Fictionwise

[RJLeahy]

I wonder if someone could explain what exactly Ficitonwise is?

Thanks

[veinglory]

It is an online storefront for e-books. Epublishers can choose to distribute through them. Generally it is better to buy direct from the epublishers if you want the writer to get the best royalties (and often the cover price is lower). But Fictionwise has the advantage of stocking a lot of different publishers and having ratings and reviews (like amazon.com)

[Christine N.]

They also require the publishers to submit about 10 different formats per title, so that no matter what kind of reader you have, you can purchase an e-book.

[RJLeahy]

Thanks for answering. I looked at the site, but I wasn't sure if it was strictly ebooks, or if they sold hard copy as well.

[roach]

They also require the publishers to submit about 10 different formats per title, so that no matter what kind of reader you have, you can purchase an e-book.

Unless they've changed things in the past year the publisher only submits one file and Fictionwise converts the files to the various formats.

When I was publishing e-books the majority of sales came through Fictionwise.

[Christine N.]

Do they?
I can check, but I was told (because my publisher has a contract with them) that we had to supply all the formats.

I'll have to look into that to make sure, because that would solve so many problems...

[roach]

Do they?
I can check, but I was told (because my publisher has a contract with them) that we had to supply all the formats.

I'll have to look into that to make sure, because that would solve so many problems...

They do require publishers to have a minimum of 10 titles for listing. But that's nothing to do with formats. I don't see why they'd switch to having the publishers submitting the formats as I believe they have the conversion automated. Also, having the publishers submit the formats would introduce all sorts of quality control issues.

[Christine N.]

Yeah, I'm looking into it. Sure as heck have enough titles. Thanks, Rach!

[roach]

Yeah, I'm looking into it. Sure as heck have enough titles. Thanks, Rach!

You're welcome. I'm glad all this knowledge cluttering up my brain is useful to someone. ;)

[Christine N.]

Hey Rach,
Did they charge you to do all the formatting?

[roach]

Hey Rach,
Did they charge you to do all the formatting?

As I recall the charge was $15 taken out of royalties. I tried to get them to charge me directly as it really screwed up my accounting but I had no luck with that.

Send me a PM or e-mail if you want.

[Christine N.]

Sweet!

[TwentyFour]

They have a small selection of freebies too.

[veinglory]

Fictionwise does seem to require some specific kind of formatting which is something of an obstacle for some publishers.

[Christine N.]

I think .pdf is one they take, I would imagine that a .pdf file sent in would be enough for them to use and convert it.

But I don't know for sure.

[veinglory]

There must be more to it than that, or it wouldn't cause so much consternation.

[roach]

When I first started I sent in an HTML file. Later they switched to accepting RTF files. However they do want it to be marked up in a specific way (which they have documented). But again, my experience is a year old so YMMV.

[Christine N.]

Never mind, the FW site itself says what Rachel said. I think the woman at my publisher is either being told incorrectly or doesn't understand.