Simply Written is not a publisher. We are a service provided to writers to help them get their content into a digital copy. In that respect we are more of a typesetter. If you have a publisher, list that in your book information. If you aren’t signed with a publisher then you are the publisher and your name should be listed there.
A special note: Simply Written does not allow other users to view your work, hence writing on Simply Written is not considered to be publishing your work online. If you release your exported files to the public, that is considered online publishing. If you intend to work with a publishing house to distribute your work, be sure to follow their recommendations about sharing your content on the internet.
If you intend to distribute your book commercially (whether it’s going to be free or paid) most distributors require a unique ISBN number for each significantly different version of the book. Simply Written leaves it up to the author to acquire and assign these ISBN numbers. (For more information on obtaining an ISBN you can visit ISBN.org)
It is commonly accepted that epub and mobi are significantly different versions, and each require their own ISBN number. Keep this in mind when assigning ISBNs to your books. In addition, you cannot use the ISBN number of the printed version of a book for the digital versions of the same book. (Note: Amazon doesn’t currently require the use of an ISBN code, but it is still advised you use one.)
You do. Simply Written is merely a hosting and editing agent for your work, we will in no way claim ownership or liability for the work you publish. This doesn’t mean the distributors or publishers you send your completed work to will not have their own rules, but the content you create with us remains yours.
Not at this time. However you can choose to promote your books via the site. If you do this the links provided to buy your books on another site (like Amazon or iBookstore) will be referral links where possible, so that Simply Written receives a small referral bonus for linking to your books. This does not affect the amount of money you receive for selling your content. It merely rewards Simply Written for advertising your book.
Your work is stored online, on our servers, and backed up with all the rest of the data on our servers. That said, there’s no guarantee something can’t happen to the server and the backup. It’s always a good idea to backup your work on your own as well. Simply Written is not responsible for loss of content for any reason.
PNG, JPG, and JPEG. Preferred format is JPG, as it can be used more easily across all formats. Images will be converted automatically by Simply Written where needed.
Book Cover sizes vary depending upon where you wish to sell your book. The two key markets that Simply Written is aimed at (Amazon and iBookstore) are as such:
iBooks Embedded Cover: 600px x 860px Amazon Embedded Cover: 600px x 800px Amazon Catalog Cover: 1562px x 2500px
It should be noted that for retina devices (iPad 3+) these dimensions should be doubled. As with the conversion of book formats, Simply Written will do the best that it can to scale images to the appropriate sizes. As such we recommend providing as large an image as possible.
If you wish to go with a single set of dimensions, 600px x 800px is recommended. Again, doubling these dimensions for retina screens should be considered. For further information:
Simply Written has a drag and drop interface for cover images. Just drag an image file onto the default image in your book’s information page and Simply Written will attach it as your cover image.
The Title Page and the Copyright Page of the book are automatically generated for you as you fill in the required information in the “add/edit book” section.
The text for a dedication for your book or an epigraph is entered into the “add/edit book” section. (Note: External quotes that are copyrighted are not allowed in commercial books unless the author has received permission from the originator or correctly attributes the quote to the originator. Simply Written is not responsible for copyright infringement by the authors using its service.)
The Table of Contents is automatically generated for your book when the file conversion takes place. It uses the titles of your chapters to create the links for each chapter.
The glossary and index can be created just like any other chapter in your book. Just name the chapter “Glossary” or “Index” and place it in the order you want it to appear in the book.
Page numbers will be handled by the e-reader the user opens your files on, they are not required in your content.
To add a new book, click “Add New Book” on the right and fill in the information for the new book, then click “Update Book Information.” To edit an existing book, click “Edit Book” under the chosen book’s title and modify the information, then click “Update Book Information.” Be sure to click the “Update Book Information” button to ensure your changes are saved.
To add a new chapter, click “Add New Chapter” on the right and fill in the information for the new chapter, then click “Save Chapter.” To edit an existing chapter, click “Edit Chapter” under the chosen chapter’s title and modify the information, then click “Save Chapter.” Be sure to click the “Save Chapter” button once you are finished editing or writing to make sure your changes are saved.
Simply Written will use the chapter title you supplied in both the table of contents and as the start of the chapter in the body of the book. When you write the content you don’t need to put the title of your chapter in again, just start out with the main text.
Clicking on the “Home” button at the top of the screen will bring you to the book page of your account. From there you can choose which book to edit.
To convert your work into ePub or mobi format, simply click on the file-type at the top right corner of the screen and you will be prompted to specify a location to save the file. This file is a converted copy of your book as it is stored at that time in our database. If you make changes to the book after converting, you will need to convert the book again for an updated file.
To view your files before publication (which is always advisable) you can open the files on any e-reader. You can upload them to your own e-readers, or find a simple emulator on the internet that will show your files in a special program on your home computer. The files generated by Simply Written are reader-ready and can be distributed as they are if the author wishes, or submitted to a distribution service like Amazon or the iBookstore.
A few pieces of software we can recommend for previewing books:
Some distributors want a “preview” copy of your book, to provide readers with a few chapters they can read for free before buying the full version of the book. To do this, simply create a new book that contains all the same book details as the original, but only the chapters you want to include for the preview. Make sure the details of the book preview are exactly the same as the full version, especially the name of the book.
Yes you can. To activate the markdown editor simply invoke the magical technology and you can write in markdown.
In markdown, each paragraph should be separated by a blank line. Do not indent the paragraphs, as this will be handled in the styling rules when the markup is converted.
For more information on the markdown language and what you can do with it, see the following website: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics/