• Survey
  • Book Becky to speak
  • The book: Small Town Rules
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Ebook basics

By Becky McCray

A friend asked me about the basics of ebook publishing. I offered to pull together some resources, and I thought you might be interested in the answer, too. An ebook is one way to spread your ideas online. You can make them free or put them up for sale.

The term ebook can mean any electronically published info. Length can be short, with just a few pages, or as long as a regular printed book, or even longer. The format can be any electronic format. Some ebooks are published just as a standard website or a blog. Most are in PDF. Some are set up in special formats for readers, like the Kindle or iPad.

To get yourself going, start with these basics.

  • Marketing expert Seth Godin explains why you should write an ebook. 
  • Adobe is an acknowledged leader in ebook software. They have an excellent resource page: Create eBooks.
  • Publishing eBooks: Kindle, iPad, Nook, Kobo? from Gizmodo tells you about getting your document ready for the various eReaders. 

Copyright
For US residents, your publication is automatically copyrighted as soon as you publish it. If you want to, include a copyright notice. That’s the “(c) 2010 by Your Name.” Any extra wording is up to you.

If it’s a free ebook, why not make it easy to share? Use a Creative Commons license, and people can tell how you intend it to be shared. Stop by Creative Commons Choose a License page to get started.

Pretty Graphics
My friend specifically asked about those pretty “looks just a like a real book” graphics you see on some pages advertising ebooks. I personally don’t use ’em. I just use a flat graphic taken from my cover design. If you are good with any graphics software, you can make your own. If not, you can purchase specially-designed software to do just that, or work with a graphic designer. For a simple task like this, you might look at crowdSPRING or fiverr.

Step by Step Basics
Here’s the easy step by step instructions at the most basic level.

  1. Get a word processor that saves in PDF. Google Docs (free), Microsoft Word (not free) and Open Office (free) work fine. 
  2. Write something worth sharing or selling. 
  3. Print or save in PDF. 
  4. It’s now officially an ebook. 
If you want to give it away for free, it’s time to distribute it. You could email it to your Posterous blog. That will upload and store the PDF for download by anyone. You can also post it to Scribd, your own blog or website, email it to friends, or distribute it any other way you can think of. 
If you want to sell it, you have to be a bit more cautious. You need to post it online, but not where everyone can find it. 
  • One easy option is e-junkie, an unfortunate name for a good service. There is a monthly fee, but they will host your file and manage downloads for you. It works well with PayPal to collect payments. 
  • I use PayPal to collect payments for my ebook, then direct customers to a special secret blog post where they can download the ebook. The file itself is in a folder on my web host. Low tech, but it works for my one paid booklet. 
If you’re curious about my ebooks, here are the links: 
  • Small business ideas for small towns ebook (free)
  • Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns (paid)
  • Social Media for Tourism Links and Resources (free)

What questions or resources do you have about ebooks?

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case - February 22, 2021
  • Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

July 15, 2010 Filed Under: resources, Small Biz 100

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Comments

  1. DazzlinDonna says

    July 15, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    I got tired of finding really ugly blank free ebook covers to use, so I made a few of my own to share with everyone. Feel free to use them. http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/?s=free+ebook+covers

  2. Becky McCray says

    July 15, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Thanks for sharing that resource, Donna.

  3. Paul Merrill says

    July 15, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    All I know is that reading a PDF on my iPod Touch is a hassle. The reader is fine (app: GoodReader) – but actually getting the file on the iPod is a major hassle.

    No iPad yet for me – that may be the solution.

  4. Becky McCray says

    July 16, 2010 at 12:13 am

    Paul, to get PDFs on my iPod Touch I upload them to my Evernote account. Then when I sync Everynote (which is super easy), the PDFs sync, too. I’m sure other people use different techniques.

  5. Becky McCray says

    July 28, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    If you’re ready to look into publishing on the various e-book reader platforms, Cnet has a good guide, How to self-publish an e-book.

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

What is holding us back? Why does every project take so long in small towns?

How any business can be part of downtown events by going mobile

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

Retailers: Fill all empty space, floor to ceiling

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2021 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in