by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
A Web site owner was asked what the “three most important components are for publishing a professionally produced e-book” and he referred the question to me.
As long as I was figuring out the answer to this all-important question, I figured I’d pass it along to you but the question was just too hard to answer in its original form.
I took the liberty of qualifying it with an introductory clause and here it is.
Because a self-publisher must be a jack of all publishing trades and because many readers are still not comfortable with e-books, I believe the three most important components are:
1. The cover.
Visuals are powerful tools.
A great book cover may be even more important for an e-book (even though it’s virtual) than for a paper book.
It will probably be the only visual a reader will have to connect the reader to the author’s (and publisher’s) credibility.
2. Great editing.
Too many authors and e-book publishers think that great editing is merely the process of eradicating typos, but it’s a lot more.
It’s grammar.
It’s the conventions of writing (like punctuating dialogue correctly).
It’s even the formatting.
And it’s knowing about the things that your English teacher may have considered correct, but they’re things that tick publishing professionals like agents and publishers off!
3. Formatting.
I list this last because most e-book services like Amazon, KDP, BookBaby etc. make it clear that formatting is essential and provide guidelines for getting it right.
I included expanded step-by-step instructions for publishing on Kindle in the Appendix of my multi award-winning book on editing, The Frugal Editor.
PS: The fourth most important component of e-books is marketing.
No e-book—no book —is truly published if it hasn’t been marketed.
It’s part of the publisher’s job no matter how it is published or who the publisher is.
And if it is self-published, marketing is as much the author’s job as the writing of the book.
Everything you need to know to market your book the way a professional would if you had the money to hire her is in The Frugal Book Promoter.
About Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program.
All her books for writers are multi award winners including both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and her multi award-winning The Frugal Editor won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award.
Her next book in the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers will be Getting Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.
Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing.
She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.
The author loves to travel.
She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague.
She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes.
Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
