ALL ABOUT E-PUBLISHING

A little while ago I gave a small class on E-publishing at my local co-op and I spent most of my time discussing the difference's between regular publishing and e-publishing. I know now that there is plenty more to it that I did not cover and should have. So, here in this tutorial, I will be going indepth on the art of e-publishing.

Some of you reading this probably have a general idea on what e-publishing is. It's getting something that you have written "published" in electronic form. That can either be e-books, e-zines (internet Magazines), or on a website. This tutorial you are reading can constitute a e-published article, but this is very general.

E-publishing is both easy and difficult at the same time. With the internet being able to get in contact with more people then the written form, and the ease in starting an e-zine, there are many people in the field.

I am going to cover two forms of e-publishing and both is something you can do.

STEP 1 - How to E-Publish

First of all I want to warn you that if you are looking in to this to be able to make a BIG amount of money, then you are looking at the wrong guy to explain it. I'm just explaining HOW you can do it. This is not meant to scare you off, just making sure we have all the cards on the table.

Okay, to e-publish you will need two things (or more if you plan to do it some other ways) you will need a computer (I assume you have one since you are reading this) and a program that makes PDF. You don't need a pdf maker, but it comes in handy because it seals it in a form that can be veiwed on all computers! Not all computers can see Microsoft Word Documents. Windows, Linux, and Macintosh use TOTALLY differnet platforms. If they have a PDF reader installed, then they can see the document you made the way you made it!

If you plan to buy the Adobe PDF maker (the reader is free) then your going to pay something around $300 dollars. You can do alot with it, but most people don't have the money to pay for that.

My dad found a link on the computer to a place that has a PDF maker that is free. It works like a printer and you print to it. It is completely free and it works to it's full extent. (The catch is that there is one sponser window and you don't have technical support). I hate adds myself and if you aren't even on the internet, the adds don't display.

To download this PDF maker (called pdf995) you can go to the bottom of the page and click the link.

Alright, the simple thing with PDF maker is you write your story, article, whatever, with the program you use and then print it with pdf995. This program then will make a pdf file that you have your story on. Viola!, your now an e-publisher.

Now, to make money off of it. I have no idea. You'll probably need the fancy programs, the professional writers and the marketing experience to make a go at it. I have none of thee above, so I make e-publishing files for myself and my friends, free of charge. If you are going in another direction, then good luck and tell me how it turns out. Sorry I can't help.

STEP 3 - Making an E-zine

Okay, next thing you can do is make an e-zine. An e-zine is a magazine that is distributed or veiwed online by your readers. This is a lot simpler to do then the pdf files because all you need is to put it on your website. (if you don't know how to design a website I have a tutorial on it and you can get it by clicking here.

Then you just make your magazine and place it online. You can distribute the magazine different ways. You can do it by email, pdf file, or on a website. I have samples of all three of these things in the links below.

WARNING: as you surf the internet for things about e-zines you will find plenty of advertisements that state that you can make big bucks off of starting an e-zine. Don't believe it, that's a get-rich-quick scheme that doesn't work. 1 out of 20 links I got from the yahoo search engine was even worth anything. So, below are all the good links.

The hardest part about an e-zine is getting content and people to read it. The best thing is to start with your friends (but don't flood their email accounts with a bunch of stuff. That's like spam.)

STEP 4 - The e-book

Okay, an e-book is a book that is printed in electronic form. It can range from a PDF file to a fancy EXE file that you can run on your computer. I, myself, have only worked with PDF files (because I'm not a professonial e-book maker) and so this is all I know.

I did a lot of research for this subject so I at least have something to fit in this step.

STEP 5 - Copyright, who has it?

Against popular belief, everything on the internet IS NOT free and claimed by anyone! This idea has been around the internet a lot because of the ease people could have in access programs, writing, and other things.

To protect your interests (and anyone else who has submitted content) it is very good to have a copyright notice with the story. This will remind people that the person has the copyright to the object.

I'm not saying that there are people on the internet just waiting for you to put something out there so they can steal it. But there are people out there who will do that.

At the moment the Supreme Court hasn't done much with internet copyright, but many cases has gone the way of the original copyright owner so, those rules are to be assumed in place.

For more information on any type of copyright please check out the copyright office which is below.

FINAL STEP

Well, I covered most of the stuff that was on my list for you. I hope this has been helpful to you and makes everything work the way you want it too. As it is always said, If you have any questions about something or want to send me a copy of your e-published stuff, please contact me at jtworld@jtworld.net. I loved to here from you.

LINKS

United States Copyright Office - www.copyright.gov

E-zine templates - www.free-newslettertemplates.com/index.html

E-zine handbook (NOTE: there are some get-rich-quick schemes in here)
- www.e-zinez.com/handbook/template.html.com

pdf995 -www.pdf995.com