January 4, 2013

Formatting Help

I’m a do-it-yourselfer, a necessity when you're an indie writer who doesn't have kids to force into servitude and can’t afford to hire a staff that have to be paid.  I do insist on going with professionals for two specific areas:  Editing and cover design (although I do extensive pre-editing so my editors don't hate me).  Whatever else I didn’t know how to do, I learned..and believe me, it hasn't been easy. 

That means that I design both of my websites (www.bettyegriffin.com and www.bunderfulbooks.com) and keep them updated (or sometimes not, but right now I’m good).  I write my book descriptions (Look, Ma, I’m a copywriter!).  I write my newsletters and new release announcements.  I coordinate my mailing lists.  I coordinate my contests and make sure prizes are given out.  I set up my author showcases at Ganxy and coordinated them in a central location at my eStore.  And I format my eBooks (I did the print ones as well). 

That latter one has given me the most grief. Mark Coker’s free Smashwords Style Guide has helped tremendously.  In addition, I just found more instructions at The How To Write Shop that might be helpful, and this one has tips for formatting scanned documents as well for those preparing backlist titles.  I figured I'd share this with any indie writers out there.

Happy formatting!