New Trick, New Ebook
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," the saying goes. I know the older I get, the more complicated learning new stuff is. So, I wasn't sure I'd catch on to making my 2001 self-published novel into a Kindle ebook.
But I did learn how. It wasn't terribly difficult, but it was complicated and tedious. What helped most was downloading a free ebook from Amazon, Building your book for Kindle for Mac. Since I have a very old version of Word and the directions were for Word 201, I had to figure out a few things and make a few adjustments. But I did it.
One of my New Year's resolutions (or intentions) was to learn how to format an ebook. To motivate myself to Kindle-publish, I asked Ed Mitchell, a writer buddy of mine, if he'd do a new cover.
While Ed worked on the cover, I thought I'd have to find someone to sit down with me and explain step by step how to format the text. But, thanks to some YouTube videos and Building Your Book for Kindle for Mac, I sat myself down and did it. I guess an old dog can learn a new trick or two.
I uploaded my files to Amazon day before yesterday; this morning my ebook was available. However, the cover image isn't displayed and the ebook isn't linked to my author page yet. While I had previewed how Patches on the Same Quilt would look on various readers (Kindle Fire, ipod, iphone, etc.) when I uploaded the files, I wanted to see how it would look on my iPad. So I downloaded the free sample.
The cover looked great on my iPad.
The text was crisp and clear. Paragraphs were properly indented (to the 4th character space) and the text displayed nicely (Times New Roman 12 was Amazon's recommendation).
Chloe is checking out Building Your Book for Kindle for Mac, the free ebook I used to make my ebook. The version for PC is here, but I'm pretty sure Chloe will use a Mac when she decides to do her own ebook. She already has her title: Patches on the Same Kitty.
Meanwhile, until the kitty learns the new trick of making an ebook, you might as well buy mine. The ebook version of Patches on the Same Quilt ebook sells for $2.99. You can buy it here.
But I did learn how. It wasn't terribly difficult, but it was complicated and tedious. What helped most was downloading a free ebook from Amazon, Building your book for Kindle for Mac. Since I have a very old version of Word and the directions were for Word 201, I had to figure out a few things and make a few adjustments. But I did it.
One of my New Year's resolutions (or intentions) was to learn how to format an ebook. To motivate myself to Kindle-publish, I asked Ed Mitchell, a writer buddy of mine, if he'd do a new cover.
While Ed worked on the cover, I thought I'd have to find someone to sit down with me and explain step by step how to format the text. But, thanks to some YouTube videos and Building Your Book for Kindle for Mac, I sat myself down and did it. I guess an old dog can learn a new trick or two.
I uploaded my files to Amazon day before yesterday; this morning my ebook was available. However, the cover image isn't displayed and the ebook isn't linked to my author page yet. While I had previewed how Patches on the Same Quilt would look on various readers (Kindle Fire, ipod, iphone, etc.) when I uploaded the files, I wanted to see how it would look on my iPad. So I downloaded the free sample.
The cover looked great on my iPad.
The table of contents looked good too. Formatting all those links wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.
The text was crisp and clear. Paragraphs were properly indented (to the 4th character space) and the text displayed nicely (Times New Roman 12 was Amazon's recommendation).
Chloe compared the 2001 print version (too expensive to print a full color cover) to the electronic version. I think she likes the e-version better.
Chloe is checking out Building Your Book for Kindle for Mac, the free ebook I used to make my ebook. The version for PC is here, but I'm pretty sure Chloe will use a Mac when she decides to do her own ebook. She already has her title: Patches on the Same Kitty.
Meanwhile, until the kitty learns the new trick of making an ebook, you might as well buy mine. The ebook version of Patches on the Same Quilt ebook sells for $2.99. You can buy it here.
~
posted by Becky Mushko | 11:37 AM
2 Comments:
Bravo! I am so glad you did this. Way to go.
This is the future. Good luck with it Becky.
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