Tag: book formatting

The Indie Author Roadmap – Part 1

indie author superhero-2503808_960_720Guest Post
by Kevin Tumlinson

Indie authors are incredible.

Few industries match publishing for the sheer volume of challenges, demands, and overhead—from production costs to distribution considerations to marketing strategies. These are the types of challenges met by tech giants and globe-spanning corporations, with budgets and teams of experts and professionals to help meet the demand. And yet, these same challenges are faced by the independent author on a daily basis, often operating with only a shoestring budget and a lot of elbow grease.

Bring it. We’re indie. We can take it.

Indie authors have all the tenacity and courage it takes to DIY their way to publishing success, but that doesn’t mean they have to do it all alone. In 2012, Draft2Digital was formed by a bestselling author and two of his code-genius friends, specifically to help will-be authors to convert, publish, and distribute their books worldwide, with support the whole way. The idea was to build tools and resources that would let writers … well … write, while not having to worry about much else.

There are several things to consider when you’re building and growing your indie author career. Let’s take a look at the roadmap, with a few mile markers from D2D, to help you along the way. Continue reading “The Indie Author Roadmap – Part 1”

Our New Book Formatting Resource Page

ebook and print book formatting reading-1249273_960_720Here at Indies Unlimited, we are always striving to bring our readers more resources to help them on their writing, publishing, and marketing journeys. Our goal is to help authors do everything themselves (except for editing!) so they can put out professional books at as low a cost as possible. Today we hand the floor over to Caleb Clayton of Caleb’s Formatting Service who took the time to produce an excellent Book Formatting Resource page for us. The resource page will be located in our drop-down menu – but today you can read it below. – The Admin.

Yes, you can format your eBook and paperback in Word. Not too long ago, I wrote a post for Indies Unlimited offering tips – Tips for Formatting Your Book Correctly in Microsoft Word – and Melinda Clayton (yes we’re related) has also given some handy formatting tips in this article – Drop Caps, Indents, and Other Formatting Tricks in Word.

And it’s still true. You can absolutely format your eBook or paperback in Word, but there are some steps that need to be followed. Continue reading “Our New Book Formatting Resource Page”

What Do Formatting Companies Require from Authors and Why

john low, founder of ebook launchGuest Post
by John Low

So… you have finished writing your book, and now you would like to publish it as an eBook. You have decided that you want to contract out the formatting, but are confused as to exactly what it is that formatting companies need from you. In this article, this will be clarified for you.
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What is eBook Formatting?

What, exactly, is eBook formatting? eBook formatting is the process of turning a manuscript file (like a Word document) into a digital format that can be published as an eBook.

The Difference between eBooks and Prints Books Continue reading “What Do Formatting Companies Require from Authors and Why”

Book Formatting Checklist

list-clipart-list-mdOnce we’re done writing a book, it’s time for eBook and print edition formatting. Going back through again and again to check all the small details and make sure it’s all correct can be a frustrating time sink. I’ve found that if I try to check on everything as I read back through, I tend to miss things, so I developed a process where I go through once to check on just the headers, another time to check just the footers, a third time to check on just the formatting of the chapter titles, then again for whatever else might be required in that particular book. Very time-consuming.

It got me thinking about a post RJ Crayton wrote a while back about doing a story bible. The story bible is more about the content of the book: the names, ages, descriptions of the characters, relevant plot points, dates, locations — anything, really, that you need to keep track of while you’re writing. I realized we could do a similar thing for the double-checking process at the end, and it was really brought home to me when I was beta-reading a book for a friend and I found glaring inconsistencies throughout. One chapter header was bold, the next was not; one chapter header had two blank lines after it, the next had none. I realized a detailed checklist could help a writer go back through the book and catch (hopefully) every little formatting slip-up that sometimes slips in. Continue reading “Book Formatting Checklist”