FollowDuring the week of May 23, Michael Niemann came and spoke to the History of Publishing class. His topic: how to make an e-book. At first I was very surprised at his topic. What? I thought. You can make an E-book? But it’s true, you can make your own e-book, and it is as comparable to following a cooking recipe.
First, there are 2 different kinds of format for your e-book (as exporting platforms):
1. ePUB
2. Amazon Kindle
Software has been crafted specifically for the purpose of digitizing your manuscript. A few such programs are:
– Scrivener: not free! Best for fiction writiers. Works for mobi, ePUB, and MAC & Windows
– Storyist: best for fiction writers. Works for ePUB and MAC
– Openoffice: clone of MicrosoftWord, BUT FREE! Works best for ePUB, and MAC & Windows
– Pages: works for ePUB and MAC
Then the bigger question: how to get published. Michael gave three suggestions.
1. Go through KindleDirect at Amazon
2. Publish through Barnes & Noble at pubit.barnes&noble.com
3. Publish through Itunes via itunesconnect.apple.com
In essence, the author must first write their manuscript. Then they must persue the desired format most appropriate for the style and genre of their work. Easy as pie.
