Preparation for Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is different for eBooks and print books. KDP allows you to upload in several formats, but I found ePub to format well. Draft2Digital (D2D), mentioned in the first two blog posts, can create a very clean ePub file.
D2D has three steps to prepare for publishing. They are sequential, and it is best to “Save and Continue” After each step.
Step 1, “Details,” begins with uploading your manuscript. .docx files work very well. You are also asked for a publication date. I suggest choosing a time at least a month away. You can change this at any time. This step has a form for the book description. If you are submitting your book to KDP yourself, this information won’t be passed on to Amazon. I suggest filling out the information as it is good practice. Make sure this “pitch” is well thought out and written. Before you Save and Continue, you will be asked to choose how to handle the ISBN number. ISBNs are a topic for a future post, but you can leave the setting alone, saying D2D will get you a free ISBN. You will be visiting Stage 1 often, so don’t worry about the ISBNs at this point.
Step 2, Layout, has a list of checkboxes for items, including “Title Page” and “Dedication.” Things get a little tricky because some checkboxes don’t include an area to enter the information. “About the Author” has no obvious place to enter your information. The D2D logic is that author information resides in Account Information. The thinking is that if you are a prolific writer, you shouldn’t have to enter your information for every book.
I began with many boxes checked, and as I learned, I started unchecking boxes and including the information in my manuscript document. Doing this takes some time, learning how D2D handles different types of information. My dedication page was “smushed,” with breaks I had in my text not being rendered in the eBook. I would be more than happy to tell you more about this, but confess that I ended up putting in a tiny blank image where I wanted breaks. I adjusted the image in Word, so it was a skinny vertical line. (If a user turns on a black background, the image will be a white slit.) I am sure there are better ways to accomplish this, but you must be careful not to trigger a chapter break or a scene break.
The last portion of Layout shows the chapter titles D2D detected. It makes a new chapter each time you start a new page. I had all my titles as Header 1, the common method, but later relied on page breaks for chapters. Look at all your chapters because you will find oddities in your manuscript. You will spend some time on the Layout page, but you can get your book to look just the way you want.
Step 3 is the preview page. Now things become more enjoyable. Your book is rendered in its complete form. It is sort of exciting to see your manuscript starting to look like a book. The chapter titles all link, and you can navigate a page at a time or a chapter at a time.
This is where the cute decorations are added. There are headings and subheadings. I chose the Deco format as my first book is historical. Play around. It’s fun seeing your book instantly transformed. You can choose a plain, no decorations look or choose watercolor flowers.
At this point, your book is getting ready for the big time but click around the stages. I would mention the caveat of moving from Stage 1 to 3 by clicking “Save and Continue.” D2D is happier if you don’t skip sections.
Next time: Those Pesky ISBNs and your choices.
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