Mentioned in the SMART AUTHOR podcast. Indie authors can download and modify this presentation for their own purposes to create and present an "Introduction to Ebook Self-Publishing" workshop to be presented at their local library or writer's club meeting.

1. An Introduction to Ebook
Publishing
(Insert Library Logo Here)
Library Name Here
Month Day, 201X
(Your presenter name here)
(Your twitter or email address here)

2. Instructions
This Powerpoint template is for indie author listeners of the
SMART AUTHOR podcast who want to teach ebook publishing
workshops at their local library. The audience for this
“Introduction to Ebooks” talk is a general library audience of
writers, prospective self-published authors, and library staff. It
provides a template for authors to weave their own personal self-
publishing journey into the presentation, and to share their
experiences with fellow readers and writers at their local
community library.
It’s also an opportunity for Smashwords authors and listeners of
the SMART AUTHOR podcast to help spread a culture of
authorship, working in partnership with libraries
Feel free to add or remove slides or images, or create an entirely
different presentation. Visit
http://slideshare.net/smashwords/presentations to download other
Smashwords presentations and Smashwords data.
Requires Microsoft PowerPoint
or similar presentation software

3. My Backstory

4. Add a Heading Here
• Create two to four custom slides that share
your personal backstory. Make your personal
story part of the presentation!
• Talk about your journey as a writer. Why did
you want to write a book, and why did you
decide to self-publish an ebook?
• Your backstory gives you the personal
experience and credibility to share (and
modify, if you desire) the presentation that
follows.
• Include at least one slide in this next section
that promotes the cover image of your
completed ebook

5. Once upon a time, in the dark
ages of publishing (10 yrs ago)
• Publishing was a print-centric business
• Print accounted for over 99% of all book sales
• Ebooks accounted for less than 1%
• Publishers controlled
• The printing press (they decided which books were
published)
• The knowledge of professional publishing best
practices
• The access to retail distribution (without a
publisher, you couldn’t get a book in stores)
• The fate of writers (they decided which writers
became published authors, and which writers went
unpublished)

6. Publishers played God
They were the bouncers at the pearly gates of
authordom!

7. Today, ebooks account for 20-25% of all dollar
sales of consumer ebooks.
On a unit basis, ebooks account for close to
50% of all book reading (Since ebooks are
priced much lower than print books, the 20-
25% market share number above understates
the true shift to ebooks)
If you want to reach readers, follow the
eyeballs and make ebooks central to your
publishing strategy

8. The advent of ebooks
revolutionized publishing

9. Thanks to the rise of ebooks,
publishing is now democratized
• The tools of professional ebook
publishing are democratized and
available to every writer.
• In the next slides, we’ll look at the
three factors one by one:
• the printing press,
• the distribution and the
• knowledge …

10. 1. Democratization of the
printing press
• The printing press
• Free ebook publishing platforms like
Smashwords make ebook publishing fast,
free and easy.
• Unlike expensive print books, ebooks are
just digital bits and bytes – they’re cheap to
produce and distribute

11. 2. Democratization of retail
distribution
• The retail distribution
• Unlike physical bookstores which can only
stock a limited number of print books,
online ebook stores can stock an unlimited
number of titles.
• Every major ebook retailer wants to stock
all self-published ebooks!
• Self-published ebooks are displayed
alongside the ebooks from large traditional
publishers
• Once self-published ebooks achieved
distribution, they started selling!

12. 3. Democratization of knowledge
• The best practices knowledge
• Best practices are what separate amateurs
from professionals.
• Today, the best practices for professional
publishing are free and available to all
writers – you can learn to publish like a pro!
• Listen to Mark Coker’s free podcast, SMART
AUTHOR, to learn ebook publishing best
practices, or download his free ebook, The
Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success
• In the presentation today, you’ll learn
several of these best practices.

13. Publishers losing their monopoly
• Writers no longer need publishers to
reach readers
• Writers can self-publish without a
publisher

14. Let’s learn how to publish an ebook

15. Checklist for Publishing an Ebook
1. Finish your super-awesome book
2. Prepare cover image
3. Formatting
4. Ebook conversion
5. Pricing
6. ISBNs
7. Distribution to retailers and libraries
8. Upload
9. Preorders
10.Marketing

16. Step 1.
Finish your super-awesome book!

17. Finish Your Super-Awesome Book
• GOOD IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE
• Your ebook will compete against over 5 million
other ebooks
• To stand out and spark word of mouth, your book
must move the reader to an emotionally satisfying
extreme
• The first draft is not ready for publication
• You must edit, revise, edit, revise
• Hire professional editor if you can afford one
• Involve beta readers (then revise again)
• Episode 5 of the SMART AUTHOR podcast
teaches how to work with beta readers

18. Step 2.
Cover Image

19. Create a Great Cover Image
• Invest in a quality cover image
• Unlike print books which need separate
images for a front cover, back cover and a
spine, ebooks have only one front cover.
• Readers judge ebooks by their cover!
• A great ebook cover uses imagery to make
an aspirational promise to the target reader
• Know your target reader with micro-precision
• Hire a pro - great ebook covers can cost
between only $50 and $150

20. When readers are looking for their next read, they
aspire to enjoy a certain type of reading
experience.
Great ebook covers contain visual imagery that
represent the target reader’s aspiration
For example, thriller fans want to be thrilled,
horror fans want to experience fear, mystery fans
want to crack an interesting case, science fiction
fans want to imagine an interesting future,
dystopian fans want to imagine how future people
will cope after society’s downfall, and most non-
fiction readers are looking for knowledge that
helps them achieve a certain benefit.

21. Examples of smart cover symbolism

22. (Note to workshop presenters: feel
free to modify this section to
showcase great ebook covers in
other genres or categories (or even
your own, if they’re great) that
illustrate how smart symbolism can
be used as eye candy to help fans of
certain types of books self-identify
as ideal readers for these books

23. Steampunk

24. These gears are visual porn for
steampunk fans

25. Romance

26. This cover, targeting young adult
readers, promises a sweet
romance

27. The dragon, and woman at the
center, promise a sexy
paranormal romance where the
woman is the object of desire of
TWO men

28. Obvious

29. The six shooter, hat, and Indian
promise a Western

30. Step 3.
Formatting:
Formatting is the layout and design
process to prepare your manuscript
for publication

31. How to format an ebook
600,000+
downloads!
It’s FREE!

32. Formatting Secrets
• All you need is a word processor
• Don’t try to make ebooks look like print
books
• Ebooks consumed differently than print
• Design for reflowability, small screens
• “Reflowability” is what allows the reader to increase the font size,
font style or line spacing
• Reflowability allows the reader to customize the
reading experience
• Hire a formatting pro for $50 or less at
http://smashwords.com/list

33. Reflowability: Ebook devices
(and customers) shape shift text
• Example of Smashwords novel, Heller
by JD Nixon as viewed in iBooks e-
reading app in both portrait and
landscape mode
• Users can select font style, font size and
nightime mode, or view in portrait,
landscape or night-reading mode.

34. Step 4.
Ebook Conversion

35. Conversion = The process of turning your
formatted manuscript and cover image
into an ebook file readable on multiple
ebook reading devices

36. Screens are the new paper

37. Upload and Conversion at
Smashwords

38. Step 5.
Pricing

39. Pricing strategy
• Determine objective
• Build readership, sales, or both?
• To maximize readership: price at FREE
• Free yields ~33X more downloads than books at any
other price point
• To maximize both earnings and readership,
look to these Sweet spots
• $2.99 to $4.99 for full-length fiction
• $5.99 to $9.99 for non-fiction
• If you publish multiple books, cover multiple
price points to capture the most readers
• FREE, $.99, $2.99, $3.99, $4.99+

40. Step 6.
ISBN

41. What’s an ISBN?
• What’s an ISBN?
• Unique digital identifier
• A 13-digit number
• Helps supply chain (retailers, distributors)
communicate about book
• Ebook ISBN must be different than print ISBN
• Required for Smashwords distribution to Apple,
OverDrive, Kobo, others
• What it is NOT:
• Does not connote ownership or copyright
• Not a common discovery method

42. Where to Obtain an ISBN
• Go to Bowker.com
• Purchase blocks of 10+ for $295
• Lists you as “publisher”
• Go to Smashwords
• FREE ISBNs

43. Step 7.
Distribution
(how you get your book to retailers
and libraries)

44. Smashwords Distribution Network
Upload once, reach multiple outlets
* Limited distribution to AMAZON, see http://smashwords.com/distribution for instructions

45. Two options for getting your book
onto a retailer’s or library’s
virtual shelves
1. Use a Distributor
• Access: Necessary for access to libraries and some
retailers (Scribd, Gardners) requires a distributor
• Time savings & simplicity: Distributors (like Smashwords)
help you spent more time writing and less time managing
multiple upload platforms
 Upload one file or update, reach many retailers
 Consolidated reporting, payments and tax reporting
1. Direct to Retailers
• Some retailers allow authors to upload books directly. It’s
not difficult, but it can be time-consuming to manage and
monitor multiple upload platforms.
• Format for each specific retailer
• Upload to, and manage each retailer separately

46. Let’s look closer at Public Libraries

47. Libraries and ebooks
• Libraries are important to the future of
books. Libraries…
• Make books available and accessible to
everyone
• Help kids develop a love for books
• Promote literacy
• Facilitate community around books
• Bring readers face to face with authors
• Most libraries now offer ebook lending

48. Big publishers are not friendly to
libraries
• Big publishers refuse to sell some
ebooks, or will charge libraries up to
triple the print price
• Publishers fear
• Library ebooks will cannibalize print books
• Library ebooks will cannibalize retail ebook
sales
• Library ebooks don’t wear out

49. Smashwords and its 130,000+
authors support libraries
• Indie authors are friendly to libraries
• Indies recognize that libraries will help them reach
new readers
• Smashwords library initiatives:
• Custom library pricing (you can offer libraries lower
prices than retail)
• Library aggregators that carry Smashwords ebooks
• Overdrive
• Baker & Taylor Axis 360
• CloudLibrary
• Odilo
• Gardners UK (Askews & Holts)

50. Community publishing, in
partnership with libraries
• The future
• Libraries, known for promoting a culture of
reading, can now help promote a culture of
authorship
• Local authors carried by their local libraries
• Local events (like today) to connect
authors with readers, and authors with
prospective authors

51. Writers: Learn how to market
your ebooks to public libraries in
Episode 6 of the SMART AUTHOR
podcast

52. Step 8.
Preorders

53. Release your ebook as a
preorder

54. What’s a preorder?
 Advance book listing at major
retailers
 Readers reserve a copy in
advance of release date
 Customer credit card not charged
until release date
 Learn all about preorders in Episode 4
of the SMART AUTHOR podcast.

55. Why you should release with a
preorder
• Books released as
preorders sell more copies!
• Preorders enable more effective
advance marketing
• Fast track to bestseller lists
(iBooks)
• At iBooks, the world’s second largest ebook
seller, all preorders earned during the preorder
period credit toward your first day’s sales rank,
which can cause your book to rise higher in your
category’s bestseller list

56. Step 9.
Upload

57. Upload = how you deliver your manuscript,
cover image and metadata to Smashwords
or to other upload platforms like KDP
We’ll show the process for Smashwords,
which is similar to all other platforms

58. Uploading your ebook to
Smashwords (Fill out form,
choose publication date, click
“Publish”)

59. Step 10.
Marketing

60. Download the free Smashwords
Book Marketing Guide for over 40
free book marketing ideas

61. Marketing
• Marketing is a catalyst, not fuel
• Your book is your best marketing
• Reader word of mouth determines your success
• Book must take reader to an emotionally
satisfying extreme to generate word of mouth and
five-star reviews
• Implement Best practices
• Best practices are the catalysts that amplify word
of mouth
• make your book more desirable and more
enjoyable

62. THE PLAN FORWARD

63. Writers like YOU are the future of
publishing

64. Although it’s easy to self-publish an
ebook, reaching readers is always
difficult.
Most books – whether traditionally
published or self-published – don’t
sell well.
Yet…

65. The Opportunity to Reach Readers
Has Never Been Greater

66. A mere 10 years ago, you couldn’t
publish without a publisher’s
blessing
Today, you’re in control. If your book
is ready for publication today, you
can self-publish today and make your
book discoverable to millions of
readers around the world in a matter
of hours or days

67. FREE RESOURCES

68. Learn eBook publishing on the
SMART AUTHOR podcast
• Subscribe at Apple Podcasts
• Also available on Stitcher, SoundCloud, YouTube,
Overcast
• Visit https://www.smashwords.com/podcast for
additional information and links.

69. Learn eBook Publishing Best
Practices in these FREE ebooks
• Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices of
successful authors)
• Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any
book)
• Smashwords Style Guide (how to format an ebook)

70. Thank you for listening!
Q&A
Connect:
Web: Insert your Smashwords author
page or web site address here
Blog: Insert your blog address
Twitter: links here
Facebook: links here
Email: Your email address