Day 25 - Kindle Create, Formatting in Word, and Learning What You Don’t Know
At this point, all I’m really doing is managing social media, monitoring my traffic, writing newsletters, putting together free handouts, and planning the sequel to Lessons in Love. I hadn’t intended it to be a series, but if you’re a writer, you know how it goes. You don’t want the story to end and almost immediately, you start thinking of new adventures your characters can go on.
I was going to save the following information for the end of the 30 Days, but I might as well tell you now. The hardest part of self-publishing is setting everything up and figuring it all out. Twenty-five days ago, I didn’t know what KDP meant and now I feel like a pro. OK, maybe not a pro, but a skilled amateur. At least, I understand how it all works. Mostly. My next hurdle will be uploading the files and hoping they turn out OK. I can imagine a scenario where I order an author’s copy of the paperback and find many typos, misuse of homophones, something dreadful. Let’s hope not.
I’ve spent the last few days formatting. Not continuously, but in small chunks. It’s actually very simple since Kindle provides lots of guides and templates through Kindle University. I copied and pasted Lessons in Love into the template, worked out a few kinks, and voila! It looks great! I’ve printed it out and I’m going to give it one final read-through and we’re done with the paperback.* I’ve played around with Kindle Create (a free, stand-alone app for formatting eBooks) and have toured the various digital distributor sites. I feel confident I won’t have too much trouble. In fact, I’m surprised by how easy this has all been.
Early on, when I posted that I was starting this project, someone said, “Good. People need to know how much work goes into self-publishing.” That’s true. There are a million little tasks. And not just working on the book - there’s also this blog. When I say I wrote a blog post, this is what actually goes into a blog post:
Coming up with the idea
Writing it all out (in Word)
Reading it three or four times to check spelling, grammar, etc.
Pasting it into the blog section of Squarespace.
Fixing formatting issues, italicizing, bolding, etc. (For some reason, Squarespace doesn’t retain the formatting when I copy/paste.)
Finding images
Resizing images
Uploading images
Adding images to the post
Finding and entering links
Publishing it - making sure it has the right settings and date
Posting about it on Twitter
Posting about it on Facebook
Reading it again to make sure I catch any last-minute mistakes
Having my husband read it so he catches any mistakes I missed. What a sweetie.
Total time per blog post is often several hours. I tend to write these before bed or early in the morning before school.
So you see, there are a million little tasks attached to every item on your checklist. Speaking of checklist, I’m working on a really (actually) handy checklist for getting your book self-published. I’ve been through about five different ones and they’re all missing crucial information. You know why? They want you to buy their courses. Nope. Not me. I’m going to put as much as I can into it. It’s going to be long, but it will be thorough. It will also include links, helpful apps, and more. It will also evolve over time. I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve done and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve worked out some kinks in my own routine that will definitely help with the next book. If you like and need checklists (like me), keep an eye out for this one.
The bulk of the hard work is over, I think. Getting set up. It’s not hard, it just takes time. Yesterday I created accounts for all the main digital distributors (Barnes and Noble, Draft2Digital, Kobo). It took about half an hour and I wished I’d done it earlier. Most of these require verification. Setting up is lots of busy work, building your foundation one brick at a time. And that takes time. In the beginning, I felt overwhelmed by all the little jobs. Now, I have a system in place and things are running like clockwork. And it took me, what…a few weeks?
Once your book is written, there are three main stages to self-publishing:
Setting it all up
Running it
The aftermath
Think of it like a large music festival. On the Main Stage we have Setting it All Up. Those are the big bands everyone has heard of. On the East Stage we have Running It; the smaller bands, you may have heard of one or two. And on the West Stage, we have the Aftermath, the bands no one knows and you might go see if you get a chance. If you’re not too drunk and sunburned. What you don’t know is that the bands on the East and West Stages are just as important as the acts on the Main Stage. They’re going to make it big someday. You need to see them. And like a musical festival, many of the performances overlap. You’ll be doing a lot of running back and forth. Further, each stage has 50-billion bands playing. Don’t worry, you can do it.
I’ll break it down for you fully in an upcoming post. I don’t see many people doing that, especially not for total N00bs like me. They assume you know what Kindle Create is or what ROI (return on investment) stands for. Remember, I didn’t know what KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) meant twenty-five days ago. And here I am, nearing the end of the Fire Swamp about to publish my first novella. I’m gonna show you how and I’m not going to charge you. A great deal of what you’ll find on the net is geared towards directing you to their courses. It’s like how drug dealers get kids hooked: the first taste is free. Think I’m kidding? Almost every guru I’ve encountered uses this method. It’s the same idea behind free samples in grocery stores. Get your customer to have a taste, they’ll want to buy. You, the seller, come off as helpful (good feelings for everyone) and the customer feels good about trying your product for free - especially if they’re hungry. What you don’t see is the repercussions when two months later, the customer realizes they’ve subscribed to something they won’t use. I can say this because I’ve fallen for it. They provide just enough information to pique your interest. As I said, I’m publishing these reports and lists as a public service. They may not be here forever… so get ‘em while they’re hot.
I don’t want the hassle of setting up a course, but I do want to share what I’ve learned. If you didn’t read my rant on YouTube teachers, check it out. It’s super ranty. Does this mean I’m a saint? No, of course I have a secondary motive. This is a lot of work. I’m doing it because I want you to be a part of my community and I really hope that if you find this stuff interesting, you’ll thank me by buying my books. But even if you don’t, the information is still here if you want it. I’m trying to be as close to altruistic as I can be. Anyone watch The Good Place? I’m trying to rack up Good Place points. My dream of dreams is to build a community of excited Melanie Brodie fans who can’t wait for the next release. I can dream, can’t I?
*Oh, right — the cover. More on that this weekend.