Tag: book

Formatting Your Self-Published Book in Microsoft Word and Scrivener

Dean Chills H. K. Kiting Podcast

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Episode 25: Formatting Your Self-Published Book in Microsoft Word and Scrivener

Welcome back to Episode TWENTY-FIVE of the Writing and Publishing Erotica Podcast. I am H. K. Kiting and I am Dean Chills and we’re your hosts for the show. This is the podcast where we talk about writing and publishing in general, and include the occasional tidbit about erotica specifically.

If you find enjoy this podcast or find it helpful then review us on iTunes.  Also, check out our books at SexyFic.com

 

What’s your most recent release?

 

Episode 25: Formatting a Book

 

Reader Mail:

My question has to do with formatting — specifically, how to make an attractive looking ebook after uploading a .docx file onto Amazon (or elsewhere). Quite frankly, the two books I’ve written both look like hot garbage, formatting wise. Each time I upload the .docx file into Amazon, the converted file is full of bizarre formatting errors: arbitrary paragraph indentions, words cramming together, line spacing all messed up. I initially wrote my first book with regular paragraph indentions, in size 12 Times New Roman font, with justified-aligned text. The results were a total eyesore. I re-uploaded the document after eliminating all paragraph indentions, double-spacing instead of pressing the TAB key, but even that leaves much to be desired. I seem to be the only person unable to make their .mobi files look even passable… and it is, quite frankly, a little frustrating. Do you have any advice on this? Or am I SOL?

 

  • Henry’s Take on formatting his books
  • Dean’s book formatting response:
  • Other points and Writing Tools for making eBooks:

 

  • eBook formatting vs. Print book formatting

 

  • Word.
  • Pages.
  • Scrivener.
  • Jutoh.
  • Markdown/Text.
  • Google Docs.

 
We really want to hear from you. If you have a comment, complaint, or topic suggestion, mail us at sexyfic@gmail.com or stop by SexyFic.com and leave a voicemail on the tab that allows you to record a message. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and leave a review for the show if you like it.

Book Covers

Audiobook Dean Chills H. K. Kiting Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:03 — 36.0MB)

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[14-01-04: Corrected and uploaded the correct audio file… Sorry!]

If you find enjoy this podcast or find it helpful then review us on iTunes.  Also, check out our books at SexyFic.com

Forbidden Winter 200x300

What’s your most recent release?

H. K. Kiting: The Funhouse

Dean Chills: Forbidden WInter

 

Episode 15: Book Covers

We’ve talked a bunch about the act of writing itself, but we’ve never touched on one of the most important aspects of your book: The Cover. In many ways, the cover is more important than the contents of your book: it’s the first thing a prospective reader sees, and if they hate the cover, your book has zero chance of being bought.

 

The Funhouse 200x300What should be on an erotic book cover?

  • Shirtless men and Fabio clones?
  • Half-dressed women
  • Faces or just bodies?

Amazon’s UNOFFICIAL rules:

  • –Naked female torso including front view or sometimes side view.  Side boob inappropriate.
  • –Arms or hands across breasts.
  • –Naked butt.   On one occasion, upper thigh close to lower butt cheek was unacceptable.
  • –No naked people in a clinch even if they aren’t “fondling”.
  • –Any sexual position that implies penetration (Missionary, doggie-style, etc).
  • –No naked characters straddling each other.
  • –No handcuffs on wrists.  Handcuffs being held is fine.
  • –No “O” faces.
  • –No nudity.
  • –No women on their knees in front of men (as in implied fellatio).
  • –No men between women’s thighs (as in implied cunnilingus).
  • –No men’s faces on breasts.

Still there is NO official list of rules other than a vague statement that their content guidelines are “About what you’d expect.”

Hanging Out in the GarageWays of getting a book cover made:

  • Buy a premade book cover
  • Hire someone to make a book cover
  • Do it yourself

Doing it yourself:

  • Tools (Photoshop, Pixelmator, etc.)
  •  Abtract?
  • Photos- Taken yourself or purchased from Stock Photographers [Jason’s Mummification]

Legal considerations:

  • Model release (and especially decency clauses)
  • Photo licenses and royalties. Not as simple as just buying from a stock site.

 

We really want to hear from you. If you have a comment, complaint, or topic suggestion, mail us at sexyfic@gmail.com or stop by SexyFic.com and leave a voicemail on the tab that allows you to record a message. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and leave a review for the show if you like it.