Very excited that the files and cover now uploaded to Amazon for Hope Is A Six Letter Word. As is usual, and as this covers the publishing journey there were a couple of glitches. For some unknown reason, I still haven’t worked out why, the free conversion programme I use for e-books (Calibre) decided to randomly insert a second table of contents at the very end of the book. Fortunately I don’t need a .mobi version except for ARCs, and I already have those but a strange peculiarity of the software I can’t seem to fix yet.
Creation of the print ready cover is always a bind (excuse the pun). And every book I forget what I did so have to start again. I think I’ve mastered it this time though. Download a cover template based on the number of pages from https://kdp.amazon.com/cover-calculator and then the fiddling starts. I create the text and layout I need on the PDF version using the full Acrobat, then save another version with the cover image aligned correctly, deleting the template guidelines, and I save it as a .png. I open that in Photoshop, set the background colour I want to match the image and resave as a .png. I open the .png in Acrobat and copy over the text boxes for title and spine, saving my new print ready cover. That’s the theory, I’ll let you know how the proof turns out. It’s a bit fiddly but gives me the maximum control over the layout.
So all now uploaded, and proof copy ordered. I’ve tinkered with the layout this time, so the first attempt may not be perfect. In order to minimise page numbers (and printing costs so I can set a lower pricepoint), I’ve made the margins and font slightly smaller. I’ll report back soon!
Stay safe,
Kit