KDP Archives - Suns Golden Ray Publishing

Posted on January 29, 2018June 5, 2018 by Whitney Evans

Common Book Formatting Issues

Having formatted a number of books (and published a number more), we’ve seen a lot of book formatting issues along the way. Sometimes, it’s a simple derp error on our part, other times it’s a bit more complex. Many times, we forgot to check a button. But our derp is your gain. Here, we’ve listed some of the most common errors we get while formatting:

Kindle Look Inside Feature

This one is a sneaky one, and one that trips up a lot of authors if they aren’t paying attention. If you visit Amazon’s Look Inside feature, you might find your book formatting is completely different than expected. This is due to the Look Inside feature using a different software than the Kindle. In layman’s terms, Look Inside strips out a lot of the coding that makes a Kindle look pretty. This is most often the case when a user is using Scrivener 2.0 to format their books.

The best and most easy fix to this is to upload an ePub file to KDP. Or, if you have updated to Scrivener 3.0, they have fixed this issue with .Mobi files. If you’re using Vellum, they’ve also resolved this issue as well. The best course of action is always to check your file after it goes live to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward.

Smashwords Autovetter Errors

Smashwords is notorious for throwing all kinds of errors at people. From images to text to Tables of Contents, you can find reams of complaints about people fighting with it. Happily, there’s a real easy solution to this problem: If you direct upload an ePub file (vice a Word document), you won’t have to submit to the Meatgrinder.

Keep in mind that per Smashword’s own data, Kindle is the most-often downloaded format, and if you only upload an ePub file, you won’t get that .Mobi file for users of the Smashwords store. We wrote a whole blog on Smashwords, if you think you want to upload a Word doc instead.

CreateSpace and Ingram Errors

If you’re using CreateSpace and IngramSpark to publish your book, generally if one accepts your book format, the other will as well. The normal errors we get from IngramSpark relate to the color schema (as Scrivener exports PDFs in a different schema) and, on occasion, if we save the cover under the wrong Photoshop setting. Both of these issues are “non-blocking,” that is, Ingram will fix them for you. With CreateSpace, our most common error is the autovetter stalling when we upload the interior. CreateSpace will review the document and allow you to view the online version to check for any issues.

Any Other Errors

Do you have any errors popping up when you format? Something just not working? Sound off in the comments!

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Posted on December 11, 2017December 5, 2017 by Whitney Evans

Using Compile Presets in Scrivener

Scrivener is a wonderful program many writers use to set up and manage their books, screenplays, and research projects. Nearly every aspect of the program can be customizable, from the drafting settings to the export format. But with so many options, many authors find themselves overwhelmed. To that end, we’re posting a blog series on our favorite features of Scrivener. Today, we’re going to cover how to use compile presets in Scrivener, including some tips and tricks to set you up for success.

Note: The screenshots are for Scrivener 2.0. for Mac. We hear from our friends at Literature and Latte that version 3.0 is coming soon, and when we get access to it, we’ll update this post.

What is a Compile Preset?

A Compile Preset is exactly what it sounds like – a pre-selected group of compile settings that you can use and reuse. In other words, you can have a setting for paperback to keep your margins and font size the same, one for hardcovers, one for Kindle, etc. There are two kinds: Project Presets and Global Presets.

Project Presets are saved settings only available in a single file. We like to keep our series books in a single file, then create project presets for each format. The settings for Razia aren’t available in the Madion Trilogy, for example.

Global presets, on the other hand, are available across all Scrivener projects. This is a good way to keep your general settings for paperbacks and hardcovers consistent. You can create a new project preset starting from the global preset, or keep your oft-used presets, like exporting a clean .docx to your editor.

Project Preset Tips

Once upon a time, we did a print run of one of our books. All was well until we opened up the first page and saw our headers showed the wrong book title.

Truly. There were thirty books in that print run.

Ever since then, we’ve made it a habit to create separate print settings for every book. That way, we’re absolutely sure we’re printing the right book. Also, our hardcover formatting differs (usually) from the paperback formatting, so having those separate presets is convenient. For example: when you have updates to back matter, you don’t have to spend time trying to guess what the margins were. Your books will be consistent every time.

Just make sure you double check those headers.

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Posted on February 20, 2017February 1, 2017 by Whitney Evans

Your Book’s Unique Identifier: ISBN

Last week, we talked a little about IngramSpark, and spoke briefly about ISBNs. The International Standard Book Number is your book’s unique identifier, how we know that your The Island is different from her The Island. For each format of book, you technically need to have a different ISBN, although the rules are bending in this new age of self-publishing.

Do I need ISBNs?

Print books need ISBNs, eBooks published through Nook, iBooks, and the like (Smashwords) need an ISBN, but Amazon doesn’t require them for .mobis. That’s led to an interesting new phenomena where a large swatch of eBook purchases aren’t tracked/reported by the traditional mechanisms (but that’s a post for another day).

Bottom line: The only time you won’t need an ISBN is if you’ve decided to go exclusive with Kindle Unlimited, and you won’t be publishing physical books.

Where Do I Get ISBNs?

You can either pay for ISBNs through Bowker or you can get them for free on Smashwords and CreateSpace. Why would you buy for ISBNs at all? It all comes down to what you’re looking to do.

When it comes to eBooks, ISBNs are less important. As we said above, Amazon doesn’t even require them, and Smashwords offers them for free. There really is no downside to using Smashwords’ ISBN, except that Smashwords will be listed as your publisher on the eBook distribution.

Free vs. Paid for Print

For your print books, there’s a little more to consider. CreateSpace does offer free ISBNs, but if you decide to use them, you become limited in your expanded distribution and ability to sell books in bookstores (We wrote about it in more detail here). For our money, we like owning our ISBNs for our print books. CreateSpace doesn’t offer hardcovers, so we have to buy them anyway, and we like IngramSpark’s expanded distribution.

ISBNs are How Much?

That was the first thing we thought when we saw the prices on Bowker. True, one is $125 (yes, WHAT?), five are $250, and you can get a whopping 100 for $575. So which should you pick? Again, this all comes down to what your goals are as an author/publisher.

If you’re like us, and have at least 50 books in the ol’ pipeline (remember, you’ll need a different ISBN for print and hardcover), then the $525 makes a lot of sense. But if you’re a one-shot wonder with your magnum opus, then we’d actually recommend going with CreateSpace’s free ISBNs.

The one thing we’ll caution is that if you have any plans to potentially sign in a bookstore like Barnes and Noble, consider that many won’t accept books that aren’t returnable. You can only make books returnable at IngramSpark, and IngramSpark requires a Bowker-provided ISBN.

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