Help! Publishing a Kindle

[Jude]

Hi All

Has anyone here published a Kindle? If you have would you mind telling me what format you used to upload to DTP. My PC has a Linux operating system, and I use Open Office - so I can convert my odt files to docs if necessary. I have no idea how to use HTML and can't afford to pay a professional. On top of that I'm just not very good with technical type stuff. Any advice, or hearing other people's experiences with Kindle would be SO helpful.

Many thanks in advance
Jude

 

[FionaW]

I've just published to kindle; It was a lot less painful than I expected, just time consuming.

First, there is an excellent forum you can get to from the dtp site, and I suggest you cross post questions there, as you'll have a much bigger pool of kindle knowledge. There's also some great templates people have put on their own sites.

Second, whatever format your manuscript (MSS) is in, you simply need to open it and then save it as an .html file. It's been a while since I used Open Office, but as I recall, that part's similar to MSWord, and you just choose .html from the saving options.

Once you've saved it, then run through the .html version to fix any formatting that's been changed/lost with the switch. There's nothing particularly fancy or challenging about an .html file, unless you're trying to do something clever. Just think of it as a slightly different document format.

Do you have a cover image that you want to be part of the book? And/or a map? Simply insert these, resize and center them. The site tells you what size they need to be.

For the text itself you need to insert a contents page with all your chapters listed (no details, just Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and so on. You then need to ad a book mark so that clicking on each will take you to the start of each chapter. In Word you simply use insert/bookmark; inevitably OO will have something similar, but I'll have to abandon you to their help section, unless anyone here is familiar with this and can advise.

Ideally (in my opinion) each chapter should begin on a new page; you can space the chapter title so that it looks OK on a kindle. Strangely, not everyone does this. I did a lot of repeated uploading of the file as I looked at it on the dtp site to see how it would appear. I formatted it for the smaller kindle, since that's the only reviewing option offered.

You will need to do a proofread in the kindle viewer on the dtp site. This is very time consuming (well, it is when your novel is well over 100 000 words).

The other thing you'll need is a blurb - a nice hooky description of your book to entice readers to buy it. This is not as easy as it looks, and I'm still not entirely happy with mine.

All in all, I think the concept of MS preparation is much more complicated than the actual reality. Then again, I've only just been able to download my book for real to my own kindle, so will now have to see how all that proofreading paid off!

Please feel free to pm me; happy to help out any way I can. I'm not sure how adept you are with this but hope I didn't come across as treating you like a dweeb....

Oh, and do I get a free plug? I guess mods will remove it if not...

Stormwatcher

 

[chopper]

as above, really. i'm also using OpenOffice, and saving the file to html was easy enough. use the dtp help files and forum as much as you need to - reopening the danged thing to re-edit/format etc is both simple and frustratingly long-winded, and the community forum is good help indeed.

the best thing is that you can edit and reupload even after you've initially published, if you've missed something on the first, second, or thirty-third pass.

that's a decent cover by the way, Fiona.

(*cough* Empire Dance *cough*)

 

[Jude]

Thanks Fiona

How nice to speak to someone who has actually gone through the Kindle process. Before I got your reply here I had already been to the dtp site and asked on the forum, and in the end also asked the dtp support team. What was worrying me was that in the formatting info they said if you have no knowledge of using html then best upload as a .doc file. On the other hand I would like my MSS to be presented and viewed in the best way possible, and would therefore like to be able to do as you did and fix any dodgy formatting. But how easy is it to do that – if you've never used html?

I do have a cover image and a map and have read up on required dimensions. Apparently you need two images (different sizes) – one embedded in the document and one for the Amazon product page.

Re the contents page, I've never used bookmarks, but I'm sure OO has them secreted somewhere! I'll find them.

Re chapters and spacing, I assume you did that in html? I agree with you. I always start my chapters on new pages after using page-break. I also have 'Part Two' in the middle of the book – currently alone on one page. Don't know how that will look. I'll have to wait till I proof read on the dtp site – only 90,000 words (groan!).

I have a blurb and yes it was not easy. You can go round it and under it and over it and worry it to death, and eventually you have to stop. I think I'm reasonably happy with it.

Thank you for the offer of pm -ing you. I may do that in the very near future. Like I said it's really great to speak to someone who has already gone through the Kindle process. The very best of luck with your book!

Last but not least, what's a 'free-plug'?


Chopper … Thanks for your comments. As I said to Fiona it's comforting to speak to others who have already published. You have both given me new confidence.

Onwards and upwards!

Jude

 

[The Judge]

Hello, Jude, and Welcome to the Chronicles.

I can't help you with the kindle, but I can answer this:

Last but not least, what's a 'free-plug'?

A plug in this sense is a blatant advert, and free because it's being sneaked in somewhere not altogether relevant ie Fiona's link to her own book, closely followed by chopper's... naughty, naughty girls and boys...

They're getting away with it (on this occasion...) because they are well established members, Jude, but don't let their example lead you astray. No plugging for you, I'm afraid, not until you, too, scale the heights of established-membershipdom. But now you've found us, pop over to Introductions and tell us a bit about yourself and then have a look through the Aspiring Writers forum generally -- you never know, you might be inveigled into staying!



PS Just thought -- you don't have enough posts to be able to PM Fiona or anyone else just yet. I'm not sure what the post level required is, 10 or 15, I think.

 

[Jude]

One more quick question. With html does everything have to be left justified. Can you indent for speech? I find it easier to read.

Jude

 

[Jude]

In reply to The Judge,

I shall take care not to plug my fantastic book once it's published!

I do like this forum and will definitely stay.

Don't be too hard on Fiona and chopper, they've been a huge help - and now back to a serious edit - sigh.

Jude

 

[chopper]

Basically, if you just set up your document the way you normally would if you were going to print it yourself via Lulu (for example) - with indented paragraphs, page breaks between chapters, and so on - you should be fine. Justifying your text is one I'm puzzled about, because I'm unsure whether the Kindle itself has a function to adjust that according to the user's preference. My own preference would be to justify it fully. Remember that Kindle users can adjust the size of the text, thus altering the number of words per page and changing your own preferred format completely, so it's best not to get too hung up on how each individual page will look. Better to make sure your general presentation - paragraphing, spelling, grammar, etc - is spot on.
Font-wise, I think the Kindle only displays in one or two fonts, though again (not owning one appears to be a disadvantage here; note to self - borrow davey-boy's for research purposes.....) I can't swear to this.

Free plugs - guilty as charged.
Not something I normally do outside the permitted threads, however.

 

[FionaW]

i didn't justify my text - the amazon software did that bit for me. I had some hiccups with the formatting which I simply couldn't fix, despite going into the code (my coding skills are as follows: 'that bit of code did that, so I'll copy and paste it and maybe it will do the same over here'. My brother, a platform developer, falls off his chair when I say that).

The kindle software keeps most of the standard formatting, such as paragraph breaks etc. I just formatted it in Word exactly as I wanted it in the book - really the only thing I had to work out was how many spaces to use if I wanted to start text in the centre of the page rather than at the top - and of course, that will be variable on a kindle depending on what font size readers adjust to, as mentioned above.

The faux-kindle on the dtp site is quite useful for a basic check to see that your formatting doesn't have too many disasters. To be honest, I've found that most commercial publishers have been less than pernickety about the formatting of their kindle versions - run-on dialogue between speakers, mysterious breaks in sentences and new pages starting in the middle of a line of dialogue, and that includes books by Pratchett, Mankell, Atkinson etc etc.

However, commercial publishers will get away with it because their authors are 'known'. If a self published book is poorly formatted, and it shows up on the free sample, I think that will put readers off. You simply can't afford to look second rate, because people get tired of wading through all the rubbish and you only get a 3-second glance.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to do a return proofread on anyone's kindle novel; I have a reasonably good eye for punctuation and typos.

OK, Chopper - I've bought yours....

 

[Jude]

Just re-reading this thread to remind me what you advised (Fiona & Chopper). I'm doing yet another edit! It's suddenly dawned on me that if you are publishing yourself you don't get a friendly editor pointing out all the little mistakes you've missed. So you have to be ten times more pernickety and eagle-eyed. I've got about 60 pages to go and then I really am going to say that's enough.

Fiona - would you really do a proofread? What are your fees? I may ask you if you're not too busy.

Jude

 

[rdenning]

Actually I did a blog on publishing on Kindle:
Richard's Ramblings Post Topic A quick guide on How to Publish on Amazon Kindle
My 2 main hiccups were:
1. A map would not sow inside one book and
2. DTP seemed to convert random dashes to "?".
Still it is not THAT hard.

 

[Jude]

Thanks for that! I'm going to read your 'Ramblings' right now. It really is a great help to talk to people who have gone through the process.

Jude

 

[Jennifer Kirk]

I've had two of my books converted to the Kindle format, and a third on its way. The files were uploaded from *.doc files and I'm not aware of any problems occurring.

One thing I will say based on experience is that the Kindle has become a must for publishing rather like digital downloads became a must-do format for music distribution. Before Christmas not a single person ever mentioned the Kindle at signing events I went to. One of my books has been on the Kindle for around six months, and experienced low sales in the run up to Christmas.

After Christmas sales just exploded, and at signings a number of people have asked "is there a Kindle edition?" then bought it on that format then and there. I can only assume that loads of people got bought these things over Christmas.

 

[Jude]

Hi jennifer

I haven't been on the forum for a while - too busy publishing and blogging!

I eventually got through the publishing process with my novel, and then also published my first book - a true story about relationships. It was all quite easy when you know how!

It feels really good to be published, even if it's the self-publish route. I'd much rather have my book on Kindle than languishing in a drawer. It's been great fun.

Jude