Having fun with Book-funnel
A way to deliver your books and more
Last week I whined about the state of my mailing list and discussed how to use magnets to attract readers and expand it. While some readers are okay with reading a chapter at a time on my website on a computer, others want to read on their e-readers, phone, or another device. That’s where a book delivery system comes in.
Step 1.
Bookfunnel suggests using Draft2Digital to convert your word document into a MOBI or ePub, so for a change, I followed directions.
I recommend the following: remove your title page (you create a new one on the platform) and check that there are only single lines (one return) between segments. Scene breaks (***) should also be noted. Make sure you have your cover art as well as your word document, read to go.
I really liked Draft2Digital, other than wishing there were a few more choices when selecting a "style" for my book and besides one issue, it worked as advertised. This is a miracle because if it involves technology, I’ll find a way to make a mess of it.
Because I used epigraphs at the beginning of several chapters, it caused incorrect spacing. When I reached out to a customer service rep, he turned me on to a solution—go with a non-fiction (textbook) format, and it worked perfectly. He also sent me a link that provided other bits of helpful advice.
After I was done, the book read like an actual book, with a Table of Contents, a title, and a dedication page and links back to my webpage.
Some book styles also offer Drop or Phrase Cap options and decorations between scenes. If your book doesn’t contain epigraphs you should have enough to choose from for making a digital book.
Step 2.
Preview the book online on the Draft2Digital website before downloading the file to your computer.
If you find mistakes, you can go back to the beginning and upload your edited word document again. After you are done previewing, and if this is a free book, you download either a MOBI or ePub file. At this point I read my entire book on my own e-reader to make sure everything was as it should be.
If you wish to publish your book (distribute it in stores) you can proceed to step 4. This is where Draft2Digital assigns an ISBN# (or you can use your own if you made that choice earlier) and continue with the distribution process. They can distribute your digital book on amazon, Books, Kobo, and many others for a percentage of your sales price.
You can also order print books from this site. This is where I have a few questions. How a printed book appears matters because there is no digital program "cleaning up the document." Books, Kindle and Kobo can make your document look better, but if the document is leaving from Draft2Digital and going to print, I would need to know more about the process. Again, I’m giving away free copies of a digital book, not an actual printed book. A book's formatting is essential and critical in a printed book’s design. That's why professional formatters (typesetters) exist— back to our digital textbook.
After securing my ePub (Nook, Kobo, iPad) and MOBI (Kindle) books, I could now deliver this directly to my reader, but do I want total responsibility for making sure this document is downloaded correctly? Do I want the reader to ask me for assistance with download issues? No, is the answer.
Step 3.
The answer—bookfunnel. Besides its ability to deliver magnet books, bookfunnel can:
Send advance copies to ARC readers.
Create landing pages for your free books without a webpage.
Sell books too.
Expand your mailing list because it collects email addresses for you.
Monitors your downloads in real-time.
Find new readers with Author Swaps and other promos.
Create downloadable codes that you can print on your postcard or business card to give out at conferences or other places where you want to share your book.
Provide further marketing tips in its weekly mailings.
Assist your readers with any download issues
The First-Time Author plan of $20.00 a year is affordable but only provides some of what most authors require. You'll likely require the midlevel author plan ($100.00 a year), but you’ll need to be the judge of that. They explain the benefits of each plan on their website.
My experience on bookfunnel:
·They made it easy to set up an account and switch plans. It’s also easy to step down into a lesser plan if you changed your mind.
Easy to upload a book and cover; and convert them to other e-reader formats. This way, no matter what kind of e-reader the person has, they can order the correct one.
You can design and customize your landing pages. I used the colors on my website. I'm still working on adding my logo.
You can select a landing page that collects no addresses or collects them based on your chosen plan.
If you need to replace your book with a new edition they make it easy. Simply go back and reload a new copy of your book.
You can have multiple landing pages for one book. One that does not collect emails (perhaps people have already subscribed to your mailing list) and another landing page for promotions where you collect email addresses.
Joining promos is relatively easy, but you must read each one carefully to ensure you're a good fit. Some request a certain number of people on your mailing list, some are only for specific genres, etc. Various users run these promos; you apply for inclusion. Some promos are free books, and some are books on sale. If accepted into the promo, they list your text in the promotion, and all the participants provide that link in their newsletter. You must include the link in your newsletter and report the date you're doing this. It must take place during the time frame of the promotion. Your author's reputation depends on this. It won't bode well for your author reputation if you don't provide the link and/or no one opens your email. Your author's reputation score is a score generated under your profile. I can't comment much more on this until I've participated in several promos.
Count how many times I use the word easy in this article. We have enough things sucking up our time. We don't need more. Competitors of BookFunnel are few, but one—ProlificWorks seems to offer some of the same services. There are several others, but they only provide bits and pieces of what BookFunnel can do, and at this point, the ease of use of both Draft2Digital and BookFunnel has me sold.
Please comment and share your experience with BookFunnel or other platforms you have used to download your books. Have an easy week. Ha!
Every writer has to find their own path, and next week guest author Kim Ligon will write about hers.
Kim has been writing stories for most of her life—some on paper and some only in her head. She has lots of source material growing up as the oldest child in a large family in a small town in Wisconsin. Her father was a veterinarian so there were not only lots of children around, but all manner of house pets and farm animals too. Her love of reading comes from her mother who was seldom seen sitting down without a book in her hand. After a demanding career in healthcare information technology, she is now getting to do all the creative things she loves which includes writing her stories to share with you. She lives with her chief encourager and personal romantic hero, her husband of almost forever, in Alabama. Please check her website: www.spinningromance.com and come back next week to read and comment.
Obviously, I have trouble counting. Ha!