Self-Publishing Your Book in Multiple Formats: How to Set Up Your Book in Print, E-Book, Audiobook, Video, Online Course, and PDF Formats

INTRODUCTION

Today, a book can be published in multiple formats.  Traditionally, books have been in print as hardbacks and paperbacks. 

But between 1998 and 2003, the first e-books struggled onto the market and Sony introduced the Librié, the first e-book reader with electronic ink technology. Then, in 2007, everything changed with the introduction of the Kindle by Amazon, which was the real dawn of the e-book, just a decade ago.

Around this time, in about 2008, the new print-on-demand technology opened up new opportunities for publishing short runs of books, rather than depending on a printing press for a minimum run of several hundred books or more.  The beginnings of the rapid growth of the self-publishing industry dates back to then.  And in the last five years, the industry has grown even more rapidly to over a million books published a year.

Meanwhile, many new formats have emerged for books. Ironically, audiobooks have had a long history, dating back the beginnings of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877.  As a result of this new invention, many short, spoken word recordings were sold on cylinder in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  However, these round cylinders were limited to about four minutes each, so it was impractical to publish a book.  Later flat platters made it possible to record up to 12 minutes, but this was still impractical for longer works.  So for a while, audiobooks were created mainly for the blind and for poetry, plays, and other short works.

Then, in the 1970s, the cassette tape gained popularity.  Though it was invented in 1963 and a few libraries began distributing books on tape, the invention of the Walkman and other cheap players led to the beginnings of the commercial market, which really took off in 1986.  The market grew even more with the introduction and growing popularity of the CD in 2003 through 2008.  After that, digital downloads became increasingly popular, and more recently smart phones and tablets have provided another platform, so now audiobooks are available in multiple formats, including cassette tapes, CDs, MP3, and downloadable digital formats.  Audible, purchased by Amazon in 2008, has become the largest audiobooks distributor.

Plus now books have been turned into videos and online courses, while chapters have been turned into articles and blogs that are used as promotional introductions to the full book, while blogs and articles are often combined into books.

Self-Publishing Your Book in Multiple Formats is designed to help writers take advantage of the many formats for publishing and selling books.  It features an introduction to the different platforms and how to prepare and publish your manuscript in each format.  By doing so, you can take advantage of the multiple approaches for selling your book to customers who like to read books in different ways.

To this end, the book features the following topics:

- preparing your manuscript for publication,

- deciding how to publish your book,

- deciding on the format for your book,

- choosing a print-on demand platform,

- creating an audiobook,

- hiring a narrator for your audiobook,

- creating your book as an online course,

- organizing your course and creating videos and

      other materials,

- creating your book or chapters as a PDF.

Future books in the series will deal with how to build an audience and market and promote your book in different formats.

CHAPTER 1: PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLICATION

A question that many authors ask me is How should I self-publish my book? 

Some have been introduced to self-publishing by workshops, seminars, and online pitches that offer them an opportunity to write, publish, and distribute their book for anywhere from about $1500 to $35,000.  The less expensive offers are essentially from printers who set up your ready-to print book for distribution on Amazon or Ingram, plus they might feature your book in an online catalog of their books; Some add a few thousand if you need help in getting your book ready for print.  The more expensive programs of $15,000 and up generally help you get your book written by advising you on how to outline it, write or record and transcribe chapters, and then edit the manuscript into your final