Eldon’s Comments (group member since May 30, 2016)

Eldon’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

M.L. wrote: "I agree, chapters can start on either page. I read almost all physical books and the recent best seller has chapters beginning on right and left.

The KDP Word template I used, does handle typesett..."

Thanks M.L.! I was hoping there existed an alternative to the tedious process of manual typesetting, but I guess not.

Back to the original question for a moment, I don't see anything wrong with chapters starting on the right page or left page. With the exception of the first chapter, they can start on any page they land on.

Regarding the Word templates mentioned, does anyone know if they handle the typesetting as well?

Jay, you are right in saying our goal is to help each other. However, we strive to do that in a respectful manner, yes? I may be wrong, and apologize if I am, but the tone of your posts here seems antagonistic.

At any rate, you have made your point, and B.A. has made hers. I don't think there is anything more to be learned here by continuing this thread.

Jay wrote: "Amazon takes more than 10% of your profits. They aren't free. Draft2Digital is right up front in what they do.

Amazon takes 30%. And they take that from you, or, someone like Draft2Digital who pub..."

Hi Jay! I think there might be some confusion floating around. D2D is NOT a publisher. For that matter, neither is Amazon. Neither one offers editing services. D2D is a distributor to many different markets. You don't need to use them, but let's not cast aspersions on the services they offer to authors who wish to use them.

Let's keep things calm 🙂

Tomas wrote: "David Gaughran also gives decent advice.

But, in general, it's suggested to start only when you have at least a few pieces, if it's a series. Especially as throwing ads on book(s) without reviews/..."

It is very hard to profit on ads with only one book. Generally, you need read through to generate income.

B.A. wrote: "If you want ongoing sales, it means ongoing advertising, but if this is your debut, don't dump a lot of money on it if you haven't gotten sales so far. Learn about marketing. There are a lot of cou..."

Solid advice B.A. :)

Phillip wrote: "Unless you have a specific marketing plan tied to a date, I don't think it matters. Many people release books every day. It's unlikely you will stand out as an individual grain of sand on a beach. ..."

I agree with what Phillip said. The date doesn't usually make much difference.

Trana wrote: "The Calibre created epub file worked. My ebook now has clickable links that go where they should!"

Congrats!!

Trana wrote: "Stephen wrote: "You can easily do this (direct kindle to open to any section) when using Kindlegen, an Amazon formatting program. I've been using Kindlegen to format all of my kindle ebooks, and on..."

It's not the best piece of software around, that's for sure.

Trana wrote: "Thought I should update this thread based on what I found out. I'm thoroughly disgusted!

I added named bookmarks to my 19 endnotes in my Word document. Then, I also linked each one to the named b..."

That's disappointing Trana :( Hope it works out for you!

Tomas wrote: "Reviving this topic: anyone around who has a basic understanding of Xpath syntax? I'm trying to force the book to open at Prologue (skipping ToC and front matter) but trial and error don't work for..."

If anyone can help with this, I'd be interested to know what Xpath syntax is myself?

Mark wrote: "In the KDP category list, (where you get to select two), can you use different categories for your eBook and Paperback, for a total of four and does this help you?

Or, do you need to select the s..."

Hey Mark,

You can use different categories for print and ebook, though I would highly recommend not stopping at two each. You can have up to ten for each market if you email Amazon to let them know your selection.

Trana wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Hi Trana,

I'm not sure how it works with Kindle Create, but I know it can be done using Jutoh. It comes down to coding the HTML properly to recognize the footnote, and point it to th..."

Good luck with it Trana :)

Anna Faversham wrote: "Thanks, Eldon, I've just taken a look. My children have asked me what I want for Christmas, so I took a look on Nerdybookgirl's 'gifts for writers page'. I had to laugh at the temperature control s..."

It`s the golden age of distraction lol

Anna Faversham wrote: "Valerie, thanks. How wonderful to come across a geek. Such treasures, these folks. When I have a couple of hours to spare (huh!) I'll take even more time to study the site, it was fascinating."

Nerdybookgirl.com is another good site Anna

Hi Trana,

I'm not sure how it works with Kindle Create, but I know it can be done using Jutoh. It comes down to coding the HTML properly to recognize the footnote, and point it to the correct section of the ebook file to retrieve the proper information to display. If you do not understand coding, it would be best to stick with a software solution.

If you don't have Jutoh (I assume you don't since you aren't using it), try typing "kindle create footnotes" into Google. There is a YouTube video on the process that might help you :)

Here to help :D

Barbara wrote: "Gail wrote: "Hi Anna, when I uploaded my books to Amazon/Kindle ebook, I had to choose 2 categories for them from Kindle's generic list (along with the same 2 or 2 other categories for paperback ve..."

Hi Barbara! You log into your KDP account then click on Help. After that there will be a Contact us Button near the bottom left. Click that. Then select the first option "Amazon Product Page" and the top item on the list is what you want "Update Amazon Categories".

They even provide you with the format to use :)

Leslie wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I had heard (perhaps apocryphally) that you reduced your ranking in amazon's algorithms for every time someone went to the book's page and ..."

Your welcome!!

Leslie wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I had heard (perhaps apocryphally) that you reduced your ranking in amazon's algorithms for every time someone went to the book's page and didn't buy it."

I have never..."

No one knows with Amazon. My feeling though is that it might refer more to Amazon ads. The more someone clicks on your ad to your page and doesn't buy, the less relevant Amazon deems the ad. They then do not serve it as often.