publishin test book

ketanco · Feb 9, 2015

hello
i wrote a test book for a certificate exam.

i edited it, it is ready, and printing well, as i tried myself. i have a few questions:

1-i checked google and amazon and they seem both like good options. especially because i want to do no shipping myself. so i just get an isbn number, write that on a copyright page, design my cover, make a complete pdf file and send to google and amazon right? anything i miss?

2-i also want to have the option of selling from my own site, to pay no fees to google or amazon. so, i will find a printing company, and have them do printing and shipping. do they also do print on demand like amazons create space or it is only unique to amazon?

do i miss anything? i am first time publisher.

J. Tanner · Feb 9, 2015

1. You're talking ebook here, right? Amazon does not sell PDFs. They use MOBI (or whatever they're calling KF8 these days if you don't mind losing the older e-reader crowd.) You'll need it formatted in the proper format, or (worst option IMHO) in Word DOC format.

Google might accept PDF because I did upload one there, but I think the PDF is only for online display purposes and the buyer gets an EPUB on their device.

2. For POD, CreateSpace is still probably the simplest option even if you aren't going to allow purchase through Amazon, though I see no downside to doing so from your description.) You can buy any number of copies direct from your CreateSpace dashboard and resell them whereever you like.

Old Hack · Feb 9, 2015

ketanco said:
hello
i wrote a test book for a certificate exam.

If the exam is not your own, you might find yourself in copyright litigation territory if you publish this book.

i edited it, it is ready, and printing well, as i tried myself. i have a few questions:

1-i checked google and amazon and they seem both like good options. especially because i want to do no shipping myself. so i just get an isbn number, write that on a copyright page, design my cover, make a complete pdf file and send to google and amazon right? anything i miss?

You missed out a lot.

Read a few of our self publishing diary threads and see what our other members have done, to get you started; then ask more questions, on more specific topics. I don't think anyone here has the time to walk you through this from start to finish, but we will definitely help you where we can.

2-i also want to have the option of selling from my own site, to pay no fees to google or amazon. so, i will find a printing company, and have them do printing and shipping. do they also do print on demand like amazons create space or it is only unique to amazon?

do i miss anything? i am first time publisher.

You'll have to pay fees to someone, at some point. If you sell from your own website you'll end up doing more admin than if you sell via Amazon etc, which has its own associated costs; and you'll sell far fewer books, as people go to Amazon looking for books but are not likely to find your site without first knowing it exists.

dpaterso · Feb 10, 2015

ketanco said:
1-i checked google and amazon and they seem both like good options. especially because i want to do no shipping myself. so i just get an isbn number, write that on a copyright page, design my cover, make a complete pdf file and send to google and amazon right? anything i miss?

Read Amazon's free (and short, easy to understand) Building Your Book for Kindle guide. After you edit your doc to confirm to the suggested specs in this guide, you save it as html, and upload the html file.

-Derek

ketanco · Feb 10, 2015

J. Tanner said:
1. You're talking ebook here, right? Amazon does not sell PDFs. They use MOBI (or whatever they're calling KF8 these days if you don't mind losing the older e-reader crowd.) You'll need it formatted in the proper format, or (worst option IMHO) in Word DOC format.

Google might accept PDF because I did upload one there, but I think the PDF is only for online display purposes and the buyer gets an EPUB on their device.

2. For POD, CreateSpace is still probably the simplest option even if you aren't going to allow purchase through Amazon, though I see no downside to doing so from your description.) You can buy any number of copies direct from your CreateSpace dashboard and resell them whereever you like.

no... i will do print books. thanks

ketanco · Feb 10, 2015

Old Hack said:
If the exam is not your own, you might find yourself in copyright litigation territory if you publish this book.

You missed out a lot.

Read a few of our self publishing diary threads and see what our other members have done, to get you started; then ask more questions, on more specific topics. I don't think anyone here has the time to walk you through this from start to finish, but we will definitely help you where we can.

You'll have to pay fees to someone, at some point. If you sell from your own website you'll end up doing more admin than if you sell via Amazon etc, which has its own associated costs; and you'll sell far fewer books, as people go to Amazon looking for books but are not likely to find your site without first knowing it exists.

i checked with the organization and submitted them a sample of my book, as far as copright issue, it looks fine. there are 100 books on this around. my book is no different. they only look if you directly copy something from them.

Bolero · Feb 10, 2015

Are you accessing this forum through a phone or something like that? Just struck by you talking about publishing a book, and your post lacking all capital letters.

J. Tanner · Feb 10, 2015

ketanco said:
no... i will do print books. thanks

Okay, then Google Play is irrelevant because they only sell ebooks.

That leaves Amazon. POD is not a very big business for most self publishers. Like 5% of sales or less, and profit is even less because you make very little on a sale as compared to an ebook sale. (Non-fiction does tend to do better than fiction in this regard, so you might do a bit better than typical however.)

there are 100 books on this around. my book is no different.

This is going to sound snarkier than intended, but why do you think customers will want your book over the 100 other guides that are apparently already available?

ketanco · Feb 12, 2015

J. Tanner said:
Okay, then Google Play is irrelevant because they only sell ebooks.

That leaves Amazon. POD is not a very big business for most self publishers. Like 5% of sales or less, and profit is even less because you make very little on a sale as compared to an ebook sale. (Non-fiction does tend to do better than fiction in this regard, so you might do a bit better than typical however.)

This is going to sound snarkier than intended, but why do you think customers will want your book over the 100 other guides that are apparently already available?

if POD is little money than my other option is to do.. what? print through another printing company and sell from my website? or amazon has another alternative to print on demand?

my book might sell because of my qualifications i will write on the book, plus, i approached the test differently , i know the subject well.

Polenth · Feb 12, 2015

ketanco said:
if POD is little money than my other option is to do.. what? print through another printing company and sell from my website? or amazon has another alternative to print on demand?

my book might sell because of my qualifications i will write on the book, plus, i approached the test differently , i know the subject well.

Unless you're in a situation where you can hand sell books (like you're a speaker, and your book relates to your speaking topic), it's unlikely you'll sell many books from a print run. It's unlikely that people will find your website and want to buy a book from you directly. If they do, you then have all the admin... such as sales tax, VAT, etc.

Selling POD books through Amazon won't earn much, but it'll earn more than a box of unsold books sitting in your house. Also, the qualification could change, so your book could need updating.... making the books you have sitting in a box worthless.

Ebooks will make more money, and I can see people wanting ebook versions for a qualification. Ebooks are also easier and cheaper to produce.

But whatever you do, you should be aware that few people make a lot of money self-publishing. And that everyone needs someone else to look at their book before it's published. You may not be able to afford paid editing, but you do need it checked (especially if it's in English, as you're making some consistent errors in your forum posts).

J. Tanner · Feb 12, 2015

ditto everything Polenth wrote above.

Even though POD typically has a small profit margin, it still tends to be the better place to start over offset printing because it mitigates risk. You buy 20 to start, and if your results are typical (ie, close to zero demand) then you're only out the cost of 20 POD books. Compare that to the common situation Polenth mentioned where you have close to 1000 offset print books sitting in your garage unsold and a large upfront expense you'll never recoup.

And I'll emphasize something Polenth mentioned in passing... you've likely heard a lot of noise about self-publishing in the past few years. It's pretty much all because of ebooks. That's where the money has been. Print has become a bit less risky in the last 5 years, but it remains the significantly tougher route and most don't make much money on the easier path. In short, print ain't for amateurs.

ketanco · Feb 12, 2015

thanks for answers,
i know the advantages of ebooks but this is a test book. although it is not calculation intensive test, there are some questions that will need simple math calculations, may be 5% of the questions.
i thought that a test book, (it will have 2 tests, 200 questions each), cannot be an ebook, but you guys keep mentioning this, knowing that i will write a test book, so i start to think why not...

so if i publish it as ebook as well, it is again zero risk, which i should do then...

J. Tanner · Feb 12, 2015

ketanco said:
thanks for answers,
i know the advantages of ebooks but this is a test book. although it is not calculation intensive test, there are some questions that will need simple math calculations, may be 5% of the questions.
i thought that a test book, (it will have 2 tests, 200 questions each), cannot be an ebook, but you guys keep mentioning this, knowing that i will write a test book, so i start to think why not...

so if i publish it as ebook as well, it is again zero risk, which i should do then...

The writers here are primarily fiction writers, with a smattering of nonfiction. We share what we've learned from those experiences.

You haven't mentioned what test this is, so it's impossible for us to say if it may or may not work as an ebook. It's easy enough for you to research yourself as you're aware of the competition for print--simply see if it exists for ebooks too. If so, you can see their rankings, how they're formatted, and whether doing well in the category at a particular price point meets your financial goals for producing a competing book (based on estimating sales through sales rank.)

publishin test book

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