SkillBites Author Guidelines

 
These Guidelines contain general information about the parameters SkillBites uses to evaluate authors and books, the process of becoming a SkillBites author,the royalty compensationto authors and the rights that SkillBites authors have in their products. The terms that govern the relationship between SkillBites and authors are set forth in the Author Terms of Service.

Book Parameters: SkillBites has developed one of the easiest publishing platforms on the market. Our niche is short, practical how-to books that will enable the reader to implement the skill with reasonable proficiency in a short period of time. Below are some parameters that SkillBites uses to evaluate whether to accept a book:

1. The author must have significant expertise in the subject matter of the book.
2. The book should be approximatelytwenty6” x 9”pages, roughly 4000 to 4500 words (not including the Table of Contents, About the Author and other pages that don’t contain the subject matter content of the book).
3. Each book should consist of the essential tips and tools concerning a particular skill, or the top mistakes to avoid when doing a particular task.
4. The reader should be able to implement the tips and tools easily. The use of checklists and bullet points is encouraged.
5. The topic should be one that is likely to have a significant audience.
6. The book needs to be well written.
7. The copyright must be owned by the author submitting the book for the SkillBites website.

How to become a SkillBitesAuthor: Below is a description of the process for becoming a SkillBites author and selling one’s book through the SkillBites platform:

1. To begin the process, youfill out the application form on the website, which includes a description of the eBook you want to write and publish through SkillBites andyour credentials in the particular subject matter,and accept the Author Terms of Service.Youthen select the Author Package that best fits your needs and budget.
2. SkillBites will send you a guide on how to write a book easily, and will verify that you have the expertise to write about the identified subject matter. Once this is confirmed, we will then send youthe SkillBites eBook TemplateandFormattingGuide.
3. When your book is ready, youwould upload it to GoogleDrive and share it with SkillBites, or email it to authors@skillbites.net. For GoogleDrive, you need to have a gmail account, which is easy to create and is free. The book will then go through an editorial review process. If a book does not pass this review, we will work with you to determine the best approach for improving the book to be able to pass this review. You may choose to have SkillBites provide copyediting services for a fee, or may find others to provide that service.
4. SkillBites requires that you provide 3 or more testimonials or reviews of your eBook, including at least 2 from experts in the topic of the eBook and 1 from a customer/end user of the eBook. In addition, you need to provide the credentials of the experts. The testimonials, along with a description of the book, needs to be provided before the eBook can be published on the SkillBites website and distributed to other sites for sale. If you want, SkillBites can undertake to obtain the testimonials for a fee, as described on the list of Services.
5. You will receive quarterly reports on the sale of your book for each quarter in which your book was purchased, and quarterly royalty payments.

Compensation: Depending on the Author Package selected, authors generally receive at least 60% of the net revenues received by SkillBites from the direct sale of their works on the SkillBites site, and 30% of the net revenues received by SkillBites from the sale of their works onother sites or channels. “Net revenues” involves deducting from revenue certain costs such as credit card fees, merchant gatewayfees, printing and shipping costs for print books, taxes, commissions to affiliates and other fees incurred by SkillBites directly as a result of the particular sale. Note that online retailers keep a portion of the revenue, and thus the revenue received by SkillBites is not the full price that is paid for the eBook. For instance, one of Amazon’s compensation plansprovides for payment of 85% of the revenue to the author, less $2.34 per sale. When an author’s Work is published on the site of a major retailer, the author will receive a percentage of the amount that the online retailer pays SkillBites for the sale of the author’s eBook, depending on the Author Package selected. In addition, SkillBites pays a commission to affiliates for sale of SkillBites products to purchasers who connected to SkillBites through the affiliate, and may pay a commission to others in connection with the sale. Any commissions would be deducted from the revenues from sale of an author’s work before calculation of the royalty due the author.

Hypothetical: Suppose Jane Smith has written an eBook on conflict resolution techniquesand has selected the Silver Author Package. The eBook is selling on the SkillBites website for $4.95 and100 copies are purchased directly from SkillBites, 100 copies from Amazon and 100 copiesthrough SkillBites affiliates. The Royalty is calculated as follows:

1. The Net Revenue from the direct sales on SkillBites equals the gross revenue (100 x $4.95, or $495) less the credit card fees,merchant processing expense and other deductions (this comes toroughly 3.5% on average). This would yield a Net Revenue of $477.68.
2. The Net Revenue from the sales on Amazon would be 85% x ($495 – ($2.34 x 100)), or $221.85.
3. The Net Revenue from the sales through affiliatesis calculated by first deducting from the gross revenue the commission owed to the affiliate (let’s say that is 10%), and then deducting the other fees (credit card fees, etc.), which we are estimating to be 3.5%. The Net Revenue equals 90% x $495 less 3.5% x $495, which equals $445.50 – $17.33,or $428.17.
4. The author’s royalty for the quarter from just the sale of the eBook through these entities would be 65% x ($477.68 + $428.17) + (30% x $221.85) which equals 588.80+ $56.66 = $645.46. This obviously does not include any royalty from the sale of audio books or print books, or sales on other retailer sites, all of which could boost the royalty payments much higher. The beauty of this program is that once you have submitted your eBook to SkillBites, you can receive revenue without any further work on your part besides promoting your book!

Additional Services: Included in each of the Author Packages is an array of services. If an author desires any services that are not in the selected Author Package, most services can be purchased on an a la carte basis. For instance, if an author who has purchased the Silver Package wants additional editing or marketing services, or for SkillBites to obtain testimonials or provide a custom cover, these can be purchased separately. See the Services schedule forthe full list of services we offer and the current fee structure. Theschedule is subject to change.

SkillBites does not guarantee any sales volume, traffic volume or compensation level. This is purely a hypothetical to demonstrate how the compensation system works, and does not reflect the sales volume experienced by SkillBites’ authors.

Author Rights: Authors retain the copyright in their own works. In addition, authors may distribute complimentary copies of their eBook. Authors grant SkillBites the exclusive right to sell their eBook, as well as other formats of their book, and the right to utilize small portions of the content for marketing and other reasonable purposes.