Preparing an eBook for distribution

Congratulations on writing a book! There are many platforms available today for selling and distributing your eBook. Once you have the book written you’ll need to choose the best platform for selling your book. Each one has unique requirements, so do your homework and make sure your files are prepared, your metadata is ready and you have an ISBN purchased and ready to go.

eBook Best Practices

Here are the best practices for publishing your eBook.

Make sure your eBook is formatted for an .epub and a .pdf. These two formats are recognized by most platforms. If you have images in your book, they should be anchored into the text.
Make sure you have your cover file in .jpg format to upload to the distributor. Most platforms require the front cover only with the the file sized to 2560 pixels on longest side. Minimum 1600 pixels on shortest side.
Make sure to purchase an ISBN for your eBook, don’t use the free version offered from any publisher/printer/distributor as they will be listed as the publisher, not you.
Make sure you understand the compensation payout based on your distributor and or aggregator you are using. How much will it cost you to use the services?
If you have your own platform (website), consider selling the eBook on your site with a digital delivery service gateway (See recommendations below).
Make sure to look at all the options for distributing your book and develop a marketing plan to promote those options.

What is an eBook

An eBook is a digital version of a manuscript that can be read on a device or computer screen rather than in a bound book. I often refer to it as a long webpage of text with basic formatting. Photos and images can be included, but the placement isn’t guaranteed. Remember most devices have user controls that change the font, color, and layout independent of how the book is programmed. eBooks are normally considered “reflowable,” meaning they adjust to the settings on the reader’s device. But you can also make a “fixed” eBook. This option is great for digital children’s books. The pages are not “reflowable” and the text becomes flattened (AKA, you cannot highlight it or copy/paste because it is an image of text.) One way to do this is with Kindle Create, a free KDP online software, which produces a .KPF eBook format (Check out our Kindle Create Video here)

An eBook can be published on its own or as an additional format to a print book.

How we prepare an eBook for publishing

After we finish the print version, we make the adjustments necessary for the eBook format and run it through a validating software to ensure the text flows as it should. All images have to be anchored into the text or they will end up at the end of the book. We have a video here explaining the print to eBook process.

Our clients love our self-publishing service that uploads the book onto the desired platforms, adds the metadata, pricing, keywords etc. so they don’t have to. The book is available for sale within a short time.

Our usual recommendation is publishing the eBook on KDP or IngramSpark alongside their print version as it gives the author a wide range of retail options for selling convenience. It also makes it easier for the author to manage two dashboards for all their distribution.

But this isn’t the only path to selling an eBook! You can choose to be exclusive to Amazon or publish your print book with IngramSpark and KDP while uploading your eBook to retailers directly.

Where can I sell my eBooks?

Selling exclusively on KDP

There are plenty of reasons to choose Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for your eBook. Amazon controls 80% of the eBook market and they have a subscription program for avid readers called Kindle Unlimited. For $9.99 a month*, a reader can enjoy unlimited reading and unlimited listening on any device.

An author publishing with KDP can choose to have their eBook in the Kindle Unlimited program by choosing the Kindle Select option when they upload the finished manuscript.

But how does an author get paid if their books are in the Kindle Select program? This statement from this post on Medium explains it well.

“A portion of the amount paid by KU subscribers is deposited into the ‘KDP Select Global Fund.’ Each month, that fund is divided by the total number of “pages” read by every member of KU. The resulting number is the amount you get per first time page read of your e-books.”

This sounds promising, but what red flags should you be aware of? Again Adrienne explains it well.

“The KDP Select periods are in blocks of 90 days, with an automated renewal that you must physically opt-out of (on the same page where you can find your KNEP reads as shown above). During that 90-day period, you are not allowed to sell or give away your book online on any other platform, this includes your own website.

You are allowed to distribute up to 10% of the book. For example, if you want to include preview chapters on your website, or give them away to fans on a mailing list. Anything over that will violate the terms of service and you may find yourself banned from the program.”

If you’re considering participating in Kindle Select to have your book in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) program, I would suggest exploring the books in your genre. You will see that KU is very popular for romance, fantasy, and science fiction genres—if you write in those genres you can do well.

There are other marketing benefits to participating in the Kindle Select program which can be beneficial for other genres, but please do the research ahead of time.

*As of 2/16/2022

Expanded Distribution of eBooks

KDP isn’t the only place to sell an eBook. IngramSpark and Draft2Digital give you access to the major players in global eBook distribution across retailers, libraries, apps, subscription services, and more. Once your eBook is uploaded to IngramSpark you will find your book on the big retailers like Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Walmart, etc. But there is no guarantee the retailer will carry your book. There is another option, but it takes more work on the author’s part.

Selling wide with multiple retailers

If you like spreadsheets and keeping track of dashboards you might enjoy uploading your eBook to the individual retailers. If you choose this option DO NOT publish on any platform that offers expanded distribution, (IngramSpark or Draft2Digital) because your book is potentially available to the retailer already, and you will be paid through their compensation plan.

The benefit to uploading to the individual retailers is that they each offer a royalty that is unique.

Here are a few to consider:

B&N Press is Barnes & Noble’s service for self-publishing authors. Authors will receive 70% royalties on all eBooks priced $0.99 and above.
Apple Books – 70% royalties on every book, regardless of price, no price matching
Kobo Writing Life Kobo offers authors 70% royalties for all eBooks priced above $2.99 (no ceiling) and 45% for eBooks below $2.99.

I love reading and listening to articles by Joanna Penn, self-published author, podcaster, and blogger. This article gives her perspective on publishing wide as a mind set for print and eBooks. It’s a long article, but worth the read.

Selling eBooks on your own website

We encourage our authors to run their own author platform or website that they own. So many authors have relied on social media—only to have social media change the rules or algorithms and cripple their marketing efforts. Having your own platform gives you the opportunity to build an email list, be found by the press, and direct people to buy your books through a universal link or using a software integration that handles the direct sale, giving you a better compensation!

There are several software integrations you can add to your site to sell your books. These are some of the most popular options.

Sellfy allows you to create a digital “store” to sell your products hassle-free. Easy-to-use eCommerce for creators. Sell merchandise or digital products — all from one place. There is a cost for the convenience. For 50% off Starter Yearly plan coupon code: savewithsellfy.
Gumroad is an alternative to Sellfy. Create and customize your storefront with their all-in-one platform or choose to use your personal site instead.
Payhip – Payhip is your all-in-one solution to sell your eBooks, software and all types of digital products. If you can save it, then you can sell it. Everything you need to sell your work and grow your business. I set up the store in 5 minutes and the free version connected to Paypal and allowed me to sell products ASAP. Obviously, Payhip proves to be the best option for digital eBooks and I really like their marketing opportunities they offer as well. Here is the sample page I set up – Buy Now

What’s the best option for your book?

That depends… on the goals for your book. Do you want to sell more books or do you want to make the most money per book.

If you want the best profit margin for the books you sell, then using Payhip on your website platform will be a good option. To cover more territory add your book to the individual retailers or Draft2Digital and the number of books you sell will increase which will increase your profit.

KDP Select might help you sell the most eBooks for you but you’re locked into the program for 90 days.

Need some help?

If you’d like Becky’s Graphic Design to help get your manuscript ready for distribution as an eBook, contact us! We are experts at designing covers, formatting interiors and preparing your eBook for distribution. We also offer a self-publishing service which will upload your files and manage the metadata for you. We take care of the technical side of publishing your book and make sure it passes all the validations! And that removes that stress from you!