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Ashley
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Nov 11, 2014 06:58AM
Do I have to be adept at formatting to be a great author? I know that presentation plays a big part but I honestly hate formatting with every fiber of my being! I just want to write, create, weave tales and let my words magically format themselves as they should be. I know, not possible. Am I the only one who feels this way? Can I pay someone to format for me or is that just plain lazy?
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Formatting is not a problem! Use this template:http://www.zbooks.co/2014/11/lessons-...
Or you can pay someone to do your formatting, Odesk is a common resource of ghostwriters and editors.
E.L. wrote: "Do you use Microsoft Word?"Yes, I do use Microsoft Word.
Emilio wrote: "Formatting is not a problem! Use this template:http://www.zbooks.co/2014/11/lessons-...
Or you can pay someone to do your formatting, Odesk is a common resource of ghostwriters and editors."
Thank you! I can use all the help I can get lol!
I don't know what you mean by formatting exactly (different people may mean different things), I'll give you some tips and hopefully something will help. I used a program called writewaypro.com it's $30 and seriously the best $30 I ever spent. You can use it free for 30 days to get a feel for it. It will organize your chapters and scenes, you can move them around with ease if you want. You can keep notes there, do research, images of characters, etc. It can do scene separators, etc.
It exports all types of output .pdf, .doc, .docx, etc. All you need to get it into KDP is export it in .doc format, you may need to edit your .doc file and add page breaks (every easy to do in word, will take you only minutes). Then upload into KDP and you are set. Check it out in the online previewer to make sure it all looks good. If you have any issues with indentions (I had a few because I imported a few scenes from word and it brings with it things I don't want, the support contact person will tell you how to resolve that).
That's all there is to it for an ebook. You will not get fancy titles in fonts or anything because KDP strips those out, and it's really not necessary to pay a formatter for that kind of thing if you don't really need it for your book. You can always do that later if you have the funds. Plus once a formatter gives you a .mobi you cannot make editing changes if you need to. So if you keep control of your file via a .doc you can upload it to KDP anytime you need to to fix typos.
To "format" a hardcopy book - use Amazon's Createspace. It's amazing! It does keep your fancy fonts, so those do show up nice for your title and anything else you want a font for (dedication page?). You can upload your same .doc file easily and then confirm it looks the way you want it to look and get yourself mailed an inexpensive copy to review. You will need to create a cover for it but they have free cover creators too. I used it and there were a few small things I need to fix (like for some reason no page numbers showed up in my printed book) and the book title on the spine was too small, but I'm sure I can fix those and have my printed on-demand book for sale soon.
There are other types of books that you do need to pay a formatter for - I'm currently working with a friend on one of those (poetry type and it MUST have fonts in it for a particular reason). That is a challenge and we will have to pay a formatter to generate the ebook. But I'm handling the hardcopy myself because the fonts are not a problem in Createspace. And/or if you need a fixed-format type layout (childrens book type) then that would too require a formatter. But for novels, not necessary.
If you already have your book in Word, then upload word to KDP and you should be set. You should spend money on an editor though...that is always money well spent.
Hope this helps...
Bonnie
If you don’t want to focus on formatting, you shouldn’t. Pay somebody. I take formatting very seriously. It tells the reader you care about your work. It doesn't matter if it’s a eBook or a printed book. They both require different formatting techniques, but a poorly formatted work is easy to spot. Look at the difference between a local TV spot or a national one. Which one do you find yourself drawn to?
When I look a a sample of an eBook on Amazon and the formatting is not professional (improper indents, straight quotes like ' instead of ’ and " instead of “”) it makes me think the writer doesn't care. If they don't care, why should I?
If you don't want to spend the time, or you don't know how, get someone that does. It does make a difference.
And DO PAY for an editor.
The reason I asked if you used MW is because it is very simple to format on there using these easy instructions and it helps to keep the cost down. http://kindlepublishinghints.blogspot...
I'm not a writer but I know what you mean.I suggest you just keep on writing and let somebody else do the formatting and there's one reason only: if you don't formatting, your heart won't be in the process. Even if it's your text you'll feel it like a burden.
Just pay for an editor, there's nothing lazy about that.
Bonnie wrote: "I don't know what you mean by formatting exactly (different people may mean different things), I'll give you some tips and hopefully something will help. I used a program called writewaypro.com i..."
I say format so that when I upload it to Kindle, everything is in the correct place. I know that formatting is very important, no one wants to read a crappy looking book but I stink at it. I normally type my books in Word but when uploading to Kindle have noticed errors in spacing etc that does not show up on Word. I will absolutely be looking into all these things you guys have suggested. Thanks so very much.
E.L. wrote: "The reason I asked if you used MW is because it is very simple to format on there using these easy instructions and it helps to keep the cost down. http://kindlepublishinghints.blogspot..."You so rock! This made my day! Thank you! Can you tell how much trouble I have with formatting lol
I'm just glad I could help. Honestly, it's so simple using those instructions. Best of luck with it :)
Ashley, Oh, I did have a few "quirks" show up when I uploaded my .doc to KDP as well where the spacing was a little bit off but it looked fine in word. Sorry forgot about those... Here's how I fixed them. I found the spot in word and then deleted unseen characters (word has these gremlins from time to time). Then I uploaded it again, and checked that location again (be sure to write down the location of the error so you can find it again quickly) and then they were resolved. I don't know what caused them, but that's how I fixed them.
If you have an indention problem on lines - like indenting too much, then try unindenting some paragraphs, upload and see how they look because I do think KDP does some auto indenting.
Bonnie
Great tips, Bonnie. I had wide spaces between sentences at the end of a couple of pages. Got there eventually :)
Oh and Douglas - I couldn't agree more. Editors are worth their weight in gold!
Group.I have a quick but serious question.
One of the cover items that can persuade (dissuade) a potential reader is the Author's name. One of the many reasons for a nom-d-plume.
I'm doing final edit (post beta read) on a science fiction novella. I also have a science fiction novel that is almost ready for beta reading. Then I have a steampunk western that I'm still doing the first draft on.
So the question is which of the following name formats reads as a science fiction writer.
Tom Stolte
Thomas Stolte
T. W. Stolte
Thomas W. Stolte
Your thoughts as fellow writers is valued.
Thank you in advance.
Tom
Thomas Stolte is my vote :) Best of luck!
I think it just depends on whatever you feel comfortable with. It seems nowadays authors use multiple pen names so it doesn't have to be the only name you use, but I agree with Odd Owly; I like Thomas Stolte.
Thanks everyone. It helps a lot. There are so many things involved in cover appeal.
:)
re E.L. "Oh and Douglas - I couldn't agree more. Editors are worth their weight in gold!"I'm a veteran of a dozen published books (major publishers, all with pro editors) and feel a qualification is in order. Some editors... "Some." Caveat writer.
Martin wrote: "re E.L. "Oh and Douglas - I couldn't agree more. Editors are worth their weight in gold!"I'm a veteran of a dozen published books (major publishers, all with pro editors) and feel a qualification..."
Ah, there you make an entirely valid point! Very true, Martin. Some editors :)
iuf you use the show/hide button in word it shows up all the faults, its the little reverse letter p.also consider renting word from Microsoft. just £6 per month and you get free troubleshooting and upgrades.
Charlie, I get LibreOffice (word, spreadsheet, database, presentations, drawing, ...) free. Is Word that much better?
cant tell you because I've never used libre, but word comes with the full office programs, excel, etc. thing is you need word to post your books in amazon and smashwords and all the formatting tips relate to word.
for the rental price I find its a good deal from Microsoft.
Charlie, "... need word to post your books in amazon..."Nope. My last three books are LO, and available on Amazon. (I UL PDFs to Amazon. LO exports PDFs directly.)
They are computer software books, so much more complex than most topics in terms of formatting: TOC to the Bhead level, text and code fonts, graphic graphics and screenshots, ...
re "... all the formatting tips relate to word." Check the Createspace forums.
well if it works for you that's good martin. I write erotica and fiction so i don't need to do that stuff and I use a guy to format for zon from my word doc, though I am doing my own formatting for books I want to upload to smashwords.
I'm not familiar with smashwords, Charlie. (I'm also writing my first fiction. It happens to be erotica. More fun than software, and way easier to format.) Should I know about smashwords?
only if you want to put your book on there as well. they have strict guidelines on formatting and typeface sizes. Theres a free book available that tells you what you need do, its on amazon. or just go to their website or search the web to find it.
they only take word format for every distributor, but will take epub for some but then you don't get onto kobo or apple. they have program called meatgrinder which does multiple conversions from word and does the TOC automatically but if its not formatted as they want it tells you what needs correcting.
I haven't put books on there yet because some are still in unlimited on zon until October, but ive formatted the ones I m going to put on smashwords and used an independent check program to check them out, it passed them ok.
Charlie, can I ask a favor? I'd like to send you an LO novel and see if you can import it into Word. Theoretically, Word reads ODF (Open Document Format) so it should just be a matter of opening the file. (Theoretically.)MartinRinehart at gmail dot com.
Thanks!
Oh, yeah. The problem I've left on the back burner is epub and mobi. Will smashwords do that for me?
http://ebook.online-convert.com/conve...try this site first. I use it to convert word to mobi and I've also converted to epub and PDF successfully, but its not so good at converting to word, however if you have word you can sign up to an adobe program that converts PDF to word really well.
i8f your still stuck i'll pm you my email addy in a mo.
Oh, yeah. The problem I've left on the back burner is epub and mobi. Will smashwords do that for me?
not sure what your asking here.
epub files are accepted but not for all of their distributors, they will not take mobi as far as I know
Reedsy automatically formats your book properly if you use the book editor. It's really good.
