If you want to start an internet home business selling various training courses and digital properties as eBooks, you need to prepare your materials in a format which is both easy to read and visually appealing. Although there is a saying that you should not judge a book by its cover, you should strive to create an attractive cover for your eBooks which you can then use in ads and other promotional materials.
Of course, publishing an eBook through a publishing house is quite expensive – way beyond your budget. On the other hand, you cannot simply convert your text editor file into a PDF and sell it to people because they will notice the hasty work and will tax you for it. You need to win their goodwill, not get negative reviews for the low quality of the products you are selling.
So, how can you balance the need to offer your clients a great-looking eBook and the small budget you have available? The answer is: you have to self-publish it. Since you are not the only small business owner who wants to do this, there are a lot of self-publishing tools available online.
Today we will present you some of the most popular self-publishing tools to choose from:
1. Calibre
Calibre is the simplest tool to edit your book in a multitude of formats. Thus, you can prepare a PDF version, a MOBI or an EPUB version, in order to offer your clients the choice of format to suit the reading devices they are using. Calibre offers you real-time preview to all the edits you are making, so you can always undo a wrong edit.
This simple but useful self-publishing tool is free to use and is available both for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.
2. Pressbooks
Pressbooks helps you design great-looking books with graphics, photos, and various other design specifications. It is a complex platform where you can edit and self-publish any kind of book, from fiction to academic paper, ensuring a professional, visually appealing look for each of them.
You can create and edit your book for free, with the Pressbooks watermark. When you are ready to publish it, either as an eBook or a printed book, the price for removing the watermark starts at $19.99 per book.
3. Slicebooks
Not sure how to split your book in chapters and sections? Upload it in Slicebooks and this simple but versatile tool does it for you. Plus you can repurpose old content by mixing it, and creating new titles and new cover designs. The basic pricing tier starts at only $9 per month and it allows you to edit and self-publish up to 10 books every month. For a small business owner, this is type of service is more than sufficient.
4. Leanpub
Leanpub helps you edit and publish eBooks in EPUB and MOBI format. This platform publishes your books for sale and offers you the opportunity to post the link to your website. Moreover, you will find useful tips helping you determine a fair price for your book. The price for using this online self-publishing platform is between $4.99 and $10.99 per book.
5. Lulu
Lulu takes your self-publishing efforts to new heights. It offers a comprehensive DIY toolkit to prepare your book for publishing and a free ISBN (a unique code number for every book published anywhere in the world. Once published, your book is distributed at no cost to you to the Apple iBook store, Barnes & Noble Nook Bookstore and on the Lulu Marketplace. You can also benefit from other paid services, starting at $99. Otherwise, Lulu will only cost 10% of your sales.
And now, after you know of all these amazing opportunities to get published, all you have to do is start preparing your first eBook.