BookRix

Our free self-publishing services offers writers the opportunity to sell their eBooks in all major online retailers. The 'How to Format your eBook' guide provided here offers simple instructions to create and format an eBook using Microsoft Word. We also provide information on how eBook formatting is different from print formatting.

Kindle

You can download free eBooks to your computer. When the download is complete, you will need to convert it to a file format that works on your Kindle. To download your eBook, go to the book page and click the Download/eReader button. From here, follow the prompts to download the book to your computer as an ePub file. When the download is complete, click here http://techsupport.foreverwarm.com/how-to-read-epub-books-on-your-kindle to obtain instructions to convert the ePub file to a Kindle-friendly format.

iPhone/iPad

If your iPhone or iPod touch cannot be updated to IOS 4, you’ll want to install Lexcycle Stansa to read eBooks on your device. Lexcycle Stanza is a freeware program for reading eBooks and is available in two forms: Stanza iPhone/iPod and Stanza Desktop. Stanza iPhone/iPod allows users to manage their library of books on these devices. Click here to download Stanza iPhone/iPod for free:

http://www.anypdftools.com/ebook-reading/how-to-read-epub-on-ipad-iphone-ipod.html

Android

You can enjoy reading eBooks from your Android device. Here are links that can help you get started:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.graphilos.epub&hl=en

http://www.androidfreeware.net/download-moon-reader.html

General eReader

For general eReaders, you’ll want to install Adobe Digital Edition to your computer. Please ensure that you assign yourself with a user ID (you will need this) and follow the instructions to download a free book. Connect your eReader device to your computer and launch Adobe Digital Edition. Your eReader icon will appear on the lower left panel. Drag the downloaded file to Adobe Digital Edition and then drag the image of your ebook to the eReader icon. When complete, close Adobe and eject/disconnect your eReader

Manage your eBooks

Calibre is a free and open source eBook computer software that organizes, saves, and manages eBooks, supporting a variety of formats. It also supports eBook syncing with a variety of popular eBook readers and will, within DRM restrictions, convert eBooks between differing formats.

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Once you’ve created a book on BookRix you can easily view them by visiting My Books. Here you can see the books you have published for free, on BookRix only, books you’ve placed for sale and books that are still in progress.

The following options are available on this page:

Edit eBooks

In this section you can add book content, book info and a cover image. You can also select a price for your book once you’re ready to sell it.

Publish Your eBook

When you are ready to publish your book (either for free on BookRix only or for sale on external online shops) you can complete the process here.

Undo Publication

If your book is offered for free on BookRix only, you have the option of undoing this within the Edit Book section.

Download Your eBook

Clicking the settings icon will give you various options. You can download your eBook as an ePub file. Remember - you must have an ePub reader installed on your device in order to download and read the book. There are many free ePub readers available online to download if you don’t currently have one.

Book Options

Under the settings icon, Options will give you two choices: You can give readers the ability to download your book (if you’ve offered it for free) and you can allow users to post comments on your book. You can enable and disable these functions here.

Make Your Book Part of a Series

If you are creating a series, you’ll want to link them together. This can be done by clicking the settings icon and selecting Part of a Series.

Stop the Sale of Your eBook

If you published a book for sale in external online shops and wish to remove it, this can be done by clicking the settings icon and selecting Stop Sales. It will take approximately 4 weeks for your eBook to be removed from external shops. Once it has been removed, you can re-edit your book and place it back for sale again

Delete Book

If you no longer want your book on BookRix, you can click the settings icon and select Delete the Book. If your book is for sale in external shops, you will first need to stop the sale of your book (please see Stop the Sale of Your eBook above). Once your eBook has been removed from external shops, you can delete it from BookRix.

Edit Book Content will take you to the BookRix editor where you can either upload a file or add text directly.

How to upload a file

BookRix makes it easy for you to upload your work to our site. If you already have a file in your computer, you can use the File Upload button which inserts the text into in our BookRix Editor. Currently we support the following formats: .doc, .docx, .odt, txt, .rtf, .epub. To make things even simpler, if you use the Heading feature in Microsoft Word, the heading text will automatically be converted into chapter titles. You can also include images in the file you are uploading.

Once you’ve uploaded your file, you can use our BookRix editor to make updates, modify your text or add new chapters to your book. Please see the section below for more information regarding our BookRix editor.

Important: If you choose to edit an existing book and decide to upload an additional file, it will replace all the previously stored book content.

Tip: To help you create a perfect ePub file and prevent getting your eBook rejected from sale, please carefully read through our ePub Style Guide

How to Use Our BookRix Editor

The best thing about our BookRix Editor is that it’s so simple to use. If you want to create your book from scratch, click the Type in Content button to begin using the BookRix Editor. This is the same page you would see after selecting file upload.

In this section, you can Add New Chapter, Delete chapters (select the trash can icon) and even change the order of your chapters. This can be done by dragging the arrow button near the Chapter numbers up or down.

Once text has been added to the chapter field, you can make other changes using the tool bar. Options from left to right: Alter text with Bold, Italic, and Underline; Change text alignment from left (default), center or right; Undo or redo an action; Add an image or link; Show/hide block elements (this displays each time of text inside a block). If you aren’t sure what a tool is used for, simply hover your mouse over the icon and a description will appear.

Tip:  Always save your changes.

Our self publishing services make it easy to turn your book into an ePub file on our site and sell it to the world at no cost. Here are some details worth noting:

- The author contract between yourself and BookRix is clear, easy to understand and can be cancelled at any time

- You receive a minimum of 70% in revenue, from what BookRix earns, on each book that you sell

- An ISBN* is automatically generated for each eBook you submit for publication

- You determine the price or your eBook

- Your eBook will be distributed to major online eBook retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Google Play, and many more, with just one click of a button

- Royalties are paid out every month when the minimum of 10 Euros/approximately $14 US dollars, has been reached

- You can change, edit and add to your book even after it has been placed for sale.

*an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique number assigned to a book title by its publisher for tracking and ordering purposes

When a book is submitted for sale, it is sent to our BookRix review team for approval. During this process, they will download the ePub file of your ebook and review everything from the book cover to the layout of the book. If your book is approved, it will be sent to our online shops for distribution. Upon the approval of our third party shops, your ebook will be placed in their online store for purchase.

If our review team identifies errors within your submission, they will place your ebook in “revise” mode and send an email to the email address associated with your BookRix account. The email will explain why your book was not approved and outline the issues you will need to fix in order to publish your ebook. If your book is continually resubmitted without changes, we will not longer accept your book for review.

Books submitted to the BookRix review team will be processed within 3-5 business days and sent for distribution. Typically, our online shops will have the approved books listed in their shops shortly thereafter.

Ok, so you’ve made all the necessary edits and spell checks. You’ve uploaded a high quality cover, and you’ve completed all the items within our Rejection Prevention section. Now you're ready to sell your eBook!

Once you have filled out all the required information in the Book Content, Book Info and Book Cover sections, please select All Shops* and then click Sell Book. Choose your sale price, check the box that you have read our Author Agreement, and then click Sell Book.You can also change which currency your book is sold in.

If any information is missing within the required fields, you will receive an alert indicating which sections require your attention. A pink line surrounding the Edit Book Content, Edit Book Info and/or Edit Cover buttons will direct you to the appropriate area.

*Remember - If you have already sold your eBook on Amazon, we will need the ASIN number associated with your ebook on their site in order to proceed.

Important: Your personal information within My Account Details must be complete in order for BookRix to successfully send your royalty payment.

Tip: If you are having any difficulty with your book formatting, please read through our ePub Style Guide

Tip: For tips on how to market your eBook, please visit our Marketing Guide.

We understand that getting your book published is the first step. The second is getting people to read it. Luckily our community is designed to give authors a built-in audience. Being a BookRix member allows you to make new contacts and connections that provide you with valuable feedback on your work. Our community is unique because we offer objective feedback, which can be difficult to obtain from close friends and family.

Most writers would rather not rely on others to be successful.  With that in mind, we encourage our authors to use the Self Publishing Services offered at BookRix. Below are some practical marketing tips that can help aspiring authors gain readers and aid in the success of their eBook sales.

For more information on each section, please review our complete Marketing Guide.

The Basics

Necessities for a successful eBook:

- A tasteful, high quality cover that will grab the reader’s attention

- A catchy or unique title

- Proper and careful editing

- A fair price set to sell

- A descriptive and well written book blurb/synopsis that will entice the reader

On BookRix

Getting the most from our BookRix community

- Maintain an active presence in the BookRix community by participating in group discussion and writing contests. Engage with users by leaving quality reviews and feedback on their work.Personalize your profile to showcase who you are as a writer

- Personalize your profile to showcase who you are as a writer

- Maintain contact with your readers and community members by answering their questions, responding to comments and messages.

Everywhere else

Promoting yourself outside of BookRix

- Network with other bloggers within the blogging community. Send out ePub files of your book to interested bloggers so they can review it on their blog

- Organize a blog tour – Have your book visit as many blogs as possible in one month to maximize your visibility.

- Create a YouTube account for your author profile. Organize book trailers, live readings and answer fan questions on your videos.

**For more detailed information, please check out our full length Marketing Guide.

Rejection Prevention - BookRix, as well as external shops, have quality control over the books placed for sale. Books that don't pass quality inspection will be rejected. When this occurs, they are not sent for distribution to our external shops and they cannot be purchased.

Here are some steps you can take to prevent your eBook from being rejected:

Cover

Put some effort into your eBook cover. A great cover can sell twice as many eBooks than one with a poor cover. It’s the first thing your reader sees and it’s often the first thing you book is judged on.

Be sure the images used on your cover (as well as images used inside your eBook) belong to you and are not protected by copyright. If you are unsure, we strongly recommend creating your own cover art or soliciting someone to create a cover for you.

Using a high quality image is essential for your book cover. Avoid images that are too small as these images can appear pixilated when enlarged for your book cover. Also avoid using images that contain text as it can conflict  with the title of your book and look unprofessional.

Hate messages and/or symbols, sexually explicit images or images containing illegal activity are not permitted.

If you are looking for graphic programs, ideas, tips or even someone to create a cover for you, check out our Art Writers group on BookRix: http://www.bookrix.com/_group-en-teaser-room

For more helpful information about covers, please click here: http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-3-the-power-of-the-cover

Grammar & Spelling

Good writing involves proper grammar and accurate spelling.

We recommend that you have various readers review your work prior to publishing it. These “test readers” should check specifically for grammar and spelling. Your book will be rejected if it’s poorly written, appears confusing or has too many spelling and grammatical errors.

If you need assistance editing your eBook, please join our “Editing 101” group here: http://www.bookrix.com/_group-en-teaser-room and our members can help you further.

If you feel as though you need some additional assistance, we encourage you to check out our Publishing Tips and Tricks series. Part 7 focuses specifically on spelling, grammar and typos. You can read it for free here: http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-7-typos-type-nos

Blurb / Book Description

First impressions matter.

When a potential reader views your book, the first thing they read after the title is your book description. Don’t overlook this step. You want to entice your reader by being creative and using descriptive words. Focus on what you want to say, choose your sentences carefully, and make it count.

Books with generic or weak blurbs can be rejected. Put some thought this space. You have a minimum of 140 characters and a maximum of 3000. If you need some inspiration or ideas, look up some of your favorite books and read the synopsis.

Copyrighted Text / Images

If the image is not owned by you, or you have not received permission from the owner to use the image, don’t use it.

Books containing copyrighted material (text and/or images) will be rejected. If you do not own the rights to it, you are not authorized to upload it. Any copyright violation made by a BookRix member is their own responsibility and legal action can be taken by the copyright holder against you.

Author Name, Pen names and Anonymity

To prevent your book from being rejected in external shops like Kobo, iTunes and Amazon, a first and last name are required. A pen name can be chosen, however it must be a first and last name and cannot contain titles such as PhD, Mr., etc.

Table of Contents & Page Numbers

These are automatic. Manual input is not necessary.

A table of contents is automatically generated for your book (with a minimum of cover, body of your text and the imprint), when the chapter feature is used, and you will not need to create an additional table of contents. If you enabled the Chapter function and entered a table of contents manually in your text area, please remove the manual table of contents as this can cause your eBook to be rejected.

Page numbers are automatically inserted into ePub files and eReaders. Please remove manually inserted page numbers in your text, as having them can cause your eBook to be rejected.

External Links/ Shop Names

Avoid a conflict of interest.

Your eBook will be rejected from external shops if you post links to books and/or products within your book. In addition, you are not permitted to mention names of online shops. Books containing names to online shops, such as iTunes or Barnes & Noble, will also be rejected.

Authors are free to insert links to their author page, sources for education and finance, help sites, businesses, etc., However “Direct-to-buy” links are not permitted.

Word, Line, & Page Breaks / Formatting

Presentation is everything.

Words on a page attract a reader but the way they are laid out on a page is equally important. The formatting of your eBook is essential to it being well received.

Most external shops have formatting standards that they require all authors to abide by. Stores like iTunes will reject books that have more than 2 line breaks and/or page breaks. This extra spaceing can cause blank pages in an eReader. Colored or bold fonts can also cause a book to be rejected.

Most eReaders are designed to break words for you. When a word at the end of a line doesn’t fit properly, don’t worry. Continue typing and the BookRix  editor will break a word when necessary. This also applies to hitting the “Enter” key on your keyboard and manually breaking a word. Doing this will distort your text and can cause your eBook to be rejected.

Keep it classic and clean and don't use the "Enter" key in excess as this will minimize your chances of getting rejected from the external shops.

Hate Messages

Hatred is not permitted.

Books containing hate messages directed to any race, ethnicity, gender, political party, religion, etc., will be rejected unless depicted in the plot of the story.

Illegal Activity

Illegal activity is not permitted.

Books containing illegal activity such as pedophilia, how-to’s for crimes, etc., will be rejected unless depicted in the plot of the story.

Book Pricing

Determine the appropriate price for your eBook.

A good thing to consider when pricing your book is the number of pages it contains. For example, if you penned a short story and intend to sell it for a high dollar amount, a potential buyer could be turned off by the price. If your book is priced too high, you may receive a message from us encouraging you to adjust it.

For helpful tips about pricing your book, please click here: http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-10-pricing-your-book

Click below for more Publishing Tips and Tricks:

Become Active
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-and-tricks-part-1-become-active
Link Cleverly, Earn More Money
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-2-link-cleverly-earn-more-money
The Power of the Cover
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-3-the-power-of-the-cover
The First Words Matter
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-4-the-first-words-matter
Choose a Good Title
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-5-choose-a-good-title
Get a Good Review
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-6-get-a-good-review
Typos? Type No’s!
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-7-typos-type-nos
The Book Blog
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-8-the-book-blog
Become Active on BookRix
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-9-become-active-on-bookrix
Pricing Your Book
http://www.bookrix.com/_title-en-bookrix-publishing-tips-tricks-part-10-pricing-your-book

Click HERE for our ePub style guide that will help you prevent your eBook from rejection

Click HERE for Marketing Tips that will help your book get noticed