E-Book Publisher Offers Manuscript-to-Marketing Package

Your Ebook Team LogoWRITERS. Your Ebook Team, a new partnership of highly experienced professionals, has created a fresh approach to book publishing that offers writers a “total package” from manuscript to marketing.

Combining decades of experience in editing, design, and marketing, Your Ebook Team supports authors in turning their manuscripts into high-quality books that reach their broadest target audience. The company takes a highly personalized approach in working with authors, and offers a package designed to take the mystery and frustration out of publishing a manuscript.

Your Ebook Team publisher Scott Gerber believes that “At this point in the industry, writers have few good choices. The conventional publishing houses are taking fewer and fewer books, and the writer who wants to self-publish is met with the daunting task of working with a confusing jumble of service providers, many of whom lack the skills and experience of Your Ebook Team.”

In addition to a collaborative, one-on-one relationship with every author, Your Ebook Team’s total package includes:

  • professional editing and proofreading
  • top-notch cover design and book layout
  • publication in both print and e-book formats
  • distribution through the major online retailers
  • social media marketing support that includes a web domain, blog, and Facebook page, and more.

“I have had a high-caliber experience every step of the way,” says Elaine Leeder, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University, who published her book “My Life with Lifers” with Your Ebook Team. “This is my fifth book, and this is the best publisher I have ever worked with.”

The total publishing package offered by Your Ebook Team also provides a unique revenue structure that offers authors the opportunity to earn back every dollar of their up-front fees through initial book sales.

“We know it’s sometimes hard for writers to take that first step in publishing their manuscripts, so we make it easier by arranging for them to keep all sales revenue until their initial investment is recouped,” says Gerber.

Wally Gordon, a magazine and newspaper writer for half a century and author of “A Reporter’s World,” praises the “conscientious and careful editing” his book received with Your Ebook Team’s chief editor, Marty Gerber.

“To collaborate with writers—to help them find their voice, hone their message, and tell their tale—is a challenge I love,” says Marty Gerber, who has worked for decades as a writer, editor, and publisher within a broad range of books, magazines, and major newspapers.

Sarah Lovett, writing coach and author of more than 30 novels and children’s books, calls Marty “a writer’s best friend —a wise, honest, and market-savvy editor.”

Books published by Your Ebook Team are available for sale on the company’s book marketing site in addition to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Each book gets its own top-level web page, which includes an author blog and bio, a description and preview of the book, reviews, YouTube video, and links to buy the book.

LINKS

Your Ebook Team

 

Learn How to Convert Your E-Books into Audio Books

WRITERS. If you want to convert your e-book into an audio book, check out the resources available through eBookIt!

Since 2010, eBookIt! has helped thousands of authors and publishers get their books converted to e-book format and distributed to all the major e-book retailers (such as Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony Readerstore, Ingram Digital, and Google eBookstore).

Now, eBookIt! is helping authors further expand their audiences by converting e-books into audio books.

Offering audio books enables you to share the information in your book with people with visual impairments and those who like listening to audio books while driving, working out, walking the dog, or doing other activities.

On the eBookIt! blog, company founder Bo Bennett notes that audio books have become increasingly popular, particularly with the proliferation of iPhones and other mobile devices: “We all have different learning styles, and we all differ in how we like to spend our downtime. Some of us read, some of us watch, and some of us listen.”

For $119, eBookIt! can use your converted e-book file to create an MP3 audio file with a computer-generated voice. You can choose to have your books read by a human-sounding American male voice (Paul), an American female voice (Julie), or a British female voice (Brigitte).  (You can hear what Paul, Julie, and Brigitte sound like on the eBookIt website.)

“While I don’t think a computer-generated voice can replace a talented actor anytime soon, it is an ideal solution for the vast majority of authors who do want their books available in audio and can afford a $119 investment,” says Bennett.

If you choose to distribute the MP3 file on your own website, you can keep 100% of the proceeds.

The  eBookIt! website also explains options for human-narrated audio-book creation as well as distribution through iTunes, Amazon.com, and Amazon’s audio-book distributor Audible.com.

For example, if you want to try creating your own audio book file, the eBookIt! blog includes instructions on how to go about it. With the right technology, you don’t have to spend thousand dollars on talent, studio time, and editing. If you have a pleasant-sounding voice, a decent microphone, and free or low-cost software (such as Audacity or Apple’s GarageBand) you can create a reasonably high-quality audio book. Just be prepared to spend some time doing it.

“Even if you are really good at reading, and make very few mistakes, expect to spend about one hour per every 10 minutes of finished audio. This includes proofing, editing, and saving,” writes Bennett in a blog post. He says it took about 38 hours to make an audio book that has a running time of 8 hours.

LINKS

eBookIt!

Audio Book Distribution Services

Blog Post: Audio Books: Are They Worth Making?

Blog Post: Creating a Human-Narrated Audio Book

Folium Book Studio Upgrades Cover Design Capabilities

WRITERS. Earlier this year Folium Partners, Inc. launched a self-publishing toolset for converting  manuscripts created in word-processing programs into the digital formats required for electronic books (e-books) such as the Apple iBook®, Amazon Kindle™, Barnes & Noble Nook™ and Sony Digital Reader®.

Through the online Folium Book Studio app, you can upload a manuscript you wrote in Microsoft Word (or other word-processing program) and have it converted into the standard EPUB format needed for e-book distribution.

Folium Book Studio also gives you the tools to design the book layout, create cover art, and upload and insert supporting photos and illustrations for your books. All work can be reviewed and edited multiple times directly in the WYSIWYG editor. The finished product can be exported for distribution or saved securely online for a year. A free ISBN is provided for authors who require one.

This week Folium Partners, Inc. announced plans to upgrade Folium Cover Designer™. Folium Book Studio will be releasing hundreds of new image layers as well as core feature upgrades to their cover design tool.

Through exclusive arrangements with contributing designers, some of the new stock elements will not yet have been made available for use anywhere else on the web.

“Like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover—even a digital one,” said John Lee, CEO and co-founder of Folium Partners. A good cover: captures the essence of the book;  draws attention to the book; and makes it distinguishable on the e-reader shelf.

Lee observes that until recently, e-book cover art was either painfully unprofessional or very professional (and quite expensive). Folium Cover Designer was created to help independent writers and smaller publishers achieve a great look at a lower price point.

The upgrade to Folium Cover Designer includes a broad assortment of graphic elements that can be used as layers to build up rich textures, shadowing and light, or as starter templates. There collection includes an expanded selection of stock photos, fully designed backdrops and other useful pieces.

Folium Book Studio offers the cover design tool and gallery elements as part of its complete package. It is free to all customers of the service.

Through February 14, 2012, you can use the complete service for only $29.95 per project.

LINKS

About Folium Book Studio

Folium Cover Designer

 

Book Futurist to Discuss Digital Bookmaking Tools

WRITERS:  In a free one-hour webinar entitled “Digital Bookmaking Tools Roundup #3,” book futurist Peter Meyers will explore existing options for creating digital books and answer questions about what options are best and  easiest to use.  Part of O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change for Publishers series of educational programs, the webcast is scheduled for Thursday, February 23.

Meyers has been reading, writing, and designing digital books for years. In the mid-1990s, he co-founded Digital Learning Interactive, a pioneering multimedia textbook publishing company which he sold to Thomson Learning in 2004. At O’Reilly Media, he worked in the Missing Manual group and led a number of projects aimed at figuring out how to transition from print to digital.

In addition to his expertise in publishing and online learning technologies, Meyers is well-attuned to the concerns of authors and lovers of printed books.  He studied American history and literature at Harvard and has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

He publishes the blog “A New Kind of Book,” and is currently working on a book entitled “Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience.”

Can Digital Books Be As Satisfying as Print Books?

In the book, “Breaking the Page” Myers raises the million-dollar question: “How do we make digital books as satisfying as their print predecessors?”

Meyers wants to help authors discover reader-friendly ways to use the digital canvas to convey their best ideas.  He explains, “As app book tinkering flourishes, and as ePub3 emerges as an equally rich alternative, the time felt right for a look at the difference between what can and what should be done in digital book-land.”

In December, Meyers released three preview chapters so he could get feedback from readers on the digital book examples he provided as well as additional ideas.

The full edition, planned for release later this year, will cover questions such as:

  • What’s the best way to integrate—and not just add—different media types?
  • Is it possible to make the viewing experience as seamless and immersive as reading is in print?
  • How do you pick the best balance between personalized design (reader-controllable font sizing, for example) and author-driven fixed layout? Are there any acceptable compromises?

LINKS

Book Preview: Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience

Blog: A New Kind of Book

Free TOC Webcast: Digital Bookmaking Tools Roundup #3: Feburary 23