited
orders, Unlimited bandwidth and 25 digital products to sell. I think it's
quite alright.

------
makmanalp
The most profitable way would be to write, design, market, proofread, build
the website and integrate payment etc etc yourself. I've been doing some
research, and it seems that the average author is content with low (compared
to the profit) royalties as long as they only have to deal with writing the
damn thing. There are ebook markets out there but a lot of them are having
trouble gaining momentum as a go-to location for books. This is a chicken and
egg problem, and as more authors offer their books as ebooks, this will get
better and hopefully a number of markets will emerge.

------
peeplaja
If you're worried about piracy and high fees, why not create an online course
instead of pdf e-books.

If it's an how-to book and not a work of fiction, you don't want to create a
pdf e-book anyway. Here's why:

* Low perceived value. People know how to create pdf e-books. Just choose ‘Save As’ in MS Word. So it has a low perceived value. Much lower than the $13 real book you can buy from Amazon. This means you cannot charge a high price for your pdf e-book.

* They’re static. Once they’re out there, they’re out there. You cannot add stuff, correct material or fix typos.

* As you mentioned, they’re (way) too easy targets for piracy.

* Lots of people don’t want to read anymore. They want to watch videos instead. So might as well add some video.

* No analytics. Which chapter is most popular? You will never know.

* No interaction. People read a chapter in your e-book and have clarifying questions. But alas – no interaction is possible.

So that's why I think online courses are the way to go.

How to create an online course and sell it? This is what my startup does:
<http://traindom.com>

~~~
tptacek
Against your low perceived value, pit 37signals "Getting Real", which
generated more profits for them (6 figures) than almost any mainstream paper
tech book published the same year.

I agree that piracy is an issue, though.

~~~
peeplaja
There are always exceptions. 37Signals is a known brand. If you're not known,
it's hard to charge a lot for a pdf.

~~~
tptacek
If you generalize this logic one step more, you'll be in a happy place where
you can make money from PDF e-books:

"There are always exceptions. XXX. If you're not XXX, it's hard to charge a
lot for an e-book."

"There are always exceptions. I'm the world expert on home tarantula care. If
you're not the world expert on home tarantula care, it's hard to charge a lot
for an e-book."

"There are always exceptions. I'm a talented marketer. If you're not a
talented marketer, it's hard to charge a lot for an e-book."

"There are always exceptions. I'm a former HFT project team lead writing about
trading strategies. If you're not selling a book that can potentially make
people thousands of dollars, it's hard to charge money for an e-book."

------
naner
Here's another account of self-publishing to add to your list:

<http://tynan.net/selfpublish>

------
DevX101
If you can get your book published and marketed by a 'top publisher', there's
still money to be made the old way:

[http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/08/23/seth-
godin-a...](http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/08/23/seth-godin-and-
print-publishing/)

------
patio11
You want e-junkie.com

------
oomkiller
Throw a PDF up on Amazon S3, generate unique links for people that pay for it.
Or, you could not worry about unique links, and just trust people. Like others
have said, piracy will happen, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

------
lachyg
Use Shopify with Fetchapp. Perfect ;)

~~~
kmfrk
It does indeed sound perfect. The monthly expenses might deter some people,
but it looks like the best thing you can possibly get (assuming you are
already have some customers to send to the link).

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brudgers
Depending on your market, the freeium Drumlin Reader may be an option.

<http://drumlinsecurity.co.uk/>

Sister company:

<http://www.pdf-publishing.com/>

They have provided great customer service despite my limited use.

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lulubob
The author keeps 80% of his sale on Lulu unless you are selling a seriously
discounted product, or selling via Lulu into other marketplaces such as Amazon
or Ebay.

Also, in our and other industry suppliers experience many books sell better
when they are offered in both ebook and paper formats.

~~~
kmfrk
80% of _net_ sales. There is a per-copy e-book fee(!) of $1.49, which is a lot
considering e-book pricing.

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dpapathanasiou
My startup does: <http://fifobooks.com/>

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iuguy
You could host it yourself using a straightforward e-commerce management
system and a payment gateway.

~~~
gbrindisi
I think it's not a good solution unless you are yet pretty "famous". IMO you
should look to Amazon or other service with a well estabilished community you
can get advantage of. Relevant read: <http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/>

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realitygrill
I am thinking of using LeanPub, which takes 25%. You keep your rights.

