Within the last few years e-books have become more and more popular and the publishing industry has gone through some big changes. Digital distribution has made it easier than ever before to bring your book to an audience and Draft2digital is the newest tool for budding indie authors.

Created by self-published writers, Draft2digital is a new online publishing service that is free to sign up to. There’s no charge for uploading any of your books or for publishing them online.

Draft2Digital claim to give you a very high level of quality formatting in both e-book and paperback at no upfront cost to you.

You can upload a .doc,docx or a .rtf and add details onto the same page with ease. These are features like title, back cover, info and which BISAC categories you want the work to be listed under.

You can also upload your own cover art and chapter titles.

Draft2digital gives you the option to add dedication pages, a copyright page, a title page and a about the author page. They’re automatically generated so you actually just have to press a button and it’s done for you.

Once you’ve done all the uploading and tweaks you can save it and download it to make sure it looks the way you want it to.

What you now have is an e-version that can be used on all these platforms:

Then you publish and your book is ready to sell.

It’s not just the quick and easy publishing that is attractive about this site. There are many more positives to the site in general.

It’s a very author-friendly website, easy to navigate with a clutter free look. It has recognition that helps you create the chapter titles and headers. With these it then creates a table of contents with making it easy to work on different sections of your work. Meta pages (copyright etc) are very simple to create, these are usually forgotten about by writers because they’re focusing on the story and the mechanics of the book itself. Draft2digital makes it quick and easy to do these and takes the stress out of it.

An obvious but very well done feature to the site is you can preview your book for each type of e-reader. If you don’t have the specific software to do this it also gives you a link to the software that makes previews possible.

After you have uploaded and published your work it gives you the opportunity to group your books by series. Giving you and others to add to a collection in the future.

Unlike smashwords there isn’t any specific style you have to adhere to and the over all user experience seems to be easier for first time e-publishers.

It’s early days but this new platform looks very promising.

For more information click here

Author: Clare Lowe

Draft2Digital takes on Smashwords originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on January 18, 2013.

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I am definately rethinking my life at the moment. There’s so many things I still want to do and it’s not all related to business and marketing. I want to turn this blog into something that reflects more me, than just marketing and epublishing stuff, so you may see some changes here soon.

2012 saw the publication of my all ages graphic novel Doxi in Ambienceworld, which is a story that has been pretty much around in my head most of my adult life. (It was rewritten and drawn several times before this version, which took over 10 years to complete!). More info on all the comics stuff here..

Last year also saw a continuation of our web design and marketing agency with some exciting projects in the bag.

So what’s in store in 2013 for Mr H? There are some very exciting changes ahead, which I can’t even talk about..and a lot more ePublishing! I have recently re-found my love of writing fiction and will be publishing a novella pretty soon.

What’s your masterplan for 2013?

Bring on 2013 originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on January 9, 2013.

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The course uses both written material and videos and there’s a strong motivational aspect to the site. Once you’ve joined you can go to the membership area where there’s more videos to encourage you to keep going, with more in-depth advice as the new entrepreneurs build their business foundation.

This encouragement is essential for people starting their own business online when it’s incredibly hard to keep focused on the end goal with so much distraction and no boss to keep you motivated. Faster, Smarter Better is your motivation.

In all there are 13 separate modules you can work through in your own time. if you take the monthly option you will get a module per month plus some very worthwhile bonuses:

• Module One:Covers the basics of starting your online business
• Module Two: Focuses on building a solid foundation. Creating your website and the work it entails.
• Module Three: Finding profitable made for internet products and branding.
• Module Four: How to build profitable relationships with other businesses and self promotion.
• Module Five : Setting up your sales funnel and effective search engine optimisation for your business.
• Module Six : Everything you need to know about PR and Social Media strategies. How to get effective cheap online advertising.
• Module Seven: Joint ventures : How to find suitable partners to boost your business.
• Module Eight : Underground media buying and new social media to use to your advantage. Effective ways to advertise beyond Google adspace
• Module Nine: Conversation tactics finding affiliates and how to create marketing opportunities through them.
• Module Ten: Expanding your business – The next step.
• Module Eleven: How to outsource and become global.
• Module Twelve: Selling your business on and taking it to the next level
• Module Thirteen: Overview and moving ahead.

Faster Smarter Business teaches you how to produce a stable income if your interested in making a real living, long-term, online, Faster, Smarter and Better.

Click here for more info on the training

Your Faster Smarter Better Online Business originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on December 1, 2012.

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I also finally finished a book, previously shelved for many years, that I had been working on for almost 15 years!

The reason it took so long, apart from bad time management, is that this tome is an all ages graphic novel, or 50 page comic strip adventure for the childrens/teen market, that is all written, drawn and coloured by myself. I can’t describe the feeling after actually finishing it!

This comicbook is already on the Kindle and I’m looking at getting it out to a wider ebook market through an excellent looking platform called Graphicly, followed by a printed version.

There are so many possibilities on the Kindle. I believe there is always a way you can harness this huge marketplace to your business, no matter what it is.

If you offer particular services, a helpful and informative guide to your industry. If you’re a retail outlet selling food then how about a receipe book? A DIY store? a DIY guide. Just think outside of the box. It doesn’t have to be a best seller, even if you get a physical version published through CreateSpace it will impress the hell out of your clients. I recently heard of several examples where this tactic had converted prospects into clients fast.

Then, of course, there’s the option of just being a publisher and bringing a range of titles to that marketplace. A series of ebooks that focus soley on summarizing existing books is doing pretty well., Quicklets being one example.

With eBook sales predicted by experts to reach $10 billion by 2016 and the Kindle accounting for 75% of those sales this cannot be ignored.

Whatever you’re into, do something on the Kindle.

Playing around on the Kindle originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on May 19, 2012.

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flickr by orkboi

Well it’s been a fast-paced start to the year and I just noticed I haven’t blogged for a few months..oops.

This has mainly been down to focusing on building the Internet Pie brand with the book and membership but I’ve also been doing a lot of Kindle research and testing out some ninja tactics.

This is all part of my big idea.

I think it’s essential to any kind of success to have a big idea that defines where you are going, what your roadmap plan is and where you want to be. Sounds obvious but very much overlooked by so many.

I made the mistake, many times, of taking on too many projects and not giving any any one of them my full undivided attention. This just ends in lukewarm results and you soon get frustrated, besides why not create something of quality?

There is so much crap been pumped out on the web it’s frightening. Whether it’s a product, a book or a service by stepping back and asking yourself whether the end user is getting their money’s worth you can make a huge difference to your reputation as well as your bottom line.

Yes I intend to focus on my big ideas a lot more this year and not get bogged down in crap and details.

What’s your big idea in 2012?

Big Ideas in 2012 originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on January 31, 2012.

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This opens up exciting opportunities to create great Kindle books that readers will love. Rich formatting and design will greatly benefit children’s picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical & engineering books and cookbooks.

Amazon said it will release details about how to use KF8 “soon” and interested designers and publishers can sign up on Amazon’s Web site to be notified when more info is released.

Though Amazon are retiring Mobi in favor of KF8, existing Mobi files will still work with the updated format.

KindleGen 2 will convert your content so that it works on all Kindle devices and apps. You will be able to preview how your title will look on the range of Kindle devices and apps using Kindle Previewer 2.

This is an exciting development that bodes well for developing great content!

Amazon adds HTML5 Spice to the Kindle Format originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on October 25, 2011.

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Today we can upload the file to the Kindle Marketplace.

Head over to http://www.kindledirectpublishing.com and sign in with your Amazon account or sign up if you don’t have one.

Firstly fill out your account details so Amazon know how to pay you under ‘Your Account’

Then click on Bookshelf and ‘Add a new title’

Fill out the book details; Title, description etc

Do not add an ISBN as KDP will give you an ebook number free of charge, unless you have a specific reason to. Publication date can be left blank if you want your title to be evergreen.

Most of you will want to choose 2^nd option for Publishing Rights.

Add categories and search keywords. Don’t rush this, it’ll help people find you more easily.

Upload your book cover

Digital rights management.
Some authors want to encourage readers to share their work, and choose not to have DRM applied to their book. If you choose DRM, customers will still be able to lend the book to another user for a short period, and can also purchase the book as a gift for another user from the Kindle store.

If you choose DRM, customers will be able to lend the book to another user for a short period, and can also purchase the book as a gift for another user from the Kindle store.

Click browse for book and upload the mobi file you created.

Then click save as draft or publish!

To find out more about building an ebook and informational publishing business:
Buy the Internet Pie Book Here
Click Here to Sign up for Your Internet Pie Newsletter and get a free report (inc this blog series)

Publishing for the Amazon Kindle – Part 3 – Uploading to Kindle Marketplace originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on September 14, 2011.

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This part is looking at converting the document to the required .mobi format.

Step 1: Kindle Desktop reader

To check your ebook you’ll also need Amazon’s Kindle Reader for desktops:

Go to Amazon.com, look under shop all departments and roll over the Kindle link until you see ‘Free Kindle Reading Apps’

Depending on what you’re using choose Windows PC or Mac

Download and install. This is to test that your Kindle book looks ok on their platform.

Step 2: MobiPocket

Let’s now head over to mobipocket.com. Scroll down until you see Free downloads (or click here)

On the next screen there are download options. Download the Publisher Edition (below)

Next open a window where your word document is and pull it alongside the mobipocket screen, as below, then just drag the word document onto the red book icon.

(Note you could turn your word document into a PDF before this stage and import that as well)

Then click import on the following screen:

From now on you’ll work with the Mobipocket version.You should keep the original safe in case you ever want to go back and make changes.

Assuming your file is correctly formatted you should get through to the next screen. On the view stack there are different links which you’ll need to go through.

So let’s click on Cover Image and upload that first. You can either drag the cover from the window folder, as we did with the word document over onto the ‘add a cover’ button or click the ‘add a cover’ button and browse for the cover. Then click update.

Next click on table of contents in the view stack.

This is where you set the contents to be the H1 headers that we put in the word document earlier.

Click add table of contents’ and add ‘h1′ to the first level field and click update as below:

Next click Build

Hopefully you’ll have no errors but if you do mobipocket will tell you. If you do click ‘show build details’.

Any errors will have yellow warning symbols: read these to see what the issue is. Typical problems might be hyperlinks not resolved, images or other data not specified at an earlier stage.

When you are happy click ok.

Mobipocket will open the folder containing the kindle book.

Check your ebook

Double clicking on the ebook symbol should automatically open it in the Kindle reading software.

Next: Uploading your ebook to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.

This tutorial and much more is available as a special report: >>

Your Internet Pie: Publish your expertise on the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad for Free..

Publishing for the Amazon Kindle – Part 2 – Converting with Mobipocket originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on September 12, 2011.

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Step 1: Preparing your Word Document

When you have written your content in Word you’ll want to re-save a copy renamed specifically for the Kindle edition as we’ll need to do a bit of reworking for ebook formats.

Chapter Headings

All chapter headings should be highlighted and made to be Heading 1. This is what the Kindle software uses to create the Table of Contents.

Images

Kindle will only display images in black and white but you’ll need to compress them.

Double click on the images in your document and click compress.

Fonts

Select all and change to either Times New Roman 12pt or Arial 11pt.

Headers Footers and Page numbering

If you already have these on your document you’ll need to delete them as these are irrelevant for ebook editions (due to content flow)

Remove any existing table of contents as this will automatically be created.

Curley Quotes

Word automatically creates “pretty quotes” which need changing to “straight quotes”.

To turn off go to Tools > AutoCorrect options > Auto format as you type tab and untick

Be sure to change this back afterwards if you want to have fancy quotes in future documents.

Find and Replace all instances of curley quotes by going to

> Edit menu > Replace

In the Replace field type ” and then

” in the replace field

Then click Replace All.

Next: Converting your document to the required .mobi format

Publishing for the Amazon Kindle – Part 1 – Preparing your Content originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on September 10, 2011.

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Sandeep Menon, head of small business marketing, opened the afternoon session with some facts and figures on how the UK is leading the way in the digital economy (£100bn pa over 7% GDP) and #1 country for e-commerce which I didn’t realise. There’s loads on great info for stat junkies over at Connected Kingdom.

I’m not going to delve too deeply here but just wanted to get some topline points across if you are using Adwords.

Relevance was hinted at been the most important factor for landing page quality score when planning your adwords campaigns. This’ll be of no surprise to adwords experts but organising your campaigns into relevant groups as well as naming them correctly is important.

So a campaign should separate out their ads into sections and relevant keywords for each ad group. Seperate and clearly name all campaigns (search, content, mobile)

• For ads on the search network it was suggested there are no more than 5-6 ad groups, between 5-20 keywords including negative keywords and 1-3 text ads.
• For text ad varieties ensure you change all the text, not just the first line and use the keyword insertion tool if you can.
• Don’t duplicate keywords and ad groups.
• Delete or pause what is not working as it affects your overall account performance

Improving CTR

• Raise your bids and look at improving your Quality Score
• Ensure ads have keywords in the headline
• Make sure your landing pages are RELEVANT to the keyword list

Future stuff: Adwords will soon enable you to just target tablets like the iPad, great for getting through to the more affulent. Also mobile ads will enable users to click and download straight from the ad text.

Many businesses have had a nasty taste in the mouth left from Google Adwords, many having had their accounts shut down without warning, or simply struggled with getting a decent CTR (Click through Rate). I can say that these concerns were certainly voiced at the end feedback Q and A session.

An afternoon at the Google office originally appeared on Online Marketing Intelligence on July 25, 2011.

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