eBook self-publishing
Introduction
eBook self-publishing is my passion and I’m self-taught. The knowledge I’ve acquired underpins the research, preparation, formatting, publishing, and marketing of our travel eBooks. My enduring interest in project tendering, technology and personal computing drive my interest in eBook self-publishing.
Project tendering was a prime focus of my professional life for more than 15 years. It shares many common aspects with eBook self-publishing: research, planning, writing, production of a manuscript, and submission to an external authority. I found that not many people enjoyed tendering, but, for some reason, I did.
The journey with technology and personal computing stems from the construction of my very own crystal radio (mainly to listen to Ashes cricket from England); and the assembly of my first Z80-based microcomputer. Initial careers as an avionics technician, technical teacher and technical teacher trainer stemmed from this interest. However, it was a graduate diploma in computer education that really gave me the knowledge and associated confidence to delve into the technical side of self-publishing. In this instance, I’m referring to the small amount of CSS and HTML coding involved.
Enjoyable aspects of eBook self-publishing
The project tendering processes of research, planning, and writing are challenging to me. However, I do enjoy them. I’ve added the personal interest of travel photography to these challenges. So our eBooks contain quite a few photographs. I find photography very difficult (not a natural) and I’ve needed to spend years reaching a baseline level.
The technical aspects that I really enjoy are:
- the initial development and ongoing enhancement of the OS Wayfarer WordPress website (what a joy it is to explore, trial and deploy WordPress’s powerful plugins)
- using SIGIL – The ePUB Editor to control the development of our travel eBooks. This is such a powerful program and, you guessed it – it’s free! Any hankering to dabble in programming is well served by using HTML and CSS to enhance our eBooks. This is part of the magic of SIGIL.
Some of the less technical aspects of self-publishing ebooks such as: gaining acceptance on Amazon and Smashwords for the eBooks can be somewhat mystical and less appealing; and some aspects of marketing such as social media promotion, and the like, are not my strengths. However, I am realising that marketing is so much more than social media. For example, it is also realised through website enhancement (e,g, search engine optimisation, website speed and producing quality content). This is much more enjoyable.
Our series of posts about “Our Approach to eBook Self-publishing”
We have recently posted a series of articles about our approach to eBook self-publishing. This series charts how we self-publish our travel eBooks and comprises 12 posts. Links to these articles/posts are listed below:
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – eBook Research and Planning
- Part 3 – eBook Marketing
- Part 4 – eBook Content
- Part 5 – eBook Site Visit
- Part 6 – eBook Photographs and Cover
- Part 7 – Writing your ebook
- Part 8 – Creating an EPUB
- Part 9 – Publish and distribute your eBook
- Part 10 – Self-publishing a print version of our eBooks
- Part 11 – Review of the Self-publishing process
- Part 12 – Summary of our self-publishing approach
Other Posts about eBook self-publishing
Other blog posts associated with this self-publishing eBooks category focus on our goals and reflections, the tools that I use, and any initiatives we undertake. Links to these sub-categories are listed below.
Goals & Reflections
This group contains my annual challenges and reflections. For example in 2015 I wrote about My 10 Challenges for 2015 and Reflections on my 2015 challenges. In 2016 I wrote about Our 2016 challenges. I didn’t find these exercises particularly satisfying. Maybe, this was because of my tendency to be specific in planning and then following my instincts and interests as each year wore on. In 2017 I considered My self-publishing ideas for 2017 which mused about several categories of activity in a more general sense. Although the reflections for 2017 haven’t been written yet I feel 2017 has been the best year yet.
Initiatives
This is a new group for OS Wayfarer. This year we published our first printed travel book. This has been a long standing goal and it was great to achieve it. I wrote about the story of this first printed travel book. Such was the boost it gave us we are now planning a new structure for our travel eBooks which emphasises culture.
The Tool Shed
Our travel eBook workflow is central to the production of our eBooks. SIGIL – The ePUB Editor is the tool which brings all the disparate parts of the eBook together in a form ready for publishing.
Please note that links to all the self-publishing posts are shown below.
eBook Self-publishing Posts
Our Self-publishing Approach: Part 13 – The OS Wayfarer Author Website
Introduction This post discusses the characteristics of the OS [...]
Our eBook Self-publishing Approach: Part 12 – Summary of our Self-publishing Process
Introduction In this summary of our self-publishing approach we [...]
Our eBook Self-publishing Approach: Part 11 – Review of the Self-publishing process
Introduction A review of the self-publishing process, is always [...]
Our eBook Self-publishing Approach: Part 10 – Self-publishing a print version of our eBooks
Introduction Self-publishing a print version of our eBooks, while [...]
Our eBook Self-publishing Approach: Part 9 – Publish and distribute your eBook:
Publish and distribute your eBook This post is not [...]
Our eBook self-publishing approach: Part 8 – Creating an ePUB
Introduction Creating an ePUB is the focus of this [...]
Visits: 1973
