Category: Self-publishing

Q4S Part 5: To the eBook and Beyond!

December 23, 2015 / Rissa Renae

In this post, we’ll finally realize our dreams: we’re publishing! There’s a light at the end of that self-publishing tunnel, and it’s not a freight train. That nasty exercise to create the eBook itself is far behind us and the final journey in the adventure of self-publishing is before us. Through all the blood, sweat, and tears, we’ve prepared ourselves for this moment. And it will be wondrous.

I see the light!

Prerequisites

An Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account.
A CreateSpace account with a completed book.
Your completed EPUB from the last post (or you can use the Interior File you created for the CreateSpace parts 1 and part 2).
Electronic Book ISBN (must be different from the ISBN you used in CreateSpace).

So, are you ready to become a published author? Take a deep breath, cuz here we go!

Transfer from CreateSpace to Amazon KDP

From your CreateSpace project, click on the Publish on Kindle option.
Publish on Kindle
You will be taken to an “are you sure?” type of page. Click on I want to publish my book on Kindle.
I want to publish my book on Kindle
If you want to upload your EPUB, choose to upload a separate file. If you’re using your CreateSpace file and not your EPUB file, choose the Transfer and Convert option. Click Continue.
the Upload EPUB option
Choose the publishing rights and DRM that applies to you. In most cases, choose “This is not a public domain work” as you should be publishing your own works at this point in time. The only time you would choose a public domain work is if the original author is deceased and you have rights to publishing/republishing their work(s). Here you can also choose your DRM option – DRM helps protect your book from pirating and illegal distribution. After you have chosen your options, click Submit my files to KDP.
Establishing DRM rights
You will be taken to Amazon’s KDP site. Sign in to your KDP account. In most cases, the KDP login information is the same as your Amazon login information.
Sign in to KDP
If your files make it in, congratulations! You’re one of the lucky ones. This rarely works for me. So if you run into the the most uninformative of errors, just click “OK.” We’ll fix things up.
Thanks. Real informative there, Amazon.

Welcome to KDP!

Okily dokily! We’re ready to push the button! There’s just some final clean up and configuration we need to set up before we’re officially an author. Let’s get started!

Once KDP loads, check that the book title and author info has come over, then click on “Continue setup”.
Continue Setup
Dismiss the “What to do next” box to continue.
What to do next? Publish!
Next comes the Kindle Select option. A word of warning about Kindle Select – yes, the royalty structure is awesome, but you’re locked in to KDP as your only distribution channel for 3 months. So choose carefully and read the fine print. You can opt in at anytime, but you’re locked in for 90 days once you do opt in. If you’re found selling your book anywhere else, KDP kicks you out of the Select program and may put a hold on your ability to offer your book on Amazon.
Read carefully!
Scrolling down the page, check over your book details. The things I found I had to watch out for were:
1. Line breaks on the Description field. Correct this if your text is not organized properly.
2. Enter your ISBN number for the eBook (do not use the ISBN you used for CreateSpace as you must have a separate ISBN for the physical and the electronic versions of the book.

Double-check your book info

Choose the two categories that best describe your book.Click “Save” to move on to the next step.
Book Categories
Upload the EPUB we created in the previous post.
Upload EPUB
Review any spelling mistakes and preview the book to make sure you’ve uploaded the correct EPUB. If all is good, return to your book home and click the Save and Continue button.
Save and Continue
Verify Your Publishing Territory. If you own the ISBN (you purchased your number from an ISBN agency and not CreateSpace), your territory is Worldwide. Otherwise, you may have to do some research as to which countries and territories you’re allowed to publish in.
Publishing Territories
Select your desired Royalty option and set the book’s base price. Leave all other territories checked to “Set price automatically”, that way your book stays priced appropriately as exchange rates vary.
Royalties and Pricing
Keep in mind that some territories require you to enrol in Kindle Select to achieve the 70% Royalty. Make your own decision on this, but keep in mind if you enrol in Kindle Select, you can only sell your book on Amazon and CreateSpace, and no other outlet.
Kindle Select pricing
Kindle MatchBook & Kindle Lending are neat options. If your reader buys the trade paperback, you have the option of giving them the eBook for a discount, or for free using Kindle MatchBook. Personally, I like the free option as the Trade Paperback is more expensive than the eBook to begin with, and they’ve already purchased a copy of the book. And Kindle Lending, as the name suggests, allows your reader to lend the eBook out to friends and family to widen your readership. I would suggest taking advantage of both.
Kindle MatchBook and Book Lending
Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click the check box, then click Save and Publish!
Save and Publish! OMG!
It takes a few hours to get the book to the masses. In the meantime, the book will appear under ‘In Review’ status.
In Review status
After the files have gone through Amazon’s pre-processing stage, you will receive an email from Amazon asking you to verify your publishing rights. Just follow the steps in the email – you will have to re-declare your publishing rights, DRM and publishing territories.
Verify Your Publishing Rights.
Once the publishing rights have been verified, within 24 hours you’ll receive confirmation from Amazon that your book has been published!
And You’re Published!

Paperback Temporarily Out Of Stock

Just a word of warning: Even though Amazon owns CreateSpace, the two platforms do not talk nicely to each other when you first publish. If after publishing, your paperback version shows up as Temporarily Out Of Stock, fear not. Once your readers order the book, it will be printed and delivered immediately, despite what Amazon says. In contacting both CreateSpace and KDP, representatives will give you excuses such as ‘high volume of demands’ or will use the nearest holiday as an excuse. All of us will experience this, so don’t worry too much. However, if you feel it’s a bother, feel free to contact KDP Support.

Temporarily out of stock

Go Forth, Published Author!

Now, go forth! Just because you’ve published, don’t think the hard work is done. No sir! Now you have to promote that gem of a novel you’ve just written, not to mention expand your novel into the other eBook and Print-On-Demand platforms.

High Five!

But that, my friends, is best left for another time.

And with that, I bid you adieu, new author. Congratulations!

Q4S Part 4: High Calibre eBooks with Calibre

December 4, 2015 / Rissa Renae

In this post, we’ll do the unthinkable! We’re gonna take that huge interior file you created in Part 2 and Part 3 of this series and convert it into an eBook. All by ourselves! Did you know that the base programming language of all eBooks is HTML? Yup, the same stuff used to build websites like this blog you’re reading. But fret not! Website creation may be difficult and stress-inducing, but when it comes to creating your eBook, it’s gonna be a breeze.

Prerequisites

Interior file for your book.
The eBook creator Calibre. It’s free!

Calibre is by far the best eBook creation software available free of charge. Even if you don’t know the HTML necessary to compile the interior, the necessary coding is super simple to pick up. Calibre handles the metadata, conversion and stitching together of the final book. All you have to do is tell it what to do. So let’s get started!

Importing the Interior File

Open your interior file in your word processor. Save it as a”WebPage” or anything with a .html or .htm extension. The interior file must be in HTML to be convertible and editable by Calibre.
Save as a WebPage
Open Calibre. You may be asked to update Calibre, especially if you installed the program more than a month ago. Go ahead an update it before moving on to the next step if prompted.
Once in Calibre, click the Add Books Icon and open the HTM version of the interior file you just saved.
Ensure your book is selected and click the Edit Metadata icon.
Edit the metadata of your book, including the cover. When finished, click OK.
The Metadata (identifying information) of your Book
Back in the Calibre main window, select your novel and click the Convert icon.
Choose the export format as EPUB and leave the rest of the options as is. Honestly, they’re confusing and it’s just easier to edit the HTML source. Click OK when you’re done.
Convert to EPUB
Now it’s time to edit the EPUB. Right-click on the book and choose Edit Book.
Edit your Book

Scary eBook Coding. Ooooh

No really, HTML is the most basic of programming languages. It’s what the internet runs off of, so it makes sense that your eBook will run off of the same language. There’s nothing scary about it!

The first thing we’re going to do is a little house keeping. If you’ve organized your interior file well enough with a Table of Contents and proper section breaks and Headings, this should be a walk in the park with very little code-monkeying-around. But if you’ve missed something or need to tweek, then this section will help you make those tweeks.

Instead of trying to walk your through this process step by step, I’ll give you the tools you need to do the most basic fixes, and you will use your best judgement as to what needs to be done.

Renaming the eBook part files

When you convert your interior file to an EPUB, Calibre will break the file apart by section break and headings into part files. It can be difficult to determine which part file you are in when making changes. I recommend renaming the part files to something more recognizable, like chapter numbers.

Keep in mind that each chapter should be contained in at least one part file, as you will need the chapters separated in order to create a table of contents. If you need to break apart the part files, I’ll show you how to do that a little later. For now, you first need to get your book organized.

To rename the part files:

Right click on an eBook part file and choose “Rename” to rename it.
Rename a part file
Ensure the “.htm” remains at the end of the file name when you rename it or Calibre cannot use it.
Rename each of the files in your EPUB before moving on. This will make the next steps easier.

Breaking a File into Multiple Files

Calibre will also try to out-smart you and break your interior file into part files using its own dastardly means. This can often lead to chapters broken apart too many times, or not enough times. To break a file apart:

Determine how many files you need to break the file into. In my case, my single file needs to be broken into 3 separate files.
Create a new file in your part list by clicking the “New File” icon. Name the file, ensuring you add the “.htm” to the end of your file name.
Create a new part file
The new file will be added at the end of your part list. Drag-and-drop it into the part list where you want the file to be. Sequencing is important as this is the order in which the files will be compiled into the final eBook.
Copy the style sheets from the source file into the new file in the same location.
Copy stylesheets
Now, we need to move the book code from the old file into the new file. To find where the code begins, double-click on the first word or icon in the preview pane of the section you want to move. Calibre will highlight the corresponding book code for you.
Calibre highlights the starting point in yellow
Using that as the starting point, select the text you wish to move to the new file. Ensure the last html tag you select is a </p> tag.
Find the last tag
Cut this text from the source file (Ctrl+X) and paste it between the <body> tags in the new file (Ctrl+V).
Paste!
Repeat for each file as necessary.
You may be tempted to move on to the Table of Contents at this point, but hold that thought. Instead, go through all files in your part list: you should have at least one file for each chapter and each section, such as appendices and author bio’s. Finish up this task before moving on to the Table of Contents.

Formatting a TOC in an eBook with page numbers is a mess. The great thing about eBooks is that you can turn your Table of Contents into a huge list of links. This makes it easy for your readers to move between chapters without having to swipe through the book.

Yuck!

There are two types of TOC’s in Calibre: one is the native TOC (a TOCcreated electronically by Calibre) and an embeded TOC (a physical page in the eBook). I’ll run you through how to create both of them.

Native TOC

Open the Table of Contents editor.
TOC Editor
If you’re missing an item in your TOC, click on “Create New Entry”.
Add an Item
Choose the file where you want your TOC entry to point and give it a name.
Continue this process to build your TOC.

Embeded TOC

If you haven’t done so already, create a part file for the TOC.
TOC part file
If the TOC is not created, add the listing of chapters and book sections to the part file.
For each item in the TOC, surround the text of the chapter with anchor links as such:
<a href=”filename.html“>Chapter Text</a>

Adding an anchor link
Continue for each item in your TOC

Pretty up the code

Calibre has several tools to help you check for unused images, styles and other files. This helps ‘beautify’ the files (yes, beautify is a word) and makes them perform quicker for the user. This also reduced the errors that may be encountered in your eBook.

Remove unused styles, fix HTM and pretty up the book by running each of these tools from the Tools menu. This will help you clean up the EPUB and make it less prone to errors in parsing by Amazon and Kindle.
See? Beautify is a word!
Next, from the tools menu, click on ‘Check Book’ to check the code for errors.
This will show you unused files and any glaring errors in the book which may make it not function properly in eBook readers. You can ignore CSS Property errors, but I would suggest deleting any unused image files as you have a file limit when uploading to Kindle Direct Publishing.
Errors in my Book

Minor Tweeks

Sometimes you just need to do some minor editing, such as centering text or creating a link to your website. Here are some quick how-to’s

Centering Text

Surround the text you want to centre with the tags <center> </center>

Adding a Website Link

Surround the text you want to set as the clickable link with <a href=”WebsiteURLGoesHere”>Link Text Goes Here < /a>

Saving the EPUB

Now that you’ve edited your eBook, it’s time to save it so you can upload it to Amazon! To save the EPUB:

In Calibre, choose File –> Save a Copy and save your EPUB. We will use this file in the next post when we finally finish the publishing process and publish our book on Amazon!
Save the EPUB

In the Next Post . . .

It’s here! The final step of the publishing process! In the next post, we’ll take the EPUB we just created, plug it into Amazon and rule the world! Mwa-ha-ha! And maybe we’ll publish a book along the way.

Q4S Part 3: CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier – Part II!

November 30, 2015 / Rissa Renae

This is Part 2 of the CreateSpace post since there was just too much information to jam into one. In this post, I’ll walk you through the final stages of the CreateSpace Trade Paperback exercise which involves uploading the interior of your book, as well as the cover. This is where the book itself gets stitched together electronically, along with the book’s summary/description and final pricing for CreateSpace and Amazon.

Prerequisites:

CreateSpace account already set up with your book project up until this post.
Your final, compiled draft.
The cover art (front cover, back cover, and spine design) completed. They do not need to be in final dimensions. We will format the cover in this post, provided you have access to the final PSD or layered file.

I know it may seem backwards to first create a paperback version of a book you intend to sell digitally, but hear me out on this one. This exercise all boils down to completing two very important items:

Finalizing the cover for your book, and
Finalizing the interior of your book.

Both of these items carry forward into the creation of the eBook and make compiling the final product easier. Still with me? Good! Now here we go!

Uploading the Interior

Get back into your CreateSpace project and go to the Interior.
Below where you make selections for text and paper colour is an Upload area. Click the Browse button and find your file.
Uploading the Interior
Click the Save button when finished.
CreateSpace will check your book for errors which could impede the publishing process. This takes anywhere from two to ten minutes, depending on the size of your book.
The Print Check
You can choose to wait if you want, but take the site’s advice; let’s move on to the cover!

Cover and Spine

For this step, count on needing to go through two or three iterations of your cover dimensions until they fit with the thickness of your final printed copy. The spine can be exceptionally tricky. You will need access to your finalized cover files, or have a method for getting the dimensions to your cover designer to create the digital version.

Don’t stress too much on getting the dimensions of the spine just right. Once you upload the cover, you can use CreateSpace’s Digital Proofer to see how the dimensions of the cover and spine will turn out in final printing.

To start the process,

If the front cover and back cover are not already in the ratio you’ve chosen for the interior (5” x 8” in my case), edit the files until they conform to the proper dimensions.
My cover in PhotoShop
For the spine, CreateSpace has a calculation to help you determine the width of your spine. You should already know how many pages are in your book (because we just uploaded the interior!), so use the references in CreateSpace to determine the spine size.
Spine thickness calculation

For my spine size using cream-coloured paper, I calculated my spine thickness to be:

338 pages x 0.0025 paper thickness = 0.845 inches
Now that you know how thick your spine should be, adjust the dimensions of your cover.
Save your cover as a print-ready PDF.
Save to PDF

The PDF must be below 40K before it can be uploaded into CreateSpace, which can be tricky for large vector or Photoshop files. In order to get your file down to 40 MB, start implementing this list one by one:
- Flatten all layers and discard any hidden layers.
  Flatten Image
- Reduce the width of your file to less than 4000 pixels wide.
- Optimize for Fast Web Preview.
- Change the Image Quality from ‘Maximum’ to ‘High’.
Now, we’re ready to upload! Head back to your CreateSpace account and click the Cover item in your project.
Cover
Choose the cover finish (Matte or Glossy), and upload your cover!
Upload Cover

Completing Your Book

Once your interior and your cover are uploaded, you’ll need to set up the final tidbits of info to get the book ready to publish. CreateSpace will walk you through the process. Your next steps are:

Description – Create the description for your book – that blurb that appears next to your book on most eBook retail sites.
Create the book description
Pricing – I’m hoping this should need no explanation. CreateSpace will manufacture and sell the trade paperback of your novel at a price you set. Pricing must meet CreateSpace minimums, meaning they will not sell the Trade Paperback if it’s below a certain price point.
Set price points for your book
CreateSpace review – CreateSpace must review your interior and cover design to ensure it adheres to their standards and viability for publishing. Within 24 hours, they’ll review and approve or reject your files, so hold tight. You can’t move on to the next phase (almost at publishing!) until this is complete.
The Review Process takes up to 24 hours

Final Proofing

Once CreateSpace has approved your files and your book for publishing, you can proof your book using CreateSpace’s Digital Proofer. By this point, you should have already gone through the interior to address any issues there. If not, use the Digital Proofer to review the interior and to address any concerns.

Review the cover and interior

The main things you want to do here are proof the cover and address any concerns with the interior as pointed out by CreateSpace. The Digital Proofer will give a pretty reasonable approximation of where the spine of the cover falls within the cover and the thickness of your novel. If the cover isn’t laying the way you want, make adjustments in your cover file and re-upload. You will need to go through the review process again, but within 24 hours your files will be ready for you again.

Ensure the cover setup is correct

If the digital proof looks good, now we move on to what I think is the coolest part of this whole process: ordering the physical proof.

Order a proof of your book!

Regardless of the price you’ve set for your book, CreateSpace will allow you to purchase a proof at cost, usually between $3 and $5 dollars. This allows you to see the final printed product, including interior and how the cover lays out. I firmly believe in going through this process. Not only is it an amazing feeling to hold your own book in your hands, but it will also allow you to see what will be going into your readers hands if they choose to purchase a physical copy.

My book, guinea pig approved

And just like that, we’ve got a book!

In the Next Post . . .

The great thing about getting to this point is that now it’s feeling real; now you’re starting to feel like an author. You can hold your book in your hands; it’s an amazing feeling of accomplishment to make it this far! Fist-pump!

In the next post, we’ll convert our interior file into an eBook using Calibre. This is the final step before you send your book into the world to grow and prosper!

Q4S Part 2: CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier

November 22, 2015 / Rissa Renae

In this post, we’ll explore getting your novel into the beginning stages of mass distribution by leveraging CreateSpace as your starting platform. This allows us to use CreateSpace’s pre-formatted templates to make compiling your final draft into a publishable format a breeze. Then in future posts, we’ll use this final draft to create the eBook itself.

Prerequisites

Before you can move on to this step in the publishing process, please ensure that:

Your novel is in Final Draft (publishing draft), and in a format you can manipulate such as Microsoft Word. We will compile the novel into one publishable file in this post.
You have a CreateSpace account set up with all the yucky tax, royalty, and ISBN items completed that we talked about in the last post.

Styling the Book

Think of your book as a big paper doll to dress up: you’ll need to start with the undergarments of your novel: the page quality, colour, and trim.

Log into your CreateSpace account.
From the Member Dashboard (My Account –> Member Dashboard), open your book project.
Click on the “Interior” link under the “Setup” tab.

Here’s where you will choose how the interior of your book is presented to the reader:

Choose your interior options

Interior Type – This is the colour of the text and graphics inside your book. Unless you have coloured graphics or images, choose Black & White. It will keep your manufacturing costs down.

Paper Colour – The colour of the paper that will make up the interior of the book. I would highly recommend Cream, as 99% of published novels use cream-coloured paper. Black text on white paper, although cheaper to manufacture, is extremely hard on the eyes when reading. Cream-coloured paper helps offset the strain. And your readers will thank you!

Trim Size – the dimensions of the physical book. Trim size is tricky, so I’ll try to condense it into one thought: If your book is between 85,000 and 150,000 words, start with 5×8. For longer books, choose a larger trim, shorter books choose a smaller trim. 5×8 is pretty standard.

Once you’ve chosen all that, underneath your trim size will be links to Word templates formatted for the trim you’ve chosen. This will make the next step so much easier. Download the formatted template for the next section.
Trim size and template

Compiling the Front Matter

The front matter of the book consists of all the pages we flip through before we get to the meat of the story itself – the copyright page, the table of contents, etc. This is why we’re starting with CreateSpace: their predefined templates are awesome! If you’ve downloaded the formatted template, the document is already laid out with headers, footers, and section breaks as needed to compile the front matter and the body of your book.

So, open up that formatted template from CreateSpace, and let’s get to work! Count on spending a good 3-4 hours just converting your novel into the CreateSpace template. You will use this document as the platform when you create the eBook later on in the publishing process. Start piecing together the book as follows:

The first 3 pages

Note: There are many other features to the opening pages of a book. For a full listing and explanation, check out Barbara Doyen’s Anatomy of a book. I’m using the simplified version, which is also outlined in the CreateSpace template.

The front matter is not numbered with the rest of the book; you can either omit page numbers altogether or use roman numerals. Once you decide which numbering system to use, lay out the front matter as follows:

Page i: The Title Page
- Title first, then author name, unless you’re a New York Times Bestseller.
- Do not include email or web addresses on this page.
- You can include a publisher, if applicable.

Page ii: Copyright Page
- Is always the back page of the Title Page.
- Never more than one page long.
- Copyright line.
- “All rights reserved” and disclaimer line.
- Trade Paperback ISBN (if applicable).
- eBook ISBN.
- Any other ISBN’s you may have received.
- Any mentions, such as editor, photographer, cover art designer, interior art designer, etc.
- It’s ok to put web addresses here.

Page iii: Dedication page
- Include a dedication page, even if you’re dedicating the book to your cat.
- Mildly witty is okay, and common.
- Keep it to maximum 50 words.

Page iv: Acknowledgements (Optional, leave a blank page if omitted)
- Thank anyone who has been instrumental in your book whom you have NOT included in the copyright page. For example, if your second grade teacher first piqued your interest in writing, this is an excellent place for that tidbit of information.
- Acknowledgements are little stories in themselves. Make them at least 100 words, but no longer than 300.

Page v: Contents
- Table of Contents / Chapter listing – If your contents page is several pages long, ensure that the next odd-numbered page is where. Chapter 1 / Prologue begins. First chapter of the book must ALWAYS start on an odd-numbered page. Subsequent chapters can start on any page.
- Ensure it starts on an odd-numbered page.

The Book Itself (Body)

The CreateSpace template will come complete with proper headers and footers, so follow the template and compile the chapters of the final book. Only ten chapters are included in the template, so if you have more than ten chapters, create a “Next Page” section break between each new chapter. This will keep the headers and footers in proper sync.

Adding a “Next Page” Section Break

If using the template properly, including a section break should bring down the alternating Headers, and allow you to add more chapters in the proper format.

Add each of your chapters until the body is compiled. When creating chapters, keep in mind the rules:

Sample chapter

Chapters should be easily distinguishable from normal text; either with an icon, or large and bold font.
Chapter headings should take up at least 1/3 of the page or more.
Chapter Pages do not have the book title or author name in the header. The Header must be blank.
Text should be Justified (text aligns to both the left and right columns).
Spot check the right margins for any anomalies, such as ellipses (…) running into the next line or breaking incorrectly.
Fonts to stick to: Garamond 11 pt, Palatino 11 pt, and similar fonts. Line spacing at 1.15 will get you close to a standard interior layout for your book.
After the end of every chapter, insert a section break. The CreateSpace template should organize the headers and footer for you. If not, copy the first 3 pages of a previous chapter and paste it to create the header/footer layout.

Ending Matter

The ending matter of the book will be appendices, the author bio, and any references you may want to cite. For most fiction, an author bio will do nicely. If you have a great deal of information you would like to help the reader understand, such as people and places, you can add them in an appendix.

Appendix (optional)
- Start on an odd-numbered page
- Headers on all appendices should simply state ‘Appendix’; no author or book name
- Continue the page numbering from the Body of the book into the Appendix

Author Bio (recommended)
- Start on an odd-numbered page
- Have a short little blurb and a picture showcasing yourself and all your awesomeness!

Finishing Up

At this stage, you’ll want to make sure you embed the fonts you used in your novel, even if they are out-of-the-box fonts. Remember, this final compilation is going to be used to create the eBook going forward. Not all sites and services will have all the fonts you need for the eBook. Including them in your final distribution will help you move into the digital phase of publishing.

To embed the fonts, go to File –> Options. In the Save category, select the options to embed fonts as highlighted below.

Embedding fonts in Microsoft Word

Note: In my case, my chapter titles are in a non-standard font (AR Christy), which can be a large font. I have chosen to include only the characters used in that font to keep the file size to a minimum.

In the Next Post . . .

Phew! That was a marathon in itself. Once you’ve compiled the interior of the book into your template, it’s time to package all this literary genius into a file to send off to your next steps.

Phew!

In the next post, we will upload this file into CreateSpace, finalize the interior, and create a cover.

Quest for Stories: So You Want to be an Author

November 18, 2015 / Rissa Renae

It’s here! The last leg of that marathon sprint to the finish line of the ‘Self-Publishing’ race. Are you ready? Do you have all the tools to succeed? Let’s find out!

IRS, and Royalties, and ISBN’s! Oh My!

The mere mention of the IRS can strike fear into most hearts, but the IRS is just like a big burly puppy dog. As long as you supply the right documents and information (or the occasional belly rub), you’ll find out the IRS isn’t really that scary, even for foreigners. And neither are bank accounts or ISBN’s!

CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier

You’ve got to start somewhere, and I’ve found that starting with the CreateSpace template that is suitable for your book is the easiest way to get the eBook (and the physical book) going.

CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier (Part II)

All the CreateSpace-ness was just too much to fit into one post, so here’s part two: finalizing the interior, uploading the cover, and proofing your book – both digitally and physically!

High Calibre eBooks with Calibre

And now, the piece de resistance, we will publish our eBook!

To the eBook and Beyond!

Q4S Part 1: IRS, and Royalties, and ISBN’s! Oh My!

November 18, 2015 / Rissa Renae

Welcome to the first part in my self-publishing series. In this post, we’ll talk about gathering the tools you’ll need to prepare for self-publishing. This entails gathering all the identifying information for yourself and your book, such as information to feed the IRS, places to stash all the cash you’ll be making from your novels, and obtaining an ISBN number to impress the ladies … I mean retailers.

So let’s get this out of the way (because it’s dull and boring!)

Keep The IRS Happy

Regardless of whether you are a US citizen or a citizen of another country, you must obtain either a Social Security Number (SSN for US citizens) or a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN for non-US citizens). This is because all the eBook retailers are based in the US where you must pay US taxes on the royalties you receive. Amazon, SmashWords, Barnes&Nobel (nook), and CreateSpace will not allow you to publish without one of these two numbers.

… or you’ll be dealing with these guys

If you’re a US citizen, you should already have your Social Security Number (SSN). If not, apply for one. SSN’s are obtained from the Social Security Agency, and not the IRS.

If you’re not a US citizen, you must apply for a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). TIN’s must be obtained from the IRS, not the Social Security Agency. To apply, go to the IRS website and search for “TIN”.

Tax Withholding

For US Citizens, the IRS will take about 30% of your royalties as tax. Ouch, I know. The good thing is that all eBook retailers will handle the setup and the tax forms for you. At the end of the tax year, most sites will let you choose whether to receive the necessary form by email or snail mail.

I’ll take that.

For non-US Citizens, some sites will tell you if your country qualifies for tax breaks on your book royalties. This means that instead of the IRS withholding 28-30% of your royalties for tax purposes, you can apply to have a lesser withholding tax applied.

The eBook retailer may walk you through this: you will need to fill out a W-8BEN form, citing the specific article of the tax treaty you’re claiming to reduce your tax. Most sites will fill this out for you automatically. I only know Canada’s tax treaty; your country may have their own, and sites like Smashwords will be kind enough to tell you what you need to file.

Canada’s provision article is: pages 36 and 37 of IRS Publication 901: U.S. Tax Treaties. (as of 2015)

But be sure to double-check the information provided to you on the site, or look up the tax treaty yourself. The IRS loves to change their documentation every year.

Royalties to PayPal

Only Smashwords will allow you to set up PayPal as a payment option. All other sites require banking information to wire you the money. In some cases you can opt to get physical cheques, but the threshold is usually around $75-$100 USD before they will cut you a cheque.

Sssss-mokin!

If you don’t have a PayPal account, all you need is a credit card and an email to sign up. The PayPal threshold is generally smaller, around $10 in earnings must be amassed before a payment is made.

Royalties to a Bank Account

In order to set up wire transfer, you’ll need a whole bunch of numbers and codes to set up your bank account information on all eBook retailer sites. Most banks will give you this info online. If not, call your bank and ask for the following:

BIC or SWIFT code (11 characters)
Institution code (3 digits)
Branch code (5 numbers)
Your account number where you want the moolah deposited

Keep this info safe and keep it secret. You’ll be entering this information in every site where you want to sell.

ISBN Numbers

Even though most retailers will issue you an ISBN, I would still highly recommend getting your own. The benefits of having your own comes when you want to move to international distribution or to physical distribution, such as getting your books picked up by bookstores and libraries.

Tra-la-la-la. I love books with ISBN numbers.

If you allow the retailer to issue you an ISBN, then the retailer becomes something called the Imprint, or the Trade Name/Publisher. This will have negative side effects when trying to move out of the US and the internet as eBook retailers are not recognized as ISBN agencies. You’ll also appear unprofessional and less legit as an author if you didn’t bother to get this number for yourself. In the end, you will have to obtain ISBN’s from a valid agency anyway, so you might as well start off right.

Only ISBN’s issued from the US ISBN Agency or ISBN Canada are recognized in bookstores, and outside of North America. US ISBN’s are around $125 each. Canadian ISBN’s are free for Canadian residents and Canadian citizens. ISBN’s from other sources may be ‘resold’ and therefore are unusable in Amazon and Barnes&Nobel, so beware and do not buy from so-called Discount ISBN sites.

I would recommend getting at least 2 ISBN numbers, as you will need: 1 ISBN for the eBook, 1 ISBN for the physical book.

Gather Your Tools, Brave Author!

So before you move on to the next steps, make sure you have your SSN/TIN, banking info, and ISBNs. It will make the publishing process move along much smoother. There’s already enough to do during publishing that you don’t want to be scrambling for this information at the last minute.

See, the road to becoming an author is not so hard! It’s just like those old 16-bit RPG’s: Incredibly manual with many silly folk to deal with along the way.

I loved this game!

Which author will you be?

Q4S Part 5: To the eBook and Beyond!

Prerequisites

Transfer from CreateSpace to Amazon KDP

Welcome to KDP!

Paperback Temporarily Out Of Stock

Go Forth, Published Author!

Q4S Part 4: High Calibre eBooks with Calibre

Prerequisites

Importing the Interior File

Scary eBook Coding. Ooooh

Renaming the eBook part files

Breaking a File into Multiple Files

Table of Contents

Native TOC

Embeded TOC

Pretty up the code

Minor Tweeks

Centering Text

Adding a Website Link

Saving the EPUB

In the Next Post . . .

Q4S Part 3: CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier – Part II!

Prerequisites:

Uploading the Interior

Cover and Spine

Completing Your Book

Final Proofing

In the Next Post . . .

Q4S Part 2: CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier

Prerequisites

Styling the Book

Compiling the Front Matter

The Book Itself (Body)

Ending Matter

Finishing Up

In the Next Post . . .

Quest for Stories: So You Want to be an Author

Q4S Part 1: IRS, and Royalties, and ISBN’s! Oh My!

Keep The IRS Happy

Tax Withholding

Royalties to PayPal

Royalties to a Bank Account

ISBN Numbers

Gather Your Tools, Brave Author!

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