Formatting for Kindle and Print: A very simple guide.

 

Here is a very simple checklist for formatting your book for publication using Amazon. This is for both kindle and print. Make sure that before you start this stage that your novel had been fully edited and proofed.

Formatting for Kindle:

•         Clean document:  Ctrl A to select all. Set to ‘normal’ from headings section.

•         Set up title page, copyright etc format to centre set book title to Title, other text to normal.

•         Insert hyperlinks.

•         Inset page break at end of section

•         Set chapter titles to Heading, set text to normal,

•         Put page break at end of each chapter: On the Paragraph screen, under Indentation > Special: select First Line, and indent it by 0.38”

•         Remove spacing before and after

•         Click on normal and update normal to match selection

•         Edit title and heading style in the same way so they do not indent.

•         Generate epub/MOBI files (I use Draft2Dignital for this stage but I don’t press ‘publish’ as I’m only after the files.

I find it useful at this stage to send the novel to my kindle to check it is displaying correctly and also to pick up any last minute errors that may have crept in.

Formatting for print:

•         Use your clean kindle file as your starting point.

•         Set book size 6x9 (or 15.24: 22.86)

•         Ensure that you have no clickable hyperlinks in your book.

•         Add page numbers at bottom of page in the centre.

•         Select different first page to remove the page 1 number.

•         Check page breaks are where you want them

•         Export to pdf