It's Time to Finish the Writing Project(s) You Started

Thanks Pixabay.com

Just so you know, this post is not so much for you but for me. I'm betting, however, it will have meaning for you as well. It's June and we're approaching the middle of the year, so to meet some goals by the end of the year we need to be getting things done. My question for you this month is, what writing project(s) have you started that you haven't finished? (Tweet that!)

I'm betting a bunch of writing projects just flashed through your mind, perhaps followed quickly by a flash of guilt. (Tweet that!) Writers have stacks of stuff piled in the "writer's closet" that we never seem to go through because, well, we're too busy writing. I'm talking about the closet of unfinished projects, not a literal physical closet in our house, although those are probably just as cluttered and in needed of a thorough cleaning out which we also never get to because we're too busy writing.

So let's try to sift through our writer's closet today and see what's there and which projects we might be able to finish. (Tweet that!) Hopefully there's an item or two we can finish well or finish quickly.

Now, mind you, I'm not talking about the failed projects that don't deserve more of our time. Not the novels or articles or short stories or NaNoWriMo works we started, or even wrote to completion, that have no potential. These are practice works. They have value because they taught us and trained us and helped us along our writing journey. But they are not worth investing more time and effort in. If you have one or more of those, or even if you're not sure about a project, leave it in the closet.

(If it's a story of your heart that you love and want to finish, but it really needs a lot of work, leave it in the closet. We'll talk about that project next month.)

If you don't have time this month, if you're already booked full, look at your calendar and decide which month isn't booked yet. Make that the month you're going to target as your time to finish this project.

For me, the project I keep saying I'm going to finish and then "life" happens and I don't get to it is my series of twelve e-books for writers. Originally I was going to release one a month and have them all done in a year. That was a couple years ago. I've completed and released four:

• Cutting the Passive Voice
• How to Get Published by Magazines and Book Publishers
• Query Letters
• Booksignings

As currently planned, I have eight in the series  left. I threatened some time ago, on this blog I believe, to finish them. I don't know what happened then but I remember getting some work done on one and then… Whatever. They still are not finished.

So I've been planning for some time to finish them (or at least some of them) this month. June 2017. Yet here it is the 5th of the month and I'm just now writing the post that should have been posted the first of the month. What can I say. I'm a little behind.

(I'll blame it on my short film that kept lingering on as I tried to finish it. It's done and was turned in on June 1 by the deadline on June 2. I still have work to do to turn in the final documents, etc., by June 9. See last month's post for more info on that. I plan to write more about my short film documentary in the upcoming August 2017 post.)

So what is your project you'd like to finish? Need some help deciding? Let's talk about it. (Tweet that!)

What to Finish

Now that you've thought of all those projects you could finish, how do we pick one to work on? First, don't think of it as picking one, just picking the one to finish first. You'll get to the others too.

Consider:

Closest to done

Which of your projects is the closest to being done? If you work on this project, it will be the quickest one to finish. It will give you a sense of accomplishment. It will give you a something to sell or share. It will be one project checked off the list.

On my list of e-books, some of them I already have the manuscript written. They just need formatted and uploaded to Amazon's Kindle. One is formatted and partially uploaded, if I remember right. Others I have not written yet. I have the outline and have taught the material as a workshop, but I need to write it out to make it an e-book. It would take me very little time to finish the one that is formatted and partially uploaded. Duh. I need to start there.

Smallest/ Shortest / Easiest

Perhaps you have a project that would take little work to complete. Maybe it's not the most important to you. That's why you haven't finished it — everything else is more important. But if you finish this one, again you'd have an e-book to sell or an article to submit. What would it take to finish it and check it off the list?

Again, my almost-finished e-book I mentioned above fits here. It needs the least amount of work to finish. I sometimes get caught up in feeling I need to finish the biggest and best. Keep it simple.

Will produce greatest income

Do you have a partially completed project that, when finished, you can sell as an e-book or a printed book (Tweet that!), an article you might sell to a magazine or a short story to a compilation book that pays well? Maybe this is the project for you to pick and complete.

Hopefully a new e-book in my line for writers will spark new interest in all of them, increasing my income.

Will produce greatest joy

Which of your many unfinished projects is close to being done and would give you great joy to complete? Maybe it's a project just for you — you never intended to sell it or share it — and everything else in your world has kept you from it. Schedule time and put it on your calendar to finish it. Maybe you will sell or share it. That's good too. Do it.

Yeah, sharing what I've learned in e-books brings me joy!

How to Finish

Maybe you haven't finished this project for a reason. You've set it aside because there's something there preventing you from finishing it. Perfect! This is the month to tackle that challenge. Stop letting it stop you! Consider:

Roadblocks

You might be procrastinating because of a roadblock that you don't know how to overcome. Well this month it's time to dismantle that roadblock. I've found that often roadblocks grow bigger with time, or at least they appear to. The truth is, when I start to tackle them they shrink to something that's far easier to step over than I ever imagined. So what do you need to make this roadblock disappear?

Ask someone. Find an expert in the field and see if they will help or mentor you, or at least point you in the right direction.

Ask a friend for help. Sometimes people are more willing to help us than we realize. The truth is, most often the people we know really want to see us succeed. Ask. They might help.

Hire some help or trade skills.

Perhaps more research will help?

Stumbling blocks

Or maybe it's not a roadblock but just a stumbling block: something that seems difficult or time consuming. Or something you just hate to do. Maybe one of the ideas above will help. Or can you possibly make a list of nearby friends who can help you, ask them to come, throw them a party, and let them help you?

Or maybe you just need time. Can these friends temporarily take some responsibilities for you to give you intensive, uninterrupted work time to finish? Ask.

Something needed

Perhaps you simply need something to finish it. What do you need? Where can you get it? Editing? A book cover? I recently reminded a friend of Fiverr.com and she found the editing she needed at a great price on that site. I had the e-book covers for my twelve e-books designed there and I think they're pretty awesome. (Now, if I'd just finish formatting some, and writing others, and getting them out there!)

Whatever you need, write it down. Write it in big bright letters on your big white board. Then go after it. Find it. Tackle it. Then finish your project and move on! (Tweet that!)

Finally

This Bible verse speaks to me. I've typed it up, printed it out, and pinned it to the bulletin board in my office:

Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it…     1 Corinthians 8:11 NIV

Which writing project(s) have you started but never finished that's speaking to you saying, "It's time to finish what you've started"? (Tweet that!)

What are you working on to finish?

What did you finish?

Let us know in the comments section below. Include a link to your finished product if you want so we can check it out.

Related Articles:

If your unfinished project is making a Kindle e-book but a roadblock or stumbling block for you is that you don't know how, you can find help in the series I wrote on that topic. These posts walk you through the process:

1. How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document
2. How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images
3. How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free)
4. How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook

How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook

In February we talked about how to format your Word doc to be a Kindle book. We covered making your document from Word and creating your own template.

In March we discussed creating templates for your Front Matter and Back Matter to reuse over and over in new e-books you create, saving you time.

Last month, in April, we talked about how to create a cover for your e-book or places where you can make your own, buy one, or hire someone to make it for you.

Now that we have all the pieces put together for your entire Kindle e-book, let's walk through the process of uploading it on Kindle. Exciting, right?! (Tweet that!)

This month we'll fill out the Amazon forms required to upload your e-book and get it on sale or available for pre-sale. You'll find more in depth information in the instructions you printed off back in February's post. 

While, I'm going to briefly walk through the items on the upload pages, you may want to be familiar with what you'll need. 

Before you go to KDP...

When you're ready to put your e-book online with Kindle, you'll need to have several pieces of the puzzle ready. (Tweet that!) It might help to give careful thought to and prepare your:

• Title
• Subtitle
• Description of your book
• Keywords
• Categories

Title

When choosing a title, carefully choose key words so people searching for your topic will find your book. But note: when you enter your title, it must match what is on your book's cover and inside title page exactly. Amazon doesn't allow any variation here.

Subtitle

Again, use key words to make your subtitle SEO friendly. 

Note: I learned the hard way that subtitles are limited to 200 characters. If you go over, Amazon's search cannot find your book making it unsearchable! (Tweet that!)

Description

Use your best sales pitch here to convince would-be readers that your book is the one they need. 

(Authors are notoriously not good at "selling." I wasn't. I had to learn and study how to sell things. I've taught workshops on what I learned about how to sell your book. I plan to share this information in a new e-book. Please watch or Follow my Amazon page for a coming e-book called "10 Tools for Marketing Your Book." To Follow, click the yellow button beneath my image. Also, watch for a post on Amazon's "Follow" program coming in July.)

Keywords and Categories

Search for and find several books comparable to yours. Visit their Amazon pages, scroll down, and note what categories they are in. You may want to put yours in the same categories. Also note the key words used to describe these books.

Prep Your File for Upload

I create a folder called "Kindle Files - [my e-book title]" and put my final documents there, including my Word document and the HTML document we're about to create. Having all these in one folder makes it easy for me to find every time I need to, like when I want to update the End Matter because I'm releasing a new book, or when I find a correction I need to make.

Now, the first thing you'll need to do is convert your manuscript to an HTML file. You'll find the instructions on pages 12 and 13 of your printed directions from Amazon. Simply use Word's "Save As" and choose "Web Page, Filtered." If asked about "office tags" answer yes.

If you don't have any photos, you're done. If you do have photos, follow the directions in #3 on page 13 of your printed instructions, which is easy: You now have to files with the same title for your book, a folder and an HTML file. Right-click your HTML file, hover over "Send to," and then choose "Compressed (zipped) folder." Now click and drag that folder over the zipped file and let it go. Ta da. You're done. This is the file you'll need to upload on KDP.

Open KDP

Now open your account at https://kdp.amazon.com. If you haven't opened your account yet, do so now.

I'm going to briefly walk through the items on the upload pages and give you hints I've learned along the way. For more in depth instructions, follow the directions in your print out and/or on the screen at KDP.

A WORD OF WARNING: When working on the KDP site, always save your e-book as a DRAFT until you're absolutely sure it's ready to be released -- especially if you want to take advantage of pre-sales and let people pre-order your ebook before it releases. This is because once you set it to pre-order, you can't un-do that without huge penalties! If you un-do it, you'll lose your pre-sale privileges for one year! (Tweet that!) You don't want to do that. So always always always save as a draft...until you've walked through all the steps and understand what you need to have done before you book goes live (final edits or whatever). So always click "Save as Draft," NOT anything that says "Publish."

New Title

On the kdp.amazon.com Bookshelf page, click "Create new title."

Enroll in KDP Select? 

I recommend you DO enroll this book in KDP Select IF, and only if, you plan to sell your e-book ONLY on Kindle. You'll be able to offer special deals when your book is live, which is good for promoting your book. However, if you want to sell your e-book elsewhere, do not enroll your book in KDP Select because this program is for books that are only available on Kindle.

#1 Enter Your Book Details

Title, Subtitle 

Next you can copy / paste (to avoid typo errors) your book's title and subtitle. Again, make sure your title is exactly as it is on your cover and in your book. And make sure your subtitle does not exceed 200 characters.

Series

If your book is part of a series, as my e-books in my "Getting Published" series are, fill in the series title, volume, and editions.

Publisher

Enter the name of your publishing company. Yes, you are now a publisher so come up with an awesome name for your company. (One that no one else is using.) (Tweet that!)

Description

Now, copy / paste into the box that awesome description of your book that you already wrote and double-checked for errors.

Book contributors

That's you. This is where you "Add contributors" and add yourself as the author. The name you put here is how it will appear on Amazon. 

If other people helped with your book that you want to add you can, but you don't have to add anyone else. Maybe if you have someone associated with your book who also has a great presence on Amazon, it might help bring you more traffic if their name shows up.

ISBN

Your International Standard Book Number links to the bar code that stores scan when they ring up their sales. You have to purchase an ISBN  so it costs you money. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would put one on an e-book, but you can if you want to. It's optional. You may NOT use the same ISBN as on your print book (if you have one). I leave it blank.


Amazon will assign your book an ASIN automatically which is like an ID number for your book. This costs you nothing. When you're book is assigned its ASIN, you may want to make note of it and store it in your marketing materials or somewhere handy. It helps when searching for your book, such as on Goodreads.

#2 Verify Your Publishing Rights

Instructions are right there.

#3 Target Your Book to Customers

This is where you enter two book categories. Choose carefully because this is how readers will find your book. However if you want to change them later, you can. Later you can change this up to see if you get better results being in a different category. 

This is where I look at which categories other similar books are in and do the same.

Age Ranges, etc.

Read the directions and see if it applies to your book.

#4 Select Your Book Release Option

This is where you DO NOT want to click "Make my book available for pre-order" until you're sure you're ready to do so. 

A lot of this you can do in stages as you have time, if you need to. Then keep saving as "draft" (at the bottom of the page). Don't put your book for pre-sale until you have everything set because you can't un-do it!!!

#5 Upload Your Cover and #6 Upload Your Book File

Self explanatory.

I do NOT enable digital rights management (DRM). From what I've read on this topic a few years ago, DRM can cause problems so I opt out of this one. You may want to google it, read up on it, and make your own decision. But choose carefully because I believe if you choose DRM, you CANNOT undo it. Ever!

#7 Preview Your Book

When you have it uploaded, it's always a thrill to actually see it! Take the time to scroll through your entire book on the previewer. You'll see things that need fixed -- like a chapter that didn't start on a new page or a different margin at the top of different chapters.

To fix any problems, you'd go back to your Word document, make the changes, re-save it as the HTML file, zipped file, and drag photo file to the zipped file (as described above), then come back to this page on KDP (from your Bookshelf choose to "edit" your file), and re-upload your ebook. Once done, it will take a little while to be approved, but soon your changes will go live. And your book will never be off line for sales.

At Bottom of Page 

Be sure to click "Save as Draft" until you're sure you're ready for your book to publish or be available for pre-orders.

Page 2 -- Pricing Page

#8 Publishing Territories

I always go with "Worldwide rights."

#9 Pricing and Royalty

Enter the price you want for your e-book. You really should price your book between $2.99 and $9.99 so that you will receive 70% royalties from Amazon.

In special circumstances you may want to price your book outside of that range. For example, I've priced my short e-book "Cutting the Passive Voice" at $ .99. I wanted to offer it so anyone can afford it. Also because it's short, it's very helpful to writers, and I've actually given it for free off my web site in the past.

I wanted an almost-free e-book to "give" away that would help writers. Plus, at the back of this little e-book (as with all my e-books) I have a section of "More Books by this Author." So while I'm only receiving 35% royalty on my 99-cent book, every time it goes out to someone it also has the potential of making them aware of all my other books. I feel it's a win-win for me and my readers.

Consider: What inexpensive yet valuable e-book can you offer for a low price that can also cross-market all your other products? (Tweet that!)

#10 MatchBook

If you ONLY have the e-book version of this book (not a print version), you may not enroll in MatchBook.

#11 Kindle Book Lending (KOLL)

Yes, I always allow my ebooks to be in the Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL). Unlike a regular library, you will get paid a small amount for every page a person reads of your book. So why not? Plus it gets your work out there to more readers, who just may become fans, write you a review, or buy your next book.

At Bottom of Page 

Click "Save as Draft" until you are absolutely positive you are ready to go. Your book is proofread. You've fixed all the problems you've found. Etc.

At this point you can make your ebook go live soon (within 24 hours) by checking the confirmation box and then clicking "Save and Publish." HOWEVER, I think it's very wise to always take advantage of the opportunity to take pre-sale orders.

Making Available for Pre-Orders 

If you want to do so, return to page 1 and click that you want to put your ebook for pre-orders.

You can set the date for your e-book to publish up to 90 days ahead. In my experience, you won't get many pre-orders until the publishing date draws closer. (Maybe if you're famous and your book is greatly anticipated...) But don't get discouraged if you don't see many pre-sales at first.

Understand you can move your date up (closer), but you cannot move your date back (farther away) without stiff penalties. That's why I say to make doubly-sure you're ready to go before you do that.

Also understand that you MUST upload the FINAL draft of your e-book ten days before it publishes. That means you can't make any changes or corrections the last ten days it's on pre-order. That's another reason to make really super sure it's ready to go before you set it for pre-order.

I love using the pre-order option. It lets me get a running start on promoting my book. (Tweet that!) I can strategically pick my publishing date -- maybe to coincide with a conference I'm teaching at or a holiday that celebrates the topic of my book. While I'm waiting for the date to arrive, I can work on many ways to promote the book, including sending out a newsletter, offering guest blog posts, posting notices on Facebook and Twitter that readers can now pre-order -- all with links to the pre-order page on Amazon. I can also create a book trailer and other promotional products.

On that exciting day when your book finally goes live, all your pre-sales count as sales in one day. This could land you on a "best seller's list" in one of those categories you entered for your book. (Tweet that!) Keep an eye on those categories when it goes live and you might seen it go to under 100 on those lists -- and you can click on the link to see it on that list of great books. Then you can celebrate that (and use that fun event to promote your book even more!). Post a link to the list on all your social media.

Your book might also land on a "Hot New Releases" list, which you'll see when you click through to one of the category lists. (Tweet that!)


That's probably more than enough info for this month. So what are you waiting for? Get your e-book cooking on Kindle. Next month we'll talk about ways to market your Kindle e-book so readers can find it, plus ways to get those wonderful, pretty essential Amazon book reviews. It's one thing to have your e-book available among the millions on Amazon. It's another thing to let people know it's there and how to find it!

Here it is!

• My next e-book in the "Getting Published" series releases on May 16! You can pre-order now and get it as soon as it releases!

Releasing May 16, 2016!

Query Letters: 

How to Write the Query (and Cover) Letter You Dread to Magazine Editors and Book Publishers

Includes my formula for writing query letters PLUS 9 actual query letters for you to follow as examples. Order today!

Freebies:

• Get "3 Free Low-Maintenance Ways to Keep Your Tweets Rolling!"
• Also get the free document "Which Rights Are the Right Rights for a Writer to Sell?" 

Get both here:  Subscribe to Dianne's Newsletter 

Related Articles:

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free)

How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free)

I hope you're making progress on your Kindle e-book after the previous two how-to posts. But even if you have your e-book written and formatted, you're going to need a cover for your e-book.

So in this Part 3 of the series about making your own Kindle e-book, we're going to explore making your own cover for your Kindle book as well as where you can find covers to purchase or hire someone to make one for you.

In Part 1 of this series in February, we covered how to format your Microsoft Word document to make it into a Kindle e-book. Last month in Part 2, we talked about saving yourself time and work by creating your own Templates for your Front Matter and Back Matter. This way whenever you create a new e-book, you not only can simply copy and paste your Front and End Matter into your new e-book, but you can also easily update all your existing e-books by updating your End Matter once -- including your "More Books by You" section -- and then copying that into all your existing book documents and re-uploading them to Kindle. This updates your End Matter in each of your books and lets your readers know of your new book coming out, as well as all your other books. It's called cross promoting, it's wonderful, and you should always look for opportunities to be doing this.

Oh but wait. We haven't uploaded your first e-book yet because we need a book cover.

There are several ways you can get a cover for your e-book. (Tweet that!)

I have both had covers made for my Kindle books and made covers for some myself. I've also done a lot of research on where to get Kindle e-book covers. So I'll share what I know with you here. (Please Tweet that!) There are probably many more ways but as always I share what I've learned to help you get started and you can take it from there and run with it.

My first book,
Dear America, was
published in print by
Ampelos Press in  March
2002. I made it a Kindle
e-book in March 2012.

1. Use the cover from your existing books (No additional cost since you already have it)

My second book, Deliver
Me, I published in print in
April 2011. I made it an
e-book in 2013.

Obviously you can use the cover image you already have for your printed books. For the first two e-books I created I used the cover I already had because these were first printed books.

This was many years ago and I got help from friends to create the front cover only (without the spine or back cover). From there, it was easy to upload that file to Kindle.

(Available on Dianne's Amazon page. Click the yellow Follow button to be alerted when I release a new e-book!)

2. Create your cover on Kindle (Free)

For some of you, it might be easiest to use the cover Creator on the Kindle site. Go to your account at KDP.com and look at the top of the Bookshelf page. The second item in the New Title Checklist has a link to their Cover Creator.

I did play around with the Cover Creator for short time and I felt the covers I was coming up with were not as good as I could get elsewhere so I haven't used Kindle's Cover Creator. And that was a few years ago too, so it might be better now. 

If you're really good at creating artistic projects, yours might turn out better than mine did. So don't neglect trying Kindle's built-in Cover Creator.

3. Use Fiverr.com (Not Free)

When I decided to create a line of at least twelve e-books for writers, I went to Fiverr.com. If you're not familiar with Fiverr.com, it is a site where people are willing to do many tasks for you for five dollars. Their gigs, as they call them, always start with, "For five dollars I will…". On Fiverr you can also purchase upgrades for an additional fee, so I ended up paying another five dollars for an upgraded image for each of my covers. But I still felt that was a good deal to get my e-book covers for ten dollars each.

It was my goal to have each of my e-books earn back the ten dollars I spent on its cover. Everything I earn from my e-book after that is pure profit, except for the time I invested in creating them. However, as it turned out, within the first couple months my first e-book earned back as much as I paid for all twelve covers! (Tweet that!) So they are all paid for.

If you have seen my e-books for writers in my "Getting Published" series, these are the e-book covers I had made at Fiverr.com. I'll insert the covers of the books that are out so far below so you can see them. I asked my e-book cover designer on Fiverr.com to make all twelve covers look like a series. So she inserted the "Getting Published" bar with the circle and book inside so they would all look alike. I thought she did a great job. And I think the covers I got for ten dollars each are well worth their money.

     

(All available on Dianne's Amazon page. 

Click the yellow Follow button to be alerted when I release a new e-book!)

Oh, and by the way, I did ask my cover designer if she would offer a discount since I was having her make twelve covers. She did, and I basically got two covers free or all twelve for the price of ten.

So while you need to shop around on Fiverr.com, I think you can get a very good cover for a very good price there. You can shop around by using the search box to search for e-book covers. You should see many gigs from people who will create your e-book covers.

Then you can investigate each one. Their profile will tell you what country the person offering the gig is from, if they speak English, etc.. They often display several examples of e-book covers they have created. Some of them talk to you in a video that will show you more. You can also read reviews of the service from people who have purchased that gig. You can see how many gigs they have in their queue and so that will tell you how long it may take for them to get to your project. I've had a lot of fun looking through all of the different offers and people who create e-books on Fiver.com so you might set aside some time to enjoy exploring the possibilities there.

4. Create your cover on Canva.com (Free)

When it came time to create covers for the three e-books I wanted to create from my Bible Prophecies Fulfilled blog, I already had images that I wanted to use. For my first e-book I wanted to use a picture I took myself of the eclipsed reddish moon called a "Blood Moon." I had also already created an image of a harvest to represent the Shemitah and I wanted to use that for my book cover. For the third book in the series I already had an image from Morguefile.com of a Jewish priest holding the Torah which I had used on my blog. Because I already knew that I could use the image from Morguefile, I wanted to use that on my e-book cover well.

So I had the images I wanted, I just needed a program to help me create my e-book covers. As I was doing other projects I noticed on Canva.com that there is an option for creating an e-book cover. (Tweet that!) So I checked that out, and that template already had the correct size Kindle requires so it was easy for me to use that template to create my e-book covers.

Also, because I wanted all three to look similar because they are series, I created a bar that says "Bible Prophecies Fulfilled Blog Series." I put my name as author on the cover. From that point it was easy to just change the image and change the title and the bar with the type and my author name remained the same, all lined up, same font and text color and size, so all my covers go together as in a series.

I have to admit that I'm not completely satisfied with the e-book covers I created on Canva.com. I don't like the way the titles don't really pop. I've tried making the text thicker, bolder, whiter. But nothing I've done so far really makes the words stand out. The titles are hard to read, especially when in the smaller thumbnail. So I think I need to work on these covers some more,

    

(All available on Dianne's Amazon page. 

Click the yellow Follow button to be alerted when I release a new e-book!)

Please note that when using Canva.com you are creating a cover for an e-book only. So if you want to also make your book available in print you won't have the spine and the back cover to go with it.

If you do want to make your book available both in print and as an e-book, you will need the spine and the back cover for your print book. In all my travels around the Internet and research on looking for covers for my books I found several articles and sites where you can get covers made for both e-books and print books. I'll share those below.

More places to get your e-book (and/or print) cover  (Not Free)

5. Multiple sources in this article 

I came across this article with an abundance of opportunities where you can get your e-book cover made.  (Tweet that!)

• Book Cover Design article by TheCreativePenn.com

6. The Book Cover Designer 

Here you can purchase pre-made book covers or have one custom made. Costs start at about $40 and go up from there. For an additional cost, you can also purchase the cover for your print book (meaning it also includes the spine and back cover).

What I found especially fun on this site is that you can choose one artist and see all of his or her covers. So when you see a style that especially catches your attention, that artist might be the special one you're looking for. (Tweet that!)

• The Book Cover Designer

7. Cover Design Studio 

This site claims that, using their templates, you can create a do-it-yourself book cover for Create Space (that's the print arm of Amazon) and Kindle in under one hour. I haven't done that and I'm pretty sure it would take me more than an hour! They have templates you can purchase starting at $19. (Tweet that!)

• Cover Design Studio

8. Self Pub Book Covers 

This site offers self publishers or independent publishers book cover design, and there are lots to choose from. You can purchase a cover and then edit the text. (Tweet that!) Costs start at $69.

• SelfPubBookCovers.com

9. Cover Vault 

Finally, if you know how to use Photoshop and if you own that program, you may be interested in this site. I'm not sure that it actually makes e-book covers, however the site owner offers many free templates for promoting your e-books. (Tweet that!)

I don't own Photoshop, so I didn't get very far using it. I'm wondering if Gimp.org (a free software that claims to do the same as the expensive Photoshop) would work, but I haven't taken the time to play with that. At any rate, if you're interested here is that site.

• Cover Vault

Where you can get images for your e-book cover  (Free)

If you're going to create your own e-book cover you will need an image to go on the cover. Be careful that you get an image where you either own the rights or have the rights to use on your e-book cover. There are many stock photo websites where you can get images, but make sure you're allowed to use it on your e-book without any restrictions.

Of course if you take the photo yourself you can use it without restrictions as long as you don't have people or property in it that you haven't received permission to use on your e-book cover.

I love Morguefile.com because we can freely use those images without restrictions. You can also alter those images if you want to and Morguefile doesn't mind. By alter I mean you can put text over the image and make other alterations.

• Morguefile.com  Update 4/5/18: Morguefile has changed. The last time I was there it seemed it's no longer a good place to get images that don't have copyright restrictions. Since then I've found these which I've used and enjoye:

• Pixabay.com

• VisualHunt.com

I did find this article which I thought had a lot of good sites for free images that I'd like to check out. (Tweet that!) I haven't had the time to check them out yet, but you can have fun doing that.

• 17 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos

My best advice for a book cover

Whether you decide to make your own book cover or hire someone to make it for you I want to share the best advice I've ever received about making a book cover. This advice came from my cover designer for my book Deliver Me, Jo Hardesty. Jo told me that the cover of your book needs to tell a story. That's why I love the cover image I found for Deliver Me. I really feel that image tells a story. (Tweet that!)

So as you design your book cover for your new Kindle e-book keep that in mind. What image can you find that tells the story of your e-book?

Next month I'll give you the tips I've learned about uploading my e-books on Kindle. 

There's plenty of instruction out there if you don't want to wait, or if you want to upload your e-book for pre-sale in the mean time. One Caution: Just be sure your e-book is ready or at least nearly ready before you set it up for pre-sale on Kindle, because once you do that you can un-do it! 

Notes:

• My next e-book in the "Getting Published" series is available for pre-order now. I expect this e-book to release next month, in May 2016. Get it as soon as it releases! Pre-order now here:

Query Letters: 

How to Write the Query (and Cover) Letter You Dread to Magazine Editors and Book Publishers

Includes my formula for writing query letters PLUS 9 of my actual query letters for you to follow as examples. Only $3.95. Order today!

• I'm currently offering a new document titled "Which Rights Are the Right Rights for a Writer to Sell?" for free to subscribers to my newsletter, If you've already subscribed, I'll include a link to the document in the April 2016 issue. If you'd like to sign up, you can do that here: Subscribe to Dianne's Newsletter 

Related Articles:

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images

How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images

My printed instructions from Kindle on how to make a

Word document into a Kindle e-book.

Last month we talked about how to format your Word document to be a Kindle e-book. We covered how to let Word create your Table of Contents, saving your time and energy by creating your own template for your future Kindle books, and more. (Tweet that!) Find that post here:

How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document

Your homework from the previous post was to get your book written and your document formatted.

This month we'll talk about creating your front matter, back matter, and inserting images. (Tweet that!)

Introducing my newest e-book: The 7 Feasts of the LORD

Before we start on this month's instructions, I've been working hard on my own Kindle e-book and I now have it available for pre-order. It will release later this month in time for Easter. I hope this inspires you in what you can do with your projects.

This is the third in my series, "Best of Bible Prophecies Fulfilled Blog."

The 7 Feasts of the LORD

If you've ever wondered what the seven Feasts of the LORD are, what they mean, or why they're important, you'll want this e-book. Its short chapters are easy to read. It covers all 7 of the Feasts. You'll learn what each of the Feasts are, where they came from, and how they relate to Jesus. You'll see how the first four Feasts were fulfilled when Jesus came and walked the earth and in his death and resurrection.

You'll also learn how the last three Feasts not only teach and prepare us for, they also predict, His second coming. Learn how these Feasts are connected to the Blood Moons you heard so much about in 2014 and 2015, which were the subject of an earlier Kindle e-book I produced.

All this plus a brand new Leader's Guide is included in the e-book. You'll be equipped to easily share the information with your Bible study, friends, and family.

Pre-order your copy right now. Get it the moment it releases. Please share with your friends: (Tweet this!)

Order here:  The 7 Feasts of the LORD

Now, more on how to create your own Kindle e-book:

Create a Template of Front Matter and End Matter

Do you think you might create more than one e-book? You'd be wise to plan more books because the sales of your e-books increase as you create more e-books because you can cross promote all your other books in each e-book.

That's why I strongly recommend you create your Front Matter and End Matter in separate Word files on your computer.  Why? Because…

• You can copy and paste them into each new e-book without having to re-recreate them.

Why not just put them into your template? Because…

• When you have them in separate files, you can update them whenever you want and then copy and paste them into each e-book document that you've already created.

Why would you want to do that? Because…

• You may want to tweak your front matter. But you'll definitely want to tweak your back matter with every new e-book you publish.

Why? Because…

• In your End Matter you will want to include "More Books by…"  You'll also want to include "About the Author" which will probably need to be updated with each new book. So when you have your End Matter in one document, it's an easy thing to update it once with your new e-book's image, description, and link, and then cut / paste your entire End Matter into each of your already-published e-books' documents. Then you can re-upload each of your e-books again to Kindle and you'll have your newest e-book in your "More Books by You" section in every e-book that's downloaded from then on. Readers will see your other books, including your newest one and you'll get more sales. (Tweet that!)

So create two new Word documents: one for your Front Matter and one for your End matter. I put both documents in a separate folder so I can find them easily.

We'll now create your Front Matter and then we'll create your End Matter next.

Your Front Matter Template

Your Front Matter includes a:

• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication (optional)
• Acknowledgements (optional and now I'm seeing more and more at the back of a book. If you want yours at the back of your book, put this in your End Matter.)

Title Page

I create a title page with a placeholder for the title.

I include my name, my publishing company, and anything else I want. I create these in different fonts and font sizes to make things stand out and so it looks nice.

When I'm ready to create a new e-book, it's then easy to type in the title and everything else usually stays the same. (Tweet that!) With fonts, fonts sizes, and any other formatting already set, all my e-books have the same look to them.

A word about fonts: Kindles won't do a lot of different fonts, so don't spend a lot of time creating with fonts. I make my title in a large font, my author name in a small font. My publishing company in a small font at the bottom of the title page. If you have a logo for your publishing company, you can insert it here as an image. (See below for how to properly deal with images so they work right in your Kindle e-book.)

Copyright Page

Insert a page break after your Title Page and then create a copyright page for your e-books. I followed the patterns of other books to create mine. You can follow my template to create yours if you want to. (Tweet that!) I can't remember now where I found the paragraph included below, but I do remember permission was given to copy and use it.

I added "Cover image: by…" and "Cover design: by…" just because I wanted to acknowledge Morguefile.com where I often get my images, even though Morguefile allows free use of its images and giving credit or attribution is not required.

I put a note in about my blog only because for this particular e-book I recycled the information in the e-book from my blog. Unless you want to make a special mention like that, you can leave that off.

Here is what I put on my copyright page:

Copyright © 2016 by Dianne E. Butts
A Publication of Connections Press
Cover image: by Morguefile.com
Cover design: by Dianne E. Butts  

This information was originally published on the http://BiblePropheciesFulfilled.blogspot.com blog. © 2014 – 2015 and beyond Dianne E. Butts Kindle Edition 

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. This e-book may be available for Kindle Prime members in the Kindle Lending Library. If you would like to share this book with someone else, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

If you include a Dedication and/or Acknowledgements, be sure to format those words at the top of your page using Heading 1 as described in the previous post for your chapter titles. You want to use Heading 1 so they will automatically show up in your Table of Contents.

Your End Matter Template

For your End Matter, create another Word document.

Put "More Books by…" at the top of the page. Use Heading 1 so this will show up in your Table of Contents.

Insert images of your other books here. (Don't copy and paste them in. Use the Insert menu in Word. See below about adding images.) Add the title, price if you want to, and make the title a link to your book on Amazon. These links work so a reader can go directly to your book and make the purchase. Note that if your book is available on other e-platforms, it's not a good idea to link to them as those are Amazon's competitors. So think before you link. (Tweet that!)

Once you have this part of your End Matter created, I recommend that every time you create another book (e-book or print), you:

• add it here with an image and a link. 
• Then copy / paste your new End Matter into each previously-created e-book document. 
• Then re-upload each e-book to Kindle.

That way all your books will be in the End Matter of all your books and you will always be cross-promoting your other books.

Insert a page break after your last book.

After your inserted page break, type "About the Author" at the top of the next page, again using Heading 1 so Word will automatically add it to your Table of Contents as we learned in the previous post.

Here you can insert your author photo (Don't paste it in. See the section below.) and a bio about yourself. Keep it fairly short. Your readers will want to know a little bit about you, but they won't read pages.

Your photo is needed so readers can make an emotional connection with you. They want to see your welcoming, smiling face. This would be the same photo you'd put on the back cover of a print book. (Tweet that!) But you get more room to tell about yourself than you can on the back of a print book.

You can also add links to your web site, blog, and social media pages. (Amazon doesn't mind these because they're not leading to competing booksellers.)

You can put these "About the Author" first in your End Matter and "More Books by You" last if you want to. I continually wonder which should come first. I finally decided I'd rather put my other books first because I want to catch readers who might skip this end matter. If I can interest them in other books I have available, I want to do it right away. If they have to scroll through my Author bio, they might not and I might lose a sale.

How to Put Images Into Your Kindle E-Book

Pay special attention to the instructions for inserting
images on page 3.

When you're working with a Word document for other uses, you can often copy and paste an image into your document. However that doesn't work for a Kindle book. So when you have an image you want to put into your book, such as your author photo in your "About the Author" section or the images of the covers of your other books, you can't just copy the image and paste it into your e-book document. Don't ask me why, it just won't work for Kindle.

For your images to work correctly in your Kindle book, you need to use the "Insert" menu on Word and select "Picture." (Tweet that!) Then a box opens where you can find the image and past it in. Leave it centered.

Pay close attention to this section on page 3 in the Kindle instructions which you printed out in the previous post.

Tips from Dianne

How to Strip Annoying Codes

Occasionally I want to use material from another source, such as my own blog, to put into my e-book. If you just copy from that source and then paste it into your Word document, it can carry with it all kinds of coding that can cause you headaches trying to find it and get rid of it.  One way to get rid of all the coding is to use Notepad on PCs. (Tweet that!) Mac has a similar program.

Copy your material into Notepad first. Notepad will strip all the codes out. Then re-copy the words and paste it into your Word doc and it should behave because all that coding is gone.

Create Internal Links

You can create internal links in the text of your Kindle e-book so your reader can jump around inside your manuscript and immediately go to another location you've referenced.

One use for internal links is footnotes. For example if you create a footnote in your book, your reader can click an internal link and read the footnote, and the come back.

This will be my next
Kindle e-book ... once
I figure out all the
internal links it will need.

My next e-book in my "Getting Published" series for writers is going to be about writing query letters. Back in 2003 I created a printed, paper copy of this same material. In it I have a list of 18 items to include in your query letter. Then I included seven actual query letters in the pamphlet. In each of these seven query letters, I found each of the 18 items that letter included and put the corresponding number in the margin so my reader could locate examples of each item in the sample query letters.

But when I wanted to create an e-book with this same material so it would be accessible to a lot more people who need it, I was completely stymied on how to create that association between the instructions and the examples. There's no way I could put a number floating out in the margin of the sample letters and have it stay in the correct location in an e-book.

This is why I've been procrastinating on creating this particular e-book. And this is what has stopped me for so long from rolling out more e-books for writers.

I just couldn't figure out how to do it! It was a roadblock.

Recently I thought about creating internal links to accomplish the same thing as my numbers in the margin of my printed pamphlet.

It seems like a lot of work. And I've struggled to figure out how to link everything I want to link together. But I think I have it in my head. Doing it feels daunting, so I've put it off. But I think the work will pay off for my readers once I get it done.

What project do you have that could hold added value for your e-book buyers if you created internal links? (Tweet that!) It's something to think about.

Coming next...

Next month we'll talk about e-books covers. You're going to need a cover for your e-book. We'll look at where to have one made at an affordable price, where you can create your own, and what you want to consider when creating your cover.

Related Article:

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document