Skip to main content

Self-Publishing… Oh, the Moving Parts!


Image courtesy of Photostock on freedigitalphotos.net
As I hurtle headlong towards my self-imposed launch day of March 8th, the To Do list is waffling between a satisfying series of checks and the inevitable daunting additions that hadn’t even occurred to me!

Am I enjoying the process? Absolutely! Is it riddled with moments of elation as well as bursts of sheer panic? Oh yes! And, the unexpected, that every good planner knows should be factored into the timeline (especially when attempting something you’ve never done before).  I always appreciated my publisher of @Home in Dubai (Jo Parfitt at Summertime Publishing) but I’m starting to have a whole new appreciation.

Here’s one item that I thought would take just a few minutes…

The Kindle Template

I really thought I had this one locked down. I had taken a few online webinars and bought a video series and template and even tested it on a short e-book. I was ready to roll. Not! There’s a little thing that is required for the upload to Kindle DirectPublishing – the hyperlinked ‘table of contents’ (TOC). My template had one conveniently included so I began to happily input all my content to the template, until I ran out of chapters in the TOC. My test ebook had the same amount of chapters as the template (10) so it didn’t occur to me that I might run into problems with Mental Pause’s 19 chapters.

So, back to the video I went to seek out the section on how to add additional chapters. I knew that the presenter worked on a PC but so far I had been able to adapt to the Mac. With a sinking heart, it started to become obvious that there was no ‘quick fix’ for the Mac and the steps outlined to add chapters on a PC didn’t exist on the Mac.

After an entire day of research, a lot of struggling and messing up of formatting in my ebook layout, I finally came out victorious. I had to combine the advice from several different blogs and spend some time scratching my head but I figured it out. Thanks to author and blogger William Hertling for providing the closest solution, enabling me to fill in the final blanks!

Here are the steps:
  • Scroll through your document, and for each chapter title, select the text, and then click Insert - Bookmark. Type in the name of your chapter (or you can just call it Chapter 1). Do that for each chapter.
  • Insert a new page near the front of the book. Call it "Table of Contents". Then type the chapter names, one on each line.
  • There are two Amazon book marks that are required, the Table of Contents and the first page of your book, so make sure you create those while establishing your bookmarks: Highlight the text ‘Table of Contents’, and click Insert - Bookmark, and name it ‘TOC’. All uppercase. Go to the first page of your book – where the text begins and put your cursor at the first letter of the text. Again click Insert - Bookmark, and name it ‘Start’.
  • Once all your bookmarks have been created go back into your table of contents and highlight the name of chapter 1 and then click on 'insert-hyperlink'. Inside the pop-up window, click the 'locate' button and there are the bookmarks you've created! Choose the relevant bookmark. Follow the same steps for each chapter listed on the Table of Contents.
Voila! That's it. Easy when you know how, right?

The good news is that I have successfully uploaded to Kindle and it looks great. Next I’ll be going through the print layout for final proofing and then uploading to CreateSpace for POD. Wish me luck! 

On a different note... if you want to get notified when Mental Pause launches just fill out the handy form on my website. You can even get a sneak peek and read some chapter excerpts on the blog, Mental Pause - The Novel!


Next time: Converting to other ebook formats! Another day-long adventure.
Labels:

Comments

Melissa Ann Goodwin said…
You are very brave to do it yourself. Thank you for the helpful info - I may try to do it myself with my next book. Best wishes for your launch - very exciting!!
10 February 2013 at 21:09
Anne Louise O'Connell said…
Thanks Melissa! Either brave or nuts...maybe a little bit of both :) I'm glad this was helpful. There's a lot more to the template and the source I used was Shelley Hitz at self-publishing-coach.com. Her materials are great.

Thanks for the well wishes. I'm just excited to get it out there (and maybe start working on the next one).

Happy writing,
Anne
11 February 2013 at 08:30
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adverbs & Cliches in a Nutshell - Guest Post by Jessica Bell

Too many adverbs and clichés in your writing? I've got just the fix for you. by Jessica Bell Writers constantly have rules thrown at them left, right, and center. Show, don’t tell! Stop using so many dialogue tags! More sensory detail! More tension! Speed up the pace! Yada yada yada ... it can become overwhelming, yes? I used to feel overwhelmed by it all too. In fact, I still do sometimes. It’s hard enough to get the words on the page, let alone consider how to put them there. In Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird , she says that in order not to be overwhelmed, a writer needs to focus on short assignments. She refers to the one-inch picture frame on her desk and how that little picture frame reminds her to focus on bite-sized pieces of the whole story. Basically, if you focus on one small thing at a time, the story will eventually come together to create a whole. I believe the same applies to learning the craft of writing. If writers focus on one aspect of the craft at a time, t...
1 comment
Read more

The Author-Preneur – Are you Ready for it? Book review: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

“Starting your book is only the first five miles of a twenty-six mile marathon that’s one-third of a triathlon.” APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur If you’re a self-published author or are contemplating taking the plunge (for whatever reason), be prepared for the demand of being an ‘Author-Preneur.’ Actually, it’s not a bad idea to do it even if you’re traditionally published. Start switching your mind-set from, ‘I’ve got to sit down and get a chapter done today’ to ‘I’ve got to sit down and write a chapter today AND post a tweet about my progress, share a sneak preview on Facebook, take that tutorial on how to convert to ebooks, and review the cover design proposals that are sitting in my in-box.’ There are plenty of books, blogs, websites, newsletters and videos out there on how to do it all... some helpful and others not so much. One that I would highly recommend is Guy Kawasaki’s and Shawn Welch’s APE: Author, Publisher,Entrepreneur . It takes you through the entire...
3 comments
Read more

The Last Witch on Skye goes on tour!

 I'm very exicted to give you a preview of the next title coming out from OC Publishing. The Last Witch on Skye , written by Carolyn J. Nicholson and illustrated by E.M. Gales (edited by Marianne Ward and book design by David W. Edeldstein) will launch on September 17th. Our virtual book tour has begun and we are thrilled to have the folks listed below on board to help build excitement for the launch. A bit about the book... The Ban the Witches and Fairies (BW&F) Party has chased all the supernatural beings out of the Isle of Skye. Only Magaidh, a young witch, remains, hiding in a castle disguised as a cat. But, she and the Queen of the Fairies have a plan to rescue the Fairy Flag, allowing the fairies and Magaidh to return to Skye. As Magaidh resumes her business, Spells Inc. she thinks about getting revenge but the Fairy Queen suggests peace would be a better plan. Throughout the book, Magaidh and her two fairy friends, Sean and Iain, go on many adventures together, including...
Post a Comment
Read more