For obvious reasons, almost all of my book cover design clients are also looking for ebook conversion and formatting so they can put their book up on Kindle, B&N, Apple/iBooks, and other ebook sellers. Partnering up with some excellent and professional ebook designers, I’ve put together a very nice 3-in-1 ebook design package.
For $149, you get your book turned into three unique files:
1) a mobi/prc file (for Kindle)
2) an epub (Barnes and Noble and other sites)
3) a Smashwords file
Why Smashwords?
You may be thinking, “but I want to upload my own Kindle ebook – why do I need an epub or Smashwords file?” To paraphrase Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords), why would you want to confine your product to just one store? You should put your book everywhere.
Yes, Smashwords takes a cut. And personally, I don’t love the mandatory Smashwords file format that demands the book identify itself as produced through Smashwords.
But you don’t have to use them for everything. Personally, I take my Kindle and Epub files and upload them to Amazon and B&N, respectively. Then I take my Smashwords file, uncheck Amazon and B&N from the options, and let them take care of getting into the ibookstore (which is a pain to do otherwise) and a handful of other ebook sites (which generate small but steady earnings.)
Although the majority of your sales will probably come from Amazon, why limit yourself? Smashwords is also doing some interesting things right now, and seems to be sustaining itself very well in a game dominated by huge players – it is able to uniquely get your book into markets you couldn’t otherwise reach.
PLUS – the Smashwords file is basically a stripped-clean version of your book in Ms Word; think of it like a “master ebook file”. We make that first and then use it to convert to the other formats. Since it’s very difficult to edit an epub or mobi file directly, it’s nice to have a copy of your ebook in Word in case you need to make changes or updates.
“I still don’t want the Smashwords file, can I get a discount?” Unfortunately, no. We work with some of the very best ebook designers, who are constantly educating themselves to keep up with this rapidly changing technological field, and they deserve to be paid for their skills. $149 for two formats is already a fair price, we just wanted to offer you something extra.
Ebook Cover+ebook conversion and formatting package
I try to keep all costs as low as possible, so I can’t guarantee a big discount, but if you’re ordering a cover and ebook conversion and or interior book design (professionally designed book interiors using Adobe InDesign) I can probably reduce the overall price.
Ebook Conversion and Distribution
Before you pay for ebook cover conversion and formatting, make sure you know how you plan to distribute your ebooks. Bookbaby.com offers conversion and distribution for only $99; if you’re sticking with Kindle, amazon will make an ebook from your print book file for $79 (at the time I’m writing this at least), Lulu.com also has ebook conversion and distribution services. I can’t vouch for their quality; most likely they use an automatic “meatgrinder” type of ebook software and then (hopefully) someone gives it a quick proof to make sure it’s clean. So your easiest choice for ebook design will probably be whoever is helping you with distribution. On the other hand, our designers, in contrast, hand code your ebooks and check them carefully, but what you do with the files after that is up to you.
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