Preparing to self-pub - KU numbers?

Augusto, a couple of members of my writing group have abandoned Smashwords, which I still use, for the ease of Draft2Digital. D2D hits all or almost all of the same markets (except for SW, of course) and appears to be much more author-friendly when it comes to formatting.

If I was writing a series of novels, I wouldn't post the first chapter of my fourth book as a freebie. I've heard of some authors offering a separate short story that is complete in itself but precedes their first volume -- and then offering a preview of Book #1's first chapter with the story -- and that makes sense to me.

Second the comment about Smashwords vs. D2D. I have six or seven items up through D2D and one through Smashwords. After how hard it was to deal with Smashwords, I won't upload anything else there. (And if you do use Smashwords, consider getting your epub file from D2D...)

If you have a true, legitimate, standalone short story set in the same world, then, sure, put it out there with an excerpt of the first book at the back to draw in readers. If it's not going to be a satisfying read in and of itself, be very, very careful about that. You may lose more readers than you gain.

Another recommendation for D2D, if you need one. Not that it made much difference in the end, since I never head much luck with channels other than Amazon.

Regarding your question about the first chapter - I find free samples very useful in getting me to read books. I wouldn't force people to download it in ebook format, but simply have it available to read for free online (with ebook options available in case people want them!). That's what works best for me as a reader!

But I don't see any reason to have the sample available before the first book is up for purchase. If you were an established author teasing your readers with new stuff, then yes, it'd make sense, but as a newbie I really can't see a need for having the samples out there before the book is available. It's no good if they're old news and everyone's forgotten by the time the book is out; you want it all to be fresh and shiny and intriguing, with a handy link where they can click to buy the book if they read the sample and like what they see!

WriterBN said:

Another recommendation for D2D, if you need one. Not that it made much difference in the end, since I never head much luck with channels other than Amazon.

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Have you had any issues with D2D/Createspace conversion?

Another option is to simply do the ebooks site by site and skipping the middleman altogether. I published mine via KDP, Kobo, Nook, GooglePlay, and iTunes with no problems. I keep more of the money that way.

Alexandra Little said:

Have you had any issues with D2D/Createspace conversion?

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D2D is strictly for e-books. For Createspace, I submitted a completely separate version, typeset using Adobe InDesign and exported to PDF.

I looked around on the CreateSpace boards and found someone to do the formatting for me, for both CS and the e-book. I don't remember the cost right now but it wasn't much considering that I was quite frustrated with trying to do it myself and not interested in learning it anyway. Just to point out another option...

I found the formatting, uploading, etc. at Smashwords to be rather easy (this is coming from a Luddite), but the results, sales-wise, have been less than impressive. I plan on abandoning them soon and exploring other options. D2D and CreateSpace are totally on my list.

grayworld, D2D won't really give you anything that Smashwords hasn't, in terms of sales. They're a distributor, just like Smashwords.

I've done amazon, createspace, and draft2digital. Waiting for the proof to be delivered from createspace, but the other two are done.

The learning curve is a bit of a pain, but not insurmountable. You get there eventually. As a Canadian, the biggest issue was wading through the tax exemption form.

augusto said:

Okay, I've checked out all three layout previews in D2D. The ebook looks fine. The file for CreateSpace omitted all the #s I used for scene breaks and the kindle/mobi file seemed to ad lib on an 'acknowledgements' page I have at the end. Am I right in thinking I should be doing the CreateSpace & Kindle through amazon anyway and that might clear up these issues? Thanks!

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I've not used the D2D site, but as a general thing on files, use the previewers on the KDP site (for your mobi) and the CreateSpace site (for your print file). Any errors you see in those will appear in the final thing.

I would suggest you don't use # for screenbreaks. That's standard manuscript formatting in stuff you send off for submission... but it's replaced with something else for publication. Not replacing it makes it look like it hasn't been formatted yet.

The MOBI that the kindle site produces is better than the one from D2D, IMO. I'm using each site separately, and I'm fine with the way it's working out.

Good luck, Augusto! I just used D2D and found the process very easy. Smashwords seemed way more involved.

@Augusto- Your link to Amazon isn't working.