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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
 Posted - 04 November 2013 : 20:25:49
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I have an e-book up online for my wife over at Amazon, and it has been sitting on Amazon's Kindle press for sometime now with no sales.
Of course, it is the situation where they do not promote high traffic unless we give a larger percentage of sales over. Meanwhile, it literally just sits there unless someone peruses a category it is in or does a title search for it. A least that is how it seems.
I do better selling in person than online through a third-party such as Amazon (rights, licenses, royalties, legalese, etc.).
What I want is to just tell people to pay me directly and then download it from my web site using an encrypted link.
I think that the Kindle uses the MOBI format and the Nook uses the EPUB format. I am so out of the loop on technology, the learning curve seems daunting and deathly ill to me. So, here I am ... curious if anyone knows of how I can go about accomplishing such things and get closer to the curve than starting a million miles from it. 
What I want to do is take my wife's books which are in .doc format and convert them to these other formats. However, I do not want to use an online converter. That seems to get me back into legalese. Perhaps it doesn't at all. It just seems that way to me.
I'd like to download a program or even get a paid for program to do this. That way I can do it offline as well. I guess I can, I mean.
This brings up another point. I do not know how an owner of a Kindle or a Nook would get these files working on their technology, but there must be a way. I own neither but perhaps should.
Well, lots to think about, I know.
Anyone out there who can point me in the way I should go?
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Edited by - Etymon on 04 November 2013 20:28:35 |
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Carefree
Advanced Member
Philippines
4217 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 02:09:24
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| Of course! Nothing simpler. Just have to ask the right question(s) to get the answers you want. There is a SUPERB ebook manager/converter called "Calibre" that was created by a Russian guy which is free and open-source. It supports the following types (AZW3, CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, OEB, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, and TXTZ). |
Edited by - Carefree on 05 November 2013 02:10:09 |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 11:45:18
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I'll second the recommendation for Calibre - and the three formats I'd worry about working best are MOBI (Kindle), EPUB (just about every other eReader...), and PDF.
As for how someone gets the book to their device, most eReaders will connect to a Mac/PC and allow you to copy the files over as if they were removable storage. Some even have a way to email the file to your device.
As for handling the sales, depending on the nature of the book there may be other online stores that you could sell through and use a central website to direct traffic to Amazon and the others (Apple/iBooks and Google Play Books come to mind). That way you can divert all your energy into promoting the central website for the book and let Amazon/Apple/Google/etc. handle the selling, syncing, etc.
Sure they take their cut, but it's a lot easier on you and you can focus on selling the main website. |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 12:38:02
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Awesome! Thank you guys so much!
I am out of town at the moment, but I will download Calibre and see what I can figure out!  |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 12:50:55
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| Did I forget to mention how awesome you all are?! |
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Davio
Development Team Member
Jamaica
12217 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 15:27:00
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| No you didn't, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it. |
Support Snitz Forums
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MaGraham
Senior Member
USA
1297 Posts |
Posted - 05 November 2013 : 15:36:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Davio
No you didn't, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
You guys are AWESOME!
You guys are AWESOME!
You guys are AWESOME!
You guys are AWESOME!
You guys are AWESOME!
You guys are AWESOME!
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"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." - John Wesley |
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MaGraham
Senior Member
USA
1297 Posts |
Posted - 08 November 2013 : 10:11:04
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I'll share this info a friend shared with me.
"I use Open Office (a free word processing program that can covert word documents to PDF) and then I upload my PDF to PayHip. Payhip pays you via Paypal. You get buttons to use on your website or blog and it's free to use."
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"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." - John Wesley |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
Posted - 08 November 2013 : 21:27:28
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| Kewl! Thank you. |
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bobby131313
Senior Member
USA
1163 Posts |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
Posted - 11 November 2013 : 21:40:53
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Yes, we noticed this weekend that we are having a hard time converting from .doc to things such as .html
Do you have any recommendations for other editing software? |
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Carefree
Advanced Member
Philippines
4217 Posts |
Posted - 12 November 2013 : 00:34:29
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| This is the solution to your conversion problem. Don't save as .doc but save (from Word) as .rtf (rich text). Then calibre will accept it and save in any/all formats you desire. |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 12 November 2013 : 13:38:21
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Not as useful now, but it might be a good idea to create new (or copy/paste the existing) into Sigil - which publishes as a .epub - and then use Calibre to convert to .mobi.
I will second the notion of using .rtf as a more universally compatible document format. Just make sure the conversion from .doc to .rtf went well... it usually does, but usually isn't always. 
I've got a project on the back-burner that I intend to publish and the planned workflow is to write in Sigil, export to .epub and then use Calibre to convert to .mobi. From there, use Scribus to do a proper page layout/PDF. (the PDF and print will have more images/etc and a fancier layout since ... well, since we can ) |
Edited by - AnonJr on 12 November 2013 13:42:03 |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2395 Posts |
Posted - 12 November 2013 : 19:12:30
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| Thanks guys! |
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Publishing Questions?
