Sunday, July 08, 2012

Publishing your book with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - my experience


Print books are fine but they are expensive.
When my books were first published by Robert Hale Ltd, London, they were produced in hardback.
The recommended purchase price in Australia was $54 dollars. But who is prepared to pay that amount for a novel written by an unknown author.
Copies even cost me (as the author) $35 to buy a copy.

Today, e-books are sweeping the market - and I say 'good on them!'

Through Kindle, e-books are selling for anything from zero to $10.00 and more.
Authors who publish independently can set their own price and have the opportunity to promote their books with freebies ($0) occasionally.

I think an attactive price is $2.99 or $3.99 and, although I have bought a couple that have cost $9.99, I have subsequently felt a little cheated and wrtten to the publishers saying that I felt their prices were too high.

Having taken the bull by the horns, I have decided to convert all my books to the Kindle KDP e-book market. They will sell exclusively through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

But another problem with indie-produced books is that some look very amateurish. The editing is poor and the formatting leaves you feeling dizzy.

Because of this I opted to pay to have all 5 of my books formatted professionally.

I chose to use Custom-Book-Tique
The company is in Canada (and I live in Australia), but that has no bearing.
Maggie, the proprietor, is helpful, efficient, but most of all, the range of services she offers is broad and her prices are very competitive.

Having sent my first WORD document manuscript to her, I was delighted to find the conversion completed in a couple of days. And the presentation of my book on my Kindle reader is first class.

I believe e-books are the way to go. But whether you have been traditionally published in print by a leading publishing house, or you are a first time budding writer who believes their work is worth publishing, I encourage you to go ahead, but get some professional help both in the editing and formatting before offering your books to the world.

The pics are of two of my book covers which I designed myself using Power Point. I will post on images shortly.

1 comment:

Beverley Eikli aka Beverley Oakley said...

I love the cover of the Black Thread.

And thank you for sharing your experience on e-publishing and seeking professional help.

I'm ready to bite the bullet this week but I am going to do the conversion myself. I have the software to convert but I chose to have the cover professionally done.

All the best, Margaret. Love your site, BTW.

Beverley