The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea<\/em> is FREE if you subscribe to my newsletter! OR you can pick it up for $2.99 on Amazon, OR $6.99 for the paperback. I recommend the paperback – there’s a section with a lot of pics that works better in print format, and the layout is pro-quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n…Yes, it’s pro-quality. Yes, I did it myself. No, I’m not exaggerating despite my earlier claim of an ego trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How, you might ask? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’re in luck! As I worked on bringing the manuscript for The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea<\/em> together, it occurred to me that it MIGHT be useful to actually write down how I create and format an e-book for electronic and print-on-demand publication…mostly because even though I’ve self-published three books already, I always forget how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, without further ado – I didn’t think there would be this much ado, honestly, but I can’t seem to figuratively shut up – here is a step-by-step guide on how to self-publish a book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ll tell you now that there are a lot of steps but don’t get intimidated, it’s not that hard…I was trying to be thorough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to Self-Publish a Book <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n(the mechanics of it,\nnot the philosophy or marketing plan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Programs you\u2019ll need: Microsoft Office Word (not free), Microsoft Office PowerPoint (not free), Sigil (free), Calibre (free), Adobe Acrobat (not free)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is relevant for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP); these\ninstructions will get you 75% of the way with any other publishing platform,\nbut will need some tweaking to conform to non-KDP platforms<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to create an e-book<\/strong>\nfrom a text (nominally Word) doc:<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Decide how you\u2019re going to lay out your book; generally, follow this order (don\u2019t need to include all of these elements):
- Cover<\/li>
- Front matter
- Front info on one page: Copyright info, Cover credit, Summary<\/li>
- Newsletter invite w\/link<\/li>
- Title page<\/li>
- Dedication<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Main story<\/li>
- Back matter
- Review request (ala \u201cThe End, thanks for reading, please leave a review w\/links”)<\/li>
- Acknowledgements<\/li>
- Also Available list<\/li>
- Newsletter request w\/link and description of freebie<\/li>
- Author bio<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- A freebie layout will have a simpler layout, and look something like this:
- Cover<\/li>
- Title Page<\/li>
- Main story<\/li>
- Also Available<\/li>
- Newsletter request (if available to people not on your newsletter)<\/li>
- Advertisement for next book (the point of the freebie)<\/li>
- Teaser (jacket copy) and sample chapter(s) of next book<\/li>
- Author bio<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Decide where you want your major and minor chapter\/section breaks to be<\/li>
- If necessary, create separate pages (i.e. Word docs) for the major story breaks, like \u201cPART 1,\u201d etc.<\/li>
- Transfer Word file to Google drive (Note \u2013 no matter what your original format, you\u2019ll need to convert your text files into html docs, so if your work is already in html formal\u2014for instance, if you work in Google Docs by default\u2014then skip to the \u201cOpen Sigil\u201d step)<\/li>
- Convert Word file to Web Page format (.html, zipped)<\/li>
- Save\/extract file to your PC<\/li>
- Open Sigil, add html files into Sigil (it helps to properly format them before you import them; makes for less work on the back end)<\/li>
- Create book and proper layout in Sigil (will need to know the basics of how to use Sigil, which isn\u2019t that hard but I\u2019m not gonna explain it here; there\u2019s a user guide) \u2013 Sigil will produce an EPUB by default
- Make sure each section in Sigil is allocated as its proper heading, cuz you\u2019ll need them for the Table of Contents<\/li>
- Generate a Table of Contents<\/li>
- Enter as much metadata\u2014like author, description, genre, etc.\u2014into Sigil as possible (will save you from having to do it in Calibre every time you tweak your Sigil file and load it into Calibre\u2014which you will probably do often as you use a trial-and-error approach to clean up the final product)<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Open Calibre; add the EPUB into Calibre<\/li>
- Add any other important metadata, including tags and a description if not already added in Sigil<\/li>
- Convert to a MOBI (for other publishing platforms), so you have both a MOBI and an EPUB version of your book
- Keep the default settings the same EXCEPT:
- In \u201cStructure Detection\u201d click \u201cInsert metadata as page at start of book\u201d (good for a short and dirty description of the book upfront for readers)<\/li>
- In \u201cMOBI output\u201d click \u201cPut generated Table of Contents at start of book instead of end\u201d<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- To save to your desktop, click on \u201cSave to disk\u201d, then \u201cSave only MOBI format to disk in a single directory\u201d; this will save you from re-downloading the EPUB for no reason (which could screw up your Sigil file, which is also an EPUB)<\/li>
- Note that there are pros and cons of each MOBI and EPUB filetype, so it really doesn\u2019t matter which one you ultimately choose to download into KDP, tho a MOBI file is usually a smaller size and therefore easier to download (I usually go with the MOBI for this reason) <\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- In Calibre, check the formatting to make sure it\u2019s correct; fix any issues in Sigil (will need to redo the Calibre steps, which is a pain but currently necessary)
- Note that Calibre has an option to convert your e-book to a PDF, which is the required format to create a print book, BUT the PDF Calibre produces won\u2019t format correctly so you\u2019ll need to use the process below instead<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- One important note – don\u2019t obsess over making your book look EXACTLY correct, because there will always be at least minor imperfections with formatting due to conversion errors to different file types and on different reading devices. Readers will forgive a few minor errors as long as the bulk of the book looks good and was obviously made with thought and care<\/li>
- BOOM \u2013 you have e-book-ready files! Congrats!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
How to create a print-formatted\nbook<\/strong> (a PDF) from a Word doc:<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Decide how you\u2019re going to lay out your book \u2013 it\u2019ll be slightly different than the e-book layout to accommodate the physical format; generally, follow this order (don\u2019t need to include all of these elements):
- Cover \u2013 ONLY include the cover for Advance Reader Copy (ARC) PDFs you might give out (a lot of reviewers prefer PDF ARCs); you won\u2019t include the cover in the main doc which you will upload into KDP cuz you\u2019ll create and load that separately within KDP\u2019s specific system; I\u2019ll detail how to format the cover for KDP upload later<\/li>
- Front matter
- \u201cFancy\u201d Title page w\/title only (no author attribution), possibly w\/ graphic<\/li>
- Front info on one page: Copyright info, Cover credit, Summary<\/li>
- Newsletter invite w\/link<\/li>
- \u201cSimple\u201d Title page w\/title and author attribution<\/li>
- Dedication<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Table of Contents<\/li>
- Main story<\/li>
- Back matter
- Review request (ala \u201cThe End, thanks for reading, please leave a review w\/no links”)<\/li>
- Acknowledgements (don’t make these too long…nobody really cares)<\/li>
- Also Available list<\/li>
- Newsletter request w\/link and description of freebie<\/li>
- Author bio<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Change margins to custom settings to: top & bottom = 0.5\u201d, left & right = 0.75\u201d<\/li>
- Change paragraph format settings to: indentation ->special-> first line by 0.2\u201d; spacing->line spacing->single; spacing->after = 4pt<\/li>
- Change page setup settings to: paper->paper size-> width = 6\u201d, length = 9\u201d<\/li>
- Decide where your chapters\/section breaks will be; format those as either \u201cHeading 1\u201ds (for major section breaks), or \u201cHeading 2\u201ds (for secondary breaks); modify the headings in the Styles section (right click menu) to change the heading formatting to whatever you prefer so you don\u2019t need to change it every time<\/li>
- If you want to center the text on the page, like for chapter\/section break pages, highlight the text, click layout -> page setup -> vertical alignment: center (note \u2013 it is a MAJOR pain in the butt to get Google docs to vertically center text (the formatting won\u2019t port in from a Word doc converted to a Google doc), and it probably won\u2019t format correctly on an e-reader anyway, so don\u2019t bother fussing with vertically centering stuff for your e-book)<\/li>
- Combine the Word docs into TWO separate files: frontmatter (all the frontmatter stuff), and the main body and backmatter (TOC, main story, and all the backmatter stuff)<\/li>
- For the frontmatter, just cut and paste the contents of each file into one document, separating the sections with page breaks (make sure to keep the source formatting when pasting)<\/li>
- The main body and backmatter is more complicated:
- Combine the main body and backmatter pieces into one Word doc, either by cutting and pasting everything into one doc or some other way
- simply cutting\/pasting\/separating sections with page\/section breaks is probably the best way to go, unless you\u2019re a Word whiz and know a better way<\/li>
- note \u2013 it\u2019s good to have \u201cShow paragraph marks\u201d option turned on when you do this, so you can see if there are any weird tabs or carriage returns messing up your formatting<\/li>
- also, make sure the page breaks are on the last line of text for each section, not right below the last line (which is where it will be by default); this will prevent blank pages if the last line of text for a section runs right to the bottom margin\u2026UNLESS it screws up the formatting, then you\u2019ll need to put the page break below the line\u2026this happens on a case-by-case basis, but you\u2019ll know when it\u2019s necessary<\/li>
- insert SECTION BREAKS (not page breaks) between sections with different formatting, ex. chapter\/section breaks that are horizontally centered \u2013 page breaks continue the formatting of the previous page, while section breaks disregard the formatting of the previous page (Layout -> breaks -> section breaks -> next page)<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Make sure each section is properly defined by a heading, as you\u2019d like it to be categorized and nested in the TOC, i.e. heading 1, heading 2, heading 3, etc.<\/li>
- Insert page numbers on the bottom center of each page, nominally Times New Roman 10-font<\/li>
- Insert a header on each page with your book title and name, nominally Times New Roman 10-font, and change the font color to a dark gray
- For anywhere you don\u2019t want the header to appear, like on chapter intro pages or in the backmatter, turn off the \u201cLink to previous\u201d option in the Design -> Navigation menu for those sections<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Insert a section break at the very beginning of the document, then add a TOC above the break; tweak formatting as necessary
- From wherever you want the TOC to begin counting pages (usually on the first page of the first chapter), turn off the \u201cLink to previous\u201d option so the page numbers start on that page as 1, then delete the page numbers on the TOC pages<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- Now, FINALLY, convert the two docs into PDF files via Adobe Acrobat, then combine the files in the proper order \u2013 frontmatter first, then TOC\/main story\/backmatter
- IF this is a PDF ARC: convert the cover graphic into a PDF file and insert it into the doc at the beginning<\/li>
- Also IF this is a PDF ARC: if you did your headings correctly in the Word doc, the \u201cBookmarks\u201d option in the PDF file should create an interactive TOC (this feature is irrelevant for a print book)<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
- BOOM \u2013 you have a print-ready file! Congrats!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
How to create a print\nbook cover<\/strong> for KDP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Note \u2013 this process unfortunately involves a lot of trial and error, so be prepared to get frustrated<\/li>
- Open a blank PowerPoint slide<\/li>
- Resize the slide to 9\u201d height and 13\u201d wide<\/li>
- Insert a vertical text box 1\u201d wide into exactly the center of the slide \u2013 this marks where the spine of the book will be (most paperback books are about an inch thick); write the book title and author name into the text box<\/li>
- Insert your book cover graphic into the right side of the slide, sizing the graphic so it lines up with the top, bottom, and right edge of the slide, and touches the vertical text box (if it\u2019s not obvious, you\u2019ll need to have a book cover graphic ready to go, either by making one yourself \u2013 which I don\u2019t recommend unless you\u2019re exceptionally good with graphic art stuff \u2013 or having one made by a pro, or buying a pre-made one\u2026I recommend going with a pre-made one if possible, cuz they’re usually not very expensive and you can find nice ones if you take your time. It’s important not to skimp on a cover, since this will be a major selling point for your novel)<\/li>
- On the left side of the slide, insert a text box that\u2019s about .25 inches from the top, left, and vertical bar; write in your jacket copy and anything else you want on the back of the book, like a reviewer quote or whatever \u2013 make sure to leave ~1\/4 of the slide empty on the bottom to accommodate the barcode, which KDP will automatically insert on the bottom right of the back cover<\/li>
- When everything looks like it lines up correctly, convert the PowerPoint slide to a PDF file<\/li>
- Upload the PDF file into KDP, then preview the book via the Launch Previewer<\/li>
- If the graphics are outside the cutoff lines along the horizontal line (which will almost certainly be the case on your first try, because the width of the book depends on how many pages it has, which you can\u2019t calculate ahead of time), eyeball about how much you\u2019ll need to resize the width either up or down, and resize the PowerPoint slide and graphics in the slide accordingly – YES you’ll need to guess because KDP enjoys torturing you by not giving actual numbers for how much you need to adjust the size <\/li>
- Repeat the last two steps until the cover finally fits in the Launch Previewer (resist the urge to throw your computer out the window during this step)<\/li>
- BOOM \u2013 you have yourself a KDP print book cover! Congrats!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings my dozens of fans! (…Is it presumptuous of me to assume I have fans in the double digits?? Probably, but I feel like indulging my massive ego today!) I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been hard at work getting my next novel, The Colonel and Her Sergeant, ready for publication on June … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “How to Self-Publish a Book”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[496,527],"tags":[453,451,456,455,457,5,91,80],"class_list":["post-1970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-self-publishing","tag-adbe-acrobat","tag-calibre","tag-e-book-format","tag-print-on-demand","tag-print-on-demand-format","tag-publishing","tag-self-publication","tag-self-publishing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-vM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1970"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970\/revisions\/2381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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