SANDRA GULLAND, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO BECOMING YOUR OWN E-BOOK PUBLISHER - AUTHOR GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

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Welcome best-selling historical fiction author, Sandra Gulland at FLY HIGH! and read the story of her long journey in the e-book self-publishing field. Enter the giveaway contest for 3 e-book copies of her THE MANY LIVES AND SECRET SORROWS OF JOSEPHINE B, first novel of a great trilogy  (Read carefully the giveway details given below).I love everythingto do with publishing. I have worked as a typesetter (that dates me!), aneditor, a ghostwriter, a novelist—and now: e-book publisher.I must qualify that however: I'm nota publisher insofar as I do not—as yet—publish works by others. Also, I haveyet to take charge of the process from start to finish: I am publishing novelsof my own that have been previously edited and extensively published . . . buthave then—in one vast territory (UK and beyond)—gone out of print. I wanted mynovels to continue to be available to all readers, so I decided topublish themmyself in e-book form, under my own imprint: Sandra Gulland INK.I have a giddy love of being anentrepreneur, so the process of creating INK has been fun, one very close to myheart  . . .  but it has also been quite a bit moretime-consuming than I expected. Setting up an e-book publishing company andlaunching my titles took all of one year—and there remains quite a bit more todo. If you are considering e-book publishing, here are some of the things Idid:
            —Obtained ISBN numbers. As aCanadian, these were free, but it took a little time to get them. That said,there is a curious thrill to having my little bank of ISBN numbers.             —Lined up designer with e-book coverand interior design savvy—the amazing Kris Waldherr.            —Lined up someone with the technicalknow-how to set up e-book accounts and upload the books. (Fortunately, this wasthe designer!)             —Hired a typist to have my existingbooks retyped into InDesign software (the publishing software of choice). Ifound someone in Romania through elance.com. With me in Canada or Mexico, adesigner in Brooklynand a typist in Romania, I began to think of INK as"my little empire."             —Proofread the files. (This was doneby me as well as someone I hired, in addition to an army of wonderful FaceBookvolunteers.)             —Checked, and rechecked, andrechecked the final files. (I confess I could not resist rewriting a bit.)             —Located art for the cover designs.            —Approved the cover designs. I wasfortunate. My designer was immediately spot-on.             —Wrote all the fore- andback-matter. And then re-wrote it. And then re-wrote it all again.            —Provided the information for Kristo set up Kindle, Kobo and iBooks accounts. Each required banking information,and each used different terms which mystified us both. For Kindle, as aCanadian publisher, I had to go though a complex "tax-exempt" processthat required a trip to a notary.             —Puzzled over pricing strategies.

Sandra Gulland's latest publication

            —Put together all the informationneeded for the "metadata"—a word I came to dread. Metadata is all theinformation associated with your title. You will be surprised how much is required.There are people who can put ane-book on-line in an evening. There are certainly faster ways of doing this,but at a sacrifice. For one thing, you'll most likely have to give up apercentage of your earnings. Since these books will be on-line forever (take a moment to consider thatword), I wanted to be the sole proprietor. The other sacrifice has more to dowith personal aesthetic. I'm a self-confessed perfectionist, and book design isvery important to me. I read e-books—some are wonderful, but others are simply amess. I wanted myINK publications to be a pleasure to read—in content, but alsovisually. You can imagine thesatisfaction Ifelt when I read thisTweet from @Taflach, a reader in Australia: "It wasthe prettiest E-book I’ve read – Just downloaded the next two :)  #WillNotGetAnythingElseDoneToday.Yes: it has been a long and windingroad, but worth it? You bet!             Have you e-book published? What wasyour experience?


Sandra GullandThe Giveaway Contest
Sandra Gulland is giving away 3 e-reader copies of the first book in her  Josephine B. Trilogy : THE MANY LIVES AND SECRET SORROWS OF JOSEPHINE B.  To be entered you have to leave your comment + e-mail address. Please specify the country you are writing from in your comment. This contest is in fact open worldwide except for the US & Canada. Deadline is Nov. 1st. The AuthorSandraGulland is author of four historical novels. Her latest, MISTRESS OF THE SUN,is set in the French court of the charismatic Sun King and is inspired by thelife of Louise de La Vallière, an extraordinary equestrian and mistress of theking. Published internationally, it has received glowing reviews since itspublication in February of 2008, landing on a Canadian best-seller list fourmonths.
Gulland's previous publication wasTHE JOSEPHINE B. TRILOGY, internationally best-selling novels based on the lifeof Josephine Bonaparte. The Trilogy is now published in seventeen countries andhas collectively sold over a million worldwide.  A fifth novel, also set in the Courtof the Sun King, will be published in 2014 and is tentatively titled IN THESERVICE OF THE SHADOW QUEEN. Additionally, bit by anentrepreneurial spirit, Sandra formed her own e-book publishing venture: SANDRAGULLAND INK. 
An American-Canadian, Sandra was bornin Miami, Florida, and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley and Chicago beforeimmigrating to Canada in 1970 to teach in an Inuit village in northernLabrador. Settling in Toronto, she worked as a book editor for a decade beforemoving with her husband and two children to a log house in northern Ontario,where, in 1985, she began writing full-time. She and her husband now live halfthe year in Ontario, Canada, and half in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.          For e-book readers outside Canada and theU.K., Sandra's novels are now available through her own imprint, Sandra GullandInk: http://bit.ly/SandraGullandInk
Watch a video interview with the author:http://bit.ly/GullandVideo
For more about SandraGulland and her work visit:Website: http://www.sandragulland.comBlog: http://bit.ly/TheWritingLifeFacebook: http://on.fb.me/SGFBpage Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_GullandGoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/SandraGulland
Recent Newsletter: http://bit.ly/Sept2012News