can someone tell me a bit about epublishing?

Yes, putting it in print does broaden your audience. You can make it POD and do it through CreateSpace. My short story was epublished (link in sig) about two weeks ago and I've already gotten a bunch of print requests. It's a short story so print doesn't make sense but yes, a lot of people don't have e-readers still. A lot of people still use print. Both is good. You'll definitely get more ebook sales but you'll also get a surprising amount of print ones too.

halfbloodprincess said:

I've been told its slightly easier to epublish then print your book. I think I would like to do both if possible. If a book is only epublished does it get less of an audience? Does putting it in print broaden your reading audience?

Click to expand...

I've sold around 1,300 e-books since I began self-publishing at the end of September (2011). In that same time period, I've sold around 50 paperback books (half of those sales were for a Christmas short story). E-books have definitely been a bigger seller, with less money spent (ordering a proof and paying for premium distribution through CreateSpace runs around $45 total). By comparison, the e-book cost almost nothing. The cover art (or in my case a stock photo image) was used for both covers (I used Shutterstock and purchased 12 images for $49 -- images can be downloaded anytime within a 12-month period).

I like having both options available.

ETA: It depends, of course, on whether you are planning to self-publish or submit your book to publishers. My post above was referring to self-publishing.

If you submit to some publishers (small presses included) they will decide what format to release in. Sometimes this is based on the length of the story. For example, my deal for Transitions (which is a novella released in anthology with several other novellas) was set so that each individual novella would be released as an ebook first and then the entire anthology printed in one paperback.

Usually, you can rarely (if ever) get print publication for a novella or solo short because the printing costs do not work out as economical whereas an ebook version of these can be made with a lot less overhead and therefore viable.

@MysteryRiter - Not to put to fine a point on it, but do you find print sales of your short profitable? Are you able to maintain the .99 price? When I glanced at CreateSpace for my shorts I didn't see how to make it profitable unless I was doing collections.

uscgbyron said:

@MysteryRiter - Not to put to fine a point on it, but do you find print sales of your short profitable? Are you able to maintain the .99 price? When I glanced at CreateSpace for my shorts I didn't see how to make it profitable unless I was doing collections.

Click to expand...

He said above it doesn't make sense to do POD for a short so I don't think he has. (Aside: I think it's flash fiction actually--the sample is under 100 words and doesn't get past the front matter to even let you sample the writing--that's a tough sell...)

I agree that POD for shorts seems pretty pointless. Anecdotally, what merrihiatt posted seems pretty typical, about 10% at most in print sales vs e-book. And short stories tend to average 0-5 ebook sales a month. And a physical book that's 15 pages or something isn't much of a book and the price would still be high despite the low page count. So lots of mostly obvious reasons it's not a good idea. Wait until you have a collection, and maybe wait until 10% of your ebook sales of the collection justify doing it.

Merrihiatt has it about right. I'd strongly suggest though that anyone considering print publsihing look very hard at the fine print from Create Space and everyone else, epsecially the ugly 'non-exclusive' rights clause. I chose to go with Lightning Source as a POD printer for my small press, Panverse Publishing, because I retain ALL rights; also, their quality is first-class and the fact that they're owned by Ingrams--one of the two big distributors--doesn't hurt.

You'll likely sell a great deal more and make a better cut on ebook sales, but be sure to edit, proofread, and format well. The poor formatting of many ebooks is beginning to be a real issue, and will alienate a reader like nothing else.

amergina said:

There are also a number of e-publishers you can submit your novel to. They're small presses, so some caveats apply (especially the one to check out the press before you submit).

They (should) provide editing, cover design, and conversion into the different e-book forms, free of charge.

You don't need an agent to submit, as with most small publishers.

Click to expand...

Thank you, the assumption that all e-publishing is self publishing just really irritates me as I've spent a lot of years studying these publishers to find out who the best were to submit to and have a love of them.
To answer one of the OPs questions the odds are these days you will sell MORE ebooks than print books if you go with a digital first publish or self publish and that print sales will be minor.
When and if I self publish anything it will be for the high royalty and I doubt I will bother with print.

(Sorry I stumbled on this searching for something else and I know it is an old thread, but still perennially relevant (?) However if there are any restrictions here about grave digging that I don't know about, my apologies and let me know. Grave digging means nothing to my ADHD brain, but I realize it does to some people and some boards. )