by Anura Guruge
on November 10, 2023
Not much I can add. I told you about the $3 eBook a fews days ago. Now, as promised, the paperback is out. At $8 — on Amazon.
The video gives you a quick preview of what is in the book.
Here is another perspective — albeit just of the first few pages.
by Anura Guruge
on November 6, 2022
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Caveats:
1/ Never start off by using this workaround because it is GOOD to make sure that your margins are within limits & noting will get cut-off. Got that?
You should ONLY use this ‘trick’ if you are 120% certain that there is nothing wrong with your margins (& gutter) that NOTHING, BUT NOTHING will get inadvertently trimmed off during production. Got that?
2/ The KDP Paperback Previewer is getting more crochety in its old age — or, to be kinder, as it gets more mature. It, literally, cuts you no slack. If you have anything that barely touches the trim lines, it flags the book as being unprintable!
This is where you need to use your experience, expertise & judgement. Check the pages. Are you well & truly outside the trim lines. IF so, you really should fix it. But, is it just the case that you have text & maybe some graphics that are JUST on the line. Not over it. Just on the line.
In cricket, the line ALWAYS belongs to the umpire.
Well, KDP doesn’t have any LIVE umpires you can appeal to for some mercy. It is binary. You have to fix the margins BEFORE you can go ahead.
3/ This overzealous Previewer really only starts to show its unpleasant side when you are dealing with BIG books, with THICK spines, i.e., books with over (say) 500 pages.
4/ Well I stumbled upon a workaround. ONCE I have triple ascertained that nothing is really outside the trim lines, I set the BLEED SETTING to BLEED! Smile. You work it out. That is all I am saying. Just trying to help. SMILE.
P.S., You can ONLY use BLEED with manuscripts submitted in PDF form. OK?
by Anura Guruge
on October 21, 2022
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I discovered this, to my cost & horror, earlier today. I was rushing ahead to get a new paperback published. I had been working on the cover, heads down, all day, & now that it was done I wanted it submitted for publishing BEFORE the weekend. So, I was rushing, even more than I normally do when I get close to having a book ready.
This book, my 38th, was a FIRST for I. My first photo book. Yep, a photo book with a very few words! Who would have thought. It also happened to be the FIRST paperback I have published where the whole book (bar the cover) was in just ONE MS Word document.
All of my other paperbacks are split across MULTIPLE Word documents. These days I have, at a minimum, this set of Word documents per paperback book: front matter, TOC, Preface, Notes, body I, body II …, backmatter, Index, last_pages. I create a PDF from each & then use the PDF merge function to create the final book image PDF. {By the way, for the last 10-months — & as such last 3 books — I use, with great success ‘Foxit PDF Editor Pro‘.
In this case, with this short, i.e., 53-page, page I had all 53 pages in one Word file.
That was ‘the mistake’. In my hurry I forgot to create a PDF! YES. I forgot to make a PDF. I am still in disbelief & SHOCK. I, Anura Guruge, FORGOT to MAKE A PDF! Has to be dotage. I might have to stop this writing/publishing lark soon IF I continue to make mistakes like this.
KDP {happily} let me submit the Word file without a demur — or a warning saying “Are you sure you don’t have a PDF?”
My first intimation that something was different was when I launched the mandatory ‘Book Previewer’. WOW! It was quick. Like near instantaneous. I should have realized that something was wrong then. I didn’t. Old age.
Then to my horror the book was a MESS. Margins were off & that screwed up the pagination. The book was 59 pages long as opposed to my 53. SO, here is another strange thing. Though we are only talking FRACTIONS my cover size should have been wrong. KDP should have flagged me. I was beyond distressed.
Like a crazy person I started editing my Word file to resubmit WHEN it hit me. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? You don’t submit Word files to KDP, you submit PDFs.
It was a HUGE RELIEF to discover that the fix was simple. Just create a new PDF & submit that. That is exactly what I did.
The Preview process took much, much longer. But, my book looked like what it should. It was also at 53-pages.
So, I am doing this post as a HEADS-UP for you. Just make sure you submit the RIGHT file type to KDP. KDP is NOT going to flag you. {I think they should}
by Anura Guruge
on June 4, 2022
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I had NOT realized this before. But, Kindle eBooks do NOT have to be Previewed & Approved prior to publication. That is worth repeating. Kindle eBooks don’t have to be approved — following a preview — in order to have them published. That is definitely NOT the case with KDP paperbacks. You can’t proceed to the publish step unless you do a Preview and Approve. This means that in the case of eBooks the Preview is OPTIONAL.
The last two times I was publishing an eBook I noticed that the Preview step was taking forever & forever. I mean over 20 minutes, if not closer to 30 minutes. That is crazy. Getting a preview ready does take some time, especially if (as is invariably the case with my books) the book is lengthy, has a lot of formatting & images. But, 20- to 30-minutes should be plenty.
I discovered, kind of by accident (due to my growing exasperation) that it is OK to hit CANCEL on the preview. Nothing bad happens. Actually nothing happens OTHER than you getting out of preview mode. I then hit ‘Save and Continue’ to be on the safe side. With an eBook you can go straight to the next page, set the prices & HIT PUBLISH.
If you so wish you can also try the preview step again. In my experience (both times), the Preview, second time around happened rather quickly. It would appear that most of the processing had already been done during the first try. So, this has worked for me twice — the last time just a few hours ago when I was publishing this eBook.
Just wanted to share this with you BECAUSE it can be quite scary and nerve-wracking waiting for the previewer to display a preview. So, don’t worry. Don’t panic. Just cancel the preview — AFTER 20+ minutes — & start again. SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on November 24, 2021
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This is a GOOD deal. Thank YOU ‘TDS‘ — & yes, we have ‘TDS TV‘ & also get our 1G Internet & landline from them.
From what I recall TDS does these previews a couple of times a year — & yes, I think they try always have one around Thanksgiving. That is cute & nice.
So, IF you have TDS make sure to avail yourself to this deal. No credit cards. HBO & Cinemax channels will appear in your guide. I can’t remember which channels — but I think they are in the ‘2000’ or higher range. Start at 2000 and look around.
Enjoy.