Take Back the Book! http://www.gaycourter.com/blog Authors: You can sell your own work directly in all e-book formats. But how? Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:36:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Where I Have Been…And What I Have Done http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/where-i-have-been-and-what-i-have-done.htm http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/where-i-have-been-and-what-i-have-done.htm#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:35:09 +0000 admin http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/?p=27 Okay, I admit it, blogging has taken a back seat to doing what I have been blogging about.

Whew. I have ALL my books (7) now up and SELLING on Kindle, Nook, and iPad with Kobo in the works. Kobo is a bit daunting, but we are working on it.

Kindle was the most seamless and they are grinding out the sales. Even better, both Kindle and iPad have sent royalties directly to my bank account at at 70% on Kindle (US sales) they add up quickly.

I figure that at this rate (which is growing incrementally), my cash outlay to get the books out there will have been paid back in 3 months or so. And, unlike many industries, I doubt there is a huge holiday increase because in a sense you are buying for yourself…although Kindle does seem to have a unique idea: letting you buy gift ebooks for friends.

Next mission is to write up all about how to do it and post some of it here and MOST of it in a new book, that is a new ebook to be called: Take Back the Book.

]]> http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/where-i-have-been-and-what-i-have-done.htm/feed 0 The Perfect E-mail http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/the-perfect-e-mail.htm http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/the-perfect-e-mail.htm#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:34:40 +0000 admin http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/?p=25 I’ve been so busy preparing books for various e-platforms that I have neglected this blog. Also, other authors are emailing asking the details of how I am doing this. I promise I will list the steps on this blog–and in Take Back the Book the book, coming whenever I have the time to write it all up.

In the meantime, I received an uplifting email from someone teaching a class where she recommends my book I Speak for this Child. At the end of the class, a guy came up to her and agreed that it was a terrific book. She asked, “Have you read it?”

He replied, “Only the first chapter. I downloaded it on my iPad during the class and read it during the break.”

How’s that for instant gratification?

Oh…and preliminary info on the 4 books that are up: they are selling! No promotion yet. So, it is starting to work.

]]> http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/the-perfect-e-mail.htm/feed 0 No More Pencils…No More BOOKS… http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/no-more-pencils-no-more-books.htm http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/no-more-pencils-no-more-books.htm#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:34:12 +0000 admin http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/?p=23 A high school in Florida ditches textbooks for Kindles. That’s right, everybody gets an e-book device free! No more lugging textbooks or excuses for leaving them in the locker or at home.

]]> http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/no-more-pencils-no-more-books.htm/feed 0 Backwards Publishing: Books to Type http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/backwards-publishing-books-to-type-2.htm http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/backwards-publishing-books-to-type-2.htm#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:33:47 +0000 admin http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/?p=21 Three more novels being uploaded this weekend including my major bestsellers The Midwife, The Midwife’s Advice, and Code Ezra. I will explain how I got to this point shortly, but for now these are books that were published almost pre-computer! In fact, The Midwife was one of the first novels ever written on a word processor (IBM System 6). Since I had no digital version of the edited work, I searched for a way to convert print to type without creating endless typos and requiring word-for-word proofing.

My books are long, take place in foreign locales, and I did not want to undertake anything that would drive me insane.

I was told retyping the book would cost about $2000 per book, then there would be conversion costs to the various e-book formats. My next thought was to outsource the project for typing, but I worried about the proofing problem. It took about 10 minutes of Googling to find some likely outsourcing companies. They swore that the latest in Optical Character Reader technology (OCR) would work out fine and that they would do the proofing. I sent PDF files of sample pages with complex formatting. One of the company’s work was more accurate and their price more reasonable.

This is the one I am using. Ask for details.

This is not as seamless a process as I dreamed about, but also not particularly onerous either.

Details will follow and I will name names.

]]> http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/backwards-publishing-books-to-type-2.htm/feed 0 First Book Now iPublished on Amazon, iPad http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/first-book-now-ipublished-on-amazon-ipad.htm http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/first-book-now-ipublished-on-amazon-ipad.htm#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:32:36 +0000 admin http://www.gaycourter.com/blog/?p=17 Done! First book is up and running on both Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad (iBookstore). I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate is still widely used for Guardian ad Litem (CASA) training and I wanted it out there first.

I was able to update it with what happened to all the children featured in the book, add a new chapter that my publisher cut for space reasons, include an interview with the author, a guide for book clubs, an author bio. In many ways it is vastly improved. Plus, I can continue to update it.

I have one book ready to upload, one being converted to the e-book formats, and another just sent out for converting. I cannot believe that the spell checker on Code Ezra found so many spelling errors in the original hardcover book! Didn’t the publisher check those typos? Or was the copyeditor or…ah…the author supposed to have found them all?

Again, mistakes can be fixed forever. Is that a promise or a curse?

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