Earlier this week we published part 1 of Wasaga Beach resident Clark Wilson’s article about e-publishing. This is part 2 of his 3-part article.
Cover Creator
Cover Creator is a free tool from KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) intended to help you custom design a basic cover, using a variety of layouts and fonts, that meets KDP specifications. Cover Creator uses the book details you enter during title setup and adds your book’s ISBN to the barcode area of the back cover. Many of the templates allow you to choose an image from their image gallery or upload your own JPG, PNG or TIF/TIFF.
When I wrote my first book some years ago I had to purchase an ISBN number from the Canadian government for $50. Now Amazon KDP will issue you a free ISBN number.
Before Cover Creator I used PowerPoint to produce the cover of my book Vietnam, Medal of Honor. As an amateur it took a lot of work. Today, Cover Creator makes the job a lot easier. I wrote my books for the American market so the spelling of many words are different than the English spelling we use in Canada. Ten years ago it was almost impossible to find an e-book publisher in Canada. You can view and purchase the book HERE
Amazon encourages their authors to give their books away as a promo for a few days. When you look at the free books available you can download whatever you want. This way you can get a general view of what the final result of your published book would look like.
Smashwords
Smashwords is another e-book publisher located in California. They distribute to Apple, Barnes & Noble‘s, Kobo and several other companies.
You can also deal directly with the publishing companies divisions of Apple, Barnes & Noble‘s, Kobo and Google. This means setting up accounts with each one but again it is not a difficult procedure.
Smashwords Publishing is a little more difficult to deal with because they demand a pretty strict format but it is doable. However I would use KDP first. Smashwords has given me grief regarding translated books. They want you to publish your book only in your first language.
Word Processor
I ignore all of the companies that are trying to proofread books for a fee. I use MS Word to write my books. One great thing about Word is that you can use the dictation and not spend all your time typing. I found it will correct some of your grammar errors but not all.
I find Microsoft 365 Family is a good buy as it can be shared by up to 6 people or with 5 different devices within your own home. It comes with 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and multiple other programs like Excel, OneNote, and more. I found I could sync my PC and my iPad as well as my iPhone for Word. This meant I could write from home or be sitting on a beach and write something if I felt like it. Since I’m retired my time is my own.
Watch for the conclusion of this 3-part story next week on JustSayinGeorgianBay.com
