Publishing With Amazon KDP

I just finished writing "Invisible Me", with my friend and co-author Brad Tesh, We took our time, so this has been a year-long project. Brad and I both enjoy writing, and we were very happy with the subject we chose to write about - our spiritual self. The editing was not even too difficult ... just time consuming, even with two pair of eyes. Then it came time to submit. We both have books up on Kindle and the former Create Space, now merged as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP Publishing). We knew that it was going to be a bit trying ... but it ended up being more than a bit trying!

The submission process to KDP goes something like this:

• Upload a formatted manuscript.
• Create a cover.
• Define keywords and categories.
• Decide if you want to use your own ISBN #, or get one free from KDP. (E-books don't need ISBN numbers, print books do.)

KDP has great software out now that will format a book for you. It is called Kindle Create, and is free to download. This I did appreciate, as the last time I submitted I was running in the dark and praying a lot! With Kindle Create you can format for three basic types of books: (1) text heavy, (2) image heavy with complex formatting, and (3) comic or graphic novels of low complexity. With next to zero techie skills, I managed to get our essentially text-only book up without too many problems. We did include pics with our bios, but they loaded easily. 

Kindle Create has three formatting themes to choose from: Classic, Cosmos, and Armor. Elements can be formatted by type: Chapter Title, Chapter Subtitle, chapter first paragraph, Book Title, Book Subtitle, Author Name, blockquotes etc. The system is easy to use, and we only had to make a couple of tweaks with it.

Now, the book cover - that was another story! Brad basically did the work here, with me just adding in the text for the back cover. I have to say, he did a marvelous job, and I had a meltdown! (Only one meltdown for the entire process of the book, so that is good! Perspective, people!) You can choose to upload your own cover, or you can create one with the imagery KDP provides. We choose the latter. We ended up with a slightly different cover for the print version - basically because the cover would not play nice! 

"Invisible Me" is up on Amazon in e-book format, while our print version is being "reviewed". (Now why don't I have a good feeling here!)

I am happy that we choose to self-publish (we did look into other options), and my hope for other writers is that if they want to self-publish, they check out the KDP system. (It has its issues, one of which is do not choose "auto fit" when adding text to the back cover - it doesn't work! Set the font size that you want o use.) But, overall, our book is up, and we did it ourselves!

(c) March 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.

Draft2Digital - A New Way To Go

Self-publishing has become the preferred way to go with many writers. We can write at our own pace, we have control over thing like cover images, and we can promote our books where we want to and how we want to. There are many avenues for self-publishing, such as Create Space, Outskirts Press, Book Baby, Lulu, Author House and many more. I currently have a WIP that will be out later this year, and I was sure that I knew where I wanted to publish it. A new (to me) little gem just came into my radar, and I am seriously considering publishing with them.

The site that I am considering is Draft2Digital. They promote themselves as a publishing site that provides support for authors. Authors do the writing, chose their list price, chose their digital stores, and submit their work. Draft2Digital does the formatting, submits to the chosen digital venues, and keeps track of daily sales. And authors can make  unlimited changes to their work.

As an author, you submit a word doc, which Draft2Digital converts into digital format with clean chapter breaks, and a functioning table of contents. Formatting is pure hell for me, so this sounds like a giant reprieve! I also like that I can check daily on my sales with no problem. 

There is no upfront cost, no style guide or special formatting requirements. ISBN numbers are assigned free of charge, unless provided by the author. Vendors include Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Scribd, Inktera, Tolino, and 24Symbols. If an author has a set publishing date, preorders can be arranged with vendors. End cost is a 15% commission on net royalties (approximately 10% of list price). The author retains all rights.

Draft2Digital is currently pursuing contracts with several other digital publishers. They will also send authors a PDF of their formatted book that can  be used for submission to other publishers. This means I can continue with my original plan to submit to Create Space and Kindle, while working with Draft2Digital at the same time.

Please remember that this is a site that I have not, to date, worked with. I am not recommending them, just saying that they look viable to me.

(c) March 2017 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written consent of the author. 

Surviving the Holidays

It has been a relatively short journey for me to get "Surviving t he Holidays - Taking Charge of Your Life" out there. For those that have been following this blog, you will know that my initial choice was to publish on Smashwords. I wanted to have my book out there, in multiple formats, with maximum availability. I still feel that Smashwords is a viable option, that they are well set up, and not that difficult a maze to make it through. My problem was that I am not good at formatting. Note: Mark Coker's instructions are excellent ... it was me that could not implement them. That, and I never was ab le to get a copy of "Mark's List", the list of Smashwords author's that will format for a reasonable fee. I did have a friend offer to format for me, but I had to look at the fact that she is incredibly busy with her own work, and I want this book to be the beginning of a series.

So ... I made the decision to take my work off of Smashwords, and put it up on Kindle, through their KDP program (a program that I swore never to use!). Largely because I already had a well formatted file, I was able to get my work up within twelve hours. Now I can make use of the KDP info that my sister headed me over to, and start promoting! For me,  this is a wonderful way to end the old year, and start out the new year. Hopefully in early January I will have my next book up - one on body/mind/spirit balance, and following one's life path with authority.

I do have two blogs that I would like to share this week - Spunk One A Stick's "People Skills For Writer's" (a heads up on her next book), and Monica Crowe's "Four Marketing Tips For The New Year".

Find out more about "Surviving the Holidays - Taking Charge of Your Life". If you like what you see, please "like" my book!

(c) December 2012 Bonnie Cehovet