Kindle E-Publising. Show us the ropes?

[Dresdenus Prime]

This is a great post, and very informative. I was very happy to see it stickied this morning. I know that if I decide to go the self-publishing route myself, I will be coming back to this post. I love Amazon! However I'm not sure as of now whether I will sell exclusively with them or if I will sell with both them and Barnes and Nobles. My first book's deadline is August of this year so we'll see then!

[R. S. Leergaard]

Doh! I forgot to click the 'Save and Publish' button. 

The entry is now 'in review'

[LizW65]

Does anyone know of a good link to some nuts-and-bolts info on formatting for e-pub?  I have a self-pubbed novel through CreateSpace that I wish to offer as an e-book, but the Kindle self-pub site doesn't seem to have much to say on, for example, where to put the copyright information, how to do links to the chapters, what font/size/margin size to use, and so on.  Thanks!

[The Deposed King]

Does anyone know of a good link to some nuts-and-bolts info on formatting for e-pub?  I have a self-pubbed novel through CreateSpace that I wish to offer as an e-book, but the Kindle self-pub site doesn't seem to have much to say on, for example, where to put the copyright information, how to do links to the chapters, what font/size/margin size to use, and so on.  Thanks!

I obviously failed with the table of contents.  And I just put my copy right information and acknowledgements in the front.  I remember they said something about font 12.

After that on the font front, the reader can adjust it bigger or smaller.



The Deposed King

[cenwolfgirl]

(font 1 yeah i will have fun with that one, note to self get friend to check everything before edditing the font size)

[Spot]

As far as formatting for the Kindle goes, a quick search yielded a lot of links, but I found the following links helpful:

• http://www.newselfpublishing.com/WordKindle.html (Very simple and easy to follow steps)
• http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/formatting-your-documents-for-the-kindle-in-8-steps/ (8 things to keep in mind)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2kprKRrGY (Formatting for the Kindle in action)
• http://kindleformatting.com/formatting.php (A lot more detailed and good for the HTML code savvy author)

I think the major takeaways are that you should keep it simple. No fancy formatting gimmicks and as long as you keep it left aligned, you are good to go.

[cenwolfgirl]

spot my main problem will be the font 12 is too small to see to change any thing ater i have put it in to that font size
(if you ask me the minimu font size should be 16 at least if not 20)

[Spot]

You can have it up to font size 18. When you publish it to the Kindle, Amazon makes the required changes when converting it to the .mobi format.


Also, keep in mind that most readers pick their preferred sizes on their device anyway.

[R. S. Leergaard]

Well, Deposed King got the stressing and agonizing bit right, waiting to see if Amazon took some exception to something in my story . . . but, they didn't, and my story is now live  wooo hooo!

[The Deposed King]

Well, Deposed King got the stressing and agonizing bit right, waiting to see if Amazon took some exception to something in my story . . . but, they didn't, and my story is now live  wooo hooo!

   I tried to recreate the mental and emotional strain of putting up your e-book as accurately as possible and follow this up with a verbal kick in the pants, at appropriate moments, to help everyone know they, both, aren't alone and to push them into keeping on keeping on instead of giving up.

Worst case people can scoff.  Best case it helps you finish while biting your nails instead of stop and keep on chomping them down to the quick.

Glad if something I wrote was able to help.  And not incidentally, Congradulations!  Do you have a link?



The Deposed King

[R. S. Leergaard]

Oh, right. Heh. Can't get anyone to spread the word if they don't know what they're looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-of-Xyxyx-ebook/dp/B00820SC9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336700399&sr=1-1

[cenwolfgirl]

Well done
 

[Spot]

Oh, right. Heh. Can't get anyone to spread the word if they don't know what they're looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-of-Xyxyx-ebook/dp/B00820SC9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336700399&sr=1-1

I'll have to check it out this weekend.

[LizW65]

@RS Leergaard:  Can you please make a sample chapter available?

[R. S. Leergaard]

Kindle-for-PC is a completely free program and you can read e-books, particularly 'your own e-book' as well as other mobi-files that have nothing at all to do with amazon on this reader.  Now you will need to make an amazon account if you don't already have one and/or link your pre-existing one after you do finish installing the program.  But if you link a debit or credit to your account, you too can start buying and downloading completely free e-books, as well as the first 10% of books you are interested in reading (including your book).  Here's the download link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

The above is a partial quote  from The Deposed King. You don't have to buy anything, but you need the program to read book excerpts. Once that is done, at the link I posted above, on the right side of the page, is a small window that says 'try it free'. Click that and it will send a sample of the book (10%) to your computer for you to read.

I don't know why it won't let you look inside mine there at the link I gave you. Apparently I missed ckicking something. I did, however, set up a promotion for the book to be available for free for 5 days starting tomorrow (12 May 2012) @ approximately 12:00 pm. If it isn't available then, keep checking back until it is.