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| And now we sitz and waitz. |
Louis Shalako
Here at Shalako Publishing, home of Long Cool One Books and Larga
Fresca Uno Libros, our latest project is to get our books and stories uploaded
in (or on) a few more online bookstores.
The basic premise is that the whole package has to be
free, and the service provider must have their own bookstore. Additional
distribution channels are a bonus if we can find ones we don’t have access to
already. This all goes to extending the reach and the impact of passive discoverability.
The interface must be easy to use, accept our files,
have provision for using our own book covers, and other considerations.
For this experimental addition to our digital
publishing machine we will be looking for provision for Canadian and overseas
authors to sell ebooks and PODs without withholding tax.
That being said, in some circumstances we may be
willing to accept a penalty of thirty percent withholding tax, if we think the
website will grow, succeed and eventually be able to provide this service. Any
additional sales are significant. We will be looking for maximum flexibility
from all platforms, free analytics, site appearance, ease and quickness of
problem resolution, questions answered, etc. Assuming we made a hell of a lot
of money, which doesn’t seem very likely, at some point in the future it would
make sense to do U.S. income tax returns and get a refund.
Hell, if things go really well, I've always wanted to live in the southwestern U.S. anyway.
I might even immigrate, ladies and gentlemen.
It might take a few days, in terms of the man-hours
required to upload a hundred and thirteen titles to some new bookstores
and aggregators. This is the sort of work that doesn’t pay off immediately. It
pays off in the long run, which is why we say we are playing the long game.
If passive discoverability really does work, then
being an early adopter of any platform might pay off at some time down the
road. If it doesn’t work, then each and every site will need some degree of
promotion.
This is the sort of experiment where a couple of
initial sales might impress the author, however it is only over time that we
can really get a good idea of which sites work for us and which sites don’t.
So we’ve gotten into Kbuuk, with three titles
published so far. Here is Heaven Is Too
Far Away, with a cover using a pro marketing image and designed in
Microsoft Word.
Each site is of course a bit different in terms of
operating details, and each site represents a new learning curve. For example
the Kbuuk cover system looks a bit iffy unless I can fiddle around in there a
bit and find some adjustment in the cover field. Designing a cover for each site
for each book looks like a big job.
In terms of learning curve, Booktango wouldn’t accept
Epub at first go, so I simply used a .doc and it went.
However, the Booktango system kept giving me error
messages. I find it hard to believe that the original file had many, many hard
returns in the middle of the line. The Smashwords system might introduce one
hard return as it converts your original .doc file into what is presented as
your original file. I say that because I check every book, page by page, using
tools like the Amazon Kindle previewer, Nook for PC, Kindle for PC, etc. I also
have Adobe Reader, the latest version. When I couldn’t find the original on my
PC, I have used the SW original file and that’s when I started finding the odd
hard return in the middle of a line.
There is no way that I’m going to spend hours fixing
errors introduced by a system that obviously has different requirements. For
example in the case of this document, the thing doesn’t seem to like three
spaces or even two before the next chapter heading. That’s one reason I think
it is an artifact of the systems involved. Also, at this exact moment in time,
I’m not prepared to make a table of contents for a dozen novels. All of the
short stories and novellas have them, but those books were written and
formatted at a later date, when it was a requirement for iTunes distribution
through Smashwords. A simple solution is to upload anything that already has a
TOC and not worry too much about the novels for now.
Initially, I started off by searching ‘free ebook
aggregators’ and similar searches. I began last night.
What has been
accomplished so far?
I’ve taken a few off of the list, including Booktango,
Bookbaby, Fastpencil, Blurb, Indiebound,
Lightning Source,
(ebooks and PODs) as well as taking a look at Lulu, where simple .pdfs in their
store might generate a bit of revenue over the course of time. It's either that or learn how to embed fonts! But we don't need their extended distribution anyways.
We couldn’t find
a way to get into Versent, for
example, so some of the other links we found were quickly written off.
Just one minor point might put us off. If someone
charges $49 to set up each title, then that’s quickly going to run into a lot
of money, with virtually no idea of the sales potential is.
If it ain't free, I move on rather quickly these days.
Other than that, I’ve got a handful of titles up on
two or three platforms, all for free, and all using the simple tools provided.
As for the question of whether it sells books or not,
we won’t know that for a year or two!
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