Angelia Almos

Horse Charmer has been available now for one year as an ebook. As with Jumping Thoughts , I wanted to do a blog post going over how things went for the year and see if I could make any conclusions by looking back at sales and other information. Horse Charmer was released on May 16, 2011 through Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. It was also distributed to other e-retailers, but didn't appear in those stores until June. So I went back and look at my sales. Over one year, I sold 99 copies of the e-version (the print version came out in September, but I'm not counting those sales toward this post). My highest selling month was January with 15 e-copies. My second highest selling month was December with 11 e-copies. I attribute these sales to Christmas e-reader gifts and gift cards. I didn't do any release promo beyond Facebook, Twitter, and a few writer BB announcements when it first released. I never got any pro reviews for it. I have recently been using it as a giv...

Well, I think I've covered the basics and nitty gritty of putting your books up for sale as ebooks and a POD. I hope you found the posts helpful and I'll try to update them as things change or I learn something new. For today, I wanted to open up the blog to you all. If you had any questions on something I didn't cover please let me know.

Wow, almost done with this series. You can find Part 6 here on uploading your ebook files. Now, I'm going to talk about putting your book in print. Some indie publishers skip this step for whatever reason. I would highly recommend you not overlook this potential revenue stream. Yes, ebook sales are increasing every year, but the majority of readers still read print books. Don't cut out a huge potential audience by not offering a print version. You can do it on your own or hire out just as with all the steps in putting your ebook up. For print you will be releasing your novel, nonfiction, novella, or collection of short stories/articles as a Print on Demand book. More commonly referred as POD. You will not have a garage or attic full of boxes of books. Print on Demand means the books are printed when they are ordered. The two most popular companies indie publishers use for their POD books are CreateSpace and Lightning Source. I personally use CreateSpace so can't go...

You can find Part 5 - Promo File here. You're files are all ready. Cover designed. Blurb and author bio written. You are now ready to upload your first book. On File Formats. If you know how to create the different file formats have at it. Smashwords will only take .doc at this time. Barnes and Noble and Amazon will take different formats. Smashwords Smashwords only takes Word file .doc uploads. Log in to your account and click the Publish button in the navigation bar - http://www.smashwords.com/upload. Then you start filling in the fields: Title Short Description (your logline) Long Description (your blurb) Language of Book Adult Content Yes/No Set Your Price Sampling Percentage (yes, you want sampling) Categories (pick the two closest to what your book is) Tags (this would be subject, like action/adventure, pirates, historical, unicorns, etc; anything which is in your book) Ebook Formats (I select all except .rtf and .txt because they tend to mess up the forma...

You can find Part 4 - Cover Design here . Each week I'm covering a different aspect of Indie Publishing and sharing some of my experiences to help other people skip some of the mistakes I've made. :-) Okay, your files are formatted for Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. Your ebook cover should be designed. Now I want you to make a promo file: Title Promo. In your promo file, you will put in your Blurb (Back Cover Copy), Logline, and Author Bio. These are your marketing tools for selling your book. This is the last thing you will need before you upload your files. Blurb You will want to write an engaging blurb telling the basics of your story. Go out and read the back cover copy of books in your genre. Get an idea for how they are written. A good rule of thumb is to write your blurb in active present tense. This gives it tension. You can go long or short with your blurb. I tend to go shorter, but I know a recent study released pointed to longer blurbs being better. But go with w...

Thanks for stopping by for part 4. You can read Fun With Indie Publishing Part 3: Front and Back Matter here . Cover design can be one of the funnest and most agonizing part of the indie publishing process. You have complete control. Yay! Your vision is the one which will be picked. Yay! But your idea could be bad or you might not have the skills needed to pull it off. Bummer. But that's okay. 1) You can hire out for a cover or 2) You can design it yourself. Hiring Out 1st Tamra cover. 2nd Tamra cover. 3rd Tamra cover. 4th Tamra cover. There are many, many talented cover designers out there available for you to hire to design your cover. Cover design fees can range from $20-$1,000+up. It depends on if you're using stock photography and already made images or if you're having custom images made (drawing, painting, photography). Fees will also be based on if you are contracting for just an epub cover or if you also want a print cover. I recommend yo...

Thanks for stopping by for part 3. You can find Part 2 here . Now, I'll talk about the front and back matter of what to put in your master file. I put my cover on the front page. Page Break.  Title page comes next. Example would be: WHITELIGHTER by Angie Derek **** Smashwords Edition **** Page Break Published by Thoroughweb Press. Whitelighter Copyright © 2011 by Angelia Almos Cover design by Tamra Westberry. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. **** This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental. **** Li...