SELF PUBLISHING WITH BRENDA MOHAMMED - PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

 

PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

If you are publishing a poetry book, to prepare your Manuscript, compile all of your poems in a Word Document with one poem on each page. Choose a suitable font.

I use Arial.

Some poems may be longer and may take more than one page, but that is okay.

You can also use a short quote above each poem, and an image for each poem. To insert images, make sure they are saved on your computer and use the Insert button for pictures in Microsoft word. To resize the image to fit the page, use the Format button.

Make sure that your Word document is formatted exactly the way you want.

Check your page breaks, line and paragraph breaks, title page, and perhaps chapter titles if you have them. These might be your poem titles, if it is a poetry book.

If you are using Microsoft Word, follow all instructions at the top for Design, Layout, References, Table of Contents, etc.

In Design, you will select a theme, font, spacing, etc.

With respect to Layout, here is where you choose the book size, margins, and indentations.

In References, you select Table of Contents. Readers love a clickable Table of Contents in the EBook Format.

To design the Table of Contents is a bit tricky, but it is worth your reputation as a reputable writer, to provide one for your readers. Some writers omit this important feature from their eBooks, and lose future sales.

Highlight the headings one by one. If it is a poetry book, the headings will be Poem titles.

Right click on Heading 1 at the top. Click on Modify. Right click again on Update Heading 1 to match selection.

After you have done that for all Headings, go to the first page where you want to insert the table, click on Reference, and then Table of Contents.

Your clickable table will appear.

Page numbers will not work with an eBook, so do not insert them.

You should insert page numbers in the Print book.

Do not include anything in either the headers or footers.

Save your document in .docx format.

That is your Manuscript.

For any other type of book, follow the same procedure.

When you publish on Amazon, use Amazon Kindle Create. You can download the App free.

With Amazon Kindle Create you can highlight your headings, sub-titles, and resize and reposition images too. The result will be a beautiful eBook that your readers will love.

To publish a paperback book, insert the page numbers and convert your manuscript into a PDF, ensuring that all Chapters start on a new page.

There are many videos on YouTube that show you how to publish EBooks and Paperback books on Amazon, step by step.

In another lesson I will give you links for videos.

Brenda Mohammed

Best-selling and multi-award winning author of 50 books.

Founder of How to Write for Success Literary Network.

President – UHE – Trinidad and Tobago

President – CIESART – Trinidad and Tobago