E-Book Publishing: How Do You Decide?

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Do you know the difference between a real e-book publisher who pays an advance and then publishes your finished book and an e-book publishing company which is in reality often vanity publishing and takes a certain commission from your book?  Or an author service company who charge small fees to produce your e-book, in which case you can earn 100% of your e-books’ whole sale price?

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Kindle e-Reader

In all three variations the e-book retailers (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Sony, Diesel etc.) always get a percentage of the e-book sales, mostly around 30%, for providing their sales platform, point-of-sales cost, money transfer fees, online customer service, marketing etc.
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Compare e-book publishing company commission rates.|
E-book publishing companies hook you to have your book published without investing a dime, but as they act now as the official publisher they retain a big portion of your e-book sales to themselves – which is often not a good deal for you.

They offer free ISBN numbers, (in reality an amount which is only a negligible: $25 for one ISBN, if you buy a block of ten ISBN’s).   And then these so-called “publishers” how they call themselves wrongly, take an average of 15% commission from the net sales.  If your book becomes successful you can lose out on a lot of revenue! Another problem might occur when you decide to offer your e-book for free through the KDP Select program: it has to be free exclusive at Amazon for these 90 days, which means that you must remove your e-book (NOT the print version) – not an easy job.
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Genuine E-Book Author-Publishing
Your investment in self–publishing will not be more than $500 and $900 if you do your homework and research for professional, yet inexpensive editing, cover design, ISBN number ( which is free in Canada), book formatting and uploading.  Author service companies, such as BookBaby.com, offer all these services, but don’t act as publisher and don’t take any commission from the whole sale price. You receive 100%.
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Read the fine print; know your contract.
Before you commit to publishing an e-book with any company, always read the fine print. Contact a lawyer who is specialized in publishing contracts / copyright issues, who can check your contract before you sign!
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Research copyright details
Every publishing company plays by a different set of rules. Make sure that the e-book publisher you use, allows you to retain all other rights to your work, such as print, foreign rights, audio books or film rights. This is another reason why you need to let a lawyer screen your contract.
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Screen the e-Publisher
E-publishers can be anything, from very amateurish to very professional:

• Is their website professionally designed and easy to navigate? Is the text well-written and formatted? The website is the publisher’s shopping window, and should reflect professionalism.
• Does their staff have publishing, editing, or marketing experience? Beware of publishers that don’t provide this information on their websites.
• How long has the publisher been in business?  Are there any complaints about the publisher or its staff? A web search on the publisher’s name (and words such as “complaint”, ”issues”, “problems”, “caution”) will sometimes turn up information–often on authors’ websites or in their blogs.
• Are other writers happy with the publisher? Contact a few of them, and ask.
• Order a couple of the publisher’s books. Are they of good quality? Professionally presented? How’s the cover art? Do they show signs of having been edited? Have they been proofread? What’s the caliber of the writing? Bad, poorly formatted, and/or sloppily-edited books do not encourage readers to return for more.
• For print books, if the publisher produces them, the royalty rate will be lower, but shouldn’t be less than what print publishers pay for trade paperback books–7%-10% of list.
• What’s the optimum price for an e-book? There’s no consensus, and prices are all over the map. The big print houses charge as much as $14.99, while independent e-Publishers tend to stick to the $4.00 to $7.00 range.
• How does the publisher market itself and its titles? As noted above, e-book authors are expected to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for marketing and promotion, but a professional e-Publisher will actively support its books–for instance, investing in some form of meaningful advertising to attract readers to its site, sending out press releases and advance reading copies, and attending and present your book at conventions and book fairs.
• How forthcoming is the publisher? A reputable e-publisher should be willing to answer your questions about things like sales figures and formats, give references, make its contract available for your review, and in general to provide information about itself and its publications (preferably on its website).
• A publisher who charges a fee or requires you to buy something as a condition of publication is either a vanity publisher or a self-publishing service, no matter what its claims to the contrary.

These points are not only helpful to find an e-publisher or an e-publishing service company / aggregator, but also when you have to decide on print publishing.  EPIC, an association for electronically-published authors, has a helpful list of contract clauses to watch out for. Explore their “Red Flag List” to find clauses that could become an issue with your future publisher.

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Are You Looking For an e-Publisher?

e-book conversion

While some of the new e-publishing houses are excellent and are a great option to get a book published, others are simply looking to take advantage of unwary writers. Search for the right e-Publishing houses, those who are interested in your genre and those who are providing a good service to their authors – otherwise you are better off self-publishing.

Beside the genres the publishing house is interested in, ask them or find out on their website if they are offering the same services as traditional publishers, such as editing. Do they thoroughly edit books before publishing it. Does they have a cover artist who creates your book cover. Have a look at their former titles. How is their e-book formatting? Read some of their published e-books to see the formatting quality. Providing the ISBN
Number is a given for a publisher.  What are their submission rules?

Marketing and Social Media
How do they market the books they accept and how? Advertising, catalogues, professional websites, blogs? Does they have an affiliate program? To which newspapers and magazines do they pitch their publishing contingent for review and possible interviews? Do they regularly send out press releases?

Do they have a professional and frequently updated blog? Are they regularly on Google+, Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook? Is their Website linked to any other on-line book club?

Distribution
And where do they distribute their e-books? Can customers order and download books from their site? Which other retail outlets? Apple, Amazon, Sony, Barns&Noble?  Any Australian, European or Asian retailers?

Credibility
How long have they been in business? This could be only two or three years, as e-readers and e-books are only really popular since 2007 / 2008.
Could you find any complaints about them when googling or at these websites:
Preditors and Editors
Writer Beware
Absolute Write

Terms and Conditions
For how long would you have to sign the publishing contract? What rights do you have to sign off and for which part of the world? USA ? North America? Europe? Australia? Asia? Only English rights or other languages as well? Are you signing off serial rights?
Do they pay any advance on royalties and how much? What royalties are paid to the author and are they from the retail price?  Most e-book publishers don’t pay advances on royalties. Should they ever ask YOU for any payments, run! In this case they are only masking as publishers, but are in reality a vanity firm or an off-shoot of a book publisher.

Ratings of e-publishing houses can be found on this very useful blog:
http://www.epublishabook.com/2011/07/12/epublishing-houses-ratings-list/

Other listings of e-book publishers (no ratings or endorsements)
http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/epublishers.html

International and US e-book publishers
http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory/publishers-by-media.asp?publishers-of=E-Book

 

Not Yet Convinced to E-Publish?

e-Readers

You CAN make money with e-publishing.
There are authors that made already a million with their e-books, but also authors that barely sell a hundred books per year – it all depends on the quality of your book(s) including cover art, layout and reviews – and how well they are marketed. Same how it works with paper books.

There is overhead cost in e-publishing.
Like paper books, e-books need proof-reading, editing, lay-out, cover design, an ISBN number plus converting in various e-book formats for e-Readers and most important: Marketing.

Editing is essential.
Some e-book authors don’t do it to save money, and some e-publishers do it minimal or not at all. But proof-reading and professionally editing is the most important part in publishing.

E-publishers have to invest in e-books.
…or they will fail.  Just because authors are rarely paid any advance (but rather higher royalties) doesn’t mean there are no investments to make. 

It is not so much easier to get your book out with a reputable e-publisher.
Professional e-publishing houses have their standards to carefully pick their authors in order to deliver quality literature. I am here not talking about vanity publishers that are also to be found in this field and easily can be recognized by charging authors beforehand. I read a good advice: “As an author the only place you should be signing a check is on the back to cash it.” 

It can be a stepping stone to traditional publishing.
Yes, there are e-book authors that have been picked up by the “big six” publishers – but with e-books becoming common-place as do e-Reader devices, in the future e-book publishing will for sure overtake paper book publishing – and the “big six” are coming along with it.

More and more people read e-books.
Also paper books will stay with us, there are many practical reasons for e-books: We don’t need to carry heavy stacks of books to the cottage or on the plane. And we can read at night in bed without using a bedstand lamp (my dog hates bright light in the bed room 😉