Indie Publishing - Update 2 April 2011

Indie Publishing 

Indie Publishing - Update

Ok, where were we. . .oh, yes.

Our hero, The Mexican Trailrunner, is going to bust

through the indie publishing industry,

make buckets of money,

and live like a rock star.

not

The plan was to put the 4 Emergency Medical Spanish

language books up

on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords

so folks can read them on their digital devices.

Good idea!

So, I revised them for digital.

I did hours and weeks of research on how to do it.

I joined Amazon's KDP -

Kindle Direct Publishing

and pressed onward.

I did a few more hours of research.

Then I was ready.

I embarked on the "Easy 3 Step Process"

to publish my little books.

Step 1 - no problem.

Step 2 - no problem.

Step 3 - Houston, we have a problem.

I loaded the book and when Kindle finally digested 

the accepted format and spit my book back out,

it was gobeldy-gook.

I did more research and even resorted to Kindle's forum,

support, FAQs, and a few WTFs.

Turns out, the Kindle format REALLY likes novels,

not so much books with lots of lines, lists, bolding,

indentations, foreign languages with accents,

and other freaky abnormalities.

sigh

So, back to the forum and an appeal for help.

Was advised to seek help from professional 'Formatters'.

who knew

They were all very nice, very responsive, and very helpful.

I submitted my book to them and waited sleeplessly for

their verdicts and price quotes to format the books.

cool

Not cool.

First quote came in at $275 US to format a 64 page book.

wow

Second  quote came in significantly lower at $150 US

with a request for lots of revising from the formatting people.

that's better  i guess

Then there was the "better cover" suggestion.

Ummm, ok, how much is that dynamite cover going to cost?

Ohhhh, $375 US

times 4

That would total $600 US to format 4 little books

that I wanted to sell for 2 bux each. . .

and a staggering $1500 for 4 new covers.

I did the math.

It didn't look very good.

I would have to sell 1,050 books just to pay for the formatting

and covers.

back to the drawing board

Plan B

flexibility is a good thing

Three of the language books are now up for sale on eBay

and all 4 are for sale on this blog.

Here it is:  Emergency Medical Spanish for Travelers and Expats

 The book is on CD and the price reflects the added expenses - 

not the least of which are all the nickles and dimes that go to eBay.

sheesh, ebay used to be cheap to sell on

The books will always be available on this blog for less

as they will be a digital ebooks.  

They can be loaded onto digital devices via email, 
downloaded to computer,
or printed and kept by the phone or in the glovebox etc.

If you want them on CD, see eBay.

So, that's where we're at.

Now for the fun part!

I get to concentrate on writing my next 2 books for Kindle.

In NOVEL form!