google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html More Options for Family History Ebook Authors | The Armchair Genealogist

More Options for Family History Ebook Authors


We discussed two major players in the self-publishing industry that can help bring your family history writing to reality,  Createspace and Lightening Source.  

As the ebook industry continues to grow and the need for services expands more and more options will become available to the family history author, and it's hard to stay ahead of this changing industry. I am at that point.

As family historians, many of us are busy researching and writing, and no one comes to the publishing industry knowing the process or which path is best for them. I recognized that there might be others out there like me.  As I carefully weigh my options, and move through the process, I felt I would share my newfound knowledge and my self-publishing journey with you.  You can see my other self-publishing rants here.

I’ve decided to create a spreadsheet, laying out the various companies and the options they offered, giving you the power to make an informed decision too.  I will share that with you in an upcoming post.

As I learn about another publishing and or distribution company that can help us in our self-publishing endeavours I will layout what they have to offer, so we can compare apples to apples.

When you’re finished writing and ready to publish, you should be able to clearly establish who is going to handle the publication of your book.

This week I want to add another player to the list – BookBaby

BookBaby claims to pay the highest payout rate in the eBook distribution industry. You pay them a $99.00 start-up fee (a current promotion, it is normally $149.00) and this gets your book converted to e-pub or mobi format and delivered to their retailers.

Your basic package includes: 

·         Basic formatting check
·         Conversion from your supplied file (Basic conversions require submission in one of the following formats:
.doc, .docx, txt, .rtf, .html, or .pages)
·         Insertion of your supplied cover image
·         Interactive Table of Contents
·         Up to 10 graphic elements (photographs, illustrations, charts, tables, etc.)



BookBaby - will convert from the following formats

  •       Word (.doc, .docx)
  • ·         Rich Text (.rtf)
  • ·         Text (.txt)
  • ·         Pages (.pages)
  • ·         HTML (.html)
  • ·         *InDesign (.indd) - Add $39
  • ·         *PDF (.pdf) - Add $39
  • ·         *Quark (.qxd) - Add $39


At BookBaby, authors receive 100% of the net sales revenue from their retail network. This is after Apple, Amazon, Barnes, Noble, and Sony take their cut. 

Other fees you may incur along the way include an ISBN number, BookBaby will provide one for $19.00. If you wish to be listed as the publisher, then you should purchase your own ISBN numbers.  Canadian authors keep in mind you can get yours for free.

No proof is provided to you for the simple reason that different readers require different formats. Therefore, you don’t have the ability to see how each formatting will look in each reader. They will not send you a proof for each format. My suggestion is if you are not confident about your abilities to convert your word document to the e-pub file then leave that up to them.  You can learn more about how to prepare your book for conversion here

Perhaps, you have already looked after your book with say Amazon through Createspace; you can still use BookBaby to capture the Apple, Barnes and Noble and Sony market. You are not required to redistribute to a market you have already covered.

Need help with cover design, for a basic package of $99.00 you can get some help, if you want something a little more involved consider the deluxe package at $199.00. After filling out an online questionnaire and uploading any graphics you wish to use on the cover, the designers will get to work and create you a book cover in 3-4 days.
You can make as many changes as you like to the contents of the book up until you go the checkout. After the checkout, you can go back and make punctuation and spelling changes for a fee, once per calendar year.  Anything more than that constitutes a new edition, with new ISBN numbers etc.etc.

Once you have gone through the checkout, it will take approximately take 10 days before your book will be available at the retail level. You can monitor the process through your account on Bookbaby.

Check out Bookbaby’s Pricing Schedule here.

BookBaby is certainly a company family historians should take a closer look at for distributing their ebook.