Go to Kindle Store, log out of your account, and you'll be able to see the price of your book in different regions

Self-publishing is changing. I think that in 2012 indie authors should go global. One of the important topics to raise is how to price books for international customers. My advice is simple: keep them low.

The report on top self-published Kindle books of 2011, which I’ve recently released, shows a downward trend in both the number of self-published books in Top 100 and the average price. One of the major reasons is the growing price competition.

The perception of $0.99 is not only affected by Kindle Daily Deal, but also by the fact that more and more legacy publishers offer their titles for $1.99 or less. Those books easier become popular, because they convince price-sensitive users not only with a price, but also with a reputation of the publisher.

This means that tagging the book with $0.99 price is not as effective as it was a year ago, when there were $0.99 self-published books and $5.99+ books from legacy publishers.

There is also one more factor, which encourages self-publishers to increase prices. If they enroll their books in KDP Select, they sooner or later come to the conclusion, that for a Prime member, who is eligible to borrow from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library only one book per month, getting for free the book with a regular price of $0.99 is not a deal at all.

Authors who sell books at $0.99 earn $0.35. They were able to earn $1.70 in December from a single KOLL borrow. The fund Amazon gives to support KDP Select is raised in January from $500,000 to $700,000. It doesn’t mean that a single borrow can give a royalty higher than $1.70 as there are more books in KOLL and more people who can borrow them. But it means that the deal is still encouraging enough to sacrifice regular sales.

So, where is the pricing for international ebook users? I think, that even if you decided to raise prices of your books for US customers, keep them low for readers from abroad. 

There are a few extra factors to keep in mind, when it comes to prices for users from different countries:
1. Many books from big publishers are not available outside US – for more details check this report on international availability and prices of Kindle bestsellers,
2. Many books are priced by publishers higher that in US – what this comparison of prices of Steve Jobs biography shows,
3. Prices are higher due to taxes,
4. Prices are higher because of international fees (in case of books from Kindle Store US).

Readers from abroad are aware that they have to pay more for the books. In fact, they hardly experienced $0.99 price shock from the beginning of 2011. So, the low price strategy which worked so well in US, seems to have chances in other countries.

How to keep prices low? There are two things you can do:
1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores,
2. Get rid of international fee.

1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores

In the KDP dashboard the author can set up prices for Kindle Stores in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain either automatically (based on a price from US) or manually. If you increase the price in US, it doesn’t mean you have to do it in other Kindle Stores.

Here’s what I did. My flash-fiction geek stories, Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed are a very narrow niche, but they were doing unexpectedly well in KOLL in December. It’s probably because of the fact that they’re addressed to geeks, like the ones who have bought/received Kindle Fire. New owners of this device have one month of Prime/KOLL free.

I’ve increased the price of books to $5.99 (bargain for KOLL users), but in other Kindle Stores kept prices with $0.99 tag in respective currencies. To do that I had to select 35% royalty option – there is no possibility to choose different royalties for different locations.

Set different prices in different Kindle Stores

2. Get rid of international fee

International fees applied by Amazon to Kindle ebooks sold to users from abroad are a serious issue. They influence the way international readers buy the books. Therefore they should also influence the way authors price their books.

Kindle ebooks are being sold to over 170 countries and destinations. If you set up in KDP the rights for your book to “all territories”, readers from those 170+ locations will be able to buy it.

The fees are different for different regions, but they are usually up to $4. For example, the $0.99 book costs usually $3.44 in Poland, where I live.

You can check how much your books cost by going to Kindle Store US, selecting a region and searching for your book. Read this post if you need a detailed tip on how to do it.

Is there a way to get rid of the fee? Looks like it is. What I’ve observed is that the charge is applied only until the certain amount of books is being sold. I sell my books from Kindle Store, also the ones written in Polish, so I’m determined to keep their prices low in Poland. I’ve counted that if you sold around 100 copies, the price of the book goes down to the level set up in KDP dashboard.

What you can do is to raise the price of the book in Kindle Store US only after there are no or little fees in other territories.

I wonder whether giving books for free within KDP Select affect the international fees. If anyone has noticed that, please share it in the comments. If this works, the easy way to get rid of the charges it to run a 5-day promo and raise prices afterwards.

What is also good to keep in mind is that Kindle Daily Deal books cost the same in all countries – there is no international charge applied, no matter how many books were sold to different regions. This means that $0.99 KDD book costs $0.99 (and it’s a one-day deal), while your book, supposed to be a constant deal, costs $3.44.

* * *

When thinking about international readers it’s also very good to analyze other distribution channels. Kobo and Smashwords are best picks. First, their offer is available without territorial restrictions. Secondly, they don’t apply fees like Amazon does.

If you want me to write how the distribution could look from a perspective of a European self-publisher, please let me know in the comments.

Hope it was a helpful post.

Related posts

• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users
• 07.05.2011 -- Kindle for the Web – How It Can Be Used by Authors
• 06.05.2011 -- Self-Publishing: How You Can Build Better Relations
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 27.05.2011 -- Self-Publishing: How You Can Learn and Improve

"Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

This is the most exciting part of the series, as it opens infinity of possibilities.

Starting point: book cover doesn’t have to be rectangular any more. In this post I’ll explain why.

I’ve designed a cover for Water’s Edge by Robert Whitlow to show my point of view. The jpeg image placed into the post is square, but you don’t see the edges. This image doesn’t seem to be rectangular.

The cover of a print book is determined – and limited – by the edges of the physical object a print book is. The cover on a screen is determined by the edges of the screen. The thing is that the book cover rarely fills the screen completely. It grabs only a part of a space, it’s usually surrounded by other elements of the web page or ereading application.

When somebody makes an ebook version of a print book cover, there is not that much to invent. But if you design a cover specifically for ebook – don’t put yourself into a rectangular box, if you don’t have to.

There are three values to play with: background, visualization and transparency.

Background

Select for your ebook cover the background color of the destination web page and you’ll get rid of the rectangular border. Let me show you the example. Most of ebookstores use white background. Below there is a mock-up design of the book cover. On the left you see it placed against white background. On the right it’s visualized on a paper book.

As you see, if there are no indications of the border, you see a round image. Circle – this is the shape of your ebook. It’s different in print. What you see is a round design on a rectangular cover of the book.

Circle is just one of billions of two-dimensional shapes you could imagine – if you only borrow a background from a destination web page. It’s as easy as that.

We have to be aware of the additional elements of the ebookstores’ web pages, which can bring the feel of the border. For instance, in Kindle Store they are placed on top (Look Inside arrow) and bottom (Kindle Edition bar).

2D shape is a part of the story, as there are also visualizations.

Visualization

Visualizations are popular already. They are designed to resemble paper book, or more precisely – a physical object the print book is. Many readers are looking for tangible proofs they made a good choice by purchasing the ebook. They need a proof that ebook is a book. It’s hard to imagine a file, backed up at Amazon servers, right?

Unfortunately, most of the visualizations are not good. And sometimes you just don’t need them, especially if they contradict the idea of the cover. I wouldn’t do a print visualization of Water’s Edge. The idea is to show that there are no borders, edges and limits and that water flows freely. Print book visualization would kill this idea.

Visualizations of print books are just one of directions to follow. If we miss the tangible look of the ebook, why don’t we make visualizations on a screen of a device this ebook is designed to be read?

Next idea: playing with context. The context is the screen and its content. You can visualize an object hanging above it, you can show a damaged screen, you can play with other elements of the web page.

There are a lot of beautiful examples of print books covers playing with context. There are absolutely no barriers to do the same with ebook covers.

Transparency

Transparency is different from background, although it can be used the same way.

First a simple tip how to make a transparent file. You can save it as png, instead of jpg or gif. If in your design there is no background, usually the website’s background will fill the space.

One more step forward is using transparency in advanced, iTunes-like interfaces, sliders and carousels. Such interface, a slide animation of book covers from your library was used in Stanza application. The carousel is also one of the most prominent elements of the user interface of Kindle Fire.

It’s worth checking the possibilities transparency creates, because it can bring amazing results. Here is how our circle cover would look in Stanza’s slider (and now imagine how would it look like if the cover was a visualization of a broken dark glass):

Transparent covers in unlimited number of shapes, in view of popularity of Amazon tablets may become a totally new form of art. I wish it happened. What covers need to show is that the same old good books are now refreshed for the challenges of the digital environment.

* * *

It’s a very important issue whether the lack of classic, rectangular shape will move associations away from a book.

I think we do not need frames for everything. I don’t feel neither better nor safer when I see a rectangle, bordered cover of something which should be limitless. If the border doesn’t help the idea of openness come through, we don’t have to limit ourselves and use it.

When you leave the rectangular shape, when you stop thinking of 6″ x 9″ standard cover proportions, you’ll feel like leaving the box. Leave the box – it’s what books teach us.

* * *

There are three more posts in a series: color, animation and finally, some examples (it’s good to visualize what I write about). Stay tuned, get free updates here – and share what you think in the comments.

Images used in this post: Water – by Irochka/Fotolia, Book cover – by Mckee/Fotolia

Related posts

• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

A cover of Joel Friedlander's ebook is a great example of maximizing the use of space in a product image field

In a third post about ebook cover design I’d like to focus on proportions.

A digital book is immaterial. It’s a file, not an object. If you open it on your device, it would most probably fit to the proportions of the screen.

So, what proportions should the ebook cover have? The simple answer to inspire your imagination is: “every possible proportions”.

Ebook cover is a screen area which represents a book. It’s a visualization of what the book is about. It’s not wrapping a physical object, so it doesn’t need to have proportions of that object.

But going creative is just one of few possible directions to follow. Actually the more I think about the topic, the more challenging it is. It’s not about picking up one of popular print book formats, not any more. It’s about making well thought decisions.

You should think of where you are going to publish a book, on which devices it will be read and how you plan to promote it.

Let’s discuss four factors which can influence proportions of the ebook cover.

1. Product image field

Just as print book is placed on a shelf in a bookstore (the fact it’s tall should be good for shelf space, right?), the ebook’s cover image is placed on a page of the online shop. That’s why it’s reasonable to maximize the pixel area your cover can use.

Most of online shops use square proportions for product images. This is self-explanatory – both tall and wide products are given similar chances. So, you’ll get maximum exposure for your book if you design a square cover – as Joel Friedlander did for his great guide for writers, A Self-Publisher’s Companion.

Check below how this book is highlighted in a list view at Kindle Store. In a previous post from a series I discussed size. People see thumbnail covers when they make decisions about which book to click. Having that in mind, the square is also a good move. In a list view your cover takes 100% of given space – that is 115 px by 115 px.

Use square proportions to maximize the impact of the cover when displayed in thumbnail size

The factor to keep in mind is that proportions may be affected by elements added to cover image by the ebookstore itself. For instance in Kindle Store there are the Kindle Edition bar at the bottom and, recently added, Click to Look Inside! arrow on top of the cover.

2. Screen of the device

Another direction is to consider destination devices of your ebook. As you see in a table below, in different devices there are different height/width ratios. The most common one is 4:3, but choosing 4:3 just because of that is not enough.

I’d suggest to pick-up a proportion of the device, if you’re publishing a book on a specific platform. Obviously I’m thinking about iOS. If your book is going to be sold via iBookstore or as an app via AppStore, use iPhone or iPad proportions. In an app you can have both. The 4:3 cover could load on the iPad, 3:2 on iPhone or iPod Touch. In other words: it’s really bad if you design a book application specifically for the iPad and the moment one opens it the cover does not perfectly fit the screen.

So, which one, iPhone or iPad? Think of what device you’ll use to visualize your book. For instance, I’m devoted to reach mobile phone users with my geek fiction stories, so I use iPhone visualizations since I self-published my first book in October 2008.

Cover visualization on a device screen is something you should pay a lot of attention. What people miss in an electronic book is materiality. This materiality, the width, height, depth, is conveyed by the device – and that’s why so many people still confuse ebooks with ereaders.

It’s always worth making visualizations on color screens of tablets and smartphones. They make the book looking highly attractive, but most importantly, potential readers won’t see only a cover. They’ll see a book on a screen of their own device.

Screen sizes and proportions

3. Popular web formats

When thinking of the cover of your ebook, you can also keep in mind how would it fit into one of popular web formats – like banners, widgets or application icons.

You may think it’s too far, but if you’ll be promoting your book by exchanging links with other bloggers, you may want to give them a cover in a format and size which fits into one of slots they already use.

Google AdSense offers many sizes, including 200×200 px or 250×250 px – which may be another reason to choose square proportions.

4. Creative approach

The dimensions of a screen are a completely different world than the ones of a print book. For the latter one, if the book is 6″ by 9″ that means the cover is 6″ by 9″ and you can’t change it. If your device is 800px by 600px it doesn’t mean your cover can’t be any bigger. On the screen two very important factors join the game: scroll and zoom. They open a lot of opportunities to create unusual, provocative and creative covers.

Imagine you can design the cover the same way as Internet infographics – like this one. It’s extremely long, but it doesn’t matter as you can scroll along it. It’s just an idea, but I’d like to stress that such a cover, which is extremely long or extremely wide, is still viewable. You can use it as a teaser of your book, or make it a form of a prologue.

How to use creative covers? You can always place them on your blog. Versions with typical proportions can be used everywhere else. But don’t do it just for the sake of being first. You’ll need to have a reason for that. Let’s say your book is about the history of written word. Your book cover could show the detailed timeline and it could be as long as it needs.

If technology allows for viewing images with extreme proportion ratios, why not benefit from it?

* * *

Major issue with unusual proportions you may have is whether readers will decode images as books covers. For instance a square cover is more resembling a CD than a book.

Non-book proportions are not an issue for me. If you’re on a book’s page you know it’s the book as there are title and description next to the cover. The places where ebook covers are defenseless are image search engines, but you can always fix the issue by properly naming your files (example: yourbooktitle_novel_cover.jpg).

Most importantly, however, is how the cover is designed. If you do it properly, the cover itself will be saying: “you are looking at the book”.

Next post in a series is about shape. Stay tuned, get free updates.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

A picture from Sarah E Melville's self-published book "Beautiful Things That Happen to Ugly People"

I’m honored to share an interview with Sarah E Melville. Sarah is an extremely talented graphic designer and award-winning artist.

Recently she launched a new site, Your Cover Uncovered, where you can submit your book’s cover for review – as well as learn from reviews of other books.

Designing covers specifically for ebooks is a challenge and the more we talk about it the better. Here’s what Sarah tells us. Enjoy!

Is the role of a book cover changing in digital times? In which direction?

It definitely is changing. With the advent and increasing popularity of ebooks, cover design has been pared down significantly. A lot of work I do is for front covers only–back covers, spines, and French flaps are all extras now, which is a pity, I think, as they allow the design of the front cover to carry on and get played around with.  And it goes without saying that you lose the tactile elements with ebook covers–no more glossy vs. matte, no embossing, foiling, inlays.

The actual design style has changed a bit, too, with ebooks, as they’re so often viewed at a thumbnail size.  There’s a greater emphasis on readability, and nuances, fine details, get swept aside.

Designing covers for print books and e-books – what differences should designers be aware of?

Print or ebook, your cover should be a very strong piece of art, but I think there’s more pressure on ebook covers for this. Print covers have back covers and spines to continue working on the design theme, creating more of a concentration of images instead of a stand-alone piece, and in the end, a lot of covers just look better in print. There’s something about a velvety, matte book jacket that enhances a cover design–it can fool you, making a design look more sophisticated than it really is.

Because the tactile aspect is gone from ebook covers, flat colour and design that looks really two-dimensional isn’t very successful. Subtle textures are important to include, to give them the depth we’re used to having with a real book.

How would you assess the general level of the cover design of self-published ebooks?

Overall, the design seen in self-published ebooks isn’t where it should be. Because book covers are an art form, they need to be handled by professionals. It’s a shame to see people putting so much work into their novel and then not having a suitable image to represent it. Spending money on a good cover is the best investment you can make–it’ll do more for you, especially in the long-run, than blog tours, endless tweeting and re-tweeting, and whatever other marketing ploy out there. People like nice-looking things, and they’re always ready to assume that if the cover is good, the book will be too.

What advice would you give to self-publishers, who would want to create a book cover on their own?

You need to know your book very well, and have the ability to look at it in themes and metaphors, at big picture stuff. Forget specific scenes and characters. You need to figure out first what it’s really about, what’s lurking under the surface. That is what you put on your cover. Your typefaces, images, colours all have to work under this central theme. Don’t try and show two sides to the same novel; it won’t work. You can only have one subject, theme, idea. If you try to put too much of the small-picture stuff on the cover, it won’t work.

As for actually using this info and making it into that alluring, must-buy cover, you need to be familiar with art and design theory.  Look online for rules of composition and how to combine typefaces (remember, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Party LET and Bleeding Cowboys are never, ever acceptable typefaces). Look into basic colour theory, which colours and colour combinations elicit different moods. Familiarise yourself with design theory and use what you’ve learned. Find blogs and tumblrs dedicated to book cover design and find out what everyone’s drooling over.

The advice could go on, but the bottom line is–work with one idea. Don’t overcomplicate it. Try to stay away from using stock photos, and don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box!

Your Cover Uncovered is a fantastic example of a service authors and designers can use to improve their books. What tips would you give to them before they submit a cover for your professional review?

Read some of the critiques that have already been posted and see if your cover is repeating any of the same mistakes (if it is, change it!). Make sure it’s in top form–really, as excellent and amazing as your two little hands can make it. Read the submission requirements carefully, and make sure to send me info I ask for.  And, as a little luxury for me and the readers, give us an elevator pitch so smart you could brush your teeth with it.

One sentence tip for book designers?

Keep it simple.

Sarah E Melville is an artist, graphic designer, author, and all around creative-type from California. She’s an award-winning fine artist, and had her first design commission at the age of fifteen. Her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, most recently in Sex Scene: An Anthology (she also made its book trailer), and she has done readings on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the self-published author of Beautiful Things that Happen to Ugly People, a synthesis of art and literature, a modern-day illuminated manuscript, about a simple soul named Paulie.  She is currently seeking representation for her fifth completed work, This is Paulie, a novella about two people who do not fall in love.

She tweets @sarahemelville and blogs at S-Melville. She is twenty-one years old.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context

"Ebook Design: Interview with Sarah E Melville" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

In digital environment the book's cover rarely fills the display (cover image from "Robocalypse" by Daniel H. Wilson)

When you make a decision to publish your book only in digital format, you are also making essential change in how you approach cover design. You no longer have to deal with dots per inch in a high-quality print.

The goal is not 9 × 6 inch, 300 dpi any more. It’s 1024 x 600 px, 118 ppi of a typical netbook’s screen or 800 x 600 px, 167 ppi of a Kindle 3 display.

We also have to keep in mind that the readers very seldom will have a chance to see the cover in full screen. If yes, it’s going to be after the book is purchased.

Resolution of electronic screens as well as sizes of images displayed on them are changing the way we should look at book covers. It’s limiting on one side, but it’s good to focus on finding benefits – and that’s what I’m trying to do with this series of posts.

Size

People judge books by their covers. It’s still true, but while designing for the web we have to switch the perspective. In my opinion: totally.

Let’s use the example. Someone wants to buy a technothriller. In a bookstore, when you look at the shelves, you just see the covers, nothing else. The cover is using 100% of space devoted to a book – because this is a book.

Things change dramatically when you browse for the same book on the web. Check the screenshot below from Kindle Store. The cover of a single book has an average size of 80 x 115 pixels! This is the size of the book at a very important moment – the moment when the reader makes a decision which book to click and possibly buy.

Typical search page in a Kindle Store

If we treat browser window as a bookstore’s shelf, the four book covers you see above take no more than 5% of the total display space.

Obviously, this applies not only to ebooks but to print books as well. It’s a pity that you spend long hours to design a beautiful cover, worked out and retouched in every tiny detail and afterwards what you see is 80 x 115 px thumb.

It gets a bit better when you open a page with a single book. A size of the book cover area is set to 300 x 300 px – and this includes the margin and Kindle bar at the bottom. That makes 9% of the display – at best.

A book cover takes up to 9% of the total space devoted to a book

Not looking good, right? What can we do about, then?

There are a couple of solutions.

1. Make it look good when it’s small

One thing every cover artist has to keep in mind, is that a book cover should look good not only when it’s enlarged, but also when it’s reduced. Before finding a general concept it’s good to have in mind that a cover could be communicative also when it’s in a thumbnail size.

Think of what is the most important part of the cover – and try to make it more visible. What would be seen as dirt when a cover is small? Try to remove it.

2. Remove some elements of the cover

As I wrote in an previous post, all elements of the cover which convey text information are duplicated by other parts of the web page, so it’s not mandatory to keep them in the layout. Instead, it would be great to focus on finding a relevant, convincing key visual, which works well in both big and small size.

3. Test check different sizes

When designing a cover you can check from time to time how it looks in a medium size (f.e. 300 px in height) and a thumbnail size (100 px in height).

4. Optimize the cover for a specific destination

This is the thing you can always do. If you want the cover to be displayed at your blog and the width of the post area is 500 px, save your cover specifically with that width. While doing so, you’ll have opportunity to enhance and adjust the elements which don’t look good enough at this size.

Another example: if you plan to publish a book only at a certain self-publishing platform and this platform is optimizing the look of the covers to specific size and proportions – prepare a version exactly with the maximum dimensions of both width and height.

5. Think of a cut-out area

When you’ll plan the layout it’s good to think of what you could cut out of the cover that would represent most of its values. Think of a square area like a title or a main illustration, which you can use at web sites which display small book covers. Why square? Because it’s the proportions many web stores use to display their products. Both vertical and horizontal images have chances to be equally visible.

Check below how the cover I’ve already used in this post, J.A. Konrath’s Origin, looks when displayed in 115 px height: regular vs. cut-out:

Resolution

Designing for screen means designing in smaller resolution – and this is a big opportunity. You don’t need to have a super powerful desktop computer to create the ebook cover. It’s very probable that a laptop you own can do the job. Additionally, you don’t have to use dtp programs like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. You can create everything in a photo editing application.

The maximum resolution to think of could be the one of displays used for reading. As I wrote above, before the purchase the chances to see a full size are small. Assuming that the image would exactly fit the screen, the cover tailored for iPad should have 1024 x 768 pixels at 132 ppi.

There is another opportunity – you can use a camera in your smartphone to shoot pictures to be used in a cover. A photo taken with an iPhone has a resolution of 2592 x 1936 px. This is especially exciting as you can design a cool cover solely on the smartphone using one or a few applications. Take Instagram. You can apply one of cool vintage filters to your photo. If you’re using the app frequently, just think of it as a tool to grab ideas for your next book covers.

If you want to add a title, you can use another great app, Picture Show. It allows you not only to apply several filters and effects, but offers a simple type tool. You can design the whole cover just with this one application.

If you write a non-fiction book, you can get a professional look by using a Phoster application. It provides as much as 72 design templates and they all are fabulous. Read more about this fantastic app here.

Smaller resolution means also that you’ll have to spend less money for images. Many services, naming only iStockphoto ot Fotolia, charge different fees depending on the file size.

For example for this vintage photo from Fotolia you’ll have to pay:
- $0.75 if you buy a 375 x 320 px file with 72 dpi resolution
- $6 if you buy 3124 x 2664 px file with 300 dpi resolution

* * *

The issue of a size applies also to print books as it comes with a question where for a first time we get in touch with a book or/and make a decision to buy it. Is it a bookstore where I can take in my hands a beautifully printed copy of a book – or is it a web site, where the book is represented by 80 x 115 px part of a screen?

Make it look good on a screen and when it’s small – this is my general advice on size and resolution.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Phoster offers 72 free design templates to choose from

Phoster is a fantastic application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, perfect to create posters, cards, invitations and, yes, ebook covers.

I’ve used the word “create” instead of “design” because it better describes what you’ll be doing.

You don’t need to design a layout, it’s already done by the developers of the application, folks from Bucket Labs – Phoster comes equipped with as much as 72 layout templates. All of them are top-level design. Thanks to that the application can be a very powerful tool to create professionally looking ebook covers.

Below I’ll show you how easy it is to create a cover. The general advise is to keep things simple and not to change the layouts too much. They are perfect as they are and there is no need to improve them.

4 steps of creating a cover with Phoster

I’ll create a cover for a book about mobile natives (I hope one day I’ll write this book).

1. Choose a template

I’m sure you’ll find a template which is closest to your needs. Layouts differ in selection of fonts, position of text boxes and a general style. For each of the template, in a next step you can add a picture. You can also leave a background as it is or just change its color – this would make a nice non-fiction book cover.

When you’ll be selecting a template just keep in mind that you can’t add any more text boxes. So, pick up the template, which is closest to what you want and has enough number of text fields positioned where you want them to be.

For my book I’ve chosen the template below. I like simple design and I want to use a picture which will work best with the title aligned to right. I also need only three text boxes – two for the title and one for the author.

After choosing a template, tap on a Next button at the bottom right.

2. Insert a photo or choose a color of the background

Use an icon of a camera to add a picture, either directly taken or from a photo library. You can make basic color adjustments within the application (brightness, contrast and saturation) by tapping on a slider icon.

Remember, you can always use one of the photo applications, which can give a stylish look to your picture. I’m sure you have one of them: Instagram, PictureShow, Camera+ or Hipstamatic.

Second option is not to add a picture, but only change a background’s color. To do that, tap again on a slider icon – you’ll see at the top a set of predefined colors to pick up from.

I’ll be using for my cover a photo previously edited in PictureShow (by the way, you can see a #1picstory made with it). As you see it’s dark enough to use against white letters and there is a lot of space in the upper right corner. That’s where I’ll place the title.

3. Type the text

To change text tap on a “T” icon. An edit box will appear, where you can replace the existing text with your own title. Use Previous and Next buttons to switch between text boxes. Alternatively you can open the edit box if you quickly tap on the text.

You can change the color, the size and the font style of the text. There is a plenty of typefaces to choose from, but I recommend to keep the predefined style. Any major change may break the original design idea of the template.

If you want to move a text box, tap and hold it until you see a shadow.

I moved the title a bit to the right and higher. As you see, I didn’t change anything else.

4. Choose the effect

After you’re finished with texts and pictures, tap Next to move to the last step – applying the effect.

This is the most enjoyable part of the work. There are 19 style available. You can select one of the vintage styles, including paper and dust textures, or you can decide to use color stripes or patterns (see picture below).

I’ve selected a simple pattern and the cover looks like this. What do you think?

Although Phoster is positioned as a tool to create posters, cards, invitations, I think it’s an awesome way to create professionally looking ebook covers. It’s one of those mobile applications which redefine our approach to creation. You can focus solely on finding a concept and big picture, leaving the craft to the application itself.

Phoster costs $1.99 (iTunes link). Consider it as a money spent for a professional cover artist, who gives you 72 proposals of the layout.

Remember to include credits to Phoster in your ebook. Write down a link to both the application at iTunes and the developer’s webpage: http://www.bucketlabs.net.

Read also about another great tool, Wordle. You can use it to create great-looking covers based on a word cloud from your book.

Related posts

• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 23.01.2011 -- What Are Enhanced E-books and How to Find Them?

"How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

On a web page a book's cover is surrounded by information it used to convey itself - like title and author

There are three approaches to covers:
- ebook cover is a copy of a print edition,
- one cover is designed for both print and digital edition,
- a cover is designed for ebook only.

I’d like to focus on the last one as it creates much more possibilities than you would originally think of. And all this can happen if you just switch the perspective.

A different approach, free from constrains typical for print production – and taking into consideration circumstances typical for digital environment – can bring unexpected and stunning results.

In this post you’ll find tips on how to benefit from a context of the ebook. In the next posts you’ll find tips on how to play with resolution, proportions, colors, shape and animation.

Context

The context can be created by a web page where a book is displayed. It can an ebookstore or your blog. Another dimension is a presence of devices used to read ebooks.

Web page

When you’re going between bookshelves in a bookstore, you need information about books you see. This information is provided by the covers. It’s the book’s cover to make you reach for it and open.

This is different if you browse for a book on the Internet. The image of a cover is usually small and in many cases the text is not readable until you enlarge the picture. Most importantly though is that information about the book is provided by other elements of a web page. That means that the cover itself is not the only source of essential info about the book. In fact, it doesn’t have to be.

On a typical book page in an ebookstore, next to the book cover you see the title, subtitle, author, price, discounted price, book description, editorial reviews, customer reviews, similar books and many more. A content of a web page conveys much more information than front and back covers of a print book altogether.

The opportunity to catch on is that you can remove all written information from the cover. Having in mind that image of the cover is usually small, you can decide to make room for a main visual and remove all other elements which will be the less and less useful if the cover will be smaller and smaller.

From now on you can focus on the main idea of a cover, which will have more room to convey the topic and genre of the book.

A great example of the simple and powerful cover, which is designed to deliver a unique picture is Seth Godin’s Poke the Box. You see the cover once and since that time you’ll easily associate it with the book. No author or title is needed – you know it.

Take also into consideration that if you browse for a book within the ebookstore, you’ll have a list of results with a thumbnail of a cover plus a title, author and price. A thumbnail of a crowded cover can be a mess. Why should it repeat information delivered next to it if it can be a clear and memorable visual, decoded even from a 100 x 100 px thumbnail?

Covers without book title or author are going to be more popular as more and more purchases, also of print books are made through the Internet. Internet is the place we’ll see a book for a first time. If we don’t buy it from Barnes & Noble website right away and go to one of the its bookstores later on, the cover will be familiar already. In many cases a cover of a print book doesn’t have to be self-explanatory any more.

Device

The next big thing is a context created by a device devoted to read it. It can be an ereader, tablet or smartphone.

We’ve seen many wonderful ideas of print books’ covers playing with dimensions as well as a paper texture. The same thing can be done for electronic books. It’s surprising that there are so few examples of ebook covers referring to specific surrounding created by the device.

Imagine the reader opening your book on a tablet. The space to use and play with is the screen. Here are some ideas to inspire you:

1. The device as an object
Play with the depth of a device; a cover can create a feeling that the tablet is thicker/thinner than it actually is or that is has an infinite depth. Let the cover become the part of the device – imagine it’s the back of it, for example.

2. Elements of the user interface
This is what I’m actually doing with most of my ebook covers. See a picture on the right – I’m using elements of an e-reading application (as well as exact screen proportions) to make it look good on a smartphone or a tablet.

3. Realistic effects on a screen
Imagine you have as a cover an image of a broken tablet screen (how would it look if a bullet went through it?). Or imagine you have a detective story with a cover looking like someone left fingerprints on a screen. Screen and pixels are the same material to play with as paper and paint in print books. The rest is your imagination.

* * *

In my opinion, opportunities and inspiration will come to you as soon as you stop thinking of a book cover of a physical print book and start to think of it as a part of digital environment.

And it’s not only applying to expensive multimedia book applications developed by the best designers in the world. You can also come up with a fresh idea, if you just start thinking of what to do with a 500 x 750 px blank space.

Stay tuned, a next post about resolution and proportions is coming in two weeks.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Books in the times of distraction – that’s what behind Ebook Friendly. I’ve founded the service at the beginning of the year to let Internet users calm down and focus on discovering and reading books.

Opposite to Johann Hari, I don’t think only paper book can bring salvation. In my opinion it’s any book, in any form. You can reach for a paperback or an enhanced ebook or an audiobook. Some better than the others, but they will all reduce this annoying feeling of distraction. You’re not in the endless abyss of the Internet any more, you’re in a fully formed world, following its story at the speed you choose.

You can say “yeah, but sometimes I’m distracted so deeply, that I can’t imagine myself reading a book.”

You’re right, I experience it every day. Among so many skills we learn to keep up with changes, we have to add one more – how to turn into a reading mood after a busy day full of multiple streams of information, smartphone rings, push notification beeps and nervous location check-ins.

It’s doable. This video will show you (I hope) in real-time how distracted – or how focused – you are at the moment.

I’ve started a special section at Ebook Friendly, where you can read more about Get Focused. Read Books campaign. It includes recommended books to read as well as articles on distraction. Any feedback is welcome as to what to do to make the campaign better and push it further.

You can easily become a partner (if you like the idea of course). Just embed the video on your blog and link to the campaign’s landing page. As soon as I’ll see the incoming link, I’ll include your blog on a list of partners.

The link to a landing page of the campaign is http://bit.ly/read_books

The number of people suffering from digital distractions will increase and it’s good to tell them that the best remedy is known since human kind started to read.

Related posts

• 25.06.2010 -- Book reading robot from Japan [video]
• 09.04.2010 -- iPad e-reading apps part I: iBooks and Kindle [video]
• 26.03.2010 -- What if your book really knew what you’re gazing at? [video]
• 18.03.2010 -- The future of publishing [video]
• 22.12.2011 -- Quick Note: Adding Most Useful Posts from Ebook Friendly to This Blog’s Feed

"Books Help Focus in Times of Distraction [Video]" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Below I’d like to share a major outcome, and in my opinion the biggest surprise – John Locke didn’t make it to Kindle Store’s Top 100.

The author of the Donovan Creed series recently joined Kindle Million Club as he sold more than 1 million ebooks. This fact was largely covered and analyzed in media and blogosphere. It helped his books climb the charts again, but was not enough to get included in the June list.

Amanda Hocking was a superstar at the beginning of the year, but already in April her books were sliding down the bestseller lists. John Locke in a very clever way leveraged Hocking’s success to gain popularity. In April, he had 8 titles listed in Top 100.

As Locke claims, he sold 1 million ebooks in just 5 months – it’s a fantastic result and a golden example of successful self-publishing. Nevertheless, the next one million is not going to happen this year. Locke doesn’t have much to offer – prices are lowest possible. The only way is to write and publish new books.

The examples of Hocking and Locke are worth keeping in mind. So far it looks like self-published bestselling authors live short in Top 100.

Check the full post for interesting tables, comparisons and explanation how the lists were created.

Related posts

• 22.04.2011 -- 28 Out of 100 Top Kindle E-books Are Self-Published
• 20.05.2011 -- Self-Publishing: How You Can Sell Globally
• 07.05.2011 -- Kindle for the Web – How It Can Be Used by Authors
• 12.04.2011 -- Free Tools for Authors Offered by Ebook Friendly: First Chapter Previews and Book Directory
• 20.01.2012 -- Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers

"Best Self-published Books in Kindle Store in June, John Locke Out of Top 100" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

1. iOS is a very versatile system, allowing the author to distribute books via different sets of tools and channels.
2. iOS users are more willing to buy the content – due to convenience (in-app, one-click purchases) and the nature of iOS ecosystem – a huge offer of apps, many of them for free or sold in a freemium model.

That’s why many authors want to find and define the best way to enter the iWorld. However, it’s not that easy as in Kindle Store. There are many factors which have to be taken into consideration.

To make the analysis as clear as possible I’ll split it into two stages: distribution and promotion.

Distribution

If you have a Kindle e-reader, you can buy e-books from Kindle Store. If you have a Nook, you can buy e-books from Barnes&Noble. E-readers are dedicated not only to reading, but also to e-bookstores. The device is the access point.

Tablets and smartphones are multi-purpose devices (MPVs) and this is what makes a difference. The access point to books is not a device itself, but the application. Many apps. There are so many of them, that the user at a certain point will want to limit their number to most important and useful ones. This applies also to books.

There are three main channels through which books in the iWorld are sold:

1. AppStore
2. iBookstore/iBooks
3. E-reading applications from other bookstores

AppStore

Apple’s store with applications is in my opinion a true phenomenon. Currently there are over 350,000 apps offered. At the time of the iPad/iBooks launch there were 120,000 book apps in AppStore – twice as much as books in the iBookstore.

AppStore is a strong alternative to typical bookstore. You buy an app from the application store, not a book from the bookstore. This can be a promise for many users to find something unexpected, fresh and as attractive as other apps. By “attractive” I mean: enhanced with audio and video, interactive, animated, using all the possibilities iOS interface is offering.

AppStore is also the golden example of how generous iOS users can be. Buying an app is not a big deal for us (yes, I’m also a heavy application buyer). A dollar or two, you can spend it to test the app, even if you’ll never ever use it again.

Besides e-reading applications, which are the access point and reading interface of e-bookstores (like Kindle for iOS, Kobo, Nook, Google eBooks), books are sold here as standalone applications. To produce such a book you have to either be a web developer or hire one. The cost of producing a simple book app is usually a few hundred dollars.

However, simple book apps are not attractive at all – if they are compared in the same category with enhanced ones.

You also have to keep in mind that the price of such a book should be comparable to other apps – which in most cases is 5 dollars at most.

iBookstore

Many iOS users associate books with iBooks and iBookstore. They usually start reading books using iBooks – until they discover better alternatives.
Practically, the only advantage of using iBooks is convenience. You can buy books from iBookstore within the app. This is the competitive edge Apple has over its competitors like Amazon or B&N. To buy books from the apps of those e-bookstores, you have to switch to Safari browser. Amazon’s famous 1-click purchase doesn’t work on the iPad or iPhone.

There is also one more thing we have to keep in mind. Apple has changed AppStore rules. Now if the e-bookstore wants to sell book from outside the app, it will have to enable such option inside the app. Result: Apple will take a cut from every book purchased, because users will choose the in-app way, which is more convenient. What can this cause is uncertainty about the presence of other e-reading apps in AppStore. If they are not adjusted to new rules, they’ll be removed.

Other e-reading applications

Most popular applications from other e-bookstores and content providers are Kindle for iOS, Kobo, Nook, Stanza, Google eBooks. Many iOS device owners are registered users of those e-bookstores, so sooner or later they will download the proper app and play with it.

And this is where the complex nature of iOS ecosystem lies: readers are spreading among many apps e-bookstores, options and functionalities. Many users keep a couple of e-reading application on their devices, but with a time they will select one of them as a primary tool to buy and read e-books.

* * *

Which channel is most effective?

There are two scenarios, depending of the kind of the book you want to publish:
1. Enhanced book » AppStore
2. Simple book » multi channel

If you plan to create an enhanced, interactive book, full of pictures and animation (f.e. children’s book or a graphic novel), the best path to follow is the AppStore. Developers who make outstanding e-book applications for kids are Bold Creative (creators of “The Heart and the Bottle” children’s book, shown below), Game Collage and Loud Crow Interactive. Check them out, they set up the standards, what translates into users’ expectations.

For a useful advice on how to publish your own book app, visit The Bookwright, a great blog by Tom Evans.

If you want to have a cheaper option for enriched book, you can prepare and ePub file with embedded pictures and place it in iBookstore or Kindle Store. Both iBooks and Kindle for iOS are capable of showing not only pictures but also of playing video and audio.

What you have to take into consideration, however, is that your book will be distributed as a book not as an app, and that means you’ll have to spend more time and effort to tell users about it – your amplified book will be available not where they expect it to be.

Second option: your book is text based and what you just want to achieve is to make sure it’s available for readers using iOS devices. Going only to iBookstore in my opinion is not worth the effort. It’s a small e-bookstore, ten times smaller than Kindle Store and it’s not growing as fast as other bookstores. It’s not intended to other platforms, but to be a default choice for iOS users. It’s also not easy to use Apple’s self-pub service, but if you’re determined, you can always try an easier option – Lulu.com.

It’s also not productive to publish a book in each and every e-bookstore separately (like via KDP for Kindle or PubIt! for B&N).

Is there a better, more efficient alternative? Sure. Use one of the self-publishing services offering multi-channel distribution. The most important thing is that you publish your book once and it’s being distributed to many e-bookstores, so that it’s available to iOS users no matter which application they use.

The services to recommend are:
Smashwords – the most popular self-publishing site, with distribution to Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Sony eBookstore and, yes, iBookstore.
Fast Pencil – the distribution list includes Kindle, Barnes&Noble and Sony eBookstore. However, this is a paid plan, you have to be prepared to pay $149.99.
Narcissus – the new, Italy-based self-pub service. The English localization is coming soon with the option to distribute your book to Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Copia and Blio.

Distribution Channel Manager at Smashwords

Promotion

If you choose the AppStore way, you have to follow the rules specific for this ecosystem. It’s a whole new world and it’s good to get a concise advice from professionals. Just watch this short video and you’ll have a clue of what you’ll have to be prepared for:

Second scenario. If your book is reaching iWorld via e-bookstores, all what you have to do is to address the owners of iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch devices in your promotional activities.

As I’m the author of geek fiction stories, I very much focus on finding ways to reach and convince the users of iOS devices to buy my books. What I’m mostly interested in is to find creative ways of promotion, which don’t involve money.

Here is a list of tools and ideas:

Target iOS users in social media

One of my book covers designed like a mobile app

You can go one step further – and tell tweeple they can buy your book directly from a link shared on Twitter. This is possible when users have Kindle application and you have a book in Kindle Store.

Share tips for iOS users

Selling books for iPad and iPhone is a complex task. So is reading and finding them. There are many apps, none of them ideal. Readers need help, and they search the web for answers. If you write a post on how to add books to iBooks without connecting to iTunes or how to read Adobe DRM-ed books on the iPad, you don’t have to find your readers – they will find you.

Show your book in iOS interface

This could be done on many levels. The easiest way is to mention the devices and applications on your blog post. You can also show a screenshot of your book made on the iPad or iPhone. Use it in a blog post together with the book’s cover.
Cover. There’s also a huge potential here. Try to paste it into the picture of the iPhone or iPad, so it perfectly fits the device’s screen.

I went even further than that and designed the book covers looking like mobile interface very similar to iOS. That way the book becomes an inseparable part of the iPad and iPhone world.

* * *

I hope you found this post useful. Please feel free to share your comments and knowledge and come back for more tips on self-publishing and mobile reading.

Recommended reading

• How to publish your book on the iPad – The Creative Penn
• How to publish your book on Kindle and iPad – BubbleCow
• How to self-publish books for iPad – Inc.
• How do I get a book on the iPad’s iBooks bookstore and app – 3ones
• AppStore lessons – 6 ways to better promote your application – Ars Technica
• How did you get on the front page of the AppStore? – Bold Creative Project Blog

Related posts

• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application

"How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.