E-Book "Packagers"

[3113]

Greetings, fellow authors!

I'm looking for recommendations on e-book "packagers" meaning people who specialize in getting your book in the right format, etc. for Amazon, iBooks, and all the rest.

Obviously, they charge a fee for this, but once it's done the book is in all these places, the profits of its sale are all yours--as compared to e-book publishers who feature your book on their website and take royalties in lieu of charging you for doing all this work. Do you know of any of these that are reliable? Fast? etc? What seems a reasonable price to pay for all this?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I am learning to do this-- because I've seen so many really badly formatted ebooks out of "reputable" services.

 

[sr71plt]

There you go. Selena Kitt might be able to help you out too. I think she's closed the author's list at eXcessica, but she also has a Fido label--and she might either make an exception for you (although I thought you already were an eXcessica author) or might let her folks do the formats for you for a small fee.

It's really not that hard to find an existing e-book publisher to do it all for free for a good writer, though. To track one of those down, go to Allromanceebooks and pull up their publisher listings and go looking for books in the same genre as yours. You should be able to link to the publisher from the ARE listings.

 

[D_Lynn]

I would do it for you, but formatting makes me suicidal.

I think you've stumbled onto a good business plan for someone, though. Provide services a la carte for Indie Publishers.

Editing - $xx/hr.
Formatting - $xx/word
Cover Art - $xx
Review - $xx
Distribution - xx% of royalties

You wouldn't have to buy the whole kit and submit to a publisher, you could just contract what you needed done and still collect 100% of your royalties.

I like that idea.

Alternatively, you could probably find software to do this for you now. I bought a Mac and use Scrivener word processing software, which formats for Amazon automagically for me.

 

[3113]

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I am learning to do this-- because I've seen so many really badly formatted ebooks out of "reputable" services.

So, how much more do you have to learn before we can hire you?

There you go. Selena Kitt might be able to help you out too. I think she's closed the author's list at eXcessica, but she also has a Fido label--and she might either make an exception for you (although I thought you already were an eXcessica author) or might let her folks do the formats for you for a small fee.

It's really not that hard to find an existing e-book publisher to do it all for free for a good writer, though.

That's a good idea--though I'd think most ebook publishers wouldn't want to do it if you weren't going to be on board with them.

I think you've stumbled onto a good business plan for someone, though. Provide services a la carte for Indie Publishers.

Editing - $xx/hr.
Formatting - $xx/word
Cover Art - $xx
Review - $xx
Distribution - xx% of royalties

There you go, Stella! Your new business model

Alternatively, you could probably find software to do this for you now. I bought a Mac and use Scrivener word processing software, which formats for Amazon automagically for me.

I have Scrivener's word pressing software! It does this? (Actually, it's no real surprise that I don't know this...I find most word processing programs so bewildering in their array of options that I usually don't even explore beyond the area where I can type up the story). You know, I'll bet that--being Mac based--there might also an option for iBooks....

That's really helpful, Lynn. But here's the question--have you used it and did it work? I'm suspicious.... http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/skep.gif

 

[D_Lynn]

That's really helpful, Lynn. But here's the question--have you used it and did it work? I'm suspicious.... http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/skep.gif

I didn't buy Scrivener until after I submitted my last book to Amazon, so I have no first-hand experience with using it for this purpose. However, I have read numerous comments from other Indie publishers about how well Scrivener worked for them.

Before I bought a Macbook and Scrivener, I downloaded MobiPocket Creator (free) for my Windows laptop and experimented with it. I'm sorry I didn't do that before I spent hours fussing with my Word document to get it to format right through the Kindle reader. MobiPocket Creator works like a charm for Kindle publishing.

 

[3113]

Just to Clarify

So I rechecked with the person who wants to do this (it's not just me asking) and what they're really after is not only formatting (which, as Lynn said could be done with Scrivener), but someone who will take care of everything--format it, submit it to all the places, get the forms filled out, make sure the cover art is in, etc. Essentially, someone to take care of the drudge work of getting these books into the digital bookstores.

Unlike with an e-pulbisher who would also do this for us, we do not need these works edited, promoted or given covers. So, we're looking for some one or some reliable company that does everything an e-publisher would do to put a book on Amazon, etc, but they get only a fee rather than a portion of the sales.

 

[3113]

Yikes! Falling Satellite!

Mistake again! Why do I keep doing that? Grrrr.....

 

[Stella_Omega]

I didn't know that about Scrivener, which I have been using for years and I even updated!

Way cool. I'm off to take a look now.

 

[D_Lynn]

So I rechecked with the person who wants to do this (it's not just me asking) and what they're really after is not only formatting (which, as Lynn said could be done with Scrivener), but someone who will take care of everything--format it, submit it to all the places, get the forms filled out, make sure the cover art is in, etc. Essentially, someone to take care of the drudge work of getting these books into the digital bookstores.

Unlike with an e-pulbisher who would also do this for us, we do not need these works edited, promoted or given covers. So, we're looking for some one or some reliable company that does everything an e-publisher would do to put a book on Amazon, etc, but they get only a fee rather than a portion of the sales.

I think you'll have a hard time with the distribution/submission part of this. Primarily because only a company entity can submit to some distribution channels (ie. Amazon). Therefore, the royalties are paid to the company entity, not the individual author.

I had to start a business in order to submit a book to Amazon.

 

[SydneyBlake]

Definitely want to subscribe to this thread...

 

[sr71plt]

So I rechecked with the person who wants to do this (it's not just me asking) and what they're really after is not only formatting (which, as Lynn said could be done with Scrivener), but someone who will take care of everything--format it, submit it to all the places, get the forms filled out, make sure the cover art is in, etc. Essentially, someone to take care of the drudge work of getting these books into the digital bookstores.

Unlike with an e-pulbisher who would also do this for us, we do not need these works edited, promoted or given covers. So, we're looking for some one or some reliable company that does everything an e-publisher would do to put a book on Amazon, etc, but they get only a fee rather than a portion of the sales.

This still sounds like going with an e-publisher to me. Many want the book to come to them edited (I have my own editor and the publisher goes with this) and I can pick my own cover images, with the publisher just setting the cover up for me. I don't really see the problem.

 

[3113]

I think you'll have a hard time with the distribution/submission part of this. Primarily because only a company entity can submit to some distribution channels (ie. Amazon). Therefore, the royalties are paid to the company entity, not the individual author.

I had to start a business in order to submit a book to Amazon.

Ah. That is a good point to know.....