Have You Made a Kindle Version of Your eBook? (You Should!)
by Antone Roundy | 6 Comments | eBooks
If you distribute eBooks (whether free or for sale), have you created a Kindle version yet? I haven't. But I'm going to!
If you don't think you need to (or that you can't since you don't have a Kindle), here are a few thoughts for you to chew on.
* A few days ago, I noticed that my brother had Kindle versions of the books he's selling on Amazon. I emailed him and asked for copy of one. In his reply, he mentioned that he sells as many Kindle copies as physical copies. That was the first surprise that started my eyes opening.
* The next came today, after Michel Fortin pointed me toward this infographic:
This data is for more than just the Kindle, but look at the growth rate. Sales of eBooks are exploding. And devices like the Kindle are a big part of that.
* What's Amazon's #1 best selling product? The Kindle. Do you think there might be a few people out there who'd like to read your eBook on their Kindles? Absolutely.
"But," you say, "they can read the PDF version on a Kindle."
True. But as I mentioned in my Kindle review, reading PDFs on the Kindle is far from ideal.
How do you convert an eBook to Kindle format?
I've done it two ways myself.
First, if you have a Kindle, you can email an HTML version of your eBook to an address that Amazon gives you. They'll convert it and deliver it to you either by email, or wirelessly to your Kindle. Check out my review for info on how to get this done for free, and details of a few HTML tags you'll want to insert into your eBook.
Here's the link:
http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=268627&s=1&k=DE83A7B3C3764D19B870FEA61FA512D3Second, you can use a free app like Mobipocket Creator.
To check the formatting, use any of Amazon's free apps for reading Kindle books on a computer (click the image to the left for info and to download).
In the next few days, I'll be creating Kindle versions of many, if not all, of my eBooks. Most of mine are freebies that I use for lead generation. But I've got a few that may end up being my first entries into selling straight from Amazon.com.
January 27th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Great post. Funny thing is, right after I read your post, Mashable came out with this:
http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/kindle-books-outselling-paperbacks/
It says Amazon's Kindle books are outselling paperbacks. ;)
January 28th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Michel you just beat me to it!
I saw the Mashable article and so was drawn to this blog post.
I have a number of PDF titles that I'm going to have to convert to Kindle format.
Thanks for the useful info guys, as always.
January 28th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
The Kindle version of Podcasting Step-by-Step has been submitted to Amazon, and is awaiting review.
If you're going to use Mobipocket Creator, editing your eBook in HTML format might be a good idea. If you import a PDF into it, it converts it to HTML before saving the final file, and may goof some things up, so you'll probably end up tweaking the HTML anyway.
January 29th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
There's some 'deja-vu' here = I just finished uploading my '1st' book . . .
Fairly easy, once you know what 'they' want...
January 29th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Oddly enough, there was a "Book Webinar", by some top publishing companies, just a few days ago.
I missed it, but I have the link to the 'archive' IF anyone is interested . . .
January 29th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Here's the link:
http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=268627&s=1&k=DE83A7B3C3764D19B870FEA61FA512D3