CompletelyNovel

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David - Wordsworth: +415

24 Oct 15:51

Hi David, not sure I fully understand what you are asking but the fact that CN shows the e book just means you have set up an edition as an e book on CN. Have you set up the kindle version on Amazon? We have to do that ourselves and I presume there is the equivalent for the other sites? You dont seem to have had an answer on here.
1
David L - No-vel prize: +892

24 Oct 16:36

I have set my own eversion on Kindle with KDP however according to the Pro Plan that I’m on it has also been sent to the distributers’ catalogue and it has an ISBN but there is no sign on anything but Kindle. If CN do not do anything to promote the fact that they have sent the eversion we are paying for very little in the way of a service!
1
Oliver - Lord of the reads: +3092

27 Oct 09:41

Hi David,

The CN eBook is available to buy through CN only. It is an accompaniment to the paper book. The eBooks are in PDF format so can be bought and opened on most devices easily.

External eBook distribution through Amazon/iBooks/Kobo is not something we do. This is because the eBook market is fragmented with each company choosing their own eBook format. Managing and bug fixing these formats is a bit of a nightmare for large publishers and even more so for Indy and self publishers. As a result we recommend you go directly to the retailer you wish to list your book with such as kindle and upload it directly. If you have an ISBN for your eBook through CN you can attach the kindle book to this ISBN.

If you can create an ePub file you might also consider services like SmashWords who allow Indy and self publishers to load their books into eBook distributors like Overdrive. Their fees are reasonable so might also be worth checking out.

Background on eBook formats

The popular eBook formats are PDF, ePub, mobi and kindle.

PDF is a ‘fixed layout’ format, it is split into pages and pages can have detailed styling like graphical layouts, headers and footers.

ePub, mobi and Kindle are ‘liquid layout’ which means the text flows to the size of the reader as each eBook reader has a different screen size.

Fixed layout eBooks cannot be converted into liquid layout formats automatically as formatting such as grid layouts, headers and footers cannot be translated. Liquid layouts can be translated to simple fixed layout books but there is no style information for more complicated layouts.

There is a new wave of eBook formats emerging based on more advanced HTML (web) layouts which combine some of the benefits of fixed and liquid layout books such as ePub3 and Kindle 8.

We have a plan to create a web based book editor which could accurately export to print PDF/eBook PDF, eBook and other eBook formats. But until we or someone else produces a system to do this accurately I think it is best to go direct to retailers where possible.
1
David L - No-vel prize: +892

27 Oct 10:48

That’s great thanks for getting back to me Oli. I have uploaded to Smashwords in the last 24 hours and the ‘meat grinder’ is a bit of a nightmare but it has taught me quite a bit about standardising my formatting!