ebook publishing from...
mercury web publishing london

“Getting people

published online”

We keep overheads to a minimum, to offer you the best prices. We get great results with professional tools

The Diversity of End-Client systems

As the eBook market matures, greater consistency of format emerges but there remains great diversity in the hardware and operating systems used to view the books.

For example, the Palm O/s based Palm Tungsten T3 has a 320x480 DPI resolution display (1:1.33) and runs Palm e-Book reader (with a file extension of .pdb).

The HP iPAQ hx4700 runs Windows Pocket PC O/s and has a 480 x 640 resolution display (1:1.50) and runs Microsoft Reader (with a file extension of .lit).

The BlackBerry 7250 runs its own O/s and has a 160 x 240 (1:1.50) display. The only decent eBook reader available today for Blackberry is Mobi Reader Lite 5.0 (from Mobipocket) and this is still in beta.

There are also some special-purpose eBook devices like Gemstar Rocket (now discontinued) and the Franklin eBookman. These run proprietary software which can tie the user in to a particular format of eBooks from a particular source.

So – as you can see – for PDAs alone there is a vast difference between devices in terms of software, O/s and displays! Let Mercury take care of all this hassle for you by use of our standard, template-driven mastering. We have figured out what works best and sells well, so you don’t have to!

Emerging formats & sites

By special arrangement, we can distribute your eBook via emerging sites such as Mobipocket, Lulu.com and (via Content Reserve) WHSmith, eFollett.com, Fictionwise and eBooks.com. These sites charge a higher distibution percentage, so your royalty percentage would be reduced.

Delivering quality results on top sites

The first challenge in successful eBook publishing is dealing with the huge array of file formats, hardware, software and screen resolutions out there. The second challenge is identifying which online booksellers really do make money and sell books! We have done that research so you don’t have to - and have experience of what works best online.

Template driven mastering

In our standard service, we provide you with a pre-configured Word or RTF template, into which you can copy-and-paste your work. This template is already optimised for the most common screen orientations and for onward conversion into the most common formats. We also provide you with guidance on how to optimise your manuscript and a separate template to capture marketing and promotional information and metadata. In our premium service, we prepare your manuscript for you.

Professional file conversion

We use top-end professsional tools to convert your master to (a) Microsoft Reader format, (b) Adobe eBook (PDF) format and (c) Palm Reader format. By special arrangement, we can also convert to other formats, including Mobipocket PRC format. We use Adobe Professional to convert your file to a PDF, which permits us to create a fully clickable bookmark table of contents within the PDF file itself.

Fast and effective distribution

We are an Ingrams-approved eBook publisher and, as such, can generally have your eBook up on Amazon within 10 weeks. By special arrangement, we can also extend distribution to Lulu.com, Mobipocket and Content Reserve.

Where your book is sold

Our standard service will see your book for sale on Amazon.com, Diesel-Ebooks.com, eBookmall.com and Powells.com. Through Content Reserve, your eBook can be additionally distributed via WHSmith, Fictionwise, eFollett.com, and eBooks.com. We can also arrange for sales via Mobipocket and Lulu.com. Whilst there are other eBook sites, the traffic such sites receive is generally so low that there is (in our experience) little value to be had from them.

How your book is marketed online

In our standard service, we will enhance your Amazon record for you. This includes adding the cover image and metadata you have provided to us (including Book Description, Pubishers Comments, From the author, From the Inside Flap, Back Cover Copy, About the Author and Table of Contents information). In our premium service we will write that professional marketing copy for you and arrange for “search-inside-the-book” to be activated for your title.

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