Self-publishing formating tools: what do you recommend?

[Nikky Lee]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to create a reader magnent to help build up my newsletter list (aka a freebie to entice readers to sign up to my mailing list). But to do that I need to self-publish the story I plan on using, which means using a self-publishing tool. Unfortunately, my knowledge is quite limited here and I only know of three platforms to do this on: Draft2Digital, Smashwords and IngramSpark.

Are there others tools I should consider? And to the folks who have self pubbed, which tools have you used? Why did you choose to use it? And have there been any pros/cons in using it?

 

[CageSage]

Um, tools or platforms?
Tools to make different formats (don't forget the legalities of copyright, date of publication, etc. and a link to your site/other work/author listings (like 'zon)): I use Calibre (free) to make different versions for newsletters and such (or beta readers).
Platforms - getting a freebie on 'zon is now difficult, and most people do the minimum price (0.99c) rather than go the battle.
D2D gets good distribution, and Smashwords has the highest turnover of freebies (and a lot of through-traffic between SW and 'zon, even though they don't publish to 'zon unless you get 2k odd sales per [month?].
Publishing direct is another option, but some of them are tricky (Apple) and require ISBN, different for each (I know it shouldn't be like that, but they insist, so for me easier to go with the aggregator).
There are others with more experience than me, though, so I hope they are more help.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

You might look to something like Bookfunnel, which is a very popular way for authors to give away freebies. You can flick pretty much anything onto book funnel, and then send people to the site with a code to get it. I haven't used it (though I will soon...), but I know lots of NZ authors do.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Thanks @CageSage and @Robinne Weiss I'll go check out those two options