Book Publishing Files And Formats: How To Protect Your Writing Investment

Publishing guarantees that creative works reach the general public with quality standards that are usually unavailable to the public or the authors. The transmission of the Internet facilitates the distribution of written works. Still, it does not exclude the need for editing: composition, orthotypographical correction, style adjustment, rendition in case they are not phonological, etc. It is apt that publishing, which has investment, training, and time costs, sometimes enormous, is paid or is a form of business. However, the editorial work aims to facilitate access to ideas and knowledge in formats of sufficient quality.

Attacking digital distribution technologies, restricting their use, and even penalizing go against the primitive social function of publishers. Protecting an industry against the media that would facilitate its social function more efficiently and cheaply is to destroy its goal and, therefore, is contrary to the principles of the editorial profession. At this point, we recommend professional book publishing services.

Are Book Publishing Files Vital And More Than Necessary?

Publishing files are vital and more than necessary for people, organizations, and society in general because without them, they would have neither a past nor a future. They would live from day to day without having any knowledge about their actions or that of others. Everyone wants to know their history and claims to be informed and documented, but only some pay the interest that the files deserve to obtain this knowledge.

Publishing Files: Preserve, Promote, Give Access, And Disseminate Knowledge

Publishing files are necessary because they promote knowledge, guard and preserve our memory, and disseminate our historical heritage. They also give access to citizens, promote historical and scientific research, support the document management of organizations, support transparency and accountability, and speed up the location of the available information.

Publishing files protects human rights, establishes a collective memory, and sustains accountable and transparent governments.

What Are The Main Self-Publishing File Formats?

On several occasions, we have read the information on how to publish a digital book. Aware of the boom that self-publishing has gained recently, we want to show you some of the formats available for the publication of electronic books.

The format of a digital book varies, depending on its length or the objective it will fulfill within the market: a scientific report, a graphic novel, or a comic is different. Furthermore, a decisive aspect involves the platforms on which the book will be published and marketed, as well as the type of ploy on which it will be read. Hence, professional book formatting services are highly recommended.  

Other Important Details That Weigh When Selecting The Format For A Digital Publication Are:

The structure of the contents, the layout, and the arrangement of images (illustrations, graphs, and photographs) may vary from one format to another. Some eBook download and purchase platforms require specific extensions. For example, Mobi and Epub are two e-book formats supported by Amazon.

Formats To Publish Your Digital Book:

Publishing in different formats increases the possibility of distributing your book in more places and among more people. If this is your objective, consider that you must adapt the content and layout to each extension you choose. As you will see, selecting the right format from the beginning is very important.

Most readers only care what formats the e-books they will read are in beyond whether their reader can process said files. They are still determining whether they are in EPUB or MOBI format. However, reading a book in PDF is different, especially if it is possible to read it in one of the previously mentioned formats. Why? They have a series of advantages, such as the configuration of the font and its size or the adjustment of the text on the screen.

At this point, you may have yet to consider how many eBook file formats there are. Nor which are the most used or which have existed throughout the life of electronic books. So, for that reason and to answer your questions, we will compile the main formats in which we read electronic books.

Not All Electronic Formats Are The Same: the one you decide to use as a support for your eBook will depend, to a large extent, on the type of content you want to publish. For this reason, we invite you to learn about some of the most used formats and their characteristics:

MOBI: This file extension for digital books marks the content but delimits its format, which allows it to adapt to the different sizes of the screens of various electronic devices. It is compatible with almost all readers if the digital book does not have active rights protection (DRM); otherwise, it can only be read on a Kindle device.

EPUB: It is the universal e-book format. It is an open-source, resizable format for e-book files. Like Mobi, this extension marks the content but does not delimit its format, to facilitate adaptation to different devices. As a free format, it can be used free of charge by private companies, which is why it is one of the most widespread.

PDF: It is one of the best-known and most used extensions. The PDF is an accessible format to read on any device and avoids modifying the content. Another of its advantages is that almost any editing application allows you to generate this type of file. In addition, it will enable the inclusion of annotations and markers.

DAISY: This format is widely used for the generation of audiobooks. Both text and audio are synchronized. This makes it much easier to navigate through the document extension. In addition, it has a search function that allows access to specific sections.

CBR/CBZ: The name stands for Comic Book Reader, but the usage is for any book when the content contains images. It is a compressed container for images. The R means it’s RAR, while Z means it’s zip compressed. CBR files end with the extension“.cb” and CBZ files with the extension“.cbz”

AZW: it is an electronic book format developed by Amazon. It is supported by all Amazon devices (Amazon Kindle), smartphones, android tablets, iPhones, and iPads. Under the same extension are two different versions of the format: the KF7 and the KF8. The AZW extension is used on eBook files that are DRM protected and on files that are not protected. AZW files with DRM can be obtained from Amazon since the protection system is proprietary and has not been transferred to third parties.

DOC: Microsoft Word format.

HTML: The well-known markup language for building web pages is also used for displaying

digital books. Many books with expired copyrights have been published on the Internet in this format.

RTF: Rich text format.

TXT: The simplest plain text format that does not support text styles or images.

How To Self-Publish A Book Independently, Explained Step By Step?

This is a small but comprehensive guide to the self-publishing process.

1. Write your literary work

Logically, first of all, you write your literary work. We advise writing it directly in the appropriate format and well laid out so as not to have to redo it later. Doing so also guides you about the number of pages in the work, and the tools to create an automatic index guide you in sizing the chapters. We advise new authors to refrain from making very voluminous works. For a potential buyer, a voluminous work by an unknown author is double daring. You can use Open Office or Microsoft Word. Ideally, it would be best if you always worked in the format of the editor you are using, and then the deliverable for the printer is transferred to PDF format.

2. First record of the draft of the work

Once finished, you can optionally register it as a first draft. With this, you avoid cases of defenselessness before possible plagiarism. Remember that even if you do not contract any spelling or style correction service, your work will be delivered to someone at some point. At least you will deliver it to the printer, and nothing has to happen, but prior registration is a procedure you should consider for greater security. The registration of the intellectual property is transferred to autonomous communities. You can find out at:

3. Polish the work

Optionally, and once the draft is registered, you can hire style and orthotypographic proofreading and book editing services or choose to do everything yourself if you feel capable. Remember that the process will end with acquiring a small print run, and any small error will affect the entire print run. Review your work thoroughly several times, as something needs to be noticed. Going to a professional might be a good idea if you need a facility to auto-correct spelling and style mistakes. All this work becomes especially heavy if the work is very voluminous.

You will not be able to make minor corrections to your work without it affecting you. Each new edition requires a new ISBN. When the differences from the previous edition are minimal, it qualifies as a reissue but also requires a new ISBN and a new legal deposit. In small runs, it is an expense that will affect your benefits or the PVP of the work.

4. Design a cover

You will need to design a cover and get a PDF. It is a subject on which we have already published some articles. Don’t go crazy searching. You may not have a problem converting the cover design image to PDF format but rather making the design because you have never used a photo retouching program. Don’t worry; Gimp is free and just as good as Adobe’s well-known Photoshop.

5. Request a quote for printing on demand

Once the work and the cover are finished, you ask for a price for printing on demand. Many sites offer print-on-demand, and you must search Google and ask for several quotes. They will usually charge you five more books than you order to reserve a legal deposit. The legal deposit is a mandatory requirement for printing companies. It does not imply an obligation for the author, although we cannot rule out that the work that does not have a deposit could have a different legal consideration in some legal disputes. It is only done the first time you request a book’s print run. Later ones don’t need it.

You must first request a quote from your printing service indicating the number of copies you want to order, and you should wait to do it too far in advance because the validity of the quotes is always limited in time. They should offer you quote validity for at least a couple of weeks.

If you consider yourself a professional writer and you fear that your book will only be able to sell up to 20 units in several years, we are going right. You have to be more optimistic and think this could be achieved in a shorter time. The work of self-promotion is essential and nothing trivial. Meanwhile, if you share your idea with professional ghostwriters who write the book on your behalf, then the sell target may get 4x or more depending on the ghostwriter.

Books at cost are relatively cheap and can serve as a promotional tool. Still, it is not a matter of making indiscriminate gifts. Still, giving them away in libraries or giving them to people, you know, with a special interest in that genre or to people who can publish a review of your work on the Internet after reading it.

6. Request the printing service

Once the final back cover of your book is complete, you can confirm the order with the print-on-demand company. They will request the final art in PDF. Before printing all the copies, they should test and notify you of any inconsistencies. Once you receive the material, ensure that the quality is adequate, that they made the effective legal deposit, and that it will appear in the book.

7. Promote a book

You should already have a strategy planned and a marketing campaign according to your possibilities and means by the time of publication. The Internet will be your main ally.

Self-promotion is an art, it is convenient to base as much as possible on a good promotion on the Internet because it is cheaper, but with a little money, you can also improve your work’s promotion or hire professional book marketing service from a well-known company can also provide you the best results. Do not use AdWords because despite being able to invest, only the amount you want to sell books is uneconomical. You should never lose sight of the low return the sale of a single copy gives you when investing in the promotion.

Tips:

Although distribution costs more, we do not recommend direct sales to the final consumer. Although the profit margin is higher, you would enter into a dynamic that will slow down the growth of your business. Direct selling will take time away from activities with more potential in the long run.

How to register and protect my book before publishing?

One of the questions that people who are thinking of publishing often ask me is: “How can I register my book to protect it and avoid possible plagiarism?”

Is it possible to protect your book before it is published? We have the habit of thinking about the safety of our ideas when problems appear. Since everything has a beginning, we will see when you should start protecting your book, and then tell me what you think of the topic in the comments. Let’s see.

When should I start protecting my book?

From the moment your idea sees the light, that is, from the moment you write the book in your notebook, computer, or wherever you have written it, even if it is just a sentence, your texts are already protected by copyright.

But do I need to make it public as such?

The answer to the million-dollar question is that the manifestation of your creativity must not be disclosed to be protected. The best option if you want to protect your work as you create it is to show it to everyone at the end. But if you share your computer, are the type of person who leaves things behind on the train, or if you share your progress with your work colleagues, it is best to protect what you are writing. And this does not mean that it has to be perfect or the final result ready to be printed.

Register Your Book Before It’s A Book

Suppose you are thinking of registering officially because “that is why it exists,” and it is enough to protect copyrights. In that case, there is a very important detail that you have to consider. What you will deposit must be a physical book that has already been published that you will distribute or start selling. Your drafts, your first writings, before they pass through the hands, cannot fit in with authorization, and you will have to discard them as protection of your ideas. The idea is that you protect your book before it is a book.

The Tools You Have At Hand To Record And Protect Your Ideas

For your words to be protected, you have two options: Safe Creative or the Intellectual Property Registry (RPI). Both offer you something essential when claiming plagiarism: proof with a certain date of when you came up with that text, which makes you presume that you are the author. Why is this important?

Because when it comes to copyright issues, what matters is not who registers but who shows that they had the idea first. You can use the two perfectly simultaneously, they are not water and oil, and they live happily together or alone.

What Is The Best Option To Register My Book?

It depends. Since we are talking about the drafts of your book and the books that still need to be drafted, we will tell you the differences for this specific case so you can decide what is best for you.

What Is DRM?

 DRM (Digital Rights Management) is an encryption technology created to protect electronic books’ content. It is based on linking a book (eBook) purchased to a specific user account.

This means it is only possible to share the eBook if the device it is on is shared. In this way, illegal reproductions of content are avoided. Some companies have their DRM (Apple or Amazon), and others, like Adobe, offer their DRM so that large companies can use it.

How To Register And Protect My Book Before Publishing It?

Congratulations, if you have come this far, it is because you have finally written that novel, short story, or manual that was on your mind. You’ve just written a book and need to know what steps to take now that you have your manuscript in hand.

Before moving on to your book’s promotion and dissemination plan, we must go through some legal aspects you must pay attention to protect your work.

Steps To Register  A Book Before Publishing

First, we want to clarify that registering a work is not an obligation of the author or author. That is, the law does not require us to register it.

Now, imagine that someone wants to plagiarize your work, and you have no weapons before the court to defend that the original idea is yours, not theirs. This is why we strongly recommend registering your work before publishing, so you will always have that guarantee of protection.

Register Your Book After The Last Correction

 We also advise you to wait to register your book until it is finished. And by fully finished, we mean revised, layout, and corrected down to the last detail.

And why should you take it into account? Well, because the property registry considers the work in its entirety. In other words, any modification, however small or subtle, would also affect ownership or authorship.

Difference Between Intellectual Property And Copyright

 Finally, we want you to know the differences between intellectual property and copyright. Intellectual property falls into two categories:

• Intellectual property: within its jurisdiction, patents, trademarks, industrial drawings and models, and geographical warnings of origin.
• Copyright: includes literary and artistic projects, as well as novels, poems or drama, etc. It also includes movies, musical projects, drawings, paintings, photos and sculptures, and architectural designs.

Conclusion:

As you have seen, prevention is important in everything that has to do with book publishing so that we do not regret later when someone appropriates our ideas and, above all, the work and effort it has cost us to develop them.

We hope that all this information has been of great help to you. You have to contact us if you want us to publish your work and the entire legal process.