How to publish an eBook

Nowadays, thanks to the Web, aspiring writers have so many possibilities that their colleagues a few years ago could only dream of. In fact, the days when it was necessary to find a publishing house to be able to have visibility and end up in the readers’ libraries are long gone. Now, in fact, there are eBooks , or books in electronic format, which can be put “on display” on the main online stores potentially without spending a cent.

Put simply, via self-publishing (* self publishing *, in English), essentially anyone can succeed in publishing a digital book. Obviously, however, it will then be the public to decree its success: keep in mind the fact that the simple publication does not mean anything, since without adequate promotion or the right word of mouth a work can remain confined in the maze of digital stores for always, even with zero downloads. In fact, the competition is higher than ever, as many are looking for information on how to publish an eBook and upload their work online.

In any case, it is certainly a good time to get involved and publish a book in this way, even if only as a hobby. If you want, therefore, by following this guide you too will be able without too much trouble to publish your work on some of the most popular digital stores, including that of Amazon (Kindle Store). All at no cost. Obviously, however, being successful will be another story entirely and it will be up to you to succeed with your personal skills (and a bit of luck). But now enough chat and let’s see how to proceed. At this point, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you good reading and good luck in your career as a writer!

Index

• Preliminary information
• How to publish an eBook
  • How to publish an eBook on Amazon
  • How to publish an eBook on Apple Books
  • How to publish an eBook on Google Play Books

Preliminary information

Before showing you how to publish an eBook , I think it may be interesting to analyze the various ways to achieve this goal.

The most classic way is to rely on a publishing house : making this choice can have several advantages. First of all, if you make your choice well and on the other hand they are ready to welcome you with open arms, you will be followed by professionals who can help you from many points of view.

It is not just about improving the quality of your work , since the publishing house will also take care of the publication and possibly the promotion of your eBook for you. Plus, if your book gets accepted by a top-rated publishing house, you’ll also get an evaluation of your work – which may make you realize that you actually have talent.

In short, I wanted to make this clarification: despite the many possibilities offered today by the world of the Web, the reasons for choosing to rely on a publishing house are still there and are many. Either way, the choice is yours and no one clearly claims to tell you what to do. In addition, clearly each publishing house has its own story, so I can’t go into more detail for obvious reasons. If you decide to go down this path, try to make a well thought-out choice: unfortunately there is no shortage of “crap” proposals out there .

For the rest, in this tutorial I will focus on the main possibilities in terms of self-publishing . As already mentioned before, in fact, it is possible to publish yourself “by yourself” by relying on some important realities , which then manage the release of the eBook on behalf of the author. Generally, the services that allow you to carry out this operation then retain a percentage of the earnings deriving from the book, but there is no entry cost and, usually, to reach the main digital stores with your work you are simply required to follow some standard guidelines in terms of layout quality , or little else.

The possibility given by self-publishing is certainly very interesting, but obviously it also has flaws. For example, not having a “serious” review , but simply checks on the quality of the layout could potentially lead you to publish works that are far from perfect. Remember, too, that what ends up on the web is hardly removed entirely .

In fact, an eBook available online could then circulate on various portals, so it may be difficult to remove if one day you decide to retrace your steps, perhaps for a glaring mistake you didn’t notice or for other reasons.

In short, self-publishing a book is potentially easy, but I invite you to think about it before proceeding . Obviously, I’m assuming that you have a finished book available and checked several times in its content . If not, or in any case to make an additional check (which never hurts!) You might be interested in following my tutorial on how to create an eBook .

That said, the chatter is banned: if you have chosen to take the path of self-publication, all you have to do is continue reading the guide and find out how to bring your work on some of the main online stores.

How to publish an eBook

After having indicated the main possibilities available to you, I would say that it is time to go into the details of the procedure, showing you how to publish your eBook in some of the main digital stores , such as those of Amazon , Apple and Google . In case you were wondering, it is possible to reach the goal totally free. Below you can find all the relevant information.

How to publish an eBook on Amazon

If you are wondering how to post an eBook on Amazon , this part of the guide is the one for you. In fact, I’m about to show you how to use the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing service , one of the most popular in the self-publishing field.

I warn you immediately about the earnings : in this case, when publishing the eBook you can choose the royalty plan , that is the percentage you will get for the sale. As for digital books, you can choose between 35% and 70% . Clearly, requirements must be respected in both cases. I invite you to learn more about the latter through the appropriate official page of the Amazon portal , in order to stay up to date on all the news of the case (the requirements may vary over time and also based on the countries in which you want to sell your books. ).

Net of this, the first step towards publishing your eBook on Amazon is to create a KDP account . To do this, then connected to the official Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing website , press the Register button and then on the Create your KDP account . You will then be asked to fill in a specific form by typing your name , e-mail address , password and password verification , then confirming everything by pressing the Create your KDP account button .

If, on the other hand, you have an Amazon profile , just press the Login button and log in with the appropriate credentials , possibly passing through the confirmation code (depending on the security options you have set for your account linked to the well-known portal e-commerce).

In any case, once you have entered KDP, you just need to press the Accept button regarding the terms of use of the service and click on the Update option linked to the Account information is not complete box . By doing so, you can set all the other options related to your account, from the Country to the Full Name , passing by Address , City , State / Province / Region , ZIP code and Telephone .

In addition, you will also need to complete the section Receiving payments , which is of fundamental importance in regards to the earnings from the sale of your eBook. In this context, the options must be completed Where is your bank located? , Bank currency , name of the account holder , account type (if current account or savings book), IBAN code , BIC code and name of the bank . Once everything is fixed correctly (maybe carry out more checks, which you never know), you can press the Save / Add button to apply the changes.

Once this is done, click on the Complete Tax Information tab . In the latter you must indicate whether you represent a natural person or a company , as well as highlight whether you reside in the United States of America or not. Furthermore, there is the question of the intermediary agent or passing entity : in any case, you just need to complete everything concerning the section Information on tax identity , and then confirm everything by pressing the Continue button .

At this point, if you want to proceed digitally by electronic signature , enter your name and surname in the Signature field and click on the Save and preview button . You just have to click on the Send form button to have Amazon receive everything. Alternatively, you can choose to get the form in paper format , but in that case you may have to send it to the USA later , so that would be a bit inconvenient.

In any case, now that you have successfully completed your KDP profile you can proceed with the actual publication of the eBook . To proceed, once logged in to the main page of KDP, just click on the Library option , present at the top. After that, click on the Kindle eBook entry .

At this point, you will be prompted to sort out all the case details related to your work. More precisely, in the Kindle eBook Details section you will need to type in the language , title and subtitle of the book. Not only that, you can then also complete the fields necklace name , number of series and number edition . Obviously there are also details relating to the Author : you will have to enter your name and surname , possibly adding other collaborators , specifying the role that the latter have had.

For the rest, I’ll make it short (the procedure is guided and therefore you shouldn’t have any particular problems), you will have to complete the description , declare if you own the copyright and publication rights of your eBook, set the keywords with which Amazon users they will be able to find your book and choose the category in which it will “configure itself”.

You can also specify the age range for which the book is suitable, but then you can already declare that you are ready to publish the book . To be clear, you can already set a release date or possibly choose to implement a booking phase .

Perfect, now all you have to do is move to the Kindle eBook Content section . From here you can choose whether or not to enable RDM technology (useful for preventing unauthorized distribution of your work), as well as upload the text of the book (using a compatible format file, i.e. DOC , DOCX , HTML , MOBI , ePub , RTF , TXT , PDF and KPF ).

After that, you can upload a cover through the Kindle eBook Cover section ( JPG and TIFF files are generally allowed in this case ). As an alternative to uploading, you can click on the Start cover creation option to guide you through this operation.

Perfect, you are now at the final stage of publishing . In fact, you just have to choose whether or not to subscribe your work to KDP Select , which allows you to earn based on the pages read by users , as well as specify which royalty plan is for you, if 35% or 70% . Obviously, I advise you to carefully read all the information provided by the official portal , in order to better understand the requirements and any terms of these possibilities .

In any case, to top it all off, just complete the Main Market and List Price settings , as well as make your choices regarding the Kindle MatchBook options (advantageous price for those who have already purchased your book in paper format, if any ) and Book Loan . Finally, all you have to do is click on the Publish Your Kindle eBook button . Perfect, now you have successfully completed the procedure. You just have to wait for the response from Amazon , which usually arrives within 72 hours .

For the rest, for any doubts about this possibility, you can refer to my tutorials on how to publish a book on Amazon Italy and on how to publish on Amazon , in which I went further in detail. In addition, you may also be interested in my guide on how to know how many copies a book has sold on Amazon , in which I also explained how to use some functions of the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard.

How to publish an eBook on Apple Books

If you are looking for information on how to publish a free eBook regarding Apple Books , or Apple’s official digital store, a service that might interest you is the one offered by Smashwords .

The latter allows you to reach a large number of third-party digital stores without spending a cent . In fact, it is enough to load the eBook on the platform, following the layout rules proposed by the portal, to be able to reach the Apple store as well .

In any case, to be able to actually land on the latter one must be able to enter the so-called Smashwords Premium Catalog , or a catalog in which there are books considered to be of quality as regards the guidelines of the service. Put simply, you will have to put in some effort if you want to reach your goal, but this way you will be able to reach your goal without too much trouble and without spending money .

However, since in this case it is necessary to work personally to be able to achieve your goal, I cannot help you too much. The only thing I can do is tell you where to start and tell you that you will have to face all the classic self-publishing challenges.

In fact, you will have to learn by yourself how to fix your eBook and make it of the quality necessary to access the Smashwords Premium Catalog . In this case it is also necessary to know English well .

When you are ready to go, connect to the official Smashwords portal , which contains all the relevant information, including royalties and everything related to the publication of the eBook.

It will therefore be up to you to improve and meet the requirements to achieve your goal. For more information on Apple’s eBook platform, supported formats (ePub, PDF, text document or iBooks file) and royalties, see this page instead .

How to publish an eBook on Google Play Books

How do you say? Would you like to see your book published on the Google Play Store , in the special section dedicated to eBooks ( Google Play Books )? No problem, I’ll explain the situation straight away.

In this case, you need to go to the Google Play Books Partner Center , create an account and manage the publication of your book . In any case, registrations are not always open to everyone , so I cannot go further into the details of the procedure.

In any case, in the periods in which Google allows you to proceed with the publication without limits, it is generally sufficient to press the Start button and follow the instructions that appear on the screen, which illustrate step by step how to proceed, with all the requirements and information on the royalties of the case.

In general, however, as stated on the official website , Google Play Books offers a 70% revenue split on ebook sales in most of the countries supported by Google Play Books, but only for partners who have accepted the Terms of service (TdS) updated in 2019; otherwise it is 52%.

Good. Now you know a little about all the main possibilities to publish an eBook on the main digital stores . Among other things, you can also deepen the question through my tutorial on how to publish a book for free . For the rest, I can only wish you again a big good luck for your career as a writer!