G'day Mates,
I too am a new author, and having looked at various options, went for eBooks. My rationale is partly based around correcting any errors missed by either the proof readers, or the editor. A second consideration for me was upfront costs, eBooks have none. To promote your book properly does require, in my opinion, a great website. That can cost anywhere from a little to a lot. It is a new era for readers and writers alike.
I wish for you all to do well.
James

I agree with kasteer and James 100%. I'd rather have the work out and getting whatever notice it can than sitting at my house, gathering dust. I know I have a strong product. I'm not waiting for the right agent who doesn't have competing projects to notice. It stinks to not have the support of traditional publishing, but there's something exciting about building a following from the ground up.

As a newly published author (4th Jan) I've also gone the e-reader route with Amazon Direct Publishing, which was a little bit of a learning curve but there's lots of help there to guide you. Seems that the Kindle is a very popular reader with millions sold in the UK alone for Xmas 2011 (apparently 1 in 40 people in the UK got one!). Also seems that the "Stack 'em high. Sell 'em cheap" marketing method is the way to go, and since there's no inventory to hold it makes it even more viable - anyway, that's the direction I've gone so see how it goes

Have also gone with Amazon's CreateSpace service to have a the option of a physical book if preferred, though have to say the business of setting this up was a lot harder than doing it for Kindle - and slower !

G'day BJMorgan.
I would also suggest Smashwords. They provide an ISBN if you meet their 'Premium' requirements. Not too hard, just follow the formatting guide. If you go this route I would suggest paying the $9.95 to keep yourself as the publisher of record on Bowker. There is much discussion about this, but at the end of the day I feel more comfortable being on record as the publisher and author. Smashwords will get your book to the iTunes store, KOBO, and eventually Diesel and SONY stores. If folks have other suggestions I am certainly open to them. Self publishing via eBooks has allowed some rather badly edited works to enter the fray, be better than these and your sales will climb. We all hope to become that top 1% of authors. GL

Looked into Smashwords and decided that Amazon Direct Publishing was the way to go but the title is exclusive to them as I've enrolled it for their lending scheme. I've got a publisher too, my 'other half' set herself up as an imprint a while ago to publish a local playwright - upshot was she had to buy 10 ISBN's and only used 3 before the venture came to a stop (he got a better offer!). Maybe if the lending thing doesn't do anything I'll drop out and investigate other avenues. Guess the main thing is to work on the publicity so that's the focus now. Helps that my other half used to do PR and we also edit the local village magazine - every bit helps get the word out

PS: Know what you mean about badly edited books getting out there using self-publish. Hopefully I've not fallen into that trap - was very thoroughly proof read !!

I'm just joining this conversation. I recently re-published a previously published (on paper) novel, and two new novels. I spent a lot of time getting an agent and she worked very hard to get my books published traditionally but was unsuccessful. Part of it was the economy, part was the length of one book (too long), part was the fact that I'm an unknown author, and I'm sure other reasons as well. I eventually decided to self-publish. I chose Kindle and Lulu for the e-books, and CreateSpace for the paperbacks. As the books have been out less than a month, I've yet to find out if I'll be successful or not, but I've already met my first month's sales goal.

Compared to the first time I published traditionally, I can say this process has been more work up front for me. It's not that easy to get everything converted to the proper formats; you need to create compelling covers; you need a background in document formats; and many other things. But in the end, the work is yours, not an editor's or a publisher's – you did the work and you get the rewards.

I would definitely suggest two things: 1) if you're a new author, then hire a professional editor. Not your mom, not your friend who took some English classes. A real editor with experience in your field. It will be very worth the few hundred dollars you'll spend. 2) if you don't have a strong background in graphic design, then hire a cover artist. Deviant Art is a good place to find one. Again, you'll spend a few hundred dollars, but it will be very worth it.

I am trying both. I published a short Christian ebook in June on Smashwords and Kindle book store, and in print at createspace. So far, no sales with Createspace, but over 100 downloads on Smashwords when I promoted it as a giveaway (just changed Smashword price to 99 cents, so we will see how that goes). I only sold 7 copies at 99 cents as a kindle. The next book which I just submitted to Kindle will be a KDP Select book. It is on saving money, which is a popular topic, and I hope it will also boost sales of my first book. Time will tell.

Why I like using paper books, You might call me old fashioned or "Low tech" but I like those "Old" paper books because they don't cause that much eye strain. I cant really enjoy a book unless it is a paperbook. In a paperbook, there aren't that many interferences. For example the computer I use is a family computer. It is shared so I am almost always interfered. I also like reading in a quite place so that I don't get distracted. Usually, When I am reading an E-Book, I will start chatting on messenger. I guess I am old fashioned maybe in the future humans might be forced to modernize and it wouldn't be our choice to choose between E-Book or a Paper book. Why am I saying that we might not have a choice is because it takes paper to make a book and a paper book isn't as eco friendly compared to an E Book.

I think what has stopped me from doing an e-book for my book is hearing about how often e-books are pirated and put all over the internet without the author's permission. E-books are great and are a good option for authors and consumers but I am concerned about this problem.