How to Self Publish a Hardcover Book on Amazon - Kindlepreneur

 When Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere today, our little adventuresome kitty decided to make a stop at the Kindlepreneur site. There he discovered a post about publishing a hardcover cover book at KDP. Panzer already told you about the new hardcover book option at KDP.

The post by Jason Hamilton explains in step-by-step instructions how to publish your book at KDP. While the instructions are simple, the post does include a rather hard sell on a formatting software he recommends. There are no formatting instructions for your manuscript if you don't get the software. The rest of the instructions, however, are easy to follow and can be used to upload your finished PDFs.

My work is never finished.

Panzer says, "Doing a hardback is now next on my list."

Note: This is a long-medium length post. Bring a big cup of tea, a muffin and a brownie.

To read the post tootle over to hardcover book

 To read Panzer's previous post about KDP hardcover books tootle over to KDP

Four Free Online Book Formating Tools You'll Love - Book Works

Panzer's trip into the Catosphere was a quick one today. Our busy kitty boy found an interesting post for his indie writer friends. He found a post about book formatting tools at the BookWorks site

Nap time?

In the post Carla King describes four free online book formatting tools. She begins with Canva. Canva has long been the go-to site for simple ebook covers, but can also do simple interiors. She also has three other free simple to use tools for formatting books. She includes descriptions of each tool with instructions for use with screen shots. There's a list of links included, too.

Panzer says, "Who knew you could do all that formatting for free?"

Note: This is a l-o-n-g post. Bring half a thermos of tea and three muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to book formatting tools

Kindle Create Now Available in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish - The Digital Reader

Panzer made a quick trip into the Catosphere today. Our speedy kitty made a stop at The Digital Reader site. There he found a post about Amazon's Kindle Create.

According to the post by The Digital Reader site owner Nate Hoffelder, Amazon's Kindle Create can now be used by authors with documents in six new languages. The new additional languages are Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Amazon Kindle Create is used  to format a document before it's published to the Kindle store. Kindle Create will generate the Table of Contents for the ebook and other formatting steps. It will also give the author the ability to see how the ebook will look on different devices. The post is predominately an Amazon announcement about the upgraded Kindle Create. There's a link near the end of the quote to the Kindle Create site.

Formatting gives me a headache.

Panzer says, "Using Kindle Create keeps the author from getting one star reviews because of poor formatting."

Note: This is a short post. Bring a cup of tea for today's reading selection. If you plan to follow the link to the Kindle Create site, bring a muffin too.


To read the post tootle over to Kindle Create

The Final Chapter - Liberio is shutting down

Panzer made a quick stop at the Liberio site today. He found some sad news there.

Lost another one.

According to a post at the site, effective immediately, Liberio is closing it's doors. Liberio was an innovative site that allowed anyone to do their ebooks there. In fact, 30,000 people used the service. Everyone from mothers and fathers who wanted their lives chronicled for their families to indie authors who wanted their ebooks done their way could and did use Liberio.

Panzer says, "It was just too much work for two people to keep going."

To read the post, tootle over to Liberio

Pre-designed Or Custom Book Covers And More For Indie Authors

Pre-designed? Who else used it too?

Panzer, our big bad Catosphere explorer, decided to stop in at Guido Henkel's site today. It's been a long time since our kitty boy has been to visit Mr. Henkel and he's happy he chose today to do it.

According to Mr. Henkel's post, he's part of a new endeavor for indie author services. The new endeavor is called Covertopia. Indie authors can buy a pre-designed cover or order a custom cover at the site. Authors can also order layout services, formatting services, audio covers, postcards and more.

Panzer says, "The samples at Mr. Henkel's site make it look worth checking out."

NOTE: Panzer ignored the ad at the beginning asking for his name, clicked cancel and had no trouble reading the post.

To read the post, tootle over to pre-designed or custom covers

Smashwords: How to Add Navigation to a Smashwords Ebook

Navigation?

We were out in the Catosphere today and stopped in at the Smashwords blog.

Mark Coker has created a new video for Smashwords authors to help with end of ebook navigation. End of the book navigation includes a clickable link to your website/blog, your Twitter account, your Facebook page, etc. (You do include these in each of your ebooks, right?)

So, if you're having trouble figuring out how to put those links in your ebook, tootle over to Smashwords: How to Add Navigation to a Smashwords Ebook: Does your Smashwords ebook contain navigation?  Are you taking full advantage of navigation? This afternoon I produced and uploaded a ne...

Formatting for Kindle and Smashwords

No template yet? Why?

Panzer was in the Catosphere today and found something for all his writing friends.

Here's an easy little video from thriller author C.J. Lyons on how to format your manuscript for Smashwords and Kindle. Although she's using a Mac all of the steps will work in any Word document. The video covers some of the most frequent problems that cause ebook rejections from the Premium Catalog at Smashwords.

Panzer says, "By now you should be using a template to cut down on your formatting problems!"

If you want to see the video, tootle over to Preparing Your Document.

Indie Authors - What Is The Future of The E-reader?

"No!"

(Panzer meant to post this last week, but there wasn't room.)

Nook and Kindle to disappear in 2014?  Over at the To Become A Writer blog Renee Pawlish says it could happen. According to her we may be formatting our ebooks for iPads next year.

Panzer says, "Say it isn't so!"

If you want the lowdown on what Pawlish says, tootle over to Indie Authors - What Is The Future of The E-reader?

Formatting For Createspace

Createspace is next for me.

Panzer has been wondering how to format his new book for Createspace.  So he went on a search out in the Catosphere.

And guess what?

He found the answer at India Drummond's blog. There's a video tutorial that shows in easy steps how to do the formatting.

So, if you've wondered how to get your  book up at Createspace, tootle on over to Formatting for Createspace.

Susan Kaye Quinn, Young Adult Author: Self-Publishing Basics: Ebook Formatting - The Eas...

Panzer was out in the Catosphere today and stopped at Susan Kaye Quinn's blog. He's doing the happy cat dance! She's got a self-publishing series going on there.

The series has a great section on formatting your ebook for Kindle and Barnes & Noble. (That's where everybody wants to start now days.) It's divided into two parts: The Easy Way and The Hard Way. Panzer recommends you start with the easy way!

Panzer says tootle over to Susan Kaye Quinn, Young Adult Author: Self-Publishing Basics: Ebook Formatting - The Eas...:  and get started on formatting your ebook today!

Do You Need Ebook Formatting Or Conversion?

Do you know the difference between ebook formatting and ebook conversion?

I've posted here about ebook formatting and converting. Most recently I've given you a link to do the formatting and converting yourself for Kindle at Word To Mobi = Amazon Kindle.  I've also given you a link to a free converter when I posted about Selling Ebooks From Your Site Or Blog.  So, yes, you do know the difference, because you used those link (and the others I've posted here) to do your own formatting and converting.

However, it appears not everybody reads my blog and knows you can do formatting and converting yourself ... and with free software.

April Hamilton did a guest post The difference between ebook conversion and ebook formatting (at Taleist) for those who don't know the difference. She says they even pay other people to do it for them.

Read April's post and see what you think.

How to format for Smashwords

Yesterday, we looked at formatting an ebook (primarily) for Kindle.  Some writers have complained that formatting for Smashwords using their Smashwords specific formatting manual is too confusing. So, today, we're going to format an ebook for Smashwords.

Author Louise Wise has written  her own formatting instructions at her blog Wise Words. Personally, I find her instructions much easier to understand and follow than the Snashwords manual because she has excellent illustrations for each step.

If you've been hesitant to get your ebook uploaded to Smashwords, you don't have any more excuses. Go on over to Wise Words: How to format for Smashwords?: and get that ebook in shape. Time and money (yours) are wasting!