Publish Your Book On The Amazon Kindle: A Practical Guide (Kindle Edition)

by Michael R. Hicks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you're an author or independent publisher who wants to make your book available to the rapidly growing number of Amazon Kindle users, this book is for you!

This book will lead you step-by-step through the process of taking your book from an original digital file, such as a word processor document, to the Kindle Store catalog. It will help you understand the unique paradigm of the Kindle's reflowable text format, and provide solutions to the major problems people commonly face.

You'll also learn the two main paths of publishing to the Kindle Store, plus how to maximize the return on your effort by also publishing your work to Mobipocket.com.

The book assumes that you have NO working knowledge of HTML code. You'll be introduced to certain aspects of HTML that will help you format your book, but it's presented in an easy-to-follow format that focuses on the specific things you need to know to get the job done!

About the Author

A lifelong fan of science fiction and a self-proclaimed geek, Michael R. Hicks spends most of his waking hours working or playing on computers and other gadgets, like his tricked-out Kindle and iPhone. Involved in designing a variety of web sites since the early 1990s, he has extensive experience with HTML and a wide variety of computer applications. When his first novel, an epic fantasy called In Her Name, was ready for publication in early 2008, he decided to go the self-publishing route as a learning experience and personal challenge. During the course of getting In Her Name published, he learned how to prepare and publish books on Lulu.com, CreateSpace, Lightning Source, Mobipocket, and Amazon's Digital Text Platform (DTP). Since then, he spends a lot of time on the Amazon DTP and Mobipocket forums, helping other authors and small-press publishers get their books onto the Kindle and Mobipocket. His other pursuits including working out with his friends at the Beachbody.com community, bicycling, kayaking, and - of course - reading on his Amazon Kindle. He lives in Maryland with his gorgeous wife, two awesome stepsons, and two rambunctious Siberian cats, enjoying the chaos as he works on his next novel.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1192 KB
• Print Length: 68 pages
• Publisher: Imperial Guard Publishing (November 12, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001ROAF0S
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,188 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good basic guide, August 28, 2009

By	Isaiah R. Tucker "New Kindle DX owner :)" (Yucca, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

Michael R. Hicks does a very good job of guiding a beginner through the file conversion process. Especially helpful was the basic HTML coverage. Before this, I knew nothing about HTML except that it was a type of format favored by websites. Now I can go into my ebook and make changes to the layout with this useful tool. I do wish he would have gone a little deeper into the subject instead of referring us to outside sources, but he got me started in the right direction.

Two things I discovered while converting my first book (which I hope to be uploading to Amazon soon) with MobiPocket Creator:

The very useful HTML command <br/> which inserts a space between two lines of text when you absolutely have to have it and the Creator ignores the normal paragraph space.

This was a big issue for me because I use Word 2007: MP Creator does not currently accept MS Office Word 2007 format (.docx) so you need to save your book as a Word 2003 (.doc) OR which I reccommend because I had to do MUCH less tweaking afterword, save your file as a WEBPAGE (FILTERED). This converts the file to HTML right in MS Word (so when searching for it from MP Creator browse for HTML files instead of Word files.) I had much less trouble getting the book layout the way I wanted it this way.

I hope Michael will address these issues in upcoming editions, making his great guide even better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with info! A must read!, September 14, 2009

By	Allan H. Goodman "solomonpublications" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Publish Your Book On The Amazon Kindle: A Practical Guide (Paperback)

Well done! This book is terrific. It is not just about creating an Amazon Kindle book, but tells you the best way to create an ebook for sale on Amazon and other websites as well. Michael's advice on using the mobipocket creator software to create a prc (kindle compatible) file rather than simply uploading an html file to the Amazon DTP is right on. This method gives you more options to sell your books on other websites - not just Amazon. He walks you through the mobipocket software with ease. Also, the information about selling your books to other websites through mobipocket is well written and makes a complicated subject easy to understand. For those of you who like to do it yourself, alot of help from those who have already done it makes it easy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done, July 31, 2009

By	Margaret I. Carr "micropub" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Publish Your Book On The Amazon Kindle: A Practical Guide (Paperback)

Short but covers the ground very well. Clear explanations and details. Useful for novices and experienced writers.

Unfortunately the print version lost it a star. Many instances of part of a line blurred or top or bottom of letters missing were an irritant. This is not the author's fault!

I did try to get the mobipocket version first. No luck, but that may just be a temporary glitch.