The WMF Archives

By Kerrie McLoughlin

As the lovely and talented and fictional Hannah Montana sings, “Everybody makes mistakes.”  How very true, Hannah.  And I certainly made my share of mistakes when I published my 2 e-books, “The Laid-Back Mom’s Parenting Guidebook” and “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines.”  Today you may point and laugh at me as I take you on my Mistake Journey:

1. My first ebook was originally titled “The Lazy Mom’s Guide to Life:  A Relaxed Approach to Parenting,” but I quickly heard from a lawyer that “The Lazy Moms” from a blog were pretty incensed about that, so I had to change the title or risk legal troubles.  Now I do a massive Internet search before I name a new blog or e-book or article.
   
2. “Get Published” didn’t start selling until I made the price end in 99 cents ($9.99).
    
3. Realize that your e-book will most likely be printed, so you don’t have to make it in a huge font.  Mine was in an 18-point font until I heard from readers that they didn’t really need to be printing a 400-page e-book and that if I made the font a 14, it would save a few hundred forests.
    
4. Too many high-resolution photos make the e-book too darn big and hard drives all over the world will want to cry while downloading the e-book.
    
5. Pay for a professional proofreader (in money or chocolate or babysitting).
    
6. Don’t start formatting the e-book until AFTER you’ve done all the research and have written the whole thing.
    
7. Take the process as seriously as if a big-time publisher had a hand in it.  Even if you are selling your e-book for $9.99, it should still be a professional product.
    
8. If an online e-book seller’s web site has typos, looks unprofessional, gives you pop-ups and says they may NEVER get your book uploaded, close that page, friend.  Go with a site with a good reputation, like Payloadz, Lulu or Booklocker.
    
9. Make sure you read the pricing terms of your online e-book seller.  When I was only selling a piddly amount of my first e-book, the Payloadz service was free.  Then when I added a second book, the cost was $5 per month (taken from my PayPal account) for them to be my seller.  Once the second book started selling well, they shut my account down and sent me an e-mail saying that I have to pay $15 per month on sales up to $300 per month.  So instead of taking a percentage of sales, Payloadz charges a flat fee per month.
    
10. Read up on marketing and treat the marketing of your e-book like a job.

Thankfully, it is much easier to put out a second edition of an e-book than of a print book.  And that is exactly why (1) I’m putting out a second edition of Get Published this month, as I’ve mentioned ad nauseum and (2) I’ve started a new blog called Lazy Sugar Mama, which will pay homage to the stellar idea of lazy parenting and will be a good place to sell the second edition of Laid-Back

Question for WM Freelance readers:  I’ll be changing the name of my lazy parenting e-book, so would it still be considered a second edition or a whole new shebang?

BONUS:  To check out a blog interview with Christina Katz about her new e-book, Author Mama, head to my main blog  here.  She shares why she chose to e-book it after traditionally publishing 2 other (wildly popular) books, how she keeps people from stealing her e-book, and much more.

E-book Publishing Dos and Don'ts (+ bonus Author Mama interview link)