It is always best for us to convert from a source file, like .doc, .docx, .pages, .rtf, or even .odt file rather than a .pdf file, however, a .pdf will certainly do if nothing else is available.  With a pdf file, there are some things to consider:

1. You pay a bit more.  There are NO automatic PDF to source converters that do a perfect job.  In fact, most conversions require hours of manual fixes.  Time is money.
2. PDF conversions will require more careful proof reading.  Due to the process of converting a PDF, words may break in odd places, lose capitalization or lose hyphens.  Most PDF conversions are fine, but some result in many errors based on how the PDF was created.  We will let you know if a word for word proofing will be necessary.
3. PDF conversions take a little longer.  Normally, we can complete projects within 24 hours.  PDF conversions can take a few days, plus the proofing process takes a bit longer as well.

We can do an amazing job converting your PDF to all major ebook formats, but just keep these points in mind.

Nothing.  Really!  Leave that part to us.

No... not unless you plan on spending a lot of time in court over it.  Have a look at this short article that gives you the basics.

http://selfpublishingadvisor.com/2010/08/30/copyright-and-copywrite-in-self-publishing/

No.  We do not own your book -- you do.  We do not restrict where you can distribute your book, who you can use to distribute the book, or anything else.  The only thing you cannot do, is distribute the book in the same retailers as we are.  If you want to set up your own account with select retailers that we distribute through, you need to opt out of that distribution -- we can't both have your book in there.  Besides that, it is still your book, and your rights.

Yes.  When you upload your title, you will see the option to opt-out.

Only until notice of termination.  You, as the copyright holder of the book or publisher for the book, can terminate our publishing/distribution agreement at anytime.  At such point, we no longer have the right to distribute your book.  Within 72 hours, we will notify the retailers to remove the book from their stores.  It could take up to 30 days for all the retailers to comply.

This a personal preference.  Some people are very opposed to the whole DRM idea, and for political reasons they choose to not use DRM -- and some buyers will not BUY books using DRM.  Others don't mind if their books are shared and passed around -- it actually might result in more sales.  But some believe illegal sharing will result in fewer sales.

In the end, it's up to you. And it probably really doesn't matter all that much.

Make sure when you register your book at ebookit.com, select the DRM option and opt out of eBookIt.com distribution.  We do not encrypt your files.

No.  The retailers do. For example, Amazon will apply DRM on the .mobi file when we send it to them (if you choose DRM).  The DRM scheme they use is specific for their device and file format.

From Wikipedia:

Digital rights management (DRM) is a term for access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the use of digital content and devices. The term is used to describe any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that is not desired or intended by the content provider.

In terms of eBooks, DRM will deter people from sharing your books with others who did not pay for it.

Clients may provide their own ISBN if they wish.  But it must be not already be assigned to any title, or any edition of the current title other than the ePub (file type).

The little "e" in front.

It is simply a term that some people use to refer to the ISBN of their ebook.

You need just one, and here's why.

The only vendors we use that require an ISBN, are the ones that require epub format.  So even though you technically need an ISBN for each ebook format, you really don't.  Amazon does not require one for the .mobi, and Ingram does not require one for the .pdf.  One ISBN will do, and it needs to be registered as a .epub ebook.

No.  We can provide you with one for no extra charge.

If you do use our ISBN, the book must be listed as being "published by eBookIt.com".  We have no more rights to the book by providing you with the ISBN, and it is no more difficult for you to move your book to another publisher, if you should ever be so foolish to want to do so. ;-)

If using an eBookIt.com ISBN and if you submit the converted files directly to any retailer, they must list the imprint EXACTLY as follows:  eBookIt.com

If using an eBookIt ISBN and you opt out of distributing through eBookIt.com, you must cease distributing the file(s) unless / until you remove eBookIt.com as the publisher and the ISBN that we provided, including all mentions of ebookit.com on the copyright page.

No.  We do not sell ISBNs, we provide them for free as a part of our service.  This is not a significant expense for us.

No.  Your ISBN must be different and registered specifically for the epub version of an ebook.

No, but if your ISBN is through Bowker, you can covert it at http://www.isbn.org/converterpub.asp

From Wikipedia:

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966.

The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108. (However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the United Kingdom until 1974.) Currently, the ISO’s TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the ISBN. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978.

Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland EAN-13s.

Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure; however, this is usually later rectified.[dubious – discuss]

A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines.

R.R. Bowker is the U.S. Agency of the International Standard Book Numbering Convention, as approved by the International Organization for Standardization. As such, it is the originator of ISBNs for U.S.-based publishers. Anyone can buy one for their self published book for $125.00. Publishers in other countries can only obtain ISBNs from their local ISBN Agency, a directory of which can be found on the International ISBN Agency website.

We will.  As of this writing (November 22, 2011) none of the major retailers are accepting the new format yet -- and even though Amazon is shipping the new Kindle Fire, the format has not yet been released to authors and publishers!  But this will all change very soon, and when the retailers are ready, we will be too!  If you are registered as a client, you will be notified when this happens.

No.  eBooks are unique in that the font size can be adjusted by the reader, and displayed on many different eBook readers, each with its own screen size.  This means that the ebook must be fluid and capable of adjusting on the fly.  When we do the prep work for your ebook, we need to do the following:

• Get rid of columns
• Turn your tables, charts into images
• Change your table of contents to no longer reference page numbers
• Exclude any index you might have
• Change all floating images to inline images, which might change the way they are displayed.
• Remove all background images / paper styles
• Remove all headers/footers
• Remove all footnotes or move footnotes to the back of the book
• Standardize the fonts
• Remove all page numbers

Your file will not look exactly the same, but we will do the best we can to keep the original look and feel while making a properly formatted eBook.

By default, we do not.  We create your pdf to look and feel just like your epub and other formats.  We can, however, create an epub as "fancy" as you like.  Let us know what you are looking for and we can give you an estimate for the extra time needed to create that kind of pdf.

We do not support audio or video in ebooks because at this time there is no standard.  At best, the iPad supports HTML5 embedded videos, but other platforms do not.  This means, any ebook created with video will not work on the vast majority of eReaders.  For this reason, we do not work with video or audio.

A better alternative is to have full URLs to al your videos in your ebook.  This way, some readers, like the iPad, will play the video on the device (assuming the video can be played on an iPad).  If the videos are to be seen only by people who by the book, you can "protect" your content in a few ways...

1) just put a standard password in the book and require that password on your website that plays the videos

2) have a more complex security system in place where you can ask the reader for a random word in your book... ex. "what is the 3rd word in chapter 3?"

If by "footnotes" you mean numbers in your text that refer to other text at the "bottom of the page", then no, footnotes are not allowed because there are no bottoms of pages in ebooks.  Remember that ebooks have fluid pages.  What is a page on an iPad is maybe 5 pages on an iPhone.

We will use one of two solutions, depending on the number of footnotes...

1. embedded footnotes - if there are not many footnotes in the document, we might embed the footnotes in the text using brackets. [like this] right where the superscript number would normally go.
2. document endnotes - like footnotes, the text has the number of the footnote after it.  Unlike footnotes, all the descriptions of the footnotes are at the end of the document, not the page (which does not exist).  Document endnotes are automatically made if your Word file was using footnotes.  These footnotes are linked and easy to jump back and fourth.

At eBookIt.com, we do it all for you.  The purpose of our business is to make this process as easy as possible.  With that said, there are several things you can check to make sure your conversion comes out the way you want it to, as well as save you money.  Do read over these FAQs -- you may want to make some changes before submitting your book.

An ebook is unlike the pdf version of your printed book is many ways.  Remember that pdfs are now viewed on all kinds of platforms including many very small mobile devices.  Backgrounds, large designs and complex layouts do not work.  Most importantly, a good pdf version of a book needs a directory that is linked to the sections in the book.  It is all about a) readability and b) usability.

It is always best for us to convert from a source file, like .doc, .docx, .pages, .rtf, or even .odt file rather than a .pdf file, however, a .pdf will certainly do if nothing else is available.  With a pdf file, there are some things to consider:

1. You pay a bit more.  There are NO automatic PDF to source converters that do a perfect job.  In fact, most conversions require hours of manual fixes.  Time is money.
2. PDF conversions will require more careful proof reading.  Due to the process of converting a PDF, words may break in odd places, lose capitalization or lose hyphens.  Most PDF conversions are fine, but some result in many errors based on how the PDF was created.  We will let you know if a word for word proofing will be necessary.
3. PDF conversions take a little longer.  Normally, we can complete projects within 24 hours.  PDF conversions can take a few days, plus the proofing process takes a bit longer as well.

We can do an amazing job converting your PDF to all major ebook formats, but just keep these points in mind.

Ideally,

• 1659px or wider (1400px minimum)
• 2500px or taller (2000px minimum)
• RGB 24 bit color
• 72 dpi/lpi

If the cover is a little smaller, we will enlarge it so it meets the minimum requirements of the retailers.  If it is too small, we will either request a larger one or suggest that we create a new one for you.

Also, some programs allow you to adjust the quality of the JPG when saving.  Quality should be 90% or higher -- otherwise it will not look good enough.

Virtually any image format, or a PDF or Word doc with the image inside.

Formats include, but are not limited to:

• .jpg
• .gif
• .png
• .tiff
• .tif
• .bmp
• .pdf
• .doc
• .docx
• .pages
• .oct

Covers should be 1659px wide by 2500px tall to cover the new requirements for the hi-res ebook reading devices (minimum 1400px by 2000px).

YES!  If it does not meet the minimum requirements for an acceptable cover, it can be reject (and will be rejected by Apple).  This includes:

• meets minimum size (see other FAQ)
• correct color mode (we fix this for you)
• contains title and author name
• all copy is clear and easy to read
• must be a 2 dimensional image of the cover only - not one of those 3 dimensional computer-generated images of the whole book with the spine showing.
• looks professionally done*

*That last one is really subjective, but Apple does have strict requirements.

If we think your cover is not good enough, we will let you know.

Yes, you can, providing the book is back and white copy inside the book.

Our rate is $3 per page for scanning for text books (books where fewer than 50% of the pages in the book have images) or $5 per page for image books, OCR, formatting, proofing (proofing formatting), conversion, and distribution, with a minimum charge of $249.  Example, if you have a 200 page book, mostly text, the cost would be $600 total.

To Order Service:

Click the "New Client" button on the homepage if your are a new client, or the "Returning Client" button if you have already signed up with eBookIt.com.  Follow the instructions online.

When you get in the client area, click the "Upload a New Title" link and follow the instructions.  When you get to the file upload section, check the box that says you will send a physical book.  This will allow you to bypass instant payment and we will invoice you once we receive the book.

Then send two copies (if you have two) to:

eBookIt.com
365 Boston Post Road, #311
Sudbury, MA  01776

Once we receive the books we will send you an invoice.  Once payment is received we will begin the job.

Yes we do!  You can opt out of all the retailers when you register a new title.  This will mean conversion only.  Once you approve the proof, we will convert your ebook to .epub, .mobi, and .pdf.  You will then be able to download these files in the client area.

Please note that we do not add any kind of DRM to the files during conversion -- this is added (if desired) during the submission process to retailers.

When you are ready, use the simplified form to register your conversion only book.  This is a link under the "Upload a New Book" link.

It depends on the contents of your book and how it was originally submitted to us.  For example, most books submitted in .doc, rtf, .pages, or some other source document, require just a quick page by page proofing in most cases.

If you submit a PDF file, the conversions often require much work on our end to recreate the document based on the layout in the PDF.  Depending on how the PDF was created, there could be many issues like lowercase letters that should be uppercase that we cannot notice in the paragraph by paragraph editing we do.  A careful read of the first few pages should give you a good indication of what kind of detailed proofing you need to do for the document.

If you have submitted a physical book for us to scan and run OCR, then you do need to do a very careful, word by word, proofreading of your proof.  OCR is not 100% accurate.

Please note that our formatting fee does NOT include proofreading.  There is no way we can format, convert, distribute, AND proofread and entire book for $149 -- or even $249.

We will have a proof ready for you to review within approximately 2-5 business days.  Once you've approved the proof, we'll need a day or two to do the final conversion to the various ebook formats.  Occasionally due to the volume of projects or complexity of an individual project, it may take longer.  We do offer rush service for those who need projects completed as quickly as possible.

Technically, yes, but practically, no.  There are some books, like workbooks, textbooks (scholarly), and graphic novels that do not work well at all as an ebook due to the limitations of e-books.  Books with many graphs, charts, equations, and small text that will not translate well as images, just will not work.  Fortunately, these are not common, but they do exist.

Also, books with images that exceed 20 megs will not be accepted by the majority of ebook retailers.  So often these kids of books are generally not worth converting.

Having said that, anything is possible :) Check out our FAQ on image-only conversions.

Making changes to a published ebook is nothing like making making changes to a printed book, fortunately!  However, a little work is still involved.

All changes must be detailed and submitted to us by email, then we must make the changes in the database, the book, and/or book cover, then reconvert, and resubmit.

It is much easier (and cheaper) to send changes via email, then to send us a new version of the book.  A new version will be subject to the full $149 charge, where changes are billed at our hourly rate of $49.  The minimum amount charged for a change is $25 as even the smallest change to a description, price, or other metadata takes about 30 minutes.

While we submit your new book or your changes, your old version will still be for sale -- there will be no interruptions.  Your changes will eventually "kick-in" anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days, depending on retailer.

To make any changes to your book, simply send us an e-mail with the changes/new files.

Chances are, yes.  On average, only about 1 out of 25 books require extra processing.  These are almost always books from PDF source with either an extraordinary number of pages, many charts, graphs, foreign characters, multiple columns, text boxes (callouts) or a combination or all of the above.  Because these books are not very common, we tell clients just to submit the book and if there are any additional charges, we will let them know before we begin the process.

For complex projects, we charge by the hour ($49/hr).  The $149 price includes 3 hours of labor and the $249 price includes 5 hours.  We have spent a maximum of 15 hours on a single conversion in the past, but almost all projects requiring extra processing are kept at 10 hours or fewer.

Remember, each and every conversion we do is by a human (in the US) who goes through your document paragraph by paragraph and reconstructs it so it will convert properly in all ebook formats.  We understand how important your book is and we take the time needed to make sure it looks great.

A PDF file is not a source file.  When we work from a pdf, we export the pdf to a workable .doc file.  This deconstruction process is not perfect and does not accurately translate formatting and break paragraphs where they shouldn't be. 

In order to maintain the integrity of the intended format, we have to manually go through the PDF file paragraph by paragraph and make changes in the source file.  As you can imagine, this is time consuming and prone to human error.

Ideal source files are Microsoft Word, Open Office, or Apple's iWork Pages.

Changing metadata (book pricing, description, author info, keywords, etc.) is $25.  If possible, review all your metadata on your book detail page in the client area, and let us know of all changes at the same time.  It will be the same $25. We need to manually resubmit/update your info with all of our retailers, and this takes about 30 minutes.

Editing is billed at $49/hr.  While minor edits themselves do not take that long, be aware that we need to add time on to any edits for a) reconversion of the original document into .pdf, .epub, and .mobi formats, and b) resubmission of the new file to all of the retailers.  This is manual process.  This usually takes about an hour ($49). This includes submitting a new cover image.

We do all we can to keep the books in the $149 or $249 price points.  But here are some indicators that your book might require extra processing:

Editable Source: .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, or .pages files

• If your book is over 500 pages
• If your book has more than 50 textboxes
• If your book has more than 25 tables or graphs that are not images
• If your book has many foreign characters that will need to be converted into images
• If your book is multi-column
• If your book has many callouts

PDF Source

• If your book is over 500 pages
• If your book is over 300 pages and mostly dialog
• If your book has many foreign characters that will need to be converted into images
• If your book is multi-column
• If your book has many footnotes
• If your book is too large (complexity-wise) to export, and must be broken in sections
• If your book has many callouts

Example of a nightmare PDF:

If you have a book where each page is one big image, with text on the image (popular format for children's books), you have a couple choices.

Choice 1: Make your book ebook friendly.

An "ebook friendly" book is one where the text is separate from the images.  The reader chooses how they want to view the text -- the background color, font, and font-size.  Your images are then modified to be placed before or after the text.  This format will work on all devices. The downside is it will not look exactly like your printed book -- the reader will not get the same experience.

Choice 2: Keep your book all images.

If you feel that the text and images as they are, are vital to your reader's experience, then we can make each page of your ebook one big image.  Here is what you need to keep in mind:

• The text will most likely be unreadable on small, mobile devices -- if the test is small relative to the images
• An image book will not be as impressive on black and white e-ink readers like the Kindle
• There will be no linking, unless the images are broken up by chapter markers.
• You might upset the reader -- if they are used to having viewing control over their books
• Picture books must be under 20 megs -- so make sure your source images do not total more than about 18 megs.

Again, we can convert the books either way, but we just want you to carefully consider your options and the possible consequences.

If you choose to go with choice 2, here is ideally what we need from you.

• A PDF of your book - yes, we actually require a pdf, but there is still an extra processing fee due to the complexity of an creating an image book.
• If possible, each page/image being EXACTLY 600px wide by 860px tall.  This is required for Apple IPad full page images.  If not, we will need to stretch or crop your pages.

Examples

An example of OPTION 1 is the book Zaglf by Heather Moore Jordan - available in Apple's iBookstore by searching for "Zaglf". For this book, the text was very small and easy to separate from the images.

An example of OPTION 2 is the book GRU by Sandy Stallsmith - available in Apple's iBookstore by searching for "GRU".  For this book, the text was very large and sat well on the image.  It was a playful font that was integral to the book.  The image only format worked well.

In short, an image only eBook is an ebook where each page has been converted to an image rather than left as/converted to text that the eBook reader can adjust.

Why make image only eBooks?

For some books, especially those submitted in PDF format, converting the book to text can be cost-prohibitive.  An alternative to paying a higher conversion fee is to make your book an image only book.  This is much faster process that can be done for $249.

Can any book become an image only eBook?

Yes and No. Image only books are very large in file size.  Most retailers require that your eBook be less than 20 MB.  With the black and white 300 pages at the lowest possible resolution the book will be just under 20 MB.  If you add grayscale image or color images, that page count goes down considerably.  This means that authors with books that exceed the 20 MB limit have a couple of choices:

1) Split the book in multiple "volumes".  This way, each book will be within the file limits.  This would require a separate $249 fee for each volume, and each volume to be entered separately at ebookit.com.

2) Ignore the size.  Your book would not be submitted Amazon, B&N, Apple, or Google, but still can be submitted and distributed by Ingram Digital, Sony and Kobo.

What are the disadvantages of an image only eBook?

• The user cannot change the font or font-size.
• The user cannot copy text, highlight, or add a note.
• The text might be more difficult to read.
• Apple (iTunes) will not accept the book due to their high standards for each page being perfectly legible.
• Image only eBooks that are most images of text do not look very good on PCs... they look much better on smaller reading devices.
• There will be no linking, or linkable text in the document.
  
  

What are the advantages of an image only eBook?

• Could be a substantial cost savings if you were told your book would require extra processing.
• It may be your only option to have an ebook.
• Your eBook will look exactly like your PDF file -- same fonts, sizes, layout -- everything.
• The user cannot copy anything.
• There is no conversion to editable text so no chance of any text being changed -- no conversion errors.
• You get to retain your page numbers
• No problem with foreign characters and accents

Here is an screenshot of an image only book being viewed on the iPad:

For the most part, there is no difference.  Either way, you still own your content, there are no exclusivity rights, and we still just keep 15% of the NET amount paid to you by the retailer.  The differences are:

1. Those who use eBookit.com as their "distributor" already have unique ISBN numbers for their .epub and Sony files, so we do not provide them.
2. When listed with the retailers, you/your publisher is listed as the publisher, not eBookit.com.

Since the cost of obtaining your own ISBN numbers is $250, it makes no sense to do buy the ISBN's yourself and choose to be your own publisher.

Yes we do!

If your epub is valid and passes the standard epub check at http://www.ebookit.com/epub-validator3, then we can distribute your epub to Ingram, Google, iBookstore, Sony Reader Store, Barnes and Noble, eBookIt.com bookstore and Kobo, plus create a .mobi for distribution with Amazon, free of charge! (limited time offer)

Important Information

1. You must include a cover image that has the title and author name, at least 1400px wide by 2000px tall (or more).  We cannot offer cover creation with this option.  The cover must be compiled in the epub file itself no larger than 2 million pixles (multiply width and height).
2. We can provide you with an ISBN if you do not have one, only if you are using our distribution services to Sony and at least two other retailers, but we cannot edit the epub to insert the ISBN–you must do that or we can do it for a fee.
3. We cannot guarantee the quality of the mobi conversion, since we did not create the epub.
4. No PDF version is created or distributed.
5. The standard 15% of net sales applies.

We do send you a pdf proof after we do the formatting of your books.  This pdf is a representation of how the other formats will work.  Since the other formats can only truly be tested on the devices they will be read on, we do not provide you proofs of all the formats.  But we do guarantee that the conversions will be done correctly, as represented in the pdf proof.

It can't.  Google displays 20% of the book, and they do it by displaying the first 20% of each chapter.  If you try to actually read your book all the way through, you will see this.

Your book may be listed on Amazon or one of the other retailers, but that does not mean your book will show up right away in the search.  These retailers do not automatically index your book the day they make it available.  In fact, it could take quite some time for your book to come up via search.

Maybe it has been "quite a while" and your books is not coming up in when searching either keywords, title, or by author.  If you have a common title or author name, this might be the case.  The better selling books come up first, even if it is not as good as a match.  This is just the way they do it.  As for keywords, remember that perhaps tens of thousands of authors are using your same keywords.  This is like listing a webpage in Google -- keywords help, but if they are common, they are basically useless.

Amazon reaches out to authors to invite them to put videos on the sales page for their book by invitation only. They do, however, allow authors to create an Author Central page on the Amazon site, and you can post videos there.
 
https://authorcentral.amazon.com

We will distribute your book to the following retailers.  Note that the retailers are not contractually obligated to accept your book, but for the most part, almost all books are accepted.  Apple is the most strict with their books they accept.  Also, some retailers are specialty retailers and only accept certain genres.

Major Retailers

Google
iBookstore (Apple)
Amazon
Sony Reader Store
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Ingram Digital

Outlets Through Ingram Digital

Outlets Through Kobo

Indigo (Canada)
American Booksellers Association (US)
Buy.com (US)
WHSmith (UK)
FNAC (France)
Libris (Netherlands)
Mondadori (Italy)
Collins (AU)
Bookworld (AU)
Whitcoulls (NZ)
Cultura (Brasil)
Rakuten (Japan)
FNAC (Portugal- coming soon)

Each retailer is different.  Here is a list of our major retailers and what languages they accept:

• Amazon: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish
• iBookstore: English, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish
• Barnes & Noble: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, and Dutch
• Kobo: English
• Lightning Source: virtually all languages*
• Sony Reader Store: English, French, Spanish

* At eBookIt.com, we can only work with eBooks in the following languages: English, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish

Yes.  Out of all the retailers, Apple (iTunes / iBookstore) has quality standards far above all the other bookstores.  This includes overall quality of the content, accurate metadata submitted, cover art, and images inside the book.  Let's look at these one at a time:

Quality of Content

If you have a "book" that is actually a couple of blog posts, Apple most likely will not accept this.  There is a subjective criteria, so while one collection of blog posts will be fine as a book, another may not.

Accurate Metadata

This includes book title, subtitle, description, etc. We double check all this when you submit the book to us, and may tweak some of this to make it acceptable -- like take out any contact information that appears in your book description.  So you should not have to worry about this part.

Cover art

Cover art must be at least 750px tall by 500px wide, it must be a very clear image, no border, no prices, no small text, and no reason for Apple to reject it.  We check this as well on submission and we will notify you if we think there might be a problem with your cover art.  Apple does reject many books because of "blurry" cover images (but not the ones we create, of course :)

Images Inside the Book

Out of all the books that Apple rejects, this is the #1 reason.  Sometimes, there is no way around this.  Apple is extremely picky on the level of quality of images inside the book -- specifically that all text in the images is clear and readable.  Sometimes, this is not possible given that book images may be multi-page, or usually very large with small text.  When these images are reduced to fit in the book, the text is just too small to read.

Here is an example of the image that caused this book to be rejected:

As you can see here, given the limitations in the size of the book, there is not much we can do to improve the legibility of the image.  In this cause, the author has opted to simply remove the map/image from the book, rather than recreate the image.

Remember, Apple is only one of the many retailers.  You might have to decide whether it is worth it or not to make the changes to meet Apple's strict standards.

Amazon, Sony, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google, Diesel, and Ingram Digital, who makes your book available to many smaller retailers of ebooks.

These limits do and will change. As of August 2011, these are the current limits.  Keep in mind that there are several ways to decrease the size of an ebook, as well as opting out of the retailers who don't accept larger files.

This chart is accurate as of December 15, 2010.  Although some retailers take more than others, it is strongly suggested that you do not opt out of any retailer because of their take.  For example, Amazon takes a whopping 65% for books priced OVER $9.99 and less than $2.99 (otherwise they give a generous 70%!), but they have the best distribution.

eBookit.com keeps 15% of the NET profit from the books.  So for example, let's say your book sells for $9.99 at Amazon, and qualifies for the 70% royalty.  Amazon would pay eBookIt.com $6.99; eBookIt.com retains $1.05, and pays the author $5.94.

If you sell the same book through the sales page for your book at eBookIt.com, you get to keep $7.49, as eBookit.com pays the author 75% (and we don't take 15% on top of that).

* Amazon Update: If you submit your book to us with a retail price between $2.99-$9.99, we will submit to Amazon with the 70% royalty option. If you request a suggested retail price book of less than $2.99, or over $9.99, we'll select the 35% royalty option.  Amazon's policies regarding the different royalty options, and the royalties they will pay in certain situations, are complex. For full details, please see their Sales & Reporting and Royalties FAQ.

Note also that Amazon adds a small "delivery" fee to certain ebooks based on the file size.

You may also wish to see this other FAQ related to Amazon.

The promo ID is a way to track where sales of your book at eBookIt.com are originating from.
 
E.g., if you post about your book for sale on Facebook, you can use the following URL:  http://[YourBookURL]?facebook
 
If you send an email to friends and family, you could use this URL:  http://[YourBookURL]?FriendsFamily
 
If you pay for an ad in a magazine, you could use this:  http://[YourBookURL]?magazine
 
All of these URLs are the same, except there's "?something" at the end of each. That is the promo ID. You can add whatever you want after the question mark (letters and numbers only) as the promo ID. Now here's the key to it:
 
When a sale comes as a result of someone clicking through your link with a promo ID, you will see on your sales report the corresponding ID, so you'll know the source of the sale.

Yes, you can!  Just send us your YouTube URL (must be on YouTube) and we will add it.  See an example.

You can always just go in the client area, select your book, then download a copy in any of the available formats to send to them via email.  But there is a better way.

As long as you have not opted out of the eBookIt.com distribution, send people to that URL and they can download your book directly and choose the file format they prefer.  But before you do this, you need to create a download code, so the reviewer can bypass the payment.

1. Visit the client area at https://www.ebookit.com/secure-client-area
2. Click on the "Edit your Profile" link on the right menu.
3. At the bottom of the page, enter in a free download code (you make one up) that will give out to anyone you want to have your book for free.
4. Click the "Next" button to save the information.

Now send people to your book salespage URL that can be found by clicking on your book in the client area.

The code is good for an unlimited number of downloads while the code is active.  At any time you can change the code, and the code will no longer allow free downloads.

You can see all the downloads of your book - free and paid - in the sales reports area.  These downloads from eBookIt.com are reflected in real-time.

Each retailer has a different policy.  Our policy for distribution is that eBooks must be at least .99 with no maximum.  Our retail partner's policies are as follows (all prices in USD - this is accurate as of August 2010):

Yes.  When you upload your title, you will see the option to opt-out.

YES!  We provide you with the .pdf, .epub, and .mobi files.  If you have your own method to distribute these files and collect payment, you don't need our permission nor do you need to give us anything -- you sell them, you keep 100%. 

If you don't have the technology (or the patience!) to deal with selling downloads, just link to your ebookit.com sales page, and keep 75% of the sales revenue.

Not really.  Each retailer has their own set of rules, but virtually all have the right to modify the asking price.  With this said, I have never seen a retailer as MORE than the retail price.

Competition.  Here is what Amazon says:

If you select the 35 percent royalty option, your royalty will be 35 percent of your list price for each unit sold. If you select the 70 percent royalty option, your royalty will be 70 percent of the list price (but if we sell at a lower price to match a competitor’s price for a digital or physical edition of the book or our price for a physical edition of the book, you will receive 70 percent of our sale price) for each eligible book sold to U.S. customers, net delivery costs, and 35 percent of the list price for each unit sold to customers residing outside the 70% territories listed above.

In the ebookit.com client area.

1) login at http://www.ebookit.com

2) click the "Sales Reports" link on the right side

These reports are updated monthly, by the 22nd day of the month.

New Policy effective July 15, 2012

eBookIt acts as the aggregator for several retailers, which means, the retailers pay us, and we pay our clients.  The retailers take up to 210 days to pay us for books sold, with the average being 90 days from the time the book is sold to the time we get paid.  For example, if a ebook sells on Amazon in January, we (eBookIt.com) will get paid for that ebook in April. Retailers such as Google pay sooner, and retailers such as Sony pay much later.

At eBookIt.com, we pay our clients monthly.  As a service to our clients, we cut the average wait time for payment down to an average of 60 days after the ebook has been sold, whether we have been paid by the resellers or not.  For example,

ebook sold Jan 1  > You get paid March 15*
ebook sold Jan 31 > You get paid March 15*
ebook sold Feb 1  > You get paid April 15*
ebook sold Feb 28 > You get paid April 15*

For print on demand sold and audiobooks sold through Audible or one of their partners, payments are made quarterly for the previous quarter.  For example, if an audiobook is sold through Amazon in January, it will be paid in April.

* Weekends, holidays, and delayed sales reports from the retailers might delay these payments by no more than a few days.

If your book is large (file size wise), Amazon will add a "delivery fee".  This is a small fee that only applies to Amazon, and only to a small number of books.  This fee varies.

If you submit your book to us with a retail price between $2.99-$9.99, we will submit to Amazon with the 70% royalty option. If you request a suggested retail price book of less than $2.99, or over $9.99, we'll select the 35% royalty option.

For books we submit to Amazon priced lower than $2.99 or over $9.99, Amazon pays 35% of the list price for each unit sold. For books between $2.99 - $9.99 for which we would select the 70% royalty option), Amazon pays eBookIt.com a royalty of 70% of the list price (but if Amazon sell at a lower price to match a competitor’s price for a digital or physical edition of the book, or Amazon's price for a physical edition of the book, they will pay 70% of their sale price) for each eligible book sold to U.S. customers, net delivery costs, and 35% of the list price for each unit sold to customers residing outside the 70% territories (as of publishing of this FAQ, the 70% territories include Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, United States).

Amazon's policies regarding the different royalty options, and the royalties they will pay in certain situations, are complex. For full details, please see their Sales & Reporting and Royalties FAQ.

PayPal is very easy to use.  For a complete description by PayPal, see https://personal.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/How_does_PayPal_work

We pay via PayPal and there is no minimum.  If we owe you 30 cents, we pay you 30 cents.

We do have two other options for unique situations:

1) Bank Direct Deposit: If we are paying you over $500 per month, we can do bank direct deposit.  Let us know and we can send you bank request details. Addl fees may apply.

2) Paper Check: If for whatever reason you cannot/will not accept PayPal, we can pay you by paper check except a) we hold all payments until the payment exceeds $100 (USD) and b) there is a $5 paper check processing fee for each payment made. We can only send checks to US addresses.

If you would like this option, simply do NOT accept your PayPal payments when you are notified by PayPal that you have money waiting.  Then, after $100 USD has accumulated, send an e-mail to publisher at ebookit.com with your ebookit.com e-mail address, the amount we owe you, and your physical address to mail the check.  The $5 will be deducted from the check.

There is a certain element of trust required in the ebook business.  Unlike paperback book where each one has a real, physical cost, and the number of books is limited, ebooks have no incremental cost and there is no physical limit to the number you can sell.  This is a challenge for tracking.

Here's where the "trust" comes in.

First, you need to trust that eBookIt.com is keeping good track of your sales, and accurately reporting them to you.  You could buy one of your own books somewhere, and see if we report it as a sale or not.  But this could get expensive.  Some of our authors do it -- not because they don't trust us (maybe), but because they want to have the reader experience of buying their book.

But if you are not the trusting type...

You can request a report of your sales from any retailer by stating that you are the author.  They may ask for some more details, but they should give you what you request (depending on the retailer).  You can then compare what they give you to what is reported in the sales area.

Although we are a new firm (established in 2010), our parent company, Archieboy Holdings, LLC., has been around since 2001.  Our founder, Bo Bennett has been around even longer -- he is a very public figure and stakes his reputation on this business (Google him!).

We at eBookIt.com need to extend that same level of trust to the major retailers we work with to distribute your books.  These are

• Amazon
• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo Books (Borders)
• Google
• Sony
• and Ingram Digital

We do not trust your ebook to any other retailers.  Ingram Digital maintains control of your file when working with the many smaller retailers.

The bottom line -- your ebook is in good hands with us.

Definitely less than the printed version (if there is one).  Besides that, there is no definite answer to this.  I suggest searching Amazon.com for ebooks that you would consider "competitors" to yours.  Identify those of similar size (number of pages), and price your ebook competitively with their.

While I appreciate being asked, I have to decline the opportunity.  Testimonials I feel should only be written with true sincerity.  I cannot, in good conscience, write a testimonial for a book that I did not read.  Nor can I read the book just to write a testimonial for it.

Again, I really appreciate you thinking of me.

There are two ways to do this.

1) simply link to your ebookit.com sales page URL.  This is as easy as setting up a link on your webpage to go to your ebookit.com webpage.  For example:

Wanna buy my book?  Click here!

2) download your converted files and sell them on your website using some kind of ecommerce software capable of providing electronic downloads.  If you don't understand this, then you should stick with #1 -- or ask your webmaster about this option.

All converted files can be downloaded in the client area when you click on your book title -- after the conversions have been completed, of course.

Some retailer websites allow for reader reviews, "professional" reviews, and author-provided reviews.  The reader reviews are done by readers of your book and members of the retailer's website, and you/we have no control over these.  The professional reviews are provided by organizations like Kirkus reviews, USA Today, NY TImes, and other organizations that choose select books to review (see our MediaBlast package for a chance at getting one of these kind of reviews).  These professional reviewers work directly with the retailers to provide reviews, so there, to, is nothing you/we can do.

As for author-provided reviews, only a few retailers allow for this.  We will allow out clients to submit up to 3 reviews at one time to list on BN.com (Barnes & Noble).  BN requires the Firstname Lastname of the reviewer, Where the Review Was Published, and 500 character max.   Other retailers do not have an easy system for providing and maintaining reviews, so we do not offer them.  There is no charge for submitting up to 3 reviews to B&N at one time, but edits to reviews and reviews submitted at different times will be subject to the $25 edit fee.

Please send the ISBN of the book and a fair-use excerpt of the review you want entered to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please make sure the source of the review is cited in the email. All submissions are subject to verification.

For Amazon, create an Author Central account:  https://authorcentral.amazon.com Once you've created your account, you'll nee to add your book to your account under the "Books" tab. Once it's added, click on your book in Author Central. Go to Review, and click ADD.

The books will be linked automatically as long as the author name and book title of all editions match exactly.  It can take Amazon up to a month to link the two.  If you want to speed up the process, you can send a request to Kindle Direct Publishing with the URLs of the ebook and print book in the Amazon store.

If you are publisher with less than 10 titles, many of the retailers will not work with you directly -- they will refer you to someone like (in many case, literally us!).

If you are publisher with less than about 50 titles, the learning curve and paperwork needed to establish the relationships with the vendors can be more trouble than it is worth, and take much your valuable time.

If you are a publisher with more than 50 titles, distributing and maintaining many titles with several vendors, can be a full-time job.  We have closer relationships with our vendors and very efficient processes in place that allow us to do this in less time. 

No matter what size publisher you are, you can certainly benefit from our distribution services.

Yes, discounts are for bulk submission of titles at one time, or committing to a certain level per month:

1-9 titles submitted at a time or within a month: $149 from .doc or similar source / $249 from a PDF source (no discount)
10-24 titles submitted at a time or within a month: $134.10 from .doc or similar source / $224.10 from a PDF source (10% discount)
25-49 titles submitted at a time or within a month: $119.20 from .doc or similar source / $199.20 from a PDF source (20% discount)
50-99 titles submitted at a time or within a month: $104.30 from .doc or similar source / $174.30 from a PDF source (30% discount)
100+ call us

Based on the average complexity of the project, we reserve the right to adjust these prices.  For example, we cannot honor these prices for technical manuals with 500 pages of charts and graphs.

Publisher's are given a coupon code to use when uploading all new titles.  Once the batch of books are uploaded (usually the number of books consecutively uploaded) an invoice will be generated and emailed.  The publisher can then pay the invoice via credit card, paypal, or check.

No.  If you are a publisher, AND you provide unique ISBN's for the .epub version of your titles, we will use your imprint / publisher name for all titles submitted.  Again, it is very important that you provide the ISBN's and that they are unique for the .epub version.

Of course!  It is ideal for any size publisher.  We work closely with our publishing clients to make sure we are meeting their needs.

Sure, see:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/3/prweb8204014.htm

Just one mailing.  Otherwise it would be called "spam" :)

Just yours.  Each US/Global MediaBlast is a separate e-mail to the outlets.

Not at all.  Media sources might contact you if they need more information, or want to do an in-depth story/interview.  But many sources might just work from the information we send them, order and read the book, then write their own review.  This process can take months and you will never know about it,  until one day you find a great review of your book on Google.

It could be hours or it could be months.

When media outlets receive your book information, they most likely will not contact you right away -- even if they are interested in story.  They will most likely file your information away for a time when your book fits in their editorial calendar.

(For US Media Blast) The list is a "living list" which means that it changes regularly.  Also, the list is compiled by a third-party and the property of that party.  We have rights to use the list, but not publish it publicly.  As a client, you will receive a report of the names of the outlets your e-mail was sent to after the mailing.

We can tell you that the list is a compilation of the the largest media outlets in the country and we can give you a sampling of the the outlets included, which are:

All Things Considered - NPR, The Today Show (NBC), Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Good Houskeeping, Harper's Bazaar, O, The Oprah Magazine, People Magazine, Reader's Digest - Online, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Los Angels Times, New York Times, USA Today, and hundreds more!

We could guarantee that we do exactly as we say we'll do, and create and/or send your press release/book description to the media outlets.  We cannot, however, guarantee that the media outlets will contact you.  This completely depends on your book and the media outlet.

I wouldn't count on it -- at least not in the short term.  PR is not like direct marketing.  In direct marketing, you expect that if you invest $1, you will make more than $1 as a return.  In PR, you are telling the world about your book in hopes that they will listen.  If they do listen, that is, if media sources decide to talk or write about your book, eventually it will lead to sales.  PR is a long-term investment, not a get-rich quick opportunity.

If you are thinking of investing your family's food money for the week, don't.

English only.

We can email the copy to you however you want it, or in a Word doc that has all the editing marks for client approval.

We do basic editing which is spelling, punctuation, glaring grammatical errors, typography and consistency (font usage, headers, title case, and so on. We don't do content, SEO, flow, rewriting, word choice, tone, dialogue, tense, structure, clarity or point of view). Essentially it's making it letter-perfect, but the content itself is left alone.

Our rate is $16 per 1000 words.  This is an optional service that you must tell us you would like.  We do not assume you want us to edit your book.

If you have a human-narrated audiobook ready to go, or you would like to use one of our voice talents, and you have the rights to sell this audiobook (i.e. you have not given Audible.com exclusive rights to your audiobook), we can work with your .zip file of your .mp3's and create an iTunes-ready audiobook file for you, for you to sell on your own websites, and we will sell this audiobook for you in the ebookit.com bookstore, where you will earn 75% of the sales price.

What is an "iTunes-ready" audiobook?

It is an audiobook file that all Apple products recognize as an audiobook, therefore, will display the book in the audiobook section of iTunes and related devices.  The iTunes-ready audiobook is created with image art, metadata (author, title, etc) and separated into chapters for the optimal listening experience.  The file sound and quality is optimized with the smallest file-size, for easy download.

This service is a one time fee of $99 (plus the cost of the voice talent -- if you are not providing your own audio files).

If you are interested in this service, you can order it at the time of placing your ebook order, or let us know.

If you are using Amazon's ACX service, see their website for distribution and prices.

If you have a computer-generated audiobook through the ebookit.com audiobook creation service, your audiobook will be sold in the eBookIt Bookstore -- we do not distribute the file to any other retailers.  If you had us create an iTunes-ready audiobook for you, we will also sell this in our bookstore only.

As for pricing, by default, we price your audiobook the same as your ebook, and if your have a computer-generated audiobook, we strongly suggest you keep this price.  If you have a human-narrated audiobook, we strongly suggest you make the audiobook price similar to what you would charge for a hardcover version of your book.

When we sell the book in the eBookIt Bookstore, we offer a "combo" deal for both your audiobook and your ebook, at 1.5 times the price of your ebook, assuming your audiobook price is the same.  If you have a custom audiobook price, we offer a 10% discount to customers buying both your ebook and audiobook (at the same time).

See my detailed post here.

You can download my free short story at https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000031/The-Journey.html .  You also might just uncover the secret to success in the process!

This was created using the "Paul" computer-generated voice.  I think you will agree that is sounds amazing for a computer!

Yes, you can—at least with eBookIt.com.  Audible.com and partners set the pricing of your book based on many factors, but you can control how much it sells for on eBookIt.com, assuming you have not chosen exclusive distribution with Audible.com.

The audiobooks we create for iTunes, and the .mp3/.zip file provided by the client, are not protected.  These are the files that we sell through the ebookit.com website.  Audible.com does have DRM on their files sold by them and their partners.  For full details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audible.com#Digital_rights_management

Information that is gathered from visitors

In common with other websites, log files are stored on the web server saving details such as the visitor's IP address, browser type, referring page and time of visit.

Cookies may be used to remember visitor preferences when interacting with the website.

Where registration is required, the visitor's email and a username will be stored on the server.

How the Information is used

The information is used to enhance the visitor's experience when using the website to display personalized content and possibly advertising.

E-mail addresses will NEVER be sold, rented or leased to 3rd parties.

E-mail may be sent to inform you of news of our services or offers by eBookIt.com -- if not opted out of the "updates" list.

Visitor Options

If you have subscribed to one of our services, you may unsubscribe by following the instructions which are included in e-mail that you receive.

You may be able to block cookies via your browser settings but this may prevent you from access to certain features of the website.

Cookies

Cookies are small digital signature files that are stored by your web browser that allow your preferences to be recorded when visiting the website. Also they may be used to track your return visits to the website.

3rd party advertising companies may also use cookies for tracking purposes.

Generally all kinds of books that you would expect to find on sites like Amazon.com.  Here are the restrictions on books we DON'T accept:

Please be aware that the following content is unacceptable and submitting or posting said content in your eBook file, cover image, or book description could result in termination of your account:

1. Pornography: Hard-core material that depicts graphic or explicit sexual acts.
2. Libelous Material: Material that intentionally harms or has the potential to harm an individual or a third party.
3. Copyright Infringing: Material to which you do not own the copyright or the right to distribute. Public domain content may be posted. Our retailers may, at any time, request validation that a given eBook qualifies as a public domain title.
4. Advertisements: Material contained within your eBook that primarily seeks to sell a product other than the eBook itself.

For Conversion and Distribution

1. You hereby grant and assign eBookIt.com the nonexclusive rights to digitally publish, distribute, market and sell this title being submitted to the online retailers selected above. Ingram digital, if selected above, retains the right to sell your book through their network of online retailers.
2. The $149/$249 fee is for the conversion and submission of your ebook to our retail partners. We cannot guarantee the retailers with whom we work will not reject your ebook. This is very rare and usually is only a result of a violation of their terms and conditions.  Apple is the most selective retailer and will not accept books which contain images they feel are not good quality.
3. Books with many graphics, tables, charts, special characters, and/or columns may require extra work. If your book fits in this category, we will notify you of any extra charges before we begin your job. If you do not agree to the extra charges, your payment will be immediately refunded in full.
4. You understand that in the prep process, we make modifications to your book including, but not limited to, reformatting for ebook format, adding a new ISBN to the title page, replacing table of contents with an ebook formatted TOC, removing references to page numbers within the text, and removing the index.
5. You acknowledge that eBookIt.com keeps 15% of the NET amount paid to you from retailers for all books sold through those retailers to which we distribute your title. Ebookit.com will keep 25% of the retail price when selling your book directly through eBookIt.com.
6. eBookIt.com is not financially responsible for any refunds or estimated losses due to conversion errors. We do our absolute best to ensure the highest quality and fix any and all significant errors that may have been caused by conversion. Some minor design flaws are common with conversion and expected.
7. You acknowledge that you have the rights to authorize distribution and electronic publication of this title to eBookIt.com.
8. Book cover image design covers 30 minutes of design labor -- this is not a physical book cover design service.
9. You, as the copyright holder of the book or publisher for the book, can terminate our publishing/distribution agreement at anytime. At such point, we no longer have the right to distribute your book. Within 72 hours, we will notify the retailers to remove the book from their stores. It could take up to 30 days for all the retailers to comply.
10. You understand that eBookIt.com pays authors several months before all retailers pay, and provide final reports, for all sales.  This means that on any given month you may see a positive or negative adjustment to your sales based on actual sales. Negative amounts will only need to be paid if you pull your book from eBookIt.com distribution or close your account, otherwise negative amounts will just be deducted from future payments.
11. If using an eBookIt ISBN and you opt out of distributing through eBookIt.com, you must cease distributing the file(s) unless / until you remove eBookIt.com as the publisher and the ISBN that we provided, including all mentions of eBookIt.com as the "publisher" on the copyright page (you can leave "converted by" or replace published with "converted by").
12. Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content: Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party. We will not accept content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content. For example, if you received your book content from a source that allows you and others to re-distribute it, and the content is freely available on the web, we will not accept it to distribute. We do accept public domain content, however some retailers may choose to not sell a public domain book if its content is undifferentiated or barely differentiated from one or more other books.

For Conversion Only

1. The $149/$249 fee is for the conversion of your ebook only. We will NOT be doing any submissions on your behalf.
2. Books with many graphics, tables, charts, special characters, and/or columns may require extra work. If your book fits in this category, we will notify you of any extra charges before we begin your job. If you do not agree to the extra charges, your payment will be immediately refunded in full.
3. You understand that in the prep process, we make modifications to your book including, but not limited to, reformatting for ebook format, replacing table of contents with an ebook formate TOC, removing references to page numbers within the text, and removing the index.
4. eBookIt.com is not financially responsible for any refunds or estimated losses due to conversion errors. We do our absolute best to ensure the highest quality and fix any and all significant errors that may have been caused by conversion. Some minor design flaws are common with conversion and expected.
5. Book cover image design covers 30 minutes of design labor -- this is not a physical book cover design service.

We converted our first book in October of 2010, and opened our virtual doors to the public on January 1, 2011.  However, our parent company, Archieboy Holdings, LLC., has been in business since 2002.

We sure do!  Call us at 978-440-8364.  Unless we are busy (or sleeping), we pick up the phone.  If we don't, leave a voice mail and we will call you back.

Yes.  We have dozens of authors and publishers who have said "Feel free to use me as a reference anytime!"  But is that what you really want?  Any crappy company with crappy service can dig up a handful of happy customers to sing their praise.  What you really want, is unsolicited testimonies that you find on your own -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

While it is true that most people usually post about bad experiences rather than good ones, there are those who like to say good things about others when there are good things to say.  For example, here is a great article from one of our authors.

http://bookmakingblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-details-about-my-ebook-odyssey.html

But don't let me lead you to all the great posts.  Google "ebookit.com" and see what others have to say.  To be fair, Google competitors as well.  This way you will get a true picture of how others feel about our service, rather than a one-sided view of eBookIt.com as we want you to see us.

No.  The referral commission program compensates a one time fee per book of $25.  There is no referral compensation for every book the author sells.

Not to participate, but you do to get paid.  We cannot sent referral payments by any other method than PayPal.

No, sorry :)  You cannot get referral commissions on your own books.

You can create your own referral ID so your URL would be:

http://www.ebookit.com/YOUR_CUSTOM_ID_HERE

Or you can use domain forwarding to forward any custom domain you own (or will buy) to your eBookIt.com referral URL.  You do not need us for this -- just create the forwarder in your domain control panel.  Ask your domain registrar for details if needed.

Very simple. You do not have to be customer to be part of the referral program, but you do need to sign up with either an author or publisher account.

1) Register as an author or publisher at https://www.ebookit.com/cgi-bin/clientservices.cgi?NEWREG

Or if you are already registered, just edit your profile at https://www.ebookit.com/cgi-bin/clientservices.cgi?EDITPROFILE (note: you must be logged in)

2) Choose your custom URL.  Just enter a name!  If it is taken or invalid, the system will let you know.

3) Save by clicking the submit button at the bottom of the screen.

You are done!  Now just refer people to your URL and receive $25 for each book converted by us for the clients that you brought in.  So for example, you introduce a publisher to us that processes 10 books a month, that is $3000.00 a year to you, for that one lead!

Prior to August 1, 2012, we would update the sales reports weekly for Amazon, B&N, and Apple.  The problem was, the weekly/daily reports provided by these retailers are estimates only, and anywhere from 90-98% accurate.  This process required monthly adjustments which would complicate our client's reporting and sales tracking, and in many cases, causing eBookIt.com to pay client's for books that were either returned or never sold.

As of August 1, 2012, combined with our new payment schedule, we update all reports on or before the 22nd day of the month.  For these updates, we use the final reports submitted by the retailers, so no adjustments are necessary.

As always, any sales made through eBookIt.com's bookstore will be updated in real time.  However, even these payments will adhere to the new payment schedule, so clients can received one simple payment each month.

Adjustments are corrections based on final sales reports.

Most of the retailers do not pay authors/publishers for several months after the book is sold.  This is due to many reasons, including delayed returns, delayed reporting, and other reasons they do not fully disclose.  But eBookIt.com pays its authors and publishers on the 15th day of each month for all the books sold the previous month, and eliminate the long waits.  We can do this because each retailer provides "tentative" sales reports that are generally 90-99% accurate, depending on retailer.  We pay our authors and publishers off of these reports, and once the final reports are available several months later, we reconcile what we paid with what is owed.

What this means for you, the author or publisher.

In any given month, you will see an "adjustment" in your sales reports.  This can be a positive or negative number and it will affect your balance for the month.

The positive number is an adjustment for a book that sold that was not registered, or a different fee that was paid.  For example, Amazon sells books for all different prices and sometimes will enter an inaccurate price on the initial sales reports, then correct for the final report.  The negative number is to correct either an overpayment due to an estimated fee being corrected, returns, or erroneous sales.

Many of these adjustments are simply a result of sales being registered in different months in the final reports as the preliminary reports.

When it comes time for the next author/publisher payment, we adjust the payment based on these adjustments.  If you have a negative balance, this balance just carries over until you sell more books.

If for any reason you wish to terminate your distribution relationship with eBookIt.com, all negative balances must be paid before we can request removal of your book from the retailers.