(Are you writing/have you written a book, but you’re not sure if it’s actually ready to publish yet? You may want to start by reading my blog post “I Wrote a Book! Now What?” – From Rough Draft to Publication and Beyond in 16 Steps. But if you’re sure your book is ready to publish in paperback form, read on.)
Are you interested in self-publishing your own paperback book on Amazon through KDP Print? (KDP Print is Amazon.com’s print-on-demand publishing service. They used to use CreateSpace, but that is closing up now, and authors’ books are being moved to KDP Print.) Here’s how it works:
1.) Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ and log in or sign up.
2.) Click on “Paperback” under “Create a new title” (see the screenshot below). KDP will walk you through the necessary steps and prompt you to enter the required information. Most of it is pretty basic.
3.) When you come to the “Description” section, take your time and come up with a good one! This should be the same as the blurb on the back cover of your book and will be a major factor in customers’ decisions as to whether or not to buy your book. Click here to read my blog post about blurb-writing resources.
4.) In the “Keywords” and “Categories” sections (see the screenshot below), you can select up to 7 keywords and 2 categories that will help customers find your book. Choose carefully! I recommend this article about selecting keywords and this one about categories to help you make the most effective use of these options. (The one about keywords also mentions a program called KDP Rocket that can help find good ones for you. It’s on the pricey side but may be worth it if you plan to publish multiple books and/or don’t have a lot of time to put into researching good keywords. I have it and can attest that it’s a definite timesaver.)
5.) In the “Print Options” section, KDP will select certain options for you by default (see screenshot below), but you can change them if you wish. Your trim size refers to the physical height and width of your book. “Bleed” can be confusing to first-time authors, but it relates to whether pictures or other designs in your manuscript extend past the margins or not. If you are publishing a picture book, coloring book, or anything with lots of interior art, I suggest choosing “bleed”. (I learned that the hard way when creating my adult coloring book calendar). If your book consists only of text, with perhaps small graphics here and there that don’t stretch close to the edge of a page, “no bleed” will probably work well for you. Make sure all your print options are the way you want them before you publish your book! Some options in your KDP Print settings can be changed later if you decide you want to, but you’re stuck with those print options unless you delete your book from Amazon and start all over again.
6.) Before you come to the “Manuscript” section, you’ll want to make sure your manuscript is totally formatted and ready for publication. Yes, you can always upload a new version later if you need to, but do yourself a favor and make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important. Here are some formatting tips for before you upload your manuscript:
· Take a look at this useful article with some suggestions for front matter, which every book needs at the beginning.
· Make sure you have page numbers in your book, starting at 1 from the beginning of the first chapter (or prologue), not from the title page, table of contents, etc. Instructions for paginating correctly can be found here.
· And you’ll need to make sure your manuscript is properly formatted; check out this article for some helpful instructions with lots of screenshots and videos.
· You’ll want to make sure you avoid these Top Five DIY Book Layout Mistakes.
· Widows and orphans don’t belong in a print book! Here’s how to dispatch them if you’re using Microsoft Word. (For other programs, sorry, you’re on your own!). Open the document containing your book. Uncheck the box that says “Widow/Orphan Control” in the “line and page breaks” section of the “paragraph” menu. You will need to go through your document and check for widows and orphans manually (because the automatic widow/orphan control can cause other formatting problems). Widows are when a few words at the end of a paragraph appear as a partial line at the top of a page. Orphans are when a new paragraph begins on the very bottom line of a page. Both are considered unprofessional; you can try to get rid of them by deleting unnecessary words in a paragraph, rephrasing a sentence to make it a little longer or shorter, etc. For orphans, you can use the Enter key to move the paragraph onto the next page, thus ending one page a little above where others end. However, you should then do the same thing to the facing page so the two pages a reader will see at the same time match each other. If all else fails, you can fiddle with the kerning (making the words and letters in a certain line a little closer together or further apart). You can do this by first highlighting the line or paragraph of text you want to change, then clicking on the “Font” menu and choosing “Advanced”. Under “Character Spacing”, change the spacing to either expanded or condensed by 0.1 pt. If that isn’t enough, increase the amount a little at a time until the text fits the way you want it.
When everything seems perfect, save your document as a PDF. If you’re using Microsoft Word, you can follow these instructions, and then upload that to the KDP Print site.
7.) Go on to the “Book Cover” section (see screenshot below) and click “Upload a cover you already have”. Don’t have a cover for your book yet? Take a look at this post on my blog about creating covers; it also includes a list of cover artists for hire. You can also make one right there; just click on the yellow “Launch Cover Creator” button to get started.
8.) At the bottom of the page, click “launch previewer” to see an online preview of how the interior of your published book will look. (It often takes a long time to load, especially if your book contains images, so you may want to grab a cup of coffee or something to read while you wait.) KDP will tell you if there are any errors you need to fix; if so, you must fix them and upload a new version of your document before proceeding. Even if it doesn’t tell you anything is wrong, it’s still a good idea to look through every page in the manuscript to make sure everything else looks the way you want it. Check for accidental blank pages, widows and orphans, inconsistent formatting, missing or incorrect page numbers, etc. Make any necessary changes in your document and then re-upload it. You’ll have to go through the preview process again every time you do this.
9.) In the “Territories” section, rest assured that you hold distribution rights to your book in all territories (worldwide rights) unless you’ve ever signed a document giving up those rights.
10.) For “Pricing & Royalty”, the list price is what shoppers will pay for your book. Take a look at the “Royalty” amount at the right to see how much you’ll receive from each sale. For example, in the screenshot below, my book Prince of Alasia costs $9.99, and I receive $2.50 from each copy sold on Amazon.com. “Min. $8.73” means that that’s the cheapest I could make the book, based on how much it costs to print a book of that trim size, page count, etc.) If you don’t live in the United States, you may want to change the “Primary Marketplace” to one that matches your country of residence. For example, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you would select Amazon.co.uk. I recommend enabling “Expanded Distribution”, which makes your book available through other bookstores, libraries, etc. (though you get lower royalties from that than from copies sold directly through Amazon). If you click on “6 other marketplaces”, you can manually change the price in other currencies for shoppers who may view your book on Amazon.fr, for example, if they live in France.
11.) You’re nearly done! I suggest clicking on the link at the bottom of the page to order a paperback proof copy of your book to look over before you make it available to the general public on Amazon. When you’re holding a physical book in your hands, it’s much easier to notice little details that may not be quite right. This Guide to Reviewing Your Book Proof gives some reasons why and some suggestions as to what to check for.
12.) If the proof copy looks good (or if it doesn’t, after you’ve resubmitted your files and received a new proof that does), go back to the KDP Print website and click on “Publish Your Paperback Book”. KDP will email you within 72 hours (though usually it’s under a day) to let you know that your book is available on Amazon.
13.) If you wish to publish your book on Kindle (which I highly recommend!), you might find my other blog post, “How to Prepare and Upload Your Manuscript for Sale on Kindle without Hyperventilating”, helpful.
Many thanks to those whose websites, blogs, and good advice I borrowed from to create this list! I hope their input is as helpful to others as it has been to me.
If you discover any broken links, outdated information, etc. in the above list, I’d appreciate your letting me know so I can keep this information as current and useful as possible. Thanks!
http://10weekwriterschallenge.com/
Several days ago I downloaded a little eBook that was free at the time: The Busy Writer’s Guide to Plot by Marg McAlister. It’s a quick and easy read; I ended up finishing it in two sittings, and I think I must have highlighted about a quarter of the book. I couldn’t believe how much useful information there was packed into such a short volume!
The author suggests a unique approach to planning out a book’s plot: set aside one hour, broken into several segments, and in each segment of time, jot down ideas about a specific aspect of the plot. Her method is designed for people trying to come up with ideas for a story they’re about to write. However, it would work just as well for someone who already has a plot in mind and wants to strengthen it, or even someone who’s already in the middle of a writing project. Whether you’re a published professional or a ten-year-old writing stories for fun, I recommend this resource!
I sat down to outline the plot of the book I’m currently writing, Prince of Malorn (in the same series as Prince of Alasia and In the Enemy’s Service, which you can read more about by clicking on the book covers in the sidebar to the right). Even though I’m over halfway through and already know where I want the plot to go, McAlister’s book helped me see several ways in which I could improve it and add tension. I actually got interrupted a total of eight (EIGHT!) separate times while I was going through the suggested hour-long planning time, so it ended up taking more like three or four hours. But in the end I was quite satisfied with the results!
Here’s the review I wrote for The Busy Writer’ One-Hour Plot on Amazon:
*****
This is one of the most useful writing resources I’ve ever seen! I already have two published books and am working on two more, and when I first started reading, I thought, “Next time I start a new book, I’ll definitely have to try this method.” But by the time I got half way through, I had decided I needed to put my current writing projects on hold until I’ve outlined the plots using the One Hour method, even though I already have them planned out in my mind. I can see that using the techniques in The Busy Writer’s One Hour Plot will make them much better. I heartily recommend this resource for anyone interested in writing fiction, whether professionally or as a hobby. Now I’m going to buy the One-Hour Character book by the same author.
http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/
Sure enough, I did buy The Busy Writer’s One-Hour Character the day after I finished the Plot book. I read it in one sitting and immediately sat down to type up what I’d learned. Korram, Thel, Ernth, and the other characters in Prince of Malorn will grow more through the course of the story and have clearer relationships with each other now!
The author recommends using paper note cards, but for the activities in both books, I decided to make my own digital note cards; I just prefer to keep things on the computer. Actually, I made blank templates as well so I can easily fill them in another time when I’m working on a new book. If you’ve read one or both of McAlister’s books and would be interested in creating your character/plot note cards digitally too, I would be glad to share the templates I typed up. Just email me at valiera (at) yahoo (dot) com and I’ll send them over!
Here’s the review I wrote for The Busy Writer’s One-Hour Character on Amazon:
*****
I read one of Marg McAlister’s other books, The Busy Writer’s One Hour Plot, and immediately knew I had to get this one too. I seldom pay for eBooks anymore, with so many available for free all the time, but this would have been worth twice the price. I’m over half way through the book I’m writing at the moment, and even though I thought I already “knew” my characters pretty well, I now have lots of great ideas for how to develop them further and make them more vivid. I recommend this useful resource to any fiction writer!
I’m always looking for good writing resources. If you have others you recommend, please feel free to mention them in the comments. Thanks!
Also, I emailed Marg McAlister and she was kind enough to email back (very promptly!) with the links to two of her websites which writers might find useful:
http://www.writing4success.com/ (hundreds of articles on writing, ecourses to sign up for, and all sorts of other resources for writers)
http://writing4success.com/blog/ (her blog, also featuring writing-related articles: some her own, others by guest bloggers)
This week I had the opportunity to read and review an eBook by author Staci Stallings, who I recently had the pleasure of meeting on a Christian Writers’ forum on Facebook. Her book Keys to Creating a Successful Book Marketing Strategy is a resource I was excited to get my hands on, and now I’m eager to start implementing her advice. Below her picture and brief biography is the review I wrote for the book on Amazon (I gave it four stars).
A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading.
My Review:
Keys to Creating a Successful Book Marketing Strategy is a great little book for writers, especially (but not only) new indie writers who are looking for ways to actually make money on the books they’ve worked so hard to publish. The chapters are short and easy to get through quickly, but they’re packed with useful information, much of which you could sit down and apply right away.
As I read, I kept highlighting details that I want to be able to refer back to and make sure I’m doing right. It wasn’t so much that the information consisted of totally new concepts (although some of it was new to me). Much of it is common sense, at least in retrospect. It was more just that everything Stallings said clicked into place in a way that made me understand what I probably should have known all along. I kept thinking, “Yes – that’s me! She’s describing my mistakes exactly!” 🙂 And thanks to her, now I know how to start fixing them.
Stallings not only explains what to do, she hands out many of the tools necessary to do it. For example, one useful feature in the book is a list of dozens of sites where authors can get their books reviewed online (which I can hardly wait to start looking into)! That alone would probably make it worth the purchase price.
“If content is king, then skills are queen,” Stallings says. I feel like the royal couple is now ready to at least begin their joint reign in my writing and marketing!
I didn’t give the book five stars because I did find a few typos, and now and then I thought things could have been phrased/presented a little more clearly (hey, I’m a teacher, I can’t help but notice these things!). Occasionally the author sounded uncertain about her own information, saying things like, “I believe there is a way to…” In the section about packaging your content, I would have liked a bit more info about specific sites and what to do with them. For example, it mentioned “alternative sites like Squidoo and Redditt” and “YouTube, etc.” but didn’t really say how writers can make use of them. I know this book is intended as a brief overview of book marketing and can’t talk about everything, but I would have liked just a little more.
Overall, Keys to Creating a Successful Book Marketing Strategy is well written and a very useful resource. I love that it not only gives information and advice but also directs readers to helpful sites and other resources. I whole-heartedly recommend this book as a worthwhile investment for writers.
Having gone through the process of turning a Word document into something that will look good on the screen of a Kindle (and a growing number of other devices) several times now, I know how frustrating it can be. A big part of the problem is that, although there’s a lot of information about the process out there, much of it is outdated, disjointed, contradictory, overly technical, incomplete, or just plain confusing.
In my quest to publish my young adult novels and my students’ poetry anthologies (click on the cover pictures in the right sidebar to see the books in question), I struggled to forge a path through all the different sets of instructions I found online. In the end, I decided to take what I had learned the hard way and put together a step-by-step list, including what I consider the clearest and most useful advice from others on how to do each step. I hope this list will be helpful to others out there!
In my quest to publish my young adult novels and my students’ poetry anthologies (click on the cover pictures in the right sidebar to see the books in question), I struggled to forge a path through all the different sets of instructions I found online. In the end, I decided to take what I had learned the hard way and put together a step-by-step list, including what I consider the clearest and most useful advice from others on how to do each step. I hope this list will be helpful to others out there!
1.) Save your manuscript as a Microsoft Word document. (You can use other word processing programs, but I’m not familiar with how the “Kindlizing” process works with them. Parts of these instructions are specific to Word.)
2.) Put whatever “front matter” you want at the beginning of your document before chapter 1. This usually includes a title page, copyright information, dedication, acknowledgments, and the table of contents (which you’ll learn how to make in step 4). Each of those should be on a separate page. Check the books on your shelf at home to see the order in which other authors have placed those items. Here are some great suggestions about front matter.
Click here for suggestions on what to put on the copyright page.
3.) Format your document properly. Tabs and other features of a normal Word document often cause strange formatting errors with Kindle; these have to be removed. Jill Williamson has a useful series of short videos that show exactly how to do this:
Note: Jill recommends saving your document as a webpage, filtered, right at the beginning. I recommend doing that only after you’ve completely finished formatting your Word document, because I think things are easier to work with in the Word format. You really don’t need to have a webpage, filtered, until it tells you to create one in step 9.
Note #2: If you want to use any special formatting such as pressing the “enter” key more than once in a row (I know, that doesn’t sound very special, but trust me), then you will need to do a whole different set of formatting in addition to what’s described above. See instructions at the bottom of this post.*
4.) If you want to insert images (pictures, graphs, etc.), follow the instructions here. (Scroll down to the long comment by Man2010 where he has included detailed instructions and screen shots.) Note that images need to be jpegs, smaller than 500 pixels wide and 700 high.
5.) Create a table of contents. Don’t forget to include your copyright information, dedication, etc. as well as the titles of each chapter. (Even if your chapters don’t have titles, it’s helpful for Kindle readers to be able to skip easily from chapter to chapter, and it makes your ebook look more professional, so you should still make a table of contents with the chapter numbers.) Put it near the beginning of your document on a page of its own. There are several ways to make a table of contents, but what I think is the simplest (and, as far as I know, the only method if you have more than 9 chapters), is explained here.
Another Important Tip: When you place your bookmark before the title of each chapter, don’t place it immediately in front of the first word. Place it on a separate line above the chapter title. Otherwise, even if you have the title centered on your Word document, it may end up left-justified on a Kindle screen.
6.) Create your book cover in a separate document. I recommend paying someone a flat fee to do the cover art for you, unless you’re artistic enough to do it well yourself. (I approached a talented high school artist at the school where I teach and offered to pay him a reasonable sum to come up with a cover for me. I was quite pleased with the results.) Here’s an article listing useful resources if you’d like to create your own; it also has a list of cover artists you can hire.
Here are Amazon’s criteria for how the cover should be done. Note that it needs to be at least 625 pixels by 1,000 pixels.
7.) Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin and sign in or create an account. Some people recommend keeping this separate from your regular Amazon account if you already have one. You may also want to create a new email address to use just for issues relating to publishing your book; for example, [email protected]. While you’re at it, some recommend opening a new bank account just for this, such as one that offers free checking with a low minimum balance. That way it will be easy to keep track of your earnings, and if you ever decide to pay for advertising or other book-related expenses, you can do it all from the same place.
8.) Once you’ve created/logged into your KDP account, click on “Add a new title”. Then fill out the info in the “Kindle eBook Details” tab.
“Description” means a professionally-written back-cover blurb (not just a casual explanation of what the book is about). You should take the time to write a really good one, as this will have a big impact on whether potential customers choose to buy your book. I’ve compiled some useful advice about blurb-writing here on my blog.
For the “Publishing Rights” part, if this is a book you’ve written, you hold the rights.
Before you choose any “Keywords”, I recommend first reading this article about how to pick good ones.
Be as specific as you can about your book’s “Categories”. The more specific you are, the easier it will be for potential customers to find it. If your book is for children or youth, I recommend filling in the optional age and grade range info – again, it will make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. This article talks about choosing good categories for Amazon.
Before you decide if you’ll release your book now or later (under “Preorder”), you may want to consider how you plan to market your new release. It won’t sell itself, unfortunately! For example, you may want to connect with other authors and readers on social media. Facebook author groups can be a great place to get tips from others about what promotional strategies have worked for them, and even in arranging a blog tour to advertise your new book. Setting up a book for preorder can be helpful in this case, since Amazon will provide you with a preorder link that you can use in any posts you create.
Go on to the “Kindle eBook Content” tab.
When you get to “Digital Rights Management”, experts recommend not enabling it. Yes, there’s a greater chance that people may obtain your book illegally, but DRM also hinders readers who have purchased it from reading it on multiple devices, and thus may discourage them from buying it in the first place. Most writers agree that it’s worth it not to enable DRM. (This article explains more about that.)
“Description” means a professionally-written back-cover blurb (not just a casual explanation of what the book is about). You should take the time to write a really good one, as this will have a big impact on whether potential customers choose to buy your book. I’ve compiled some useful advice about blurb-writing here on my blog.
For the “Publishing Rights” part, if this is a book you’ve written, you hold the rights.
Before you choose any “Keywords”, I recommend first reading this article about how to pick good ones.
Be as specific as you can about your book’s “Categories”. The more specific you are, the easier it will be for potential customers to find it. If your book is for children or youth, I recommend filling in the optional age and grade range info – again, it will make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. This article talks about choosing good categories for Amazon.
Before you decide if you’ll release your book now or later (under “Preorder”), you may want to consider how you plan to market your new release. It won’t sell itself, unfortunately! For example, you may want to connect with other authors and readers on social media. Facebook author groups can be a great place to get tips from others about what promotional strategies have worked for them, and even in arranging a blog tour to advertise your new book. Setting up a book for preorder can be helpful in this case, since Amazon will provide you with a preorder link that you can use in any posts you create.
Go on to the “Kindle eBook Content” tab.
When you get to “Digital Rights Management”, experts recommend not enabling it. Yes, there’s a greater chance that people may obtain your book illegally, but DRM also hinders readers who have purchased it from reading it on multiple devices, and thus may discourage them from buying it in the first place. Most writers agree that it’s worth it not to enable DRM. (This article explains more about that.)
9.) If your manuscript is all ready, follow the instructions here to upload your book (if you’re using a PC). Scroll down to Man2010’s comment, where he says, “TESTING YOUR EBOOK”. I recommend also previewing the book on your Kindle for PC, as well as on actual Kindles of the different types, along with any other devices you have or can borrow that have the Kindle app. (The formatting may not always look exactly the way it does on KDP’s previewer, and you want to know ahead of time what customers will actually see and if anything looks wrong.)
If you’re using a Mac, click here for the instructions on how to upload your document to the KDP site. You just need to read the first part that says, “Creating a Zip File for Images and an HTML Book File”. However, it says to save your Word document as a webpage, filtered. Macs don’t actually offer that option, so just save it as a webpage.
In the “ISBN” section, bear in mind that you don’t need one to publish a Kindle book. This article might help you decide if you want to buy one.
When you have uploaded your cover and completed everything else on that page, go to the “Kindle eBook Pricing” tab.
Choose whether to enroll your book in KDP Select. If you choose to do this, you are promising that for the next 90 days, you will not make your book available in digital format anywhere online except Amazon. This article lays out some pros and cons of “going exclusive” with Amazon.
In the “Territories” section, you automatically hold worldwide rights to your book unless you’ve ever specifically sold or given those rights away.
For “Royalty and Pricing”, here’s an article with some thoughts about pricing your ebook.
In “Matchbook”, your book is only eligible for Kindle MatchBook if you also have it for sale in paperback format. You can choose to make the ebook available for a discount (or even for free) to those who have bought the paperback from Amazon.
If you’re using a Mac, click here for the instructions on how to upload your document to the KDP site. You just need to read the first part that says, “Creating a Zip File for Images and an HTML Book File”. However, it says to save your Word document as a webpage, filtered. Macs don’t actually offer that option, so just save it as a webpage.
In the “ISBN” section, bear in mind that you don’t need one to publish a Kindle book. This article might help you decide if you want to buy one.
When you have uploaded your cover and completed everything else on that page, go to the “Kindle eBook Pricing” tab.
Choose whether to enroll your book in KDP Select. If you choose to do this, you are promising that for the next 90 days, you will not make your book available in digital format anywhere online except Amazon. This article lays out some pros and cons of “going exclusive” with Amazon.
In the “Territories” section, you automatically hold worldwide rights to your book unless you’ve ever specifically sold or given those rights away.
For “Royalty and Pricing”, here’s an article with some thoughts about pricing your ebook.
In “Matchbook”, your book is only eligible for Kindle MatchBook if you also have it for sale in paperback format. You can choose to make the ebook available for a discount (or even for free) to those who have bought the paperback from Amazon.
10.) If anything in the above process doesn’t work right for you, or if your formatting seems to be messed up in any way, I recommend visiting the KDP support forum, where people have posted hundreds of different questions and answers. (“Ask the Community” is the most useful place to look.) Chances are, someone else will have had the exact same problem, and others experienced with publishing to Kindle have probably already replied with suggestions that will help you too. If you can’t find the right solution to your problem, just login or register, choose one of the topics under “forum/category”, and then “post new thread” (at the top), where it will let you type in a question of your own. I suggest you select the option to have it email you when anyone replies. People tend to be pretty quick about answering on there.
11.) When you’re done with everything else, click on “publish your kindle ebook” at the bottom. The information and your manuscript will all be sent to Amazon, and your book should appear for sale to the general public on their website within 12 hours.
12.) Make sure you also click on “(your name)’s account” at the top right of the screen and check that you have entered the right bank account info and all the rest.
12.) Make sure you also click on “(your name)’s account” at the top right of the screen and check that you have entered the right bank account info and all the rest.
13.) Go celebrate! After all that, you’ve earned it!
*Instructions for Special Formatting:
If you press “enter” twice in a row (like to show that time has elapsed in your story or to leave a blank line between verses of a poem or after a title), the text might look the way you want on a Kindle, but not necessarily on the Kindle application for other devices that some of your potential readers may use. Don’t ask me why the formatting works differently, but it does! Here’s how to make it look good across the board:
1.) Highlight one line or section of your document you want to change to a new format, such as a chapter title. Then click to open the “styles” menu at the top of your screen in Microsoft Word. It will show you which one of a list of styles your highlighted text currently uses.
2.) Click on the little arrow just to the right of the name of that style, and then click “modify”. A window will open up to allow you to modify the style however you like.
3.) Give your new style a name, such as “Chapter Title”. Then select the features you want it to have; for example you may want it centered and bold. Click on the “format” button at the bottom left, and then click on “paragraph”. This will open another window where you can adjust the spacing. If you want a little space after the title of a chapter before the first paragraph starts, change the “spacing after” to 24 pt. (Assuming you’ve been using size 12 font, this is the equivalent of leaving one blank line after the title. If you’d like it to have a little more or less space than that, try a larger or smaller number until you’re satisfied with how it looks.)
4.) Click “ok” and then “ok” again. The chapter title that you highlighted in your document should now change to the way you want it. Go to the next chapter title, open the “styles” menu, and you should see the name of the new style you created. This time, all you have to do is click on it, and the new chapter title will change to the format you created. Fix the rest of your chapter titles in the same way.
5.) You can create as many new styles as you want in this way. Anywhere that you want to press “enter” more than once or use special formatting like centering, underlining, font size changes, etc., you should use a style. Unfortunately, it still may or may not look exactly the way you want on Kindle for PC, but your styles should transfer over beautifully to any other device.
Many thanks to those whose websites, blogs, and good advice I borrowed from to create this list! I hope their input is as helpful to others as it has been to me.
Want to publish your book in paperback as well? Click here to read my blog post on preparing your manuscript for paperback publication through KDP Print.
If you discover any broken links, outdated information, etc. in the above list, I’d appreciate your letting me know so I can keep this information as current and useful as possible. Thanks!