I haven’t marketed my PFC John Gurecki eBook on Amazon, because I’ve been dealing with some major technical problems.
For anyone out there thinking of creating a fixed-layout eBook, do take caution. It’s not as quick and easy as an eBook with text only. EBooks were really designed to flow as the reader scrolls through them, adapting to the device it’s on, allowing the user to increase the size of the text as need be, etc.
With PFC John Gurecki, it’s extremely important that the images stay fixed where they are in between the text portions of the book. Sounds easy in theory, but is difficult to execute on your own, at least if you’re new to this universe (which I am).
When I sent my files to the printer managing the print version of the book, I spoke to the head of the production department who explained the difficulty of creating an eBook version of my files, and I just about gave up.
I continued to research and research and finally found, for a very modest price, a company that exclusively converts files into eBooks and they took care of the job for me. They explained that for the majority of online stores out there, an epub file would do the trick, but Amazon (who is the ruling overlord in the eBook universe) needed a different format – a mobi file – because an epub file simply wouldn’t work with their system. They sent me the two files and off I went to find a distribution service.
I found one, who shall remain nameless, who confirmed they could distribute an epub3 file (which was what I needed for the fixed-layout), and that uploading and distribution was free. They would only take 10% of my earnings – which works for me.
I explained to them that I had two files already prepared, one specifically for Amazon. They confidently reassured me that Amazon could convert the epub3 file into the mobi version without any problems. I explained to them what the epub conversion company told me, and they basically pooh-poohed me.
Last week, I download the sample that as uploaded to Amazon, and this is what I saw:
