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Note: This article contains affiliate links.

When I learned that there was going to be an in-depth book about self-publishing eBooks, especially one written by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch (two experts in this exact field), I immediately pre-ordered a copy on Amazon. I’ve been writing traditionally-published books for the past four years, as well as a few through an eBook publisher, but I have never attempted to produce and publish an entire book completely on my own. But my career has really progressed and it got to the point where I wanted to take control over what I was writing, where they were being sold and also how much money I was making (you get very little as an author of print books). So over the past six months I have put a lot of energy into coming up with book ideas, growing my newsletter and seriously considering the possiblity of publishing my very own eBooks. You could say that this book, “APE”, arrived for me just at the perfect moment in time.

Overall, I give the book five HUGE stars (check out my review on Amazon along with the others … it looks like I’m not the only one who enjoyed it!). Heck, I’d give it ten stars if I could. This is the stuff that is difficult to learn without walking through yourself and making mistakes along the way, and both Guy and Shawn do an excellent job of taking their experiences and putting it all out there for us to learn from. In fact, I was in the early stages of writing my first self-published eBook when I started reading it, thought I had a good plan but learned that I have so much more to consider before pushing something out into the wild. I’m super excited to use put my newfound knowledge from this book in to action. :)

Here’s my to-the-point break-down of the book:

Who is this book written for?

This book is written for anyone who wants to write, publish and sell their own book. So, if you ever plan on self-publishing an eBook, then you need to buy this book.

What topics does the book cover? 

It goes over all of the things you need to consider, as well as several resources to help you on your journey, when writing a self-published book. Things like hiring a copy-editor, a cover designer, and even some excellent advice on how to avoid your book looking “too self-published”.  It goes into the details of each role you play as a self-publisher (hence the title of the book, “Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur”) and really doesn’t leave anything out.

What are your favorite parts of the book?

I’ve added more highlights and notes to this book than any other book I’ve ever owned. There is just so much beefy content in it, and I’ll probably read the entire thing again just to absorb it all and pick up some of the bits I had forgotten about. However, my one favorite part was the ability to download templates to use in both Microsoft Word and InDesign (more at http://apethebook.com/). This book is chock full of resources and links, and really shows that the authors took a lot of time researching and crowd-sourcing the information inside of it to make it the best quality book possible.

Was the book missing anything?

Actually, no. Nothing I can think of, at least. I guess if you plan on also doing PDF books like I do (with graphics and design elements) it doesn’t go into detail on that, but you would probably either want to hire a designer or take a dedicated class (such as from Lynda.com, for example) specific to that topic so you can do it yourself (if you have the design chops, that is). :)

My overall recommendation is that this book is superb, easy to read and perfectly written. If you are planning to or considering self-publishing then you need to buy this book!

View this book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/Z5zIxi

Note: This article contains affiliate links.

When I learned that there was going to be an in-depth book about self-publishing eBooks, especially one written by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch (two experts in this exact field), I immediately pre-ordered a copy on Amazon. I’ve been writing traditionally-published books for the past four years, as well as a few through an eBook publisher, but I have never attempted to produce and publish an entire book completely on my own. But my career has really progressed and it got to the point where I wanted to take control over what I was writing, where they were being sold and also how much money I was making (you get very little as an author of print books). So over the past six months I have put a lot of energy into coming up with book ideas, growing my newsletter and seriously considering the possiblity of publishing my very own eBooks. You could say that this book, “APE”, arrived for me just at the perfect moment in time.

Overall, I give the book five HUGE stars (check out my review on Amazon along with the others … it looks like I’m not the only one who enjoyed it!). Heck, I’d give it ten stars if I could. This is the stuff that is difficult to learn without walking through yourself and making mistakes along the way, and both Guy and Shawn do an excellent job of taking their experiences and putting it all out there for us to learn from. In fact, I was in the early stages of writing my first self-published eBook when I started reading it, thought I had a good plan but learned that I have so much more to consider before pushing something out into the wild. I’m super excited to use put my newfound knowledge from this book in to action. :)

Here’s my to-the-point break-down of the book:

Who is this book written for?

This book is written for anyone who wants to write, publish and sell their own book. So, if you ever plan on self-publishing an eBook, then you need to buy this book.

What topics does the book cover? 

It goes over all of the things you need to consider, as well as several resources to help you on your journey, when writing a self-published book. Things like hiring a copy-editor, a cover designer, and even some excellent advice on how to avoid your book looking “too self-published”.  It goes into the details of each role you play as a self-publisher (hence the title of the book, “Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur”) and really doesn’t leave anything out.

What are your favorite parts of the book?

I’ve added more highlights and notes to this book than any other book I’ve ever owned. There is just so much beefy content in it, and I’ll probably read the entire thing again just to absorb it all and pick up some of the bits I had forgotten about. However, my one favorite part was the ability to download templates to use in both Microsoft Word and InDesign (more at http://apethebook.com/). This book is chock full of resources and links, and really shows that the authors took a lot of time researching and crowd-sourcing the information inside of it to make it the best quality book possible.

Was the book missing anything?

Actually, no. Nothing I can think of, at least. I guess if you plan on also doing PDF books like I do (with graphics and design elements) it doesn’t go into detail on that, but you would probably either want to hire a designer or take a dedicated class (such as from Lynda.com, for example) specific to that topic so you can do it yourself (if you have the design chops, that is). :)

My overall recommendation is that this book is superb, easy to read and perfectly written. If you are planning to or considering self-publishing then you need to buy this book!

View this book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/Z5zIxi

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Nicole is a photographer, published author, and educator specializing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography. She is best known for her books on food photography but is widely versed in various photographic genres, including landscape, nature, stock, travel, and experimental imagery.

6 Comments

  1. Scott King January 7, 2013 at 4:23 pm - Reply

    You didn’t think it was geared too much toward “This is how publishing works?” ‘Cause you’ve been published a lot and the industry stuff seemed to be basic.

    For me I got the most out of the chapters where he went over the best practices for formatting and that kind of stuff. I really wish there had been more talk about interior design and layouts, but I’m glad you mentioned Lynda. I didn’t even think to check there for classes on ebooks. I’m totally going to do that now, thanks!

  2. Jen Kayton January 8, 2013 at 11:21 am - Reply

    Thanks for the review – I’ve been meaning to read the book myself and this has definitely helped push me to follow through! I have never published a book traditionally and am trying to learn as much as possible about self publishing.

  3. Patricia Davidson January 14, 2013 at 12:36 pm - Reply

    Thanks for the review! I’ve put it on my wishlist.

  4. Rhonda January 17, 2013 at 10:46 am - Reply

    Nice review, I’ll add this to my growing queue of books I’m going to read this year. Sounds like there is more than a few good pearls of wisdom in it.

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