Just because a book has been published years ago doesn’t mean that authors can’t still garner some publicity for it. So what’s one easy way to give an older release a new push? Run an eBook promo.

“For authors who are less inclined to do a second PR push, eBook price promos have proved to be a great way to boost discovery, word of mouth and reviews,” said Tanya Hall, who directs marketing and business development for Greenleaf Book Group.

She recommends dropping the book price down to $.99 for a month or another low price, which can aid in getting more units sold. She also uses social media ads to build brand awareness. “Obviously, this is more about building awareness and recommendations than revenue, but in a time when discovery is an author’s biggest challenge, those aren’t insignificant advantages,” she explained.

Get more marketing strategies in Old Book, New Tricks: 6 Marketing Tips To Increase Sales.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

Word is going around on Twitter today that Pressbooks has entered public beta. If you make your own eBooks then this is definitely one you’ll want to look at.

Pressbooks is a web based eBook creation tool. It’s built on top of WordPress, and it’s designed to be a simple and capable. way to make Epub, PDF, and other formats (InDesign, for example). I have not tried it yet myself, but I plan to.

I’ve posted about other web-based tools – eBookBurn, for example. One thing that sets Pressbooks apart is that it is currently free for the self-publishing author and for the very small publisher. I’ve been aware of it for about 5 months now, and the idea has intrigued me. In spite of the fact that it is considered a blogging platform, WordPress is actually a web-publishing tool which is quite easy to use and sturdy.The idea that I could adapt my experience with WordPress to eBook making is very appealing.

Pressbooks

My favorite ebook library app got an update today.

It’s only been a few days since the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire shipped, but Kovid Goyal and his fellow developers are on the ball. The latest version of calibre (which you can download here) is now set u to help you transfer your eBooks to the newest Android gadgets to hit the market.

This update also adds a number of other fetures and bug fixes, including new conversion options, tweaks to the menu layout, and a new option for making the book jacket.

I’ve posted about calibre in the past. It’s a highly popular eBook and eReader management tool. You can use it to convert eBooks to and from a wide variety of eBook formats. It can also help you in organizing your eBook library and in keeping the eBooks updated across all your eReaders (almost all are supported) as well as on a number of tablets.

A commenter on yesterday’s post about Book Creator has helpfully pointed me at a competing product.

Demibooks Composer picks up where Book Creator leaves off.

First and foremost, both apps enable you to make eBooks on the iPad. But while Book Creator is designed to build a static eBook from words and images, Composer is intended to make interactive eBook apps. In fact, Demibooks will help you distribute your app for free via the Composer app and you can even upload the app to iTunes.

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An iPad is just for reading eBooks, right? Not anymore. Red Jumper Studio has released a new iPad app this week and it looks like my long running quest to make an eBook for the iPad from an iPad is about to come to an end.

Book Creator looks to be a promising compromise between the utility and convenience of making an eBook without setting aside the iPad. It offers a basic selection of formatting and editing options. You can use it to import and manipulate photos, type or copy & paste text, enter the metadata, and add a cover image.

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The POD service Lulu pushed further into eBook distribution today with the relaunch of its Epub Creator.

This tool, which we last reported on a couple weeks back, is an automatic converter which functions something like the Meatgrinder converter that SmashWords uses. But Lulu’s tool includes several useful features that place it several steps above the competition.

First and foremost, the Lulu Epub Creator only makes Epub, and that enables it to refine the output so it looks better. But the Epub Creator also incorporates a number of basic error fixes, including checking for formatting problems and font issues.

“Our main goal is help creators sell more books,” says Bob Young, CEO and Founder of Lulu.  “The key is to maximize the way their customers discover and purchase works. Through our industry-leading array of professional publishing services, we’re empowering creators to publish and sell the way they, and their readers, want.”

The Epub Creator accepts many office formats, including RTF, Word, and Open Office formats, and it outputs standards compliant Epub that authors can choose to distribute to the Nook Store and iBooks as well as sell the eBook through Lulu.

The self-publishing service Lulu is trying to expand its eBook publishing arm at the moment, and yesterday David Woodward posted an updated copy of the Lulu eBook Creator Guide.

Lulu accepts PDF, Epub, and DOC files, but as you may know DOC files need to be converted to a real eBook format before they’re sold.  Conversion tends to do funny things to the contents of a file, and the best way to avoid introducing errors is to control the source file. And that’s why Lulu has this guide; authors will be able to fix most problems in their eBooks before they are submitted.

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The SendToReader webpage conversion service has launched a new service this week.

When I last mentioned SendToReader back in March, it was a basic webpage conversion service for your Kindle. It worked okay, but the only content converted was the webpages that you requested. Today, that changed.

SendToReader Periodicals will now process and convert RSS feeds and other news services and then send them by email to your Kindle. It can bundle multiple sources into a single Kindle file, and users can even schedule the time when they want their periodicals to be sent.

The service is not free. There’s a $5 a month fee, and I’m not sure that it’s worth it.

Did you know that you can do this yourself for free? The ebook library app calibre can gather the contents of news websites and RSS feeds and then send them to your Kindle. You’ll need to run the app yourself, but it’s not that difficult.

A new iOS app has popped up in the past few days which promises to improve all the less than stellar covers on self-published eBooks.

Phoster was originally released as a poster making app last October, but Piotr of Password Incorrect has noticed that it can also make a pretty darn  fine cover.

The app sells for $2 in ITunes, and it does most of the work for you., thanks to the  folks from Bucket Labs. It comes with 72 professionally designed templates, all of which are top-level designs. It will also let you import a background for the cover, export the finished cover (via facebook, flickr, twitter, tumblr, instagram and email), and it has a vast number of formatting and layout options.

Piotr wrote a thorough step-by-step guide over on his blog. It’s worth reading before you get the app.

via Password Incorrect

A new tool launched yesterday, and it promises to make it easier to create Kindle eBooks.

Kindle Writer, a product of Tekline Publishing, is designed to support all the stages of making a Kindle ebook.  This app is similar in function to Sigil, an open source Epub editor, but it does a lot more. It has several stages including editing the original text file, adding formatting, and it even can assist you in uploading the finished ebook to your KDP account with Amazon.

I have not had a chance to test it yet. The app launched yesterday, but the trial version available yesterday did not let you make eBooks. A new version was released this morning which removed the block.

Kindle Writer is available as a 30 day trial, with a retail of £25.