How to Self-Publish Your E-Book

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
TT
20

How to Self-Publish Your E-Book

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.

J. D. Biersdorfer

If you have a story you want to share, you can easily publish your work in popular electronic bookstores — and maybe even make a little money.

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS, and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design, and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.

Have you ever dreamed of publishing your own e-book and making it big — like the best-selling authors Colleen Hoover and Andy Weir? Not everyone has such success, but plenty of writers have found an audience online with platforms, like Amazon Kindle Publishing and Barnes & Noble Press, that allow authors to freely upload their books and sell them. While you may not get as much exposure by skipping traditional publishing methods and releasing your book yourself, you do retain more control over your work and royalties, which can be up to 70 percent of the sale price. If you’re inspired, here’s a basic overview of the process.

Prepare Your Manuscript

You don’t need special software to write a book — pretty much any modern word-processing program will do — although some people find apps for organizing plots and characters useful. However, your text should be as mistake-free as possible, so take full advantage of any and all proofing tools you have. Apple’s Pages, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Zoho Writer and several other programs include spelling and grammar aids in their desktop editions; options may be more limited on mobile devices.

Some programs have add-ons that use artificial intelligence to analyze and suggest improvements to your writing; Zoho’s free Zia assistant and Microsoft’s new $30-a-month Copilot tool for its Office suite are two examples. Third-party A.I.-powered apps like Grammarly and ProWritingAid have free basic editions with the option to level up for additional help for $10 to $12 a month.

Grammarly is among the programs that use artificial intelligence to analyze and make suggestions for improving your writing.

If you’d rather have a human advising you (and you have the budget for it), hiring a professional editor can also help improve your book.

Design Your Book Cover

Even with a snappy title, a book cover with plain text on a plain background will probably get lost in a busy e-bookstore. Get readers to notice your work among the rows of competing books before they can even judge it.

Check your word-processing software to see if it includes book-cover templates. Design sites like Canva or Snappa also offer free or inexpensive options. Browsing design sites or store shelves to see which covers stand out can give you ideas.

If you go the D.I.Y. route, keep a few things in mind. First, do not use someone else’s copyrighted photos, illustrations, or graphics without permission. If you use your own images, remember that e-book covers are tiny in online stores — so make the cover legible. The file size requirements will vary based on the e-book publisher(s) you choose to distribute your book, so keep the design flexible enough that you can adjust it as needed.

As with hiring an editor, hiring a graphic designer to create a cover is an option.

Pick a Publisher

When you have your text and art finished, choose an e-book publishing platform. Unless you agree to an exclusive deal with one publisher, you can upload your book to multiple e-bookstores, but programs like Amazon’s KDP Select require 90 days of Kindle-only distribution in exchange for special promotions.

E-book publisher and bookstore sites include Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books for Authors, Barnes & Noble Press, the Books Partner Center for Google Play Books, and Rakuten’s Kobo Writing Life. (Many also can create printed books — but for a price.)

The New York Times



Meta Becomes the Latest Big Tech Company Turning to Nuclear Power for AI Needs

The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
TT
20

Meta Becomes the Latest Big Tech Company Turning to Nuclear Power for AI Needs

The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)

Meta has cut a 20-year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet surging demand for artificial intelligence and other computing needs at Facebook’s parent company.

The investment with Meta will also expand the output of a Constellation Energy Illinois nuclear plant.

The agreement announced Tuesday is just the latest in a string of tech-nuclear partnerships as the use of AI expands. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Constellation's Clinton Clean Energy Center was actually slated to close in 2017 after years of financial losses but was saved by legislation in Illinois establishing a zero-emission credit program to support the plant into 2027. The agreement deal takes effect in June of 2027, when the state's taxpayer funded zero-emission credit program expires.

With the arrival of Meta, Clinton’s clean energy output will expand by 30 megawatts, preserve 1,100 local jobs and bring in $13.5 million in annual tax revenue, according to the companies.

“Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions,” said Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of global energy.

Surging investments in small nuclear reactors comes at a time when large tech companies are facing two major demands: a need to increase their energy supply for AI and data centers, among other needs, while also trying to meet their long-term goals to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. Those emissions are generated, in large part, from the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline, oil and coal. Nuclear energy, while producing waste, does not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

Constellation, the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, said in September that it planned to restart the reactor so tech giant Microsoft could secure power to supply its data centers. Three Mile Island, located on the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident in 1979.

Also last fall, Amazon said it was investing in small nuclear reactors, two days after a similar announcement by Google. Additionally, Google announced last month that it was investing in three advanced nuclear energy projects with Elementl Power.

US states have been positioning themselves to meet the tech industry’s power needs as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and gutting regulatory obstacles.

Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy, and lawmakers this year have introduced over 200 bills supportive of nuclear energy, according to the trade association Nuclear Energy Institute.

Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft also have been investing in solar and wind technologies, which make electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

Shares of Constellation Energy Corp., based in Baltimore, were flat Tuesday.