FAQ (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS)

What is Bookshooter?

Bookshooter is the simplest way to convert books into ebooks as well as distribute them to the Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other ebook retailers. Bookshooter helps the author and publisher avoid maintaining individual accounts at every new ebook distributor and retail outlet on the web (which is virtually impossible) by aggregating to all the major channels automatically!

How does Bookshooter work?

In short, drop a book into the Bookshooter system and out the end of the magic tube shoots an ebook ready for the consumer!  The first outlet is the Amazon Kindle retail store where most ebook readers buy and download their books to their own Kindle units, secondly is the Apple iTunes store which features it's ePub based iBooks which are so popular on the iPad, and then on to the others. Of course, Bookshooter.com is a great place for a customer to buy and download an ebook as well. The book publisher or author makes an automatic profit on every sale and receives that money automatically into their Paypal account every month.

What does Bookshooter cost?

For the author or publisher there is a one time set up fee per book of $39 that covers the cost of conversion and that prepares the book for digital distribution as an ebook.  During our Grand Opening season into 2011 this fee is reduced to only $19...this the only up-front cost! This is less expensive than any stand alone professional conversion service, and satisfaction is guaranteed because the author is control of every aspect of the book's final layout using Bookshooter's online conversion software. After that one time fee per book Bookshooter receives an automatic Partnership Percentage of 20% percent on all book sales profits received from any retail outlet and the rest shoots right into the author's Paypal account every month, once a month. (Yes, each retailer will take their own percentage from the sale as well, but that is just life in the big city.) Considering all the conversion and distribution tasks associated with each retail outlet Bookshooter considers this an excellent partnership as the author or publisher can stop worrying about pursuing every new retailer that enters the market because they know Bookshooter is working for them. Hey, author, sit back and watch the profits roll in!

What about Bookshooter's competition?

There are some excellent ebook services already up and running you can check into. Many of those services only sell from their own website or only distribute through one retailer which is limited and not true aggregation (helping you sell in all the best places.) The best example of a true ebook aggregator is BookBaby that just announced its business launch in January of 2011. They are part of a brilliant, trusted team of people best known for running CDBaby for musicians, and we have no trouble recommending them to you, however, here are things to remember about Bookshooter.com:

1. First, Bookshooter can customize its contracts with individual publishing houses to create a package that fits just right. Contact us and we will get started right away.
2. Secondly, Bookshooter proudly features the PDF format which features the full color, beautifully designed book you originally worked so hard to create right in its own webstore for global sales. Artists! Children's book authors! Beautiful book lover! Take note!
3. Thirdly, Bookshooter guarantees you full control over the final look and feel of every distributed work that will go out as an ePub to Apple or an AZW file to the Kindle...you can even preview the final work in an "ebook reader" screen to make sure it is just right before you approve it. This helps you avoid costly resubmissions when an ebook services "conversion" doesn't squirt out exactly what you were expecting.
4. Finally, sales distribution without revenue sharing won't work for long. We think it is fair to warn you against any ongoing sales contract that promises a "no commission" arrangement. We have seen too many of those deals change within a year or two because that model for business only works while the big-venture investment money is paying everyone's bills and everyone is excited about "capturing new accounts." Sometime after the romantic launch season is over you may get this all-to-common email, "Due to circumstances beyond our control we, unfortunately, have to begin receiving a small commission on your sales...." It happened at the famous NING network of social sites, and it happened at Bandcamp, a sales platform for musicians, and it will happen again...

What about copyright ownership?

Bookshooter assumes absolutely no ownership of any published work that it converts and distributes--the author is in complete control. The Bookshooter service can be cancelled at any time and the work(s) will be immediately removed from the Bookshooter distribution chain while the converted ebook formats will be returned to the publisher free of additional charge.  That's right, no risk at all.

The question of DRM (Digital Rights Management) comes up in the conversation about ownership. Ben Pasley has written a good article on why DRM is a waste of time for ebook publishers here. We don't add DRM to the PDF's you submit or request DRM from any of our distribution outlets because the technology constantly fails to protect the works, and it also fails to help us make new friends to sell our books to. That was an easy decision.

Who sets the price of the ebook?

The publisher sets the price on Bookshooter and can sell at any price point they want! The retail price set by the publisher will be the sale price at Bookshooter.com and at any ebook outlet that Bookshooter shoots the book to. The minimum price for distribution to other retailers is $2.99USD, but books may be sold on Bookshooter.com all they way to $0.00! Remember, though the online retailer will take a percentage from the retail sale in their online store (at the Amazon Kindle Store for instance) Bookshooter will never add any additional fees to the distribution of the book, ever, except the 20% Partnership Percentage.

What kind of customer support can I expect from Bookshooter?

There are two kinds of support available at Bookshooter.com.  First, every publisher or customer can search our online help forum for basic help and easily find the answers to most common issues.  Secondly, Bookshooter offers an amazing opportunity to call a real person in the U.S. and speak to a customer service rep for fast, courteous service. The phone number is 1-719-387-8137. Satisfaction is guaranteed and a publisher can cancel an account anytime with no penalties or additional fees.

Why buy from Bookshooter?

Why would people buy music from Bookshooter.com instead of Amazon.com? First remember that Bookshooter's goal is not to become the author's only sales outlet, quite the contrary, Bookshooter wants to be the simple one-stop conversion and distribution service for the author's book so that it will appear in every major online ebook sales outlet! However, Bookshooter.com offers these unique features (some are still in development) for every author's presentation to the public: 

• Every author receives a unique web page featuring all of the author's works and links to other websites that they can control.
• Every author can link their personal page to any sales outlets or personal web pages using their own admin page.  
• Every book receives its own unique sales page with beautiful cover display, "look inside" preview features (coming), and customizable description.
• Every book in Bookshooter can be downloaded by the customer in the most common formats for usage without additional fees including ePub, PDF, and text file formats.
• Each ebook at Bookshooter.com has a customer review section and rating feedback system to allow the author valuable feedback from their readers.
• All the feedback and comments are managed by the users of the site so inappropriate comments or content can be flagged for removal by the Bookshooter team.

Publishing Through Bookshooter.

What are the advantages to becoming a Bookshooter publisher?

• There is no copyright sharing and the publisher remains in complete control of their property.
• Publishers set their own prices, review their own ebook formatting, and control every aspect of their distribution.
• Contracts for aggregate distribution are not exclusive and allow the publisher maximum flexibility.
• Authors never have to chase down every new ebook retail outlet and set up multiple accounts to manage and maintain.
• Authors never have to get on the painful learning curve and technical delimma of converting their books into ebook formats like ePub.
• Watching profits roll in from Bookshooter is way more fun than negotiating individually with every retail outlet on the web.
• Ebooks are the future of distribution and sales to an every expanding global reading community.  Paper will always be valuable, but ebooks sales will continue to expand and grow beyond any traditional book's wildest sales dreams.

Can anyone sell an ebook on Bookshooter?

Yes, anyone may upload a book that they own the copyright to and control to be sold through the global Bookshooter service. Open an account and get started.

Are there any size or pricing limitations at Bookshooter?

Absolutely not.  A publisher may publish essays, books, pamphlets, digests, articles, or any other printed work and price them at any point they choose including free of charge to the public (find a competitor that will allow that!) Note: Free works will not be accepted by any online retailer who sells ebooks for a profit (Amazon's Kindle Store for example), but these works can be sold at Bookshooter.com free of charge and distributed through other recommended free ebook distribution houses.

Is there any book or work that Bookshooter will not accept?

Bookshooter is a family friendly enterprise and will only accept contributed works and content it believes to be beautiful and valuable, and Bookshooter is the sole judge of what deems acceptable and unacceptable.  Bookshooter will not sell any content that contains hateful or indecent content or otherwise comprimises Bookshooter as a distributor of legitimate and professional works. Bookshooter is the sole arbiter of its decision to refuse any work and reserves the right to refuse any work without liability or contest from the publisher. Bookshooter refuses all censorship arguments as it assumes no right to restrict a publisher's work in the greater public arena, but as a private company may choose to offer its services to whom it wishes. Bookshooter will not sell books that have been uploaded fraudulently or are not the rightful property of the person uploading the work. Please see the Legal pages for standards and penalties. 

Does Bookshooter market the books?

Bookshooter defines great marketing first as AVAILABILITY.  Any work that is not available to the public has failed the first step in a great marketing plan. Set up an account and upload a book through Bookshooter and overcome the first enemy of every author and publisher: being unknown. Every publisher and author must be "findable" on the web and Bookshooter solves this problem first by being optimized for search engines, offering customizable links to external sites which drive traffic and ranking on the web, and creating a smart launching pad for every new ebook in the online marketplace.

Secondly, the Bookshooter Author's Help site will offer tutorials, advice, and practical guides on how to create, market, and distribute all kinds of published works. Authors will be encouraged to use this Forum style help section to share their experiences and help one another in the ever changing marketplace for ebooks and online marketing.

What file formats can be uploaded to Bookshooter?

Because Bookshooter serves a wide variety of publishers and authors, and an even wider variety of styles of works, PDF files are the exclusive upload format for the Bookshooter system. A PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) can be created using almost every form of modern word processor or layout editor in the Export or Print functions including Microsoft Word, Mac Page, Adobe Indesign, and a host of others as well.  The PDF is a fool proof layout format that will provide the end user with the exact format of any work the publisher uploads even if the book is illustration rich, in full color, artistically complex, or incredibly simple.  

Bookshooter's online conversion software will convert the uploaded work into a simple text format that can be edited online by the author so it is ready for distribution to simple e-reader devices that function best with a text-only kind of format like the leading format called the ePub.  Yes, the PDF can be sold at Bookshooter.com in all of its perfectly presented glory, but alas the Amazon Kindle works best with the stripped down ePub format, but that is what Bookshooter is so magically capable of creating for the publisher--the right format for the right reader.

Does a Work need to be copyrighted to sell on Bookshooter?

A publisher does not need to register their work with the United States Copyright Office in order to have a valid copyright. A copyright is valid as soon as the work is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression." Although registration with the Copyright Office is not required to have a valid copyright Bookshooter does require every published work to formally declare it's exclusive ownership of the work and absolute right to distribute the work in an online agreement. Every author is encouraged to purchase an ISBN for their works via Indentifiers Services via https://www.myidentifiers.com/ in order to enter the marketplace as a legitimate work ready to be listed in all major sales catalogs and to be more acceptable at many online retailers. Apple iBooks will not accept a book without an ISBN number. For all practical purposes this ISBN registration is the official ID card for any work intended for mass public resale, it is, however, not a requirement to distribute a book through Bookshooter.com.  For more information about the ISBN number go to the MyIdentifiers service and get started. Library of Congress Control numbers (LCCN) are not available for the ebook format, but are recommended for print formats, see http://pcn.loc.gov/pcn001.html.