E-Publishing

I still sell short stories for the Kindle via Amazon. Kindle Shorts is another promotional deal you can get involved in.

For Kindle I use the same Word doc file I use for Smashwords uploads. Seems to work just fine.

You can submit your short to the Kindle Singles program for approval (they take about 2-3 weeks to respond). You can upload to Amazon KDP in the meantime as it is perfectly fine to have the e-book live while you wait to see if it is approved. Whether it is approved for the Kindle Singles program or not, you can still sell it through Amazon KDP.

Smashwords will provide distribution to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple, Diesel, and other sales channels. Remember to put the specific Smashwords wording at the beginning of your document or Smashwords will reject it. Follow the Smashwords Style Guide and you should have no problem with uploading to both Smashwords and Amazon KDP.

If you choose to be involved in Amazon KDP's Select program. You cannot have your e-book available anywhere else except Amazon.

Good luck!

susz said:

It's that simple? You just upload your word document and you don't have to format anything? I thought you had to convert it into different forms of e-books to upload to different sites otherwise people can't view them. I downloaded so many e-books conversion programs and even with these, I can't seem to produce a nice looking pdf file. If I can skip formatting and just upload directly, that'll be great.

Click to expand...

You do need to format. Follow Smashwords' Style Guide (it's free and downloadable in many formats). You upload to Smashwords as a .doc file. I've found Kindle to work best when saved as web page, filtered (HTML), then run through MobiPocket. Instructions are given on the Amazon KDP website.

I would publish on Kindle directly (not through Smashwords). Smashwords takes a 40% commission on sales through its distribution channels (the last I heard, anyway).

To publish on KDP, you do need to format your work correctly. In general, you have to set up paragraph indents using the Format menu (not the Enter key), and any blank spaces have to be formatted with Space After in the Format menu (not Enter). Anything centered has to be set up in the Format menu as well.If you are moving to a new page (for example, at the end of a chapter), use Page in the Insert menu.

Save your document as filtered html and upload to the Mobipocket Creator or Calibre (I prefer Mobiocket, but others like Calibre), then check the results for errors in the free Kindle Previewer. Correct errors and publish to KDP.

You will find a lot of formatting help on the KDP forums.