Kindle Ebook Publishing

Ebook Publishing Services

For an additional fee we’ll create an ebook version of your printed book. We think that there is little evidence to suggest that self-published ebook-only editions (i.e. no printed version) are in demand in sufficient numbers to justify paying us to help you publish in ebook format only. This is because much of the work needed to publish in either printed or ebook format is the same, so that when we have published a printed book the extra cost of an ebook is restricted to our work to format the ebook file based on the edited and composed print-edition file.

Ebooks are great for fiction and works that are predominantly narrative with either no images, or relatively few images. Amazon’s charges for selling ebooks include a commission and a fee based on the file size. The more pictures you have in your ebook – the greater the fee.

Another aspect of ebook preparation to consider is that whereas a printed book opens and you view a spread of a left and right hand page, a tablet like a Kindle is like viewing a single page at a time. This doesn’t really matter in a novel or any narrative text, but printed illustrated books often rely on double page spreads to associate a picture with the relevant text. In addition, the rather handy Kindle feature of being able to scale text to your preferred size means that text and images are fluid and often end up on different pages – completely unlike the printed edition. There is a temptation to try and limit the effect of this by making the pictures smaller but that isn’t an attractive option if you have good images you want to display.

Ebook Publishing

An ebook is not a facsimile copy of a printed book. We won’t take commissions to publish ebooks that are reliant on making the ebook look like the printed book. There will be differences because:

•   The reader can vary the size of text on their Kindle device.
•   Kindle files use a limited set of computer code that restricts the way pages can be set out. Many design features seen in printed books and especially printed illustrated books, can not be reproduced on the Kindle.
•   We will prepare files in accordance with Amazon guidelines. However, there are several types of Kindle device and Kindle applications are hosted on a range of tablet devices. This can lead to the same file appearing differently on different devices. We will not alter a file to suit the specific characteristics of particular device because of the potential for unpredictable screen display on other devices.

Interestingly there is anecdotal evidence that people who buy ebooks are not buying fewer printed books – in other words people who like books are using the facility of ebooks as an additional resource not a replacement.

If you would like your book as an ebook edition we’ll be pleased to discuss this at any time before or after you place your initial order for your printed edition. We’ll create your ebook edition from the files used to publish your printed edition.