Thursday, March 31, 2011

EBook Quality Control

Guys, this is going to seem like shameless self-promotion. But it's not. Because it's Ann Rockley saying these things, not me. And see, I'm linking...so I'm shamelessly promoting...both of us?

Oh, whatever. Don't you judge me...what're you doing? Writing a query letter?!?! AKA shamelessly self-promoting your BOOK!?

Pshaw. Whatevs.

If you want to self publish a book (you+Amazon/BN/Smashwords=book!, not the ePublisher model--see here), you have to code it.

You can't just save it as a webpage or upload the doc to Amazon, etc. I'm sorry, you just can't. Ann lists some common problems she's seen in ebooks in the link above. I've seen some crazy crap too. More than that, I've worked through those problems. Like why Amazon doesn't understand the italic command on page 4, but it does on page 97. Oh, it's because I didn't close that one tag...blargh.

Hiring someone to format your ebook seems expensive. It seems like an extra step. It's not. There are a lot of awesome people out there that can help you. I can. Joshua Tallent can, and has been an invaluable resource as I've learned the ropes. Ann's company does it. Lots of others, too. Hire one of us.



Posted by Meredith Barnes at 12:09 PM
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14 comments:

  1. Christina AuretMarch 31, 2011 at 1:06 PM

    Is learning to code a book difficult if you have some decent programming experience? Or is it merely time consuming?

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  2. Meredith BarnesMarch 31, 2011 at 1:43 PM

    If I can do it, anyone can. But it's new info, so it's time consuming to learn, and the first project you code will take you a looooong time. Also, there are specific codes for each format (Kindle, for instance). But, really, with the motivation to learn, anyone can do it!

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  3. CarradeeMarch 31, 2011 at 1:55 PM

    It's doable. I finished coding a book for Kindle this morning, to release it tomorrow. The anchor tags seem to automatically add line breaks after them, though, so that gave me some headache.

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  4. Anne R. AllenMarch 31, 2011 at 3:00 PM

    Thank you for this! As I commented yesterday, a recent debacle for a self-pubbed author was sparked by a badly coded book.

    I'm going to send a link to this post to several friends who have been told they "should" be able to code their books themselves.

    And do you have a website for your coding business? I'd love to find out more to tell the aforementioned friends. The fact you're in the traditional publishing business is a big plus as far as I'm concerned.

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  5. Meredith BarnesMarch 31, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    @Anne anyone who's interested in my services can email me at the blog email: proseblog@gmail.com. Thanks for forwarding!

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  6. MelissaMarch 31, 2011 at 3:09 PM

    Oooooh, as much as I want to take the time to learn coding, I think it's probably more time- and money-efficient for someone like me to farm this out if I ever need to. :)

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  7. Christina AuretMarch 31, 2011 at 4:36 PM

    So it comes down to whether coding my own book is going to save me more money than the time I would spend coding it (and learning how to code it) is worth.

    At this point the book in that sentence is hypothetical, but this would definitely be something to consider should it become less so.

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  8. MelissaMarch 31, 2011 at 5:04 PM

    Christina, I have a friend who coded her own book -- but, that said, she had the time to do it AND she really wanted to learn so she could turn it into a side gig. I did the math, and I would lose more money than I'd have to spend coding an eBook, should I (hypothetically) decide to e-publish. I need every spare hour to write, edit and revise my work.

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  9. MelissaMarch 31, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    Egad! While we're on the topic of quality control, I think it's important for writers to know about Kindle scammers and the new way Internet marketers are trying to make a fast buck:

    http://www.publishingtrends.com/2011/03/the-kindle-swindle/

    I already knew this was happening, because I make it my business to lurk on "black hat" forums (so I'm apprised of Internet scams before anyone else). A lot of black hatters got Google slapped into nonexistence; sites that made them hundreds of dollars a day suddenly went away, and they're scrambling hard ...

    Meredith, do you think this is going to be a big problem for Amazon?

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  10. Meredith BarnesMarch 31, 2011 at 6:41 PM

    @Melissa Thanks so much for the link!! Great info. You know, I *don't* think this will be a big problem for Amazon--I think it'll be a big problem for readers.

    Amazon has to field official copyright complaints but, as with YouTube, if Amazon shows "good faith" that they're monitoring copyright infringement, they can't be sued/prosecuted. They're not held responsible for fraud perpetrated by users.

    These scammers suck. Readers are going to have to be diligent in reporting fraudulent or "content farm-y" stuff (like the example with one line repeated for 700 pages). Amazon can't set up flags for that--what if a poet decides to write some avant-garde poem that's just one line over and over?

    I would like to see Amazon make a link on each title page: report spam or copyright infringement. That would facilitate everyone's life.

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  11. Anne R. AllenApril 4, 2011 at 1:23 PM

    I've posted a link to this post and given you a shout-out in my weekly blogpost. I've been steering some writers your way.

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  12. susanneApril 8, 2011 at 3:58 AM

    I use MS Word and then mobipocket creator and then I read through the book on my Kindle before uploading. Works fine and it's not too difficult

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  13. J. Daniel JacobsenApril 15, 2011 at 1:31 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. The English TeacherApril 17, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    Very interesting info. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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