From Manuscript to (e)Book: Your Self-Publishing Adventure Guide

New Publishing Services Company: Whirlwind Book Consultancy

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I received notification today about Whirlwind Book Consultancy, a new self-publishing company in Hong Kong. From the looks of it, the company offers services such as editing, proofing, interior design, etc., in addition to eBook distribution.

Whirlwind Book Consultancy is apparently the first company of its kind in the region. It’s offering a discount to celebrate its launch that’s good until the end of August, so if you live in the region, you might want to check it out. They also do local print runs, which could be handy. Here’s the information I received:

Whirlwind Book Consultancy is a new venture from the publishing and media company Typhoon Media Ltd, and is the region’s first one-stop solution for self-publishing, corporate publishing, editing, and other related services.

Whirlwind Book Consultancy is the new branch of Hong Kong-based publishing and media company Typhoon Media Ltd. We can provide all the support you need to produce high-quality print books and e-books, allowing you to maintain full control over your projects. We also offer various distribution solutions, depending on your needs. Get access to meticulous editors, cutting-edge designers, and experienced publishing professionals. Choose from our list of boutique services or select one of our affordable custom publishing packages.

We are the only specialized book consultancy in the region that can offer a comprehensive e-book program in addition to our paper-based publishing products and services. We offer a full range of digital services while providing unique insight into the emerging digital publishing market in Asia. Our vision is international, though, and we offer access to major North American distribution channels such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Ingram. We also partner with major Asian e-booksellers such as Handheld Culture and BuBo Bookshelf in Hong Kong, Papataka in Indonesia, and I Love Books in Singapore.

We work with individuals and corporate clients. Whether you want to produce an e-guide to supplement your business, a print book for trade purposes, a novel showcasing your unique voice, or the memoir you’ve always wanted to write, Whirlwind’s quick, professional, high-quality services will not disappoint.

One more thing — to celebrate our launch, we are offering a 15% discount on all services through the end of August!

To find out more about us, please visit our website (www.whirlwindbookconsultancy.com) or email us:

shannon@typhoon-media.com or marshall@typhoon-media.com

Filed Under: Book Distribution, Book Publishing Tagged With: , ,

EBook Formatting: Folium Book Studio

February 23, 2012 By 2 Comments

It’s no surprise that the number of eBook formatting services is exploding as the popularity of eBooks grows. A range of choices is good, since there’s something for everyone, regardless of their knowledge of XHTML/CSS and the money they do—or don’t—want to spend.

Kyle from Folium Book Studio alerted me to the online service that will convert a DOC, DOCX, RTF, or TXT document to an ePub book for $79 USD. For that price, you can also use their cover designer to create an eBook cover, and they provide you with an ISBN for the ePub version of your eBook.

Using Folium Book Studio’s tools, you can include and arrange images in your eBook, and create an interactive table of contents. But they don’t support tables. They recommend converting tables to images and including them that way. Most e-readers don’t handle tables well unless they’re included as images.

Folium Book Studio isn’t a distributor, like Smashwords and BookBaby. It’s a file conversion service. You have to upload your eBook to online stores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

If you don’t want to mess with XHTML and CSS, Folium Book Studio could be cheaper than hiring someone to format your file for you, especially if you’re American and don’t mind your book having a Folium Book Studio ISBN. Using their cover designer to do your cover may also save you some money.

For non-Americans, Folium Book Studio is a harder sell. To get into Barnes & Noble, one of the more important sellers of eBooks in ePub format, we have to go through an aggregator, and some aggregators want to format the file for you. Also, some countries (like Canada) provide free ISBNs to their citizens. Whether to consider a conversion service like Folium Book Studio will depend on which aggregator you plan to use, and how much you pay for ISBNs in your country.

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Two Notes: eBookIt and Improved Smashwords Reporting

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Since I posted a few times about Smashwords and BookBaby, I thought I’d also mention another formatting and distribution service: eBookIt.com. For $149 ($249 if your source file is a PDF), eBookIt will convert your file and distribute it to the usual places. Of course, it will also take a cut of each sale, 15% of net. That’s actually a better deal than Smashwords for some retailers.

The site offers other services, such as audiobook creation, promotion (this appears to be press releases), and eBook cover creation.

A few folks in the Yahoo self-publishing groups seem happy with eBookIt. If you’re using eBookIt, how is it? Would you recommend the service?

While we’re on this subject, Smashwords has improved its sales reporting from third party retailers. You used to have to wait 3-4 months for sales data. Not anymore; the wait has been significantly reduced. For example, Barnes & Noble sales through early November have already been reported. If you were staying away from Smashwords because of the slow sales reporting, you might want to have another look at it.

Filed Under: Book Distribution Tagged With: ,