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BB eBooks Newsletter – March 20, 2014

Dear Friend,

In this edition, we want to get more technical by explaining many of the important elements in an eBook behind the nicely formatted design to show you how the eBook can be done professionally and creatively. With the introduction to eBookSoda early this year, eBook promotion has become more refreshing for authors who want to promote your book for free (or soon pay an extremely low fee of $5 for the service in the near future) and possibly bypass other eBook promotion providers’ pricier and longer approval process. Although the results may vary, adding novellas and erotica to the category lists might be seen as a smart move to cater to genre-specific authors. Joe Konrath’s prowess to write in disguise and collaborate with authors who write a genre different than his is a welcome sign for others to follow suit in order to diversify their brand and product. Last but not least, Stephen King’s Joyland rerelease as an eBook should bring joy to fans who own an eReading device. The eBook will finally be available along with other formats: library binding, paperback, and audio CD.


Using Fonts in eBooks

Fonts

While the discussion about fonts might sound downright straightforward and restrictively technical, it is also a matter of creativity that we at BB eBooks would like to share with indie authors and our clients. Limiting yourself to the use of the standard dull fonts (e.g. Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.) is no longer needed. Would you interested to explore the variety of genre-specific fonts at no additional charge to stir up your reader’s imagination? Based on our extensive experience working with authors who write in different genres, there are three areas where you can consider using the embedded fonts: headings and subheadings, decorative images, and special content.

To browse the huge catalog of public domain fonts, Font Squirrel website is strongly recommended to let you know which font has an open font license. Why bother to spend time and find such a font? Since many fonts come up with licensing restrictions, you are not allowed to just take and have them embedded in your eBook. The safest way to preserve your creativity and save yourself from legal issues is getting yourself comfortable with using several fonts suitable for eReading. Here are some recommended fonts for specific genres to spice up your headings to make them stand out from the content: Romance/Erotica: Allura and Alex Brush, Mysteries/Thrillers, Military Romance: Bebas Neue Non-fiction: Source Sans Pro.

For decorative images, fonts can replace PNG images to display dingbats, section breaks, etc. correctly and proportionally. Due to the feasible configuration of eReading, scalable representation on the screen is adjustable at the tip of reader’s fingertip, while different eReaders can render images differently based on their screen resolution to produce undesirable results. Whatever the screen size it is, the drawback remains the images are scaled inconsistently. In most cases, the images will appear to be much smaller than in its original layout. Choosing the night mode will also affect the images with white borders to show up in dark background. The perfect solution is to use fonts to make sure your ornament’s color will be adaptive to the reader. However, since Nook, Kobo and Kindle owners can turn off the “Publisher Font” rendering the images unattractive, we come up with a quick fix to make special fonts for decorative images to make sure each special symbol will be shown appropriately.

For special content, you may consider using a specific font, Audimat Mono, to bring nostalgia back in the ‘80s groove.


How Self-Publishers Can Dominate the eBook Market in 2014 (Rather Than 2020)

Shuttle

Isn’t 2020 a bit too far-flung to say indie-published works will dominate the eBook market? Well, Mark Coker has something to say to back up his claim echoing the upbeat ascension of eBook that tops his list of predictions. While it remains to be seen how the eBook subscription model will profitably play out, the closure of brick and mortar bookstore should be a tell-tale sign of what the fans demand. Indie authors have become proficient promoters of their works through personal connections and extensive network channels. More precisely, they know how to reach fans on a wide scale with approachable points of contact while approaching a niche audience with their strategic subgenres. Conferences dedicated to indie authors are more likely to be held and acknowledge the new talents and promote the established veterans. Onto the best seller list, indie titles being crowned the top spot is no stranger to this headline. With greater resources to interpret raw sales data and monitor where the wind blows, indies can take less risk in their self-publishing journey with the guidance of professionals. Being responsive and proactive to readers’ feedback is the last golden ticket for authors to build a bigger fan base.

Several decent self-publishers have set great examples how self-published books can grace the best seller chart with the author’s head held high. Carly Phillips took her latest romance story, Dare to Desire, to storm Women’s New Adult & College Fiction and Sagas chart and stun audiences.


Joe Konrath Comes Out and WTRAFSOG Facebook Page

In a collaborative Q&A session between Joe Konrath and Summer Daniels, both authors decide to reveal their projects willingly. Joe admits to playing the role of Melinda DuChamp who writes fun stories for smart people after witnessing the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon. Providing no links to his established brand, DuChamp’s success proves that diversifying into other genres can work out as long as you are well aware of what your target readers want. Under this pseudonym, Joe can relieve himself from the usual writing style he’s skilled at by working with three other authors to bring the naughty elements to the story.

Although Summer Daniels does not talk about his pen name, her Facebook page draws attention from many erotica authors whose works need to be promoted directly to their fans. First unveiled on Joe’s website in 2012, so far there have been 82,361 likes to support her effort to mention Free eBook of the Day, Hot New Releases, Pre-Orders, etc. Apart from having the Facebook page, she also makes it available on iTunes and Android to make sure fans can always find their favorite read.


Best Practices – A Note On ISBNs

ISBN

To need or not need ISBN can be an unending question if you look at it from the traditional publisher’s perspective. As you may know, the ISBN is a 13-digit or 10-digit number that is uniquely assigned to your book and eBook for unique identification. Words of wisdom govern that the magic number can make your eBook and brand look “professional” and increase your eBook’s discoverability. Although, ISBNs are not required by several retailers except Smashwords (which gives you a free one). Due to the fact that many of our clients do not use ISBN, albeit whose works entering in Top 20 territory, we leave it to your judgment whether you need one or not (probably not).

Discoverability wise, it is debatable whether ISBNs can help your book stand out, especially when the major eBook platforms make use of their own proprietary algorithms to determine how an eBook is promoted to readers. Alternatively, you can tweak your metadata in order to maximize discoverability. Amazon has their own ASIN system to have all of their products tagged. At BB eBooks, we both accept ISBN and UUID (the number that we can automatically generate for you). In case you have eBooks and print books, make sure you have separate ISBNs for both as these. However, a print ISBN is also free at CreateSpace. Find out where you can get an ISBN and whether getting multiple ISBNs for your eBook is a good idea.


eBooksoda: Priceless Book Promotion

EBooksoda

eBookSoda took the Kboards forum by storm when the founder posted updates of her new eBook promotion website last year. Lots of questions from indie authors surround how she can differentiate her service from the big name competitors (the big competitor starts with a “B” and end with a “Bub”). Answering each question in detail, she revealed bits and bits about the progress of the platform that helps promote books for free. With a touch of British origin, authors residing in the U.K. can post an Amazon UK buy link in addition to the overly known Amazon US and others. Paying homage to the oft-discarded Novellas and Erotica, authors have more choice to promote their works. For readers, they can expose themselves to new categories that deem fit for their interests. Being a new player in the game, eBookSoda has a lot to prove to earn cred from authors in order to convince them to spend $5 starting from Mar 26 onwards as the website has recently announced.


Stephen King’s Change of Heart, Nook Takeover Conspiracy Theory, Workaround to Read Thai eBooks Properly

Stephen King’s print-only release of Joyland disappointed many diehard fans who had expected to download their favorite novel in digital format on their eReader. Now the tide must have turned when the book will be rereleased in Kindle edition early next month given the widespread reports of pirated distribution of the print book that have surfaced.

It does seem even a one-year-old article about Amazon’s takeover of Nook is still hard to digest. Although it rings true that Amazon has branched out lately to consider setting up a pop-up store, there is a huge price to pay if they start the physical shop business; that is, paying higher taxes—something Mr. Bezos is no fan of!

For Thai readers who want to read their eBook, apart from opening the EPUB file on Readium on PC, the recently improved upload feature of Google Play Book shows a much better way to read Thai eBooks without having to utilize embedded fonts on the eReader. By uploading the EPUB file you have legally stored onto the server, you will be notified by Google once the eBook is ready. As usual, you can read it on any Android devices that you have logged on.


Best Practices: Table of Contents for eBooks

ToC

Table of Contents (ToC) is one of the must-have elements in eBooks as it gives the reader an idea of how the eBook is structured and allows the reader to access specific parts of the book. For eBooks, there are two types of ToC: HTML and NCX. There is even a third type of ToC for EPUB3 eBooks called the NAV. Due to the poor adoption of EPUB3, it is recommended that an NCX ToC be included in EPUB3 eBooks for backwards compatibility with EPUB2. Although the principle of creating a ToC is the same, accessing it on several eReading devices and software is a different story.

While the HTML Tables of Contents is actually considered to be content within the eBook, the NCX and NAV work a little differently as they are embedded like metadata. We suggest a best place where you can put the ToC in your eBook. However, if you are worried that it can get in the way of the preview feature on Amazon, you can move it to the end of the eBook. For more complicated eBooks, you can create different levels of ToC for major headings and subheads. For novels, it is advisable that only one level is applied throughout the book. For an eBook with extended number of chapters, you can consider reading Jaye Manus’ blog about designing a Table of Contents to make your ToC fancier.

For our clients, you need not worry about the technicality we have previously covered. Regardless of whether you have prepared a ToC for us, we can help create a perfectly customized one for you. Again, this best practice serves as a guideline for you to understand how a ToC works and looks in your actual eBook.


Best Practices: Front Matter for eBooks by Section

Titlepage

We have written up a detailed guideline on front matter—that will soon be part of the next book we are publishing. To understand what the front matter is all about, we have come up with a glossary of different sections in front matter that you can consider including for your next project. Although the list might be a little overwhelming, these provide useful information for readers to make a critical decision whether they want to buy your book. All the description, praises, feedback, and etc. will factor in the credibility of how the book has presented itself to appeal to the audience. To make sure there will not be too much information in the front matter to stop readers from accessing the sample chapter, you can move the Copyright and Acknowledgments to the back matter, cutting down space for readers to preview the chapters. To give you a better picture of what the front matter is all about, we provide you with the example of a title page, a dedication, a preface, and an epigraph.

Yours sincerely,

The BB eBooks Team


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