First, for all of you here in the US I wish you a belated Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all were able to spend the time with people you love! As for me and mine, we were unable to travel this year, but, I was still able to spend some quality time with my husband and two teenage girls. We ate, watched reruns of M.A.S.H., played games, told stories, and made predictions on where we would all be next year.
Now, onto today’s topic. Formatting Your eBook
Should you choose to go the self-publishing route you will undoubtedly find yourself on the KDP web page browsing through pages and pages of information and how to guides and it can all be quite overwhelming. You should still read that information, and this is not meant to short cut that step, but hopefully it will help a little.
The first thing you should do is format your work. Regardless of what program you choose to use to write (google, word, etc.) a little pre-formatting can save you a headache. 1″ margins, single spaced, .25 indent (on the paragraph settings not tab), 11-12 point, you can use extra spacing between lines if you like it but it’s not required, chapter titles (anything from chapter one to an actual title), some kind of symbol for your scene breaks (I used #), and page break between chapters. As for your font, something interesting I learned, not all Word fonts are free to use when publishing. I put everything in Time New Roman because this can be changed later. Then you will want to download Kindle Create and upload your file.
Kindle Create gives you options to go through to add additional pages such as your dedication, copywrite, about the author, etc. And makes those additions very simple. You can change your fonts and headings and even go through and change your scene breaks to random symbols that fit your story. One thing that is kind of a pain, and you may want to do before uploading, is any line breaks or additional spacing. Kindle Create pages are not the same as your actual book pages. I, at one point, decided to go through and add in some additional spacing and I wish I had done so before uploading the book. I ended up having to go back and forth multiple times (and I still think one or two of these didn’t end up correct) because things that look like they are at the end of the page, are in fact, not. And if someone changes the page or wording size on their device it will be somewhere else entirely.
Once you have your book looking the way you want for the eBook version, you’ll want to export this file as an epub manuscript. And start creating your book. On KDP you can do this in steps and save your progress as you go.
Then it is time for your cover. Cover art is very important when it comes to selling your book. I have had people tell me that they did not pick up my book because they didn’t think it looked like it was for them based on my front cover. I get that. My cover has some romantasy vibes, which does fit the book, but may not be what people think of when they are looking for sci-fi. If you can afford it, hiring someone to create a cover for you will go a long way. If not, I recommend Canva.
If you are going the Canva route you’ll want to use 2560 x 1600 pixel (height x width). Aspect ratio 1.6:1
To do this, go to Create a Design -> Custom Size -> set your width to 1600 px and height 2560 px (px or pixels is your unit if not already selected).
Once you have designed your cover you’ll want to download it. Select download and then JPG and make it 100% quality, maximum file size 50 MB.
Then you will take that cover back to your in progress KDP and upload it. At this point you want to preview. This preview is important. Don’t skim. Look through your pages. Look at spacing. Check your paragraphs, your symbols, your page breaks, your cover design. This is what your book will look like on someone else’s device.
Once you have your eBook looking the way that you want, the next is to select your royalty plan and pricing. There are two different plans on KDP 35% and 70%.
The main differences between these two plans is with the 70% your price has to be between 2.99-9.99 (USD), less flexibility for promotions, and you have a delivery fee. If your book has a lot of images, a large file size, or you want to price it outside of that range (low or high), the 35% option is going to be best. Additonally, some territories have what is called a VAT tax. VAT stands for Value Added Tax. The long and short of it is, it’s an extra tax that you’re required to pay. You pay this regardless of what plan you select, however, some territories also don’t qualify for 70% royalties. So in those territories you would be paid 35% (but if you’ve selected 70% you’ll have that delivery fee so you would earn less in those places). On the pricing page Amazon will tell you what the delivery fee looks like for your book so you can play with these numbers before you publish and select which option works best for you (based on where you’re located, where you expect to sell the most copies, etc.).
That’s just about it, at this point you’re ready to hit that publish button. You’ll need to choose if you want to publish immediately, or schedule a release and that is again, totally up to you. If you’ve taken the time to build up a following and some excitement you may want to schedule ahead to give yourself time to get pre-orders and promote that the book is coming or you can hit publish (Amazon’s processing takes anywhere from a few hours to a day or two).
On my next couple of blogs we’ll take a look at KU and formatting for paperback/hardback. So stay tuned!
Lastly, as everyone moves into the holiday season, a brief reminder of what the season is all about. Love. Spending time together. Family. Gifts, if given, should be from the heart. Quality over quantity. May all of your homes be filled with twinkly lights, hot chocolate, laughter and love.
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