Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is the art – and it can be an art – of publishing a book without the help of a dedicated book publisher. The author publishes the book – in digital and/or printed format – themselves.

Self-publishing can be complicated and frustrating, which is why most authors use self-publishing companies to help them through the process – especially if the author wants the book to be printed.

Once we receive your files we manually convert your file/document/book into the two most popular eBook formats: mobi (Amazon Kindle) and ePub (Apple, B&N, Kobo etc). These two formats are easily the most popular and widely used – between them providing compatibility with virtually every reading platform there is (we can, of course, provide you with finished books in any other format you require).

If you require a printed book as well as an ebook we can provide Print-Ready PDFs can send to a specialist print-on-demand company such as Createspace or Lightning Source. Just let us know and we can help you find the right company and let you know their requirements.

Many self-publishing companies will offer a lot of inhouse services from book cover design, to printing, to eBook conversion, to publishing. This often means that they are “jack of all trades, master of none”, rather than specialists. For a successful book, though, specialists are what is needed – especially if the end product is to be a professional, properly laid out, well built eBook. This is where we come in – Ebooks by Design are the specialists in eBook conversion and creation and in order to provide our clients with a full range of eBook services we have teamed up with specialists in copy-editing and book cover design. Our partners are experts who work closely with authors and publishers providing professional services at reasonable prices. Check out their pages within our site by clicking on the links above.

Ebook Conversion – We can convert your book from any format to any format. The end result is an eBook that we and you can be proud of. For more details see our EBook Conversion page.

Scanning – If you have a printed manuscript/already printed book rather than a digital copy, the conversion process is longer and more complicated. It will need to be scanned into a computer in order for the conversion process to start. The resulting scanned page images are converted into editable text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

OCR – We use OCR software to convert the scanned images and then correct any mistakes – OCR programmes typically cannot read every word in a document and they substitute the area with what they think should be there. The amount of mistakes will depend on the document being used and can range from very few to up to half the document in the very worst cases. Each line then has to be compared and corrected against the original document – an often long and painstaking process.

Copy-editing – Copy-editing is the work of editing a book or publication to improve the style, consistency and accuracy of text. If you want to create a polished, professional ebook that is of the standard of a traditionally printed book, then copy-editing is an essential part of the eBook conversion process. Copy-editing incorporates the proofreading service (see below), but as well as ensuring accuracy and consistency in the text it goes a step further to improve the writing style. Different levels of copy-editing exist, depending on your preference and the state of the text. Ebooks by Design have teamed up with an experienced copy editor in the publishing industry. To find out more about the copy-editing service, visit our Ebook Copy-editing page.

Proofreading – Proofreading is the very important final quality-check of your publication. A book is judged by the quality of the writing. It does not matter if your writing is great, if it is marred by errors in spelling and grammar then your reader will have a low opinion of your book and you as the author. Very few writers are able to create error-free text; the author is too close to the text to see problems. But a professional proofreader will find and correct many mistakes. The proofreader corrects spelling, punctuation and grammar, such as misplaced apostrophes, missing full stops, incorrect subject-verb agreements and typos. As well as ensuring accuracy, proofreading looks to make the ebook consistent in style throughout – for example, if you spell realise with an ‘s’ on page one, you can’t spell it with a ‘z’ on page three. We work in partnership with The Book Specialist Charlie Wilson, who works for top publishers as a proofreader. To find out more about the proofreading service, visit our Ebook Proofreading page.

ISBN – If you wish to sell your book many of the major retailers require your book to have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number); this is a unique number that identifies your book. Every edition of a book has to have a separate ISBN, i.e. an ebook will have a different ISBN from a printed book, the ePub version has to have a different number from the Kindle version etc. (Amazon do not require you to have an ISBN but if you wish your book to be recognised by your national library you will need one.) EBooks by Design can provide you with one or if you want to supply your own you can buy one from an ISBN agency.

Nielsen UK Book Agency for the UK & Ireland.

Bowker US ISBN Agency for the USA.

Library and Archives Canada for Canada.

ISBN Agency Australia for Australia.

ISBN Agency New Zealand for New Zealand.

We can provide you with ISBN information on other countries if you require.

Publishing – We can help and guide you to get your book published. We will help and explain how to get published on the major retailers’ websites. Unlike other conversion houses – who charge, and charge a healthy amount, for this service as an extra – we automatically include it with our basic pricing package. We can also upload your book to the retailer for you for free. See our EBook Publishing page for more details.

Book Cover Design – The cover of an eBook or printed book is an essential part of it’s design. A professionally designed and stand out cover can be the difference between a reader giving your book a second look and picking it out from the many other titles on display or ignoring it completely. That is why we believe that you need a specialist designer and not a general graphic designer. EBooks by Design has teamed up with specially selected specialist book cover designers who are reasonably priced and dedicated to producing the best cover for your book possible. We have found that this works out better and cheaper for our customers than having an inhouse designer. If you would rather that we handle the contact with the designer we can of course. See the links below to take you to the book cover designers page within our site:

Website Design – In today’s electronic world it is vital that you have your own website to promote your book and yourself – your readers will expect it. Here at EBooks by Design we can design your personal website and help you to publish it to the web. See our Website Design page or Contact us for more details.

These are just some of our services – check out our Services page for a full list.

Check out our Pricing page. If you have any questions please visit our FAQ page or Contact us.