Helping Hands

E-publishing has a learning curve, but fortunately there are a lot of sources out there that can help you learn relatively quickly. This will concentrate largely on Kindle, because that's where I publish. Maybe later I'll post a few about other platforms as well.

Oh - and all of these are free.

If you don’t have a Kindle, aren’t sure you want to buy one, but would like to try the experience of reading e-books—and if you have a PC computer—you can download and install a free application from Amazon.com, Kindle for PC, that will allow you to read Kindle files on your computer. It’s free, and you can find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311

If you want to publish your book at Amazon.com in e-book form for Kindle readers, the actual publication process is free (though you may invest in things like purchasing a professionally-made cover, registering your copyright, or buying an ISBN—but these steps are optional, not required).  The program is Kindle Direct Publishing, and you can sign up for it here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Amazon has free guides to publishing for Kindle. You’ll need a Kindle or Kindle for PC to read them, unless you download a .pdf file instead. Here are a few of them:

Building Your Book for Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Book-Kindle-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360019543&sr=1-2&keywords=publishing+on+kindle

Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing:

http://www.amazon.com/Publish-Amazon-Kindle-Publishing-ebook/dp/B004LX069M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360019543&sr=1-1&keywords=publishing+on+kindle

Kindle Publishing Unleashed

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Publishing-Unleashed-ebook/dp/B00B1YQNG4/ref=sr_1_20?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360019757&sr=1-20&keywords=publishing+on+kindle

Calibre (pronounced like the caliber of a bullet) is a free program that you must download and install. It has its own e-book reader, and best of all, it can format your manuscripts as e-books for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, IPad, and others.

http://calibre-ebook.com/