My first video tutorial
For many would-be authors, it’s daunting writing a book, but I’ve recently learned that for many, the task of writing a book pales in comparison to the obscure nature of publishing itself.
How do I get my book to the places that people can read it?
There are many services that provide (for a percentage) a convenient way to overcome the hurdles. I got into a discussion with some folks who were claiming it was oh so difficult, and let’s just say that I didn’t agree. I didn’t see a particular point why would-be authors would pay anyone to do what I already do for free. I don’t pay a penny to get my books made available for retail consumption. Zero, zilch, zippo, nada.
So, putting my money (or time) where my mouth is, I decided that since I was going to be upload a new book for pre-order anyway this weekend, let me go figure out how to make a video and teach those who claim it’s too difficult why I disagree.
If you find it useful, then that’s absolutely great.
In the video, I said I’d share a few basic word document template that I use to make things as easy as possible. I don’t warranty anything, but I’ll say this is what I do, and it works quite well for me.
What does the video cover? The basics as follows:
- I talk about the word documents I use in the first place and explain the different between what’s required on an e-book and paperback manuscript. (Hint: barely anything.) This also touches on the topic of formatting, and why I think it’s crazy to pay people to format a book unless you really want to get fancy – and I’ve never gotten a complaint about the layout of any of my books.
- I talk about what you need to prepare before submitting for retail.
- I talk about a piece of free software that I use and demonstrate how I convert my .docx file into something more consumable like an .epub file, and what that even means.
- I talk about the five major retailers and how to upload to them.
- And I suppose ultimately, I talked a lot about things that I thought others might find useful. I walked step-by-step through the process I use to upload content, and in fact uploaded in the video my next book, just to prove the point.
Here is the video, and below are the template files I talked about.
https://youtu.be/z0nzpZVi16I