For the last time this year, self-publishing guru Lyn Horner returns for her fourth series on how to embed book covers and create table of contents for Amazon publishing. Lyn has had resounding success in self-publishing on Amazon.
Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom with us, Lyn!
Amazon requires a book cover to
be uploaded twice, once for the marketing image, the one customers see when
they shop on Amazon. The other image is the internal one readers see when they
open a Kindle book on their reading device. There is a specific place in the
KDP uploading process where you add the marketing image, but the internal cover
image must be embedded in your book file.
There are various ways to embed
the internal cover image. You will find numerous discussions on this topic on
the Amazon KDP support pages. Here’s one you might find helpful. It’s a long post, but there is a
section about including a cover image. Be aware I have not tried this author’s
method, so I can’t guarantee it.
More reading: If you haven’t
done so, please download Amazon’s Kindle Publishing Guidelines. Open the pdf file and go to page 13. There you will find Cover Image Guidelines. Read this section carefully. If you have trouble
understanding the technical jargon, as I do, you may need to enlist a friend or
relative with html experience.
As you know, I employed
Kindlegen and the Kindle Previewer to perfect my text formatting. Each time I
ran my book through Kindlegen, it converted the html file into a mobi file (a format
used for ebooks) but with a warning: “No cover specified.” I had to embed the
cover before I could look at my book on the Kindle Previewer.
The Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines
state, “Define covers in the OPF file . . .” What’s an OPF file? From my son, I
learned it’s an “open package format” file which tells Kindlegen where to find all
parts of a book, including the cover. Since I had no idea how to create an .OPF,
my computer savvy offspring did the job, using html coding that’s way beyond me.
(FYI, Mobipocket Creator can be
used to create mobi files, per discussions on Amazon’s message boards. This app
is available on the internet. I think it’s free. I’ve also read that it can be
a bit persnickety.)
Once the OPF file is in place, Kindlegen
will tell you your mobi file is complete. Great, but you’re not done yet. You
still need to create a table of contents (TOC), two actually. The first is an
HTML TOC. This the table of contents readers see in the front matter of a book.
It allows them to jump to whatever chapter they wish. You need to use
hyperlinks to set up the HTML TOC.
First, use a page break to
insert a blank page after your title page. Title this page Table of Contents, then
list your chapters, including the prologue and/or epilogue if you have one. I
like to bold the chapter titles and increase line spacing (do this under
Paragraph in your Format menu.) Next, highlight the first chapter in your list,
click the hyperlink icon on your toolbar, then go to your html book file. (You
need your chapters to be separate for this, not saved as one big book file.) Click on the corresponding chapter in
your file and hit Okay. Go back to your TOC page and try the link. It should
take you to the chapter. Do the same for every chapter, the cover, title page,
dedication page if you include one, and any other extra features. You have now
created your html Table of Contents.
Next, you need to set up a
Logical TOC (NCX) for easy navigation through your book. Read page 14-15 in the
Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines for an explanation of how the NCX TOC works
and why it’s necessary. Amazon has included an example of how to set up an NCX
in html code. I won’t try to explain it here because it’s one of those tech subjects
that flies over my head. Again, if you are unfamiliar with html code, you will
need help with this.
NOTE: Both TOCs must be included
in your OPF master file. Once your OPF is complete, you are ready to upload to
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
I’m sorry this has gotten so
technical. There are quicker, easier ways to publish your book on Amazon, but
this is the method I stick to because I want to be sure my books are well
formatted and easy to read. In other words, I want them to be as professional
as I can possibly make them.
That’s it for now. I’ll be back
in 2013, providing the ladies of As We Were Saying want me here. At that time
I’ll go into copyright, royalties and book promotion. Until then, enjoy the
holidays and keep writing!
Of course we'd love to have Lyn back in 2013! Thanks so much for stopping by and we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! For more helpful tips on self-publishing, check back in January for more from Lyn Horner!
3 comments:
Hi everyone, just a quick note to let y'all know I'll be away from home for part of today. It's a shopping trip with a friend to buy Christmas gifts for two little twin boys we're playing Santa for. Should be fun!
I'll check back here later in the day. I hope you'll leave me some comments. I love hearing from you!
Lyn:
Happy shopping.
That's got to be lots of fun trying to find the right gift.
I've copied your posts and filed them for reference. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us.
Hi Ruby,
Thank you for stopping by and for inviting me here on As We Were Saying. And you're very welcome! See you soon.
Lyn
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