What is e-publication?

I mentioned last week why I decided to polish the novels in my fifteen-book series, Diaries of Darkwana, and release them, one per year, on Kindle.

When I decided to e-publish, I researched several firms that promised to upload my work for me—for a fee. Many of these firms, once contacted, unloaded sales pitch after sales pitch in an effort to upsell me on nonsense bells and whistles.

I eventually decided to do the job myself. A quick tutorial on Youtube provided me with all the knowledge I needed. I basically used “Heading 1” (found under “styles” in Word) for all the chapter headings.

After that, I uploaded my first novel, Daughters of Darkwana, onto Kindle via Kindle Direct Publishing.

I also uploaded my novel onto Nook, Google books, and ibooks, but I ended up with spacing issues on many of these formats. That fact—plus a promise for more promotion by Amazon if I went exclusively with them—led me to make my work available only on Kindle.

I often check my account on Kindle Direct Publishing. I click on “Reports” to see how many copies I’ve sold and how much money I’ve made.

Kindle offers something commonly called a “cyber watermark,” which, in theory, makes it difficult for someone to illegally download my novels. I opted out of this option. I want readers more than I want money.

Kindle offers several programs that allow someone to download one of my novels for free. I accepted each of them.

I experimented with what price to charge for my novels. I suppose I still do. Daughters, for its first year, cost nothing. I offered it free in an effort to amass a readership.

Several fellow writers insisted that this might send the wrong message to potential readers. People might say, “If the author doesn’t think his work’s worth anything, it probably isn’t.”

Once Dreamers of Darkwana, my second book, arrived on Kindle, I priced both it and its predecessor at five dollars a pop, though several ways remain for someone to read them for free.

One advantage I enjoy about e-publishing remains the fact that I can easily update my books with any changes I wish to make, though I would never change anything major, only a choice in punctuation or something equally lightweight.

E-publication offers a list of disadvantages.

You have no agent, no editors, no proofreaders (no, editors and proofreaders no longer serve the same function), and no professional feedback. The author must trust her or his product as-is.

Few people consider e-publishing “real” publishing. I understand this opinion. I’ve read some truly terrible self-publications.

I’ve seen equally terrible, traditional publications.

A self-published author must perform all her or his own promotion. These days, though, the same holds true for traditionally published authors.

I have, as an e-published author, grown quite fond of social media Would it surprise you to learn that I started a blog to two?

I will, next week, discuss my novels. I’ll try not to spoil too much in the process.