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Post by Daniel on Dec 3, 2014 9:07:19 GMT -5
I've been formatting my ebooks for myself and my wife for a few years now (since 2009). As of this post, I've completed 17 projects, the latest of which was Solatium by Becca Mills. Until Becca's book, I've only done formatting for myself, my wife, and my wife's print layout customers. I don't really want to do ebook formatting full time, but I enjoy helping out my friends. That's why I'm offering my services to my fellow Pub members.
I'm working on a web page that will explain what I offer in detail, but I thought I'd make the announcement here first to gauge interest.
Here are the bare facts:
* I can convert your Word manuscript to a professional-quality EPUB and MOBI.
* My fees range from $75 - $150 for most fiction and $100 - $250 for most nonfiction.
* I don't use automated ebook conversion tools, so you aren't limited to specific templates or styles.
* I'm committed to producing ebooks that look good on all devices, not just the newest ones.
* I've never had a reviewer complain about my formatting (out of approximately 30,000 total units).
If you have any questions for me or you are interested in knowing more, feel free to post in this thread or PM me.
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Post by Becca Mills on Dec 3, 2014 10:07:29 GMT -5
Daniel did an absolutely beautiful job on Solatium. I thought I was presenting reasonably professional work before, but actually, I wasn't. The ebooks he made look great and allow full reader control over typeface, font size, and color, which is important to me. I've loaded the files on most of the retailers -- no problems. I'm planning to have him do Nolander, next. Can't wait.  |
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Post by scdaffron on Dec 3, 2014 10:28:55 GMT -5
My ebooks also look great. Nary a complaint from anyone  ETA: Daniel did the formatting on my ebooks too, in case that wasn't obvious from what I wrote. (I think I need more coffee this morning.) |
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Post by Daniel on Dec 3, 2014 10:36:04 GMT -5
Daniel did an absolutely beautiful job on Solatium. I thought I was presenting reasonably professional work before, but actually, I wasn't. The ebooks he made look great and allow full reader control over typeface, font size, and color, which is important to me. I've loaded the files on most of the retailers -- no problems. I'm planning to have him do Nolander, next. Can't wait. Thanks, Becca and Susan! I appreciate the endorsements. |
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Post by Suzy on Dec 3, 2014 11:48:19 GMT -5
I'd be very tempted and that's a very reasonable price. But one thing I like about doing my own formatting, is being able to change things and update back matter, which I can't do if I hire formatter.
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Post by Daniel on Dec 3, 2014 13:19:51 GMT -5
I'd be very tempted and that's a very reasonable price. But one thing I like about doing my own formatting, is being able to change things and update back matter, which I can't do if I hire formatter. I totally understand. There are trade-offs in everything. My plan is to offer two free "minor updates" during the first year. Minor updates include stuff like fixing a batch of typos or adding links to the back matter. Realistically, as long as an author is an ongoing customer and doesn't bug me constantly, I'm not going to ding him/her for a few tweaks once in a while. Plus, I deliver an EPUB, which authors can edit themselves with Sigil if they want. An EPUB is really just a zip file that contains a bunch of text files, so the author could even unzip the EPUB and edit the content with something like Notepad. Once the main formatting work is done, tweaks aren't that hard if the author can stand to look at HTML. Of course, if that were true, the author probably wouldn't be hiring a formatter.  |
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Post by Daniel on Dec 4, 2014 11:34:43 GMT -5
I created a web page for my formatting services. It's pretty basic, but I'd appreciate any feedback you would be willing to give me. It's primary mission is to give interested authors a way to get in touch with me and start a dialog on their ebook projects. Ebook formatting by Logical ExpressionsThe page is not meant to give visitors a hard sell. It's not linked into the Logical Expressions site except through the "Uncategorized" category, so the only people who will probably ever see it are direct referrals. As I said before, I don't want to do formatting as a full-time job, but I'd be happy to share my skills with Pub members and friends of happy customers. In time, I may add page links to the bottom of the landing page that answer common questions about specific design issues. For example, drop caps versus raised caps versus other chapter introduction techniques. Becca has already asked me a bunch of questions that have given me article ideas. It would be sort of a fancy Q&A that might also prove useful to those of you who design your own ebooks. |
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Post by lindymoone on Dec 5, 2014 6:47:58 GMT -5
Very interested. I am not bad at ebook formatting, but I have illustrations for the antrollogy, so I am freaking out at the prospect of getting them all in at the right sizes! And to be honest there are a few things that still drive me mad, like why sometimes my first paragraphs after breaks stay non-indented, but other times they are indented...
Off to look at your website!
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Post by Daniel on Dec 5, 2014 7:54:43 GMT -5
Very interested. I am not bad at ebook formatting, but I have illustrations for the antrollogy, so I am freaking out at the prospect of getting them all in at the right sizes! And to be honest there are a few things that still drive me mad, like why sometimes my first paragraphs after breaks stay non-indented, but other times they are indented... Off to look at your website! I look forward to hearing from you. Keep in mind that you can always ask for help in the Pub's new formatting area if you want to keep doing the formatting for yourself. I'm offering my services to authors who don't want to mess with formatting and/or who think formatting is not a good use of their time. I'm just as happy to help you do it yourself, and my advice here is free. |
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Post by lindymoone on Dec 6, 2014 8:45:13 GMT -5
It will be a while. The illustrations are coming along slowly but surely.
You mentioned that formatting help is for folks whose time would simply be better spent elsewhere. I am finally admitting to myself that I don't want (or need) to do every little thing myself! There's just too much stress!
I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but when I saw posts in that other thread (formatting tips and advice) and couldn't understand half of what was said, I realized that I don't want to! Life is short. I have sequels and a new series to write, and I'm committed to making illustrated covers for another author's 5 novels. (His publisher went belly up, and now they are all out of print.) Those projects have me excited. Formatting? Let's just say the thrill of first love is gone!
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Post by Daniel on Dec 6, 2014 9:15:07 GMT -5
It will be a while. The illustrations are coming along slowly but surely. You mentioned that formatting help is for folks whose time would simply be better spent elsewhere. I am finally admitting to myself that I don't want (or need) to do every little thing myself! There's just too much stress! I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but when I saw posts in that other thread (formatting tips and advice) and couldn't understand half of what was said, I realized that I don't want to! Life is short. I have sequels and a new series to write, and I'm committed to making illustrated covers for another author's 5 novels. (His publisher went belly up, and now they are all out of print.) Those projects have me excited. Formatting? Let's just say the thrill of first love is gone! I get what you're saying. Most technical applications have a learning curve of diminishing return. You can do a basic "good enough" job using readily accessible tools. The more picky you get about what we want, the more you have to understand the underlying technology. The "black box" of EPUB is dark when you first step inside, and it takes a lot of stumbling around to find all the light switches. What's worse is that some of the bulbs burn out if you don't use your knowledge regularly, and you have to re-learn the details. As techie as I am, I've stepped away from miring myself in the details for certain things. I've written my own blog software, but at one point I decided to just become a user and go to WordPress. I don't know PHP and I don't want to know it. I'm happy using the excellent plugins that others have stressed over. The same with Scrivener. I wrote a software program that was very similar to it in 2006, with the equivalent of scene documents, keywords, categories, and a binder. I wrote the first two Vaetra books with it. Then, Scrivener for PC came along, and I was happy to abandon development of my own tool in favor of a much more powerful tool maintained by someone else. I still generate my own ebooks because I haven't found a tool that will do what I want. If that tool ever comes along, I'll be happy to abandon my process and use it. Vellum has promise, if it ever comes to the PC, but from what I've seen on their own web site, they focus on making things look beautiful on only the latest devices. What it produces for older devices is substandard, IMO. |
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