If you don't want us to do the whole enchilada for you, and you're
tech-savvy enough to do some of the work yourself, but just need us to
help you with certain pieces, that's cool, we'd be glad to help. To get
an A la Carte quote takes just three simple steps:
We can do most anything you'd like. Our most common tasks are in black, with our more uncommon tasks listed in gray below.
Preparation Tasks |
| Unbinding Print Copy for Scanning | We remove the binding and trim the pages for you from a physical copy as preparation for sheet-fed scanning and OCRing. We carefully trim the pages to ensure they're square (so they scan straight) and all the pages are separated (so they don't stick together and skip pages or jam and crinkle or tear). |
| Prepare .DOC Manuscript File for Ebooks | We will take your manuscript .DOC file in standard manuscript format and prepare it for later conversion to ebook formats; this assumes you aren't scanning a printed copy but want to create an ebook directly from your manuscript, and involves reformatting tasks such as fixing paragraphing (indents, removing tabs, extra blank lines), fixing line spacing, fonts, changing underlines to italics, removing invisible section breaks, headers/footers, changing "--" to true mdashes, changing "#" scene breaks to be more artistic, putting everything into standard Word style types, etc. -- doing what's needed so the file is not geared for editors but ready for conversion to ebook formats for readers. (Note that this is a preparation step that produces a Word .DOC file, not an actual ebook file.) |
| Convert non .DOC file to .DOC file | We will take your manuscript file in a file format other than Word .DOC and convert it to .DOC such that it is ready for turning into ebooks. This is useful if you have your file in a format like WordPerfect, Wordstar, etc. If you do this yourself, note that this is not as simple as exporting/importing in Word format, as many characters like quotes, dashes, etc. may not translate correctly and may not show up as a problem until you look at the .EPUB or .MOBI ebook file. If you do this yourself be sure to look carefully at the EPUB/MOBI files for any strangeness. (Also be careful with "Replace All" as sometimes the codes from one file format may overlap -- for example, in one case converting a WordPerfect file, the starting smart quotes were the same as the letter 'A' when it came to doing Find/Replace, so Replace All clobbered all the letter 'A's!) This task includes the standard formatting changes to convert a file from manuscript format to reading format as described above. |
Scanning Tasks |
| Scanning (unbound) | We will scan an unbound copy of your work on a sheet-fed scanner to create a set of page images. We create a PDF that's convenient to work with and is searchable. |
| Scanning 2X (unbound) | We will scan an unbound copy of you work twice, using different settings, which will help identify scanning errors |
| Scanning 3X (unbound) | We will scan an unbound copy of you work three times, using different settings, which will help identify scanning errors |
| Scanning (bound) | We will scan a bound copy of your work on a flat scanner, being as careful as possible not to damage it, to create a set of page images |
| Scanning 2X (bound) | We will scan a bound copy of your work twice, using different settings (to help identify scanning errors), on a flat scanner, being as careful as possible not to damage it, to create a set of page images |
| Scanning 3X (bound) | We will scan a bound copy of your work three times, using different settings (to help identify scanning errors), on a flat scanner, being as careful as possible not to damage it, to create a set of page images |
OCR Tasks |
| OCR | We will run our OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software on your page images to create text. We create a Word .DOC file that is editable. |
| OCR 2X | We will run our OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software on two different scans of your page images to create two different sets of text that can later be compared to help find scanning errors |
| OCR 3X | We will run our OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software on three different scans of your page images to create three different sets of text that can later be compared to help find scanning errors |
Formatting Tasks |
| Format OCR'd .DOC File for Ebooks | We will take your OCR'd .DOC file and prepare it for later conversion to ebook formats. OCRing almost always creates a .DOC file that has numerous formatting problems that make it unusable to create ebook from; typically the OCR'd file is a too-literal representation of the print book and needs to have the formatting greatly simplified and normalized. This step involves reformatting tasks such as fixing paragraphing (indents, removing tabs, extra blank lines), fixing line spacing, paragraph spacing, font sizes, font faces, correcting italics, removing false bolding, removing invisible section breaks, headers/footers, putting everything into standard Word style types, etc. -- doing what's needed so the file is ready for conversion to ebook formats for readers. (Note that this is a preparation step that produces a Word .DOC file, not an actual ebook file. Also note that this step only repairs formatting errors, not errors in the scanned words.) |
Error Detection & Error Correction Tasks (We recommend you perform one of the Text Comparison tasks and one of the error correction/copyediting tasks, whether you do them or we do them for you.) |
| Text Compare (2 versions) | We will compare two different texts of your document to highlight differences (which represent errors that need to be fixed); the two text copies may be from two different OCR runs or one OCR run vs. your original manuscript file, such as if you want to compare your original manuscript against a scan of the copyedited version the publisher printed to identify both scanning errors and copyediting changes. (Note that this step does not include correcting errors, only identifying possible errors.) |
| Text Compare (3 versions) | We will compare three different texts of your document, as above; the sources may be from three OCR runs or two OCR runs vs. your original MS |
| Text Compare (4 versions) | We will compare four different texts of your document, as above; the sources would be from three OCR runs and your original MS |
| Error detect and correct | Since OCR is imperfect, to fix scanning/OCR errors, we will run error detection software to locate scanning errors in your document (an AI program we've developed), visually compare flagged errors to the original (a manual process), and correct errors to match the original |
| Error detect, read, and correct | We will run error detection software and correct errors as above and also carefully read your entire text word by word to find and fix errors the software detection algorithm did not find |
| Full copyedit | We will do a full copy edit of your text to look for and fix not just scanning errors but typos you made in the original text, grammar problems, and story continuity problems; this is useful if this piece has not previously been professionally published |
| Send Galleys | We will send you galleys of your piece for you to check over yourself (no charge) |
Cover Art |
| Cover scan (front) | We will scan the front of a physical cover you've sent us and use it as a front cover of your ebook. Note: You must have rights to the cover to do this. |
| Cover scan (back) | We will scan the back of a physical cover you've sent us and use it as a 'back' cover (included inside ebook after front cover and also displayed on your Personal Store in addition to the front cover; you must have rights to the cover do this) |
| Cover - simple | We will create a simple front cover for you, with minimal graphics or using a background image you supply |
| Cover - fancy | We will read your work and create a front cover for you with more elaborate graphics, such as public domain images we search for |
| Cover - custom | Our cover designer will work with you to create a completely custom front cover for you |
Ebook Conversion Tasks |
| Convert to MOBI (Amazon/Kindle) | We will convert your ebook to a '.MOBI' format file that can be uploaded to Amazon.com's Kindle store and/or your Personal Store. (.MOBI files are used by a few ebook readers, notably Amazon's Kindle.) |
| Convert to EPUB (Nook/iPad/etc.) | We will convert your ebook to a '.EPUB' format file for use in selling copies on your Personal Store. (.EPUB files are commonly used by many ebook readers, such as the Nook and iPad.) |
| Convert for Ingram | We will convert your ebook to a '.EPUB' format file for use in selling copies via the Ingram wholesale distributor. (Ingram's EPUB format requirements are more stringent than most others and require more manual work to format the files.) |
| Convert for Smashwords | We will convert your ebook to a .DOC file format usable for uploading to Smashwords.com. (Smashwords.com is one of the most popular sites for selling ebooks, and also serves the important function of distributing ebooks to the Barnes & Noble site for the Nook, to Apple's iBooks store for the iPad, Sony, and others.) |
| Convert to PDF | We will convert your ebook to a .PDF file you can use to create and sell print copies (e.g. on Createspace, Lulu) |
Publishing Tasks |
| Upload to Amazon | We will create an ebook entry on Amazon.com's Kindle store and upload your Amazon .MOBI file for you |
| Upload to B&N | We will create an ebook entry on Barnes & Noble's Nook store and upload your .EPUB file for you |
| Upload to Ingram | We will create an ebook entry in Ingram's distribution system and upload your .EPUB file for you. Notes: (1) ISBN# required. (2) Ingram distributes to all major ebook sales channels as well as tens of thousands of independent ebookstores. |
| Upload to Smashwords | We will create an ebook entry on Smashwords.com and upload your Smashwords .DOC file for you |
| Upload to Personal Store | We will create an entry in our Personal Store for your ebook and upload .MOBI and .EPUB editions for you so you can sell ebook copies directly from your web site. You get 100% of the sale using your own Paypal account, or 90% if we process sales through our Paypal account. (If you don't have a web site we can of course help with that too.) |
Maintenance Tasks |
| Update Amazon edition | We will update your existing ebook on Amazon's Kindle store with a new version for you |
| Update B&N edition | We will update your existing ebook on Barnes & Noble's Nook store with a new version for you |
| Update Ingram edition | We will update your existing ebook on Ingram's system with a new version for you |
| Update Smashwords edition | We will update your existing ebook on Smashwords with a new version for you |
| Update Personal Store edition | We will update your existing ebook on your Personal Store with a new version for you |
Misc. |
| Acquire | We will try to locate and purchase a used or new copy of your physical book/magazine for you so we can scan it -- if possible; paying up to $20 for the copy and to have it shipped to us |