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I recommend smashwords. It gives you a platform to give away your book for free. It takes your document and runs it through a 'meatgrinder' process that formats it into all ebook forms. They also distribute it to most major online bookstores. The contract for amazon is being worked on but they don't have it yet. It's worth a look at least. :)A link with details: https://www.smashwords.com/about/supp...
You're welcome. :) You can also keep track of how many people view your page and download the book from their site too. The biggest problem with that is the urge to hit 'refresh' every 10 seconds to see if another copy has been downloaded. ;)
LOL, I know that feeling from being on Amazon :D
Rachel, if you are giving your works away free, have you considered the formalities?If you use a Creative Commons or GNU license, the copyright remains yours, and no one is allowed to sell the works you give away free.
Is it possible that your works are being considered "Public Domain"? You do need to assert your own copyright and reserve all rights, even if you do give them away, free.
Also, you should consider whether you wish to permit others to share them, or whether the idea is that people read them on your site or download from your site only.
You definitely keep the copyright for yourself.This is a standard Smashwords copyright page:
"Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend"
by John H. Carroll
Published by John H. Carroll at Smashwords
Copyright 2009 John H. Carroll
This story is dedicated to my wife who accuses me of having a blue haired alien girlfriend.
Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
Rachel wrote: "I've been posting some free short stories for my readers that I'm planning to give away in a single downloadable collection with some new material. What I haven't figured out yet is how to actually..."The new Microsoft Word allows saving files as PDF. It works really well.
Yeah, I kept all rights. As John said, Smashwords has a great boilerplate for that. They also did all the file conversions beautifully :)
On a similar note, while I know that there are plenty of free books on Kindle, I didn't see anything in Amazon's instructions on how to make your book free. Can individual authors do that? What about on B&N? And does Amazon still charge the data delivery fee for each copy you "sell," even if the book is a free giveaway?
Thanks!