Alejandro Aguayo - How To Publish An Ebook Without Going Nuts... And So Somebody Reads It

How to publish an eBook without going nuts

And so somebody reads it

Alejandro Aguayo

Translated by

Charlotte Coombe

2014 Alejandro Aguayo @JandroAguayo. In collaboration with Blanca Miosi, Lidia Herbada, Enrique Laso, Bruno Nievas, Javier Muiz, Largo Javariega, Roberto Lpez-Herrero, Gabri Rdenas, Blas Ruiz Grau, J.C Kdell, Frank Spoiler and Mariela Saravia.

2nd Edition March 2014

Cover Design by AguayoLab, model @MoucheBleue

Edited by AguayoLab Editorial.

Translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Coombe (CMC Translations).

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1494999315

ISBN-10: 1494999315

I f you find yourself reading this eBook, then it is probably because you want to publish a book. Congratulations! You have already taken the most important step: you have made the decision.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Alex, and like so many other people I know, my life did a complete U-turn during the economic crisis. Just like many others, I had a good job that vanished. Far from being discouraged, instead I set out on a crazy adventure to achieve something that was still on my bucket list: publishing books.

Luckily I had a lot of help from friends I made on social networks. A lot of them have contributed to this manual and I can assure you that they have huge experience in this field. Some of them have published their work with traditional publishers while self-publishing at the same time; others have turned down contracts, preferring to go it alone; there are even some who have set up their own publishing firms, giving others the chance to see their works published. These are the indie writers, the independent authors; the future of literature.

Years ago I had an interesting experience in this field. Along with a couple of friends, I set up a firm dedicated to publishing childrens books. Back then you needed to sell at least a couple of thousand copies to be able to adjust the price of the book even slightly. Fast-forward a few years and I was unemployed, so obviously my financial situation did not allow for such luxuries... And there was something called the eBook.

I did as much research as I could into electronic books, into Amazon, Bubok, Casa del Libro and other similar shops; into self-publishing; into how to create a logical table of contents (I did not know that illogical ones even existed!) and a tonne of things which seemed absolutely alien to me at first. I decided on Amazon for various reasons: sales volume, visibility and ease of use. I know that there are other systems, but in the end I went with Jeff Bezos and his store, and it seems to have worked out pretty well for me.

Finally, I published my first book. I came across so many obstacles in the process that at times I thought to myself that maybe this was not really for me. But on the other hand, so many people from social networks encouraged me to carry on that eventually I discovered this actually was my thing.

Along with good friends such as Javier Muiz, Largo Javariega, Mariela Saravia, Lidia Herbada, Roberto Lpez-Herrero (to whom I am personally grateful for letting me use his blog for a large part of this books material) Blanca Miosi, Enrique Laso, Bruno Nievas, Gabri Rdenas, Blas Ruiz Grau, JC Kdell, Frank Spoiler and others, I have gathered together all my knowledge and all my blunders in this manual, so that you can find out how to publish an eBook without going nuts... and so that somebody reads it.

Alejandro Aguayo @JandroAguayo

Madrid, January 2014

A n electronic book, digital book or cyberbook, also known as an e-book, eBook or ecobook, is an electronic or digital version of a book or text. The term may also refer to the device used to read such books, also known as an e-reader or e-book reader.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

BUT WHAT REALLY IS AN ELECTRONIC BOOK? We have just read a very widely accepted definition of what an eBook is. It is an electronic or digital version of a book or text. Is that all? No. An eBook also allows you to store and add links to a great deal more information than a paper book can. In an eBook you can link to videos, music, other texts or directly to web sites. If you decide to publish your work as an eBook you can make your story a total experience for your readers. Lets have a look at the visions of some of our contributing authors...

The electronic book is here to stay; that much is clear. Not just because it is more practical to be able to carry around the equivalent of two huge libraries in one tiny device, but also because it allows us authors to sell beyond our borders, without the need to hire a trailer. But some people either do not see this, or do not want to see it

I have a friend who has quite successfully published a novel with a traditional publisher who complains of how little control the author has over his book and of the scant or non-existent interest they show in his work. I won't start banging on about the (in my opinion) wonders of self-publishing, because that is what Alejandro is going to do throughout this book. But I can confirm that I, with a much lower eBook price, earn a lot more than my friend with the major publisher behind him.

Yes, it is true that a major publisher can promote you in ways that I can only dream about, but my friend is not Dan Brown (he writes better, actually) and they do not pay much attention to him or promote him properly, and his book is just one more in a catalogue of thousands of titles. He is the one who, via social networks, has boosted the sales of his novel, by doing the work that his publisher should have been doing. And here is the strange thing: his publisher has set the price of the digital edition of his book ridiculously high (almost identical to the price of the paper edition) and he hardly sells any eBooks. This is to be expected. We are still in the free digital craze, and, unless it is at a very low price (which is possible), if we are paying for something, we want to be able to touch it.

I wonder whether they are trying to boycott the digital market? Is this the new it sounds better on vinyl because CDs are digital that we were hearing thirty years ago? Are these traditional publishers aware that they have lost this war? Certain press at the time spoke a lot about how terrible was when Amazon came to Spain, for example, and the damage it was supposedly going to cause to booksellers and publishers. Today, they have all started to toe the line and I know of bookstores that even buy copies from Jeff Bezos huge online store because it is cheaper for them to.

Roberto Lpez-Herrero @ElExpecial

Of all the doors that will take your book out onto the streets, self-publishing is the only one that is always open. The crisis and the current situation among publishers mean that devoting time and effort knocking on other doors is less and less worth it, especially if it is your first novel and nobody knows who you are, as was, and is, my case.

Largo Javariega @LargoJavariega

Over the last three years I have seen cases of writers using online platforms such as Amazon or just blogs to connect directly with their readers, and initiating a dialogue between both parties has shown amazing results. So, given all of this, I said to myself, why not give it a try?

Javier Muiz @JavianMuniz

In my experience with publishers, I only received automated responses telling me that their catalogues were full, in some cases up until 2017. Annoyed, I wrote a load of nonsense and sent it to them, passing it off as a manuscript, and I received the same response. Imagine my face. They dont even read their emails.

Blas Ruiz Grau @BlasRGEscritor

So, are you ready to give your potential readers an experience that goes beyond mere text? Whether the answer is a resounding yes or a less resounding well, I just want them to read my work, then you gave come to the right place.