A Simple Way to Publish Your Own eBook
Much is on-line about growing an ebook. Where to seek inspiration, what to share about and how to sell it are the most common topics. Less plentiful are the step by step mechanics of creating and hosting e-book. With the help of guides like Phil Gerbyshack and Rosa Say I am finding a path. I cross the tangle vines and box hollows seeking a path to building and sharing an ebook. You can use my trail markers and jump ahead on the path.
Trail Markers
1. Write the content (this is the easy part).
Take what you trust and build upon it. Seek the input of others.
The great ones share. You will know who to ask. They will say, “Yes! , Here!; Take what you need!; There is plenty for all; Let me help you.” And, as long as you also share, the stream will continue to replenish itself.
2. Choose pictures to illustrate your book.
A wealth of shared images can be found on Flickr. But, make sure you credit the artist as best you can. Most give freely but it is good to build another when you can. If are uncomfortable using the image created by another without direct contact, you can look to them for inspiration and build them with your own digital camera.
Consider a contest. If you offer took take submissions to the public, many will send you submissions to be included in your book. Be sure to fully credit their work and include them in your acknowledgments section.
3. Convert your document to pdf format.
Your operating system will be a determining factor. If you have a PC system, add a PDF converter. Adobe Acrobat is good. Primopdf converter is also good and it is free. I use both. The differences are negligible and I like free. After you make the addition, you may select converter from your printer selector file. This will create your pdf in your chosen destination.
Most Mac operating systems come pre-bundled converter in the printer choice menu.
4. Distributing your ebook.
What won’t work: Google Docs doesn’t support pdf. Yahoo Briefcase won’t allow you to share without an upgrade. One option is offer a free site subscription RSS feeder. You then email the document to anyone who subscribes. Another option is to email it as an attachment to any who request it.
Finally, there are hosts like Quicksharing.com. They don’t require registration. They will hold carry your ebook for free. You go to their site. Then follow their easy to use menu to browse out your file and upload it. Quicksharing will display the address. Then you can share it with anyone who would like to download your ebook.
There are a couple of things that I don’t love about it. One, because it is monetized by advertisement, you occasionally find promotional links for things you wouldn’t choose to promote, at you download site. Two, if your ebook isn’t downloaded for a month or so, the Quikshare automated system will delete it.
I have converted this document to a PDF and hosted it on Quicksharing so that you may download it (free of course) and get a feel for the process. I am building another ebook about giving great feedback in difficult situations that will also soon be available for free download. If I can help, in any way, please contact me. I hope this work has added value to your day.
Reg Adkins writes on behavior and the human experience at ElementalTruths.blogspot.com.
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Comments
Colin Beveridge says on May 24th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
How about lulu.com? I believe it’s free to distribute an e-book, but they take a cut if you’re charging.
RegAdkins says on May 24th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Hi Colin,
I’ve only begun to look into lulu.com but is seems to be an excellent option. I have another project that I am working on which I will probably use lulu.com for distribution. Thank you for the great comment/suggestion!
Sridhar Katakam says on May 25th, 2007 at 7:33 am
You can use divshare.com to upload and share your e-book or any other file for that matter.
They don’t put any limitations or delete your content if it’s not accessed within some time frame.
RegAdkins says on May 25th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Hi Sridhar,
I looked into divshare.com.
It does have some nice features.
But, I was trying to stay with free options and divshare seems to be fee based.
clkl says on May 25th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
This is so timely for me! I’ve been experimenting with different ways of making .pdf documents available (free to others, but free also for me to host) for my blog.
What I’m doing now works so far, although I started doing it a week ago with short documents:
I created a Wordpress blog. Wordpress allows .pdf documents to be uploaded to posts. I then link to the document (not to the post) on the Wordpress blog from my regular blog.
RegAdkins says on May 25th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Hi clkl!
I’m glad this piece helped you out. I try to be timely with what I write but I never really know until comments like yours.
Thanks
Ryan Dlugosz says on May 29th, 2007 at 8:27 am
“…make sure you credit the artist as best you can. Most give freely but it is good to build another when you can. If are uncomfortable using the image created by another without direct contact…”
It sounds like you’re partially advocating theft here – crediting ‘as best you can’ or suggesting that some would be comfortable using an image without ‘direct contact’ is poor advice. A credit is not sufficient for usage rights!
If you want to use someone’s image in your book, then you need to get a license from them to do so. They *should* charge you for it, but there’s a good chance that many on flickr will be willing to give it for free. If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, consider shopping for an image at a stock photo site.
Leon says on May 29th, 2007 at 10:09 am
In Flickr, there are images that are licensed as Creative Commons and allow to use them commercially. I agree potentially the post should be more clear to state that, but it is a small post to capture a very large topic, so people has to fit in their own judgments and research.
RegAdkins says on May 29th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Ryan makes an excellent point. I should have used stronger verbiage concerning due diligence in obtaining permissions for use. Thank you Ryan.
Here is the link for the Creative Commons guidelines (United States version). I wouldn’t use any material I didn’t create myself without a close perusal of the rules it stipulates, especially when it comes to the restrictions facet.
http://creativecommons.org/lic...../legalcode
Leon is also correct in pointing out the challenge of addressing a broad topic and yet attending to the need for minute clarity.
Thank you both for the excellent and specific feed back!
Paul Clegg says on September 10th, 2008 at 8:51 am
like the article but the author’s weblog link and link to downloads does not work.
Virginia Meyer says on April 14th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I have this neat website and a manual on how to maintain it and oodles of ideas about marketing. I’m just finised with creating an ebook which I am converting into pdf from Word via Adobe Acrobat and Nuance Pdfpro5 so I can sell it from my home computer on email.
All well and good, but no one told me that pdf text looks like c___. It is fuzzy and hard to read. How can I get around this? If everyone is busy selling pdf ebooks they must know something I don’t. Pleas, please, tell me how to make a pdf document look clear and sharp like a Word document.
Thanks so much,
Virginia Meyer