Hi. Just uploaded next chapter of Off The Deep End, the only story in which the years of posting duration has exceeded the years covered within the story.
Quick question - what's the deal with publishing on Bookapy and Amazon both? I understand that if it's on SOL we should have a Bookapy version of we're going to offer it for sale - is it Bookapy exclusive though? I just want to maximise channels to stop the content scraping shitheels and assert my rights. M
what's the deal with publishing on Bookapy and Amazon both?
As I understand it the problem lies by Amazon. Amazon wants exclusivity for some distribution channels and in general insists on equal prizes for readers. If you want to get the same amount from different channels, e.g. Amazon, Bookapy, ..., then you run into problems because Amazon takes a higher share than others. If you want the same amount per book for you, then the Amazon final prize would be higher and Amazon wont have this.
BTW, I answered because I'm no author and if Amazon doesn't like my view they can't threat me.
HM.
There are no restriction in regards to Bookapy, beyond the format used. However, Amazon have issues with their system and push very hard to make books exclusive to them by having different royalty rates. The odd thing is you can also get the top Amazon royalty rates via publishing with one of their partners. Amazon also have pricing restrictions for minimum and maximum prices.
Thanks for the answers, folks. I know that you can't enrol in KDP if you aren't exclusive to Amazon. I just wanted to make sure that it was possible to list in multiple channels.
I seem to recall reading somewhere a while back that you're not allowed to send readers from SOL to other online sources - you have to use Bookapy. Is this right?
I seem to recall reading somewhere a while back that you're not allowed to send readers from SOL to other online sources - you have to use Bookapy. Is this right?
https://storiesonline.net/author/posting_guidelines.php
Rule 17A:
Book Sales: Any promotional links or text to sell your complete books are allowed only if they point to our book shop Bookapy.com. Progress must be made at least weekly until the work is complete on Storiesonline. You authorize WLPC to complete the posting on Storiesonline in case you are unable to do it yourself.
If you enroll in Amazon's Select program (Kindle Unlimited where you get paid by pages read rather than books sold) you must be exclusive to Amazon, otherwise you can sell your novel anywhere you want. In Select, you enroll in 90-day periods with automatic renewal. So if you do enroll in Select, you have to unenroll and then wait for the 90-day period to expire. I did that when Bookapy became available and it was a pain.
The price on Bookapy must be the same or more than what you sell it for on Amazon. If Amazon finds out you're selling it for less elsewhere they will lower the price to match it.
If your intention is to keep people from stealing your novel, I guess you should publish it on Amazon. But if it's to make sales, remember your novel is competing with millions of others on Amazon. Chances of someone finding yours is low. KDP's search will be biased against you unless you have a lot of sales.
Publishing on Bookapy is easier than on Amazon. First, you have full control of the formatting. On Amazon, they convert what you submit (and not always correctly). On Bookapy, you submit the finished product. It's also quicker on Bookapy. An update takes effect immediately on Bookapy. It takes a day or two on Amazon waiting for review. You only have to worry about a single currency on Bookapy for pricing. On Amazon you need to convert it to other currencies where the novel is offered and take into account things like VAT. The rules are more lenient on Bookapy. For example, the age of characters having sex, incest, etc.
On Amazon, they convert what you submit (and not always correctly).
Depending on how you submit it. I always submit a PDF for dead tree and ePub for ebook — the former get passed through intact and the latter with minimal conversion (mainly to strip unsupported HTML tags).
Anything else, the results can be dicey.
I always submit a PDF for dead tree and ePub for ebook — the former get passed through intact and the latter with minimal conversion (mainly to strip unsupported HTML tags).
No, the conversion on your epubs is far more extensive than just stripping unsupported HTML flags. It's a full format conversion to the Kindle AZW format which is wholly unrelated to epub.
the latter with minimal conversion (mainly to strip unsupported HTML tags)
What Dominions Son said. Kindle readers don't read epub. I upload epub to Amazon and KDP converts it to the Kindle format (used to be mobi, now it's AZW3). And KDP takes liberties with the conversion.
Kindle format (used to be mobi, now it's AZW3)
From what I've read on it, AZW and AZW3 are extensions of mobi. It's why even the latest generation of Kindles can still read mobi ebooks.
Thank you to everyone for your advice and the discussion. I have had a look around the Bookapy site and I don't see any specifics for what you need to prepare to upload.
I gather from the above that you need an ePub, a Mobi and a PDF - easy enough to make and ePub in Pages, export as a PDF and take the ePub into Calibre to clean up and generate a Mobi.
I had a search for a Bookapy formatting thread, but nothing?
The Bookapy site has options for people to have the ebooks as either an e-pub, a mobi file, or a pdf file. Most word processors now have a pdf creation process, also if you send a message to Lazeez he'll tell you how to use the systems he has in place to create the mobi a epub files.
I sue the process I use in my free book (URL below) to create clean html file from which I create a small epub file and a small mobi file with Calibre - I write my stories using Libre Office and use it's built-in system to create the pdf file. However, that requires me to have the story file formatted properly for how I want the pdf to display.
https://bookapy.com/s/8/fiction-writing-and-style-guide
what you need to prepare to upload
Bookapy allows the buyer to buy the ebook in either epub, mobi, or PDF format. You don't have to offer it for sale in all three so you don't have to upload all three. But you might as well.
I format my novel in Word and feed the docx file into Calibre, doing 3 conversions, one for each of the three file types. Then I upload those files to Bookapy.
I format my novel in Word and feed the docx file into Calibre, doing 3 conversions, one for each of the three file types. Then I upload those files to Bookapy.
I write in plain text in BBEdit on the Mac, using the standard SOL simple markup (underscores, asterisks, and curly brace commands). This allows simple upload to SOL. I have a script which I run against the text file, then feed it in to Scrivener to prepare the ePub, Kindle, and PDF formats.
I could use Scrivener to write, but having plain text files makes global search of 12,000,000 words in thousands of files effectively instantaneous, and allows for global replace (including using regular expressions).