Aesyn Cravery's Blog, page 5

How to Format a Word Document for Publication on Amazon

 

I’m going to go through the steps I use to ready my MS Word books for publication on Amazon. These are things I’ve learned through trial and error. You may tweak them as you see fit and for what works for you.

I work in individual chapters when I’m writing, saving each chapter as a separate file and then merging them together at the end. It’s easier for me to find things that way while I’m working instead of digging through a long document. I also take notes on what’s in each chapter (I have a document with a brief synopsis of each chapter) so I know what I’ve covered already or if I have to go back and change a scene. As I said, it’s what works for me. Everyone is different.

 

Setting up Your Word Document for Draft Writing

Whether you work in chapters or throw the whole book in one file, you should work with a draft writing template set up as follows, with your Normal text and Heading 2 (for chapter headings) already formatted. Those are the only things you should have to worry about while writing your draft manuscript.

To set up a draft writing template, on the Home tab, right click the Normal style, select Modify. Set your font and font size (usually 10 or 12 pt). At the bottom click the Format tab and select Paragraph. Under Indentation, Special, select First Line, and put in 2 if using a 10 point font or 3 if using a 12 point font. Spacing before and after should be 0. On the Line and Page Breaks tab, select Widow and Orphan Control and Keep With Next.

For your chapter headings, right click on the Heading 2 style and select Modify. Select your font and font size and where you want it to appear (centered, left, etc.). At the bottom, under Format, select Paragraph and make sure Indentation, Special is set to none. Set spacing Before to 60 and After to 12. On the Line and Page Breaks tab, select Widow and Orphan, Keep With Next, and Keep Lines Together. I don’t know why you do this, but Word sometimes gets quirky and decides to put your chapter heading on a separate page if you don’t.

NOTE: A word on why we use Heading 2 instead of Heading 1. For some reason, Kindle doesn’t recognize Heading 1, so I just use Heading 2 all the time. Saves me more work later.

When you start a new chapter, it should always be on a new page. You can ensure that by going to the end of your chapter then clicking on the Page Layout tab at the top of Word, then select Breaks, Page. You can also format it in your heading by right clicking Heading 2, Modify, Format (at the bottom), Paragraph, Line and Page Breaks, Break Before. I don’t use that function because it isn’t read when you’re converting the book for Kindle in Kindle Create. I just use standard page breaks, saves me work later.

Setting up Your Document for Print

Once you’ve finished your book and you’re ready to go to print, you need a whole new set of styles. Your final trim size will determine a lot of this. I personally use a trim size of 5.25 inches by 8 inches, which is a standard mass market paperback size. If you want another size, you’ll have to modify the paper size and margins accordingly. For now I’m going to use the 5.25 x 8 for discussion’s sake. If you want to change it, refer to KDP’s downloadable Build Your Book pdf for margin and trim size info, or refer to the KDP dashboard for instructions on trim and margin sizes.

On the Page Layout tab of Word, click on Size, then More Page Sizes at the bottom of the pull down menu. Paper size Letter should be selected, then put in your width and height. Make sure Whole Document is selected under Apply To.

Then click on the Margins tab and use the following settings:

Top   .5

Inside   .72

Gutter   0

Bottom   .5

Outside   .45

Under Multiple Pages, select Mirror Margins, and be sure Whole Document is selected under Apply To.

On the Layout tab, select Different Odd and Even for Headers and make sure Apply To is set for Whole Document.

That sets up your pages. If you used a draft writing template, your text is already formatted, but we’ll still set your styles in this document.

As before, on the Home tab, right click the Normal style, select Modify. Set your font and font size to match the draft document, and set justification to Justify (the only difference between the draft chapter and this document). Format your paragraphs styles the same as the draft document (see above).

Format your chapter headings the same as your draft document (see above).

Before you drop your draft document into this print template, you should set up your front matter. Remember, this is going to be a two-sided document so you need to insert a blank page between each element of your front matter. Insert one by going to the Page Layout tab and under Breaks, select Page.

First up, Title Page. It should include your Title, Author Name, and Publisher. If you don’t have a publisher, use your own name. Insert a blank page.

 

Next is your copyright page. Below is sample text for a copyright page:

 

Copyright©, [Your Name], 202X

All rights reserved

Published by [Your publisher or you can use your own name. If none, delete this line]

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

I also include a link to my website here.

After it, insert a blank page.

Next is your dedication, if you have one. Also your epigraph, if you have one, and any other information you want in your front matter (author’s books, forward, etc.). Make sure to insert a blank page between each.

When you’re finished with your front matter, insert a section break AFTER another page break by going to the Page Layout tab, Breaks, Section Breaks, Next Page. This is important for your headers and pagination.

Once all the front matter is in, you can select all of your book document and copy and paste it into the template after the front matter.

Now, comes the tricky, hair-pulling part. Headers and Footers. No matter how well I format my document, this always gives me headaches because Word is temperamental when it comes to headers and footers. One thing in your favor; if, when you were setting up your layout, you selected Different Odd and Even for Headers, you should have an easier time getting your headers and footers set up.

Most books go with an odd, even set up on headers; for instance, odd pages with the book title, even pages with the author name. Go to the first page of text (not front matter) in your book and under the Insert tab, select Header and then in the drop down menu select the format you want to use for your Odd header (Odd is usually justified right, Even justified left, unless you want them both centered).

The header bar will come up at the top of the page. Type in your text and hit Enter to insert a line between your header and the text of your book. Make sure Link to Previous is deselected. Close Header.

Go to your first even page (usually page 2) and insert your Even header in the same way.

Now, go back and check to make sure it didn’t insert headers in your front matter. If it did, click in them and delete them (and hope it doesn’t completely remove them from your book). This is a trial and error thing that can sometimes take some time.

Pagination. Whether you want it on the bottom or the top, select the Page Number tab under Insert, click where you want the page numbers (top, bottom, etc.) then select Format Page Numbers. Make sure you’re on the first odd page of text and deselect Continue from Previous, under Start At enter 1. Close then do the same for the first even page, select Start At at 2. Go back and make sure it didn’t enter page numbers in your front matter (delete them if it did).

Hopefully you got it all right the first time. If not, don’t feel bad. I’ve been doing this for years and I still need more than one try to get it right.

Now, go through the whole document and make sure your headers and pagination are correct. Also make sure all your chapters start on a new page (insert a page break at the end of the previous chapter if they don’t) and check for any widows or orphans Word missed. When everything looks good, you’re ready to save it as a pdf for print.

When you go to File, Save As, don’t select the option Save as PDF. Instead, go to Save As and under the Save As drop down menu, select pdf there.

Pay attention to how many total pages there are in the book because that affects your cover size. If you’re having your cover done by an artist, give them the trim size and number of pages (this is important for the spine).

If you’re doing the cover yourself, you can download a template from KDP, just put in your trim size and number of pages and whether or not it is bleed (most are not) or not and it will generate a template for you to download. Pay attention to the cut lines on the template; anything outside them will not show up on your cover.

And there you have it, a completed print book ready for publication.

Setting up Your Document for Kindle

The following instructions are for using Kindle Create. If you use a different formatter, your process may be different.

First, download and install the latest version of Kindle Create. Then open the program and start a new project.

If you used a draft chapter template to set up your document and inserted a page break between each chapter, you should be ready to upload that into Kindle Create. No additional page or document formatting is needed. Kindle Create will format your manuscript for use in Kindle devices. Make sure your front matter IS NOT in the document. All you need is your book text.

Import your draft book file into Kindle Create. It takes a few minutes, then your book will populate with each chapter a separate entry (providing you used those all important page breaks after each chapter). You can go through the chapters to make sure everything looks good, then scroll up in the left sidebar to get to the front matter. Click on Title Page and fill in the blanks as requested.

Select the Copyright page, and copy and paste your copyright text from the page you used in your print copy.

Do the same for all your front matter, copying and pasting the text into the allotted page. If there isn’t a tab corresponding to one of your front matter pages, use the generic one at the bottom of the section. You can also insert images on the page in this section.

You can also format the book using one of Kindle Create’s preset templates (see in the right sidebar of Kindle Create). I’ve checked them all out and usually stick with what I formatted myself, but you can try them on for size.

Once everything is entered, it’s time to generate your copy. Make sure you select a name and folder that will be easy to find. Kindle Create will create a folder and a separate .kpf file. The kpf file is what you will upload to Amazon.

A word about covers. If you are doing your cover or a cover artist is, the file size for a Kindle cover is 2560 high by 1600 wide.

Upload your cover when you upload your kpf file. Amazon will insert your cover into the file for your Kindle ebook.

NOTE: If you would like a pdf copy of this post, send me a message in the comments section with your email address and I will forward that to you, along with Amazon's KDP Build Your Book pdf (it's kind of hard to find online).

 

 

Book Trailer for The Sacrifice Series

 I just finished a book trailer for The Sacrifice series. It's simple but hits the highlights of the series.

Why I Self-Publish: One Writer’s Journey

I finished my second book back in 2003 (the first one I relegated to the slush pile after a year of fruitless querying) and started the querying process to hopefully find an agent. After more rejections than I could count, I was ready to throw in the towel on this one, too. And then I read an ad in a writer’s magazine about a small press that was accepting direct submissions, no agent required. I figured, why not? So I submitted the book and in about three weeks got a letter back that not only were they interested, but they wanted to make a movie out of it. Naturally, I was ecstatic. I called my brother, who was at the time a successful screenwriter, and he said to forward the contract to him so his lawyer could look at it. So I did, and that’s where my elation ended. The lawyer said they were wanting me to sign over all rights to the book, leaving me with nothing. It was his advice not to sign the contract.

To say the least, I was dejected. I didn’t have the stomach for more rejections, so I put the book aside and started another one. When it was finished in 2005, instead of shopping it to agents, I decided to publish it myself. Now at that time there were no ebooks (Amazon didn’t sell its first Kindle until 2007), so the only option was print. I checked a few vanity publishers but their upfront costs were crazy. I was a single mother with a family; I didn’t have $5000 laying around to publish my book, and then have to find a place to sell those copies. Then I found CreateSpace and print-on-demand. No upfront costs, no schlepping my books to booksellers. I have a background in corporate publishing, so I used Adobe Frontpage (the predecessor to InDesign) to format the book and converted it to Acrobat and uploaded it to CreateSpace, and voila! I had a published book.

Naturally, the marketing aspect was even harder then. Without social media, all I had was a website and newsletter and magazine ads to try to sell it. At this time I was working full time as a copyeditor and running my own design business on the side, so it took me a few years to get around to writing my next book. By that time we had Kindle and other ebook outlets like Smashwords, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, so I had multiple outlets on which to publish. I once again formatted the print and epub files (in InDesign now) and submitted them. The process itself was quick and painless, and it still is to this day, although now I use MS Word and KindleCreate. Not perfect, but quick and easy, and if your files are well-formatted to begin with, very professional looking.

Which brings me to why I do it. When I submitted my second book to agents, the ones who didn’t reject it outright wanted me to change this or that about it (and all of them wanted a different this or that changed). I started questioning the value of my work. I pulled the book apart and tried rewriting it to their specifications, but it lost all its cohesiveness and I finally gave up on it. I knew what I had to begin with was a good product. The idea was original, the writing was strong, it was well-edited; heck, a publisher even wanted to make a movie out of it (nefarious though they may have been). I made up my mind that I was not going to let someone who barely skimmed my book tell me what was good and not good about it to fit their sales algorithm. I wanted creative control over what I had worked so hard on for months. So for me, self-publishing was the answer.

I know there’s a lot of stigma against indie authors–they must not be good enough to attract an agent or traditional publishing house–and for some this is certainly the case. I have only to peruse most of the stuff I see on Kindle Vella to back up that opinion. And there are a lot of poorly-written, poorly-edited books available for sale because it is so easy to publish now. But many writers, like myself, do it for the following reasons: creative control, timely publishing schedules, and retaining more of the royalties on sales. For instance, for traditionally-published authors, they get paid pennies per sale once or twice a year AFTER they pay back any advance they got. I get paid monthly, and the percentage is in dollars, not cents, even with Amazon’s less than generous residuals.

I used to publish on multiple outlets, but with the advent of KindleCreate and the ability to create an ebook file without going through either InDesign or Calibre, I’ve switched to publishing exclusively on Amazon. It’s not perfect, but it streamlines the process for me and I have all my books in one place. When I analyzed my sales from the other outlets, I wasn’t losing much by switching, and I’m eligible for KDP Select, meaning Kindle Unlimited.

The thing is, if you’re a writer considering going the self-publishing route, you have to make doubly sure your book is clean. Go over it with a fine tooth comb, weeding out any typos or grammatical errors, then use a good editor to get it into shape, and if you’re not proficient at formatting it, use someone for that, too, because once it’s out there, it’s your reputation that will be on the line. One bad book and people will likely never risk buying another one.

Now for the downside to self-publishing–marketing. Yes, all writers have to market themselves, even traditionally published writers. But you’re kind of out there on your own as an independent, and it takes a lot of time and effort to establish a brand to translate into sales. Even so, I wouldn’t change it. As I said, I love having creative control over what I write, and I find that independently-written books offer more variety than traditionally published books because we’re not held to a publisher’s sales algorithm. Yes, you have to wade through some bad apples to get to the good stuff, but I’ve found the same thing with traditionally published books as well.

And by the way, that second book that I tore apart? I finally put it back together the way it was originally written and will be releasing it this spring. 

Progress on Current WIP

Progress on ENDURE, the fourth book in The Sacrifice series, is coming along slowly, though that's mainly because I've been working on other things, such as reformatting and republishing Return of the Light and finishing and publishing my Kindle Vella story, The True Soul.

I'm at 15K words on ENDURE right now, and hopefully will be able to finish it by June 1st. In the meantime, I hope to publish The True Soul as a book and ebook when it finishes its run on the Vella platform.

Book Ad Campaign for TRIAL

 I know, I know, I'm late to the game, but I finally launched my first ad campaign for Trial. I can't spend my day on social media if I hope to get any writing done, so I'm handing over the reins to someone else. Hopefully that'll drive some traffic to my books. I was hoping the Kindle Vella experiment would do that, but so far it's a bust too and Amazon really does nothing to promote those stories, so authors are on their own there. This writing stuff is hard, you know, and that doesn't even include the actual writing part.

Okay, so let's get back to work. This book isn't going to write itself.

Return of the Light Republished

 

Return of the Light, the first book in The 'Ru Lexicon series, is now available on Amazon for Kindle and paperback. I'm still dealing with an issue with KDP Select which for some reason won't list the book in Kindle Unlimited (sounds like something I'll need to argue with Amazon about), but hopefully I'll get that resolved soon.

The first chapter is available to read free on my Random Shit Nobody Cares About blog, so head over and check it out. 

Rejoined Twitter

 Against my better judgment (because I had sworn off social media) I rejoined Twitter today, realizing there's no way to self-promote without a little help. I was hoping Twitter would just recover my old account and all my followers, but while I still have my old account name, none of the other stuff transferred over. So it looks like I'm back.

Republishing Return Of The Light

 I'm working on republishing Return of the Light, the first book in the 'Ru Lexicon series. I first published it in 2013, then unpublished it because I wanted to make some changes to a couple of things that readers had a problem with and put it aside and just never got back to it. I also wanted to update the Kindle file for the new format Amazon is using.

All the files are ready to go now, I'm just waiting to hear back from an artist whose work I want to use for the cover. Hopefully that will be soon so I can get it back live again. Stay tuned for an announcement.

Kindle Vella Story - The True Soul

 

I have a new story I just started on Kindle Vella called The True Soul. under the author name Aesyn Cravery It's a book I had started several years ago and never finished, so this will give me good incentive to do so.
The blurb for the story is as follows:
"The soul is eternal; it knows many shapes, but always it is the same."

Buried within the cold, logical heart of twentieth-century urbanism lies the guarded threshold to an aboriginal secret, a primitive magic rooted far beyond the concrete boundaries of enlightened reality, and Sharla Jennings, a street-wise, long-suffering journalist with an unrequited appetite for professional recognition, is the unknowing possessor of the sole key to this recondite riddle: the enigmatic legend of the shapeshifter.

  "It is the white man's logic that says if a thing does not have four walls and a name, it cannot exist…if you let go of that, you can fly. You can become one with the earth, the birds, the…wolf. By letting go, you are joined with all."

 

Two brutally bizarre attacks have Sharla's hometown of Tampa in a panic, but while investigating claims that a phantom beast is responsible, her journalistic quest for the truth is unexpectantly mutinied by her own body: sudden, unexplained blackouts, irrational cravings for raw meat, graphic visions of an ancient tribal ritual merging animal with man. When she awakens late one night to find two strange men in her apartment, Sharla at last senses the outstretched hand of Fate grasp her own.

For those unfamiliar with Kindle Vella, it's way to publish and read small episodes of a story, usually 600 to 5000 words at a time. The first three episodes are free, then you buy tokens to read more.
Check out everything available on Kindle Vella here.

Artifacts, Headaches, and a Writer's Dilemma

 So a couple of days ago I got a burr up my butt (and was stuck on my current book) and decided to download the latest version of Kindle Previewer to look at some of my older books, in particular the original edition of Trial (which I published for Kindle in 2015) and Being John Bland, which was was first publishes for Kindle in 2005. Needless to say, it was a rude awakening. Trial survived pretty well, the only difference being that I created it in InDesign for epub and the cover was incorporated into the book file, which I wish there was an option to do that in Kindle Create (there isn't, despite their documentation online to the contrary). In fact, I hate what Kindle Create does to the frontmatter (making everything centered) but it is fast and easy to convert a Word file to Kindle, so that's what I'm using these days.

Being John Bland was another story entirely. I couldn't even open it in Kindle Previewer because it was a mobi file and Kindle now uses kpf files. (Word of warning to those writers out there whose books have been on Amazon for a while--check your file format.) Plus, the original book was created in WordPerfect and later converted to Word, which meant there were a ton of artifacts that weren't readily apparent till I pulled the chapters together and dropped them into Kindle Create. Every single quotation mark, apostrophe, comma, hyphen, etc. were symbols and letters, which meant that I spent two grueling days going over the entire manuscript to correct them (and I missed a couple, but I can live with that because I'm not going back and delving into that nightmare again). Even the print version was a disaster that I had to correct and reupload because the original edition was made in Createspace which is no longer a thing, and despite Amazon listing it on their site as available for paperback, it really wasn't.

But now both versions of the book are corrected and will soon be available for sale, depending on Amazon's approval process, which can take twelve to forty-eight hours. Once upon a time I published on Smashwords (is that even still around?) and the other usual outlets (B&N, Apple, etc.) but I've streamlined my process and just deal exclusively with Amazon now. Someday I'd like to explore audio books, but hiring a narrator isn't in the budget right now and I'm not sold on using AI.

I'm glad the process is all done now but it is three days of my life I won't get back, so from here on out I'll be sure my files are clean and organized so it's easy to update them.