Funky KDP Ebook Formatting

 Most new authors have no problem uploading their books to Amazon's KDP. But even with a basic book, some people may be a little confused at what to do. This is why when people hire me to format a book for KDP for them, I include free uploading support. I go through it with them while they are doing it. On occasion, I have even done the upload for them--but I require they change their password to a different one for me to use, so I do not have their normal password and warn them this is risky for them. I especially don't want them to think because they can trust me that they could trust anyone else. All your tax and bank information is in your Amazon account--so please do not share your password or account information, even a temporary one, with anyone even briefly. It's like letting your kids talk to strangers--most are probably fine but there is always that one bad guy who will run off with them. 

The best format for paperbacks and hardcovers are PDFs. I recommend using a 5.5" x 8.5" format if you plan to do both paperback and hardcover because it will save you time. You also need to make sure your fonts are embedded in the .pdf. Using the styles feature is not always necessary, but it saves time and a headache in some cases. 

However, when you start to get into books that use a lot of different formatting and that have graphics, you really need to follow the recommendations and upload a .pdf instead of a .doc or other form. This will ensure your images and formatting stay put during the conversion.

For an e-book, you need to use either an .epub file or a .zip file. In addition to getting rid of Vella, Amazon is also getting rid of the .mobi file format and will no longer be accepting those files. Kindle Comic Creator (my go-to for intensive image books) will no longer work. Now, you need to use Kindle Create. 

Someone posted a project on Guru for formatting her book for Amazon. In the post she stated she would edit it and add graphics afterword. This is impossible. I mean, a .pdf or .epub could be edited if you have access to those tools, but I am not sure if an edited version would upload correctly--especially if the edits are as extensive as adding graphics. Further, you would now have to edit two documents instead of one. Once you have a .zip file, again, editing becomes a risky process and requires skill. 

Chances are good, if the poster of this project needs help figuring out how to format their book, they won't have the technical know-how on how to edit it afterward--regardless of whether or not those edits could survive the upload process.

Formatting is always the last step before you publish your book. Proofreading is both the last stage of editing and should fix the formatting, but a proofreader will not necessarily give you back the proper file formats. 

When I upload my ebook, there is nothing more depressing than finding out there are editing errors I missed (especially since I foolishly do this after I have done my paperback--a leftover from the days when you had to do the paperback first to save time and effort). This means, I have to go fix the document, recreate the .zip and .pdf files, and then I have to reupload everything. If I have already uploaded the paperback once, I also will have to wait the 72 hours to fix it. 

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: Flora Finds Fall by Colleen Driscoll

Colleen Driscoll’s Flora Finds Fall is a charming picture book. Flora wants to play. As she goes around talking to her animal friends, she discovers they are too busy to play with her since fall has come. Each animal gives a reason that it cannot play, disappointing Flora. Soon, she gets to the wise Mr. Owl, who helps teach her that fall is everything she is experiencing and so much more. Will Flora be able to find a way to play even in the fall?

Flora Finds Fall is a good way to teach kids about the fall season. Kindergarten and preschool teachers should make this book a classroom staple, and parents should add it to their collection. Not only does Colleen Driscoll use simple words for young children and short sentences, but also her pictures show the children about fall. The nature collages will also introduce children to a unique style of art, and they can easily be encouraged to make their own collages after reading this book. It is ideal for extended learning activities such as a fall nature walk—to see how many of the things in the book they can find in real life. This was extremely enjoyable for me to read as an adult, and I could read it over and over to my young children. The pacing is great, and it shows many items children will recognize like leaves, pinecones, sticks, and acorns while introducing them to new items like squash soup and ginger. I highly recommend this book!

 Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite.

Magical Realism vs. Fantasy

 I recently came across a book claiming to be magical realism, but it was really fantasy. This led me to the Amazon list of top-selling magical realism books. As expected, most of them were fantasy books or something else. So what is magical realism?

Magical realism is a book that takes place in the real world with real events happening and then throws in miracles that also happen. The miracles, like the main character flying, or in Like Water for Chocolate, the sad main character baking sadness into her food, are usually associated with an emotion and on display for everyone to see. In The Place of the White Heron by Alejandro Morales, the main character walks into a fire and saves people without getting hurt herself because she feels compelled to do so--to stop suffering and pain around her. The miracles are, dare I say, plausible in light of what we know about miracles. Magical realism has a literary (i.e. scholarly/ artsy) quality to it that most readers will find difficult to read. 

The textbook example of what a magical realism book should be trying to replicate can be found in the Biblical Book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walk into a fiery furnace and are neither burned nor smell like smoke when they come out. Nebuchadnezzar isn't really amazed--he's like, come over here and tell me what happened; they didn't mumble some incantation to protect themselves; and the guards died from the flames because the miracle was only for the three guys. 

Fantasy on the other hand creates a different world. Witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. may be living in our world in the book (think Twilight), but it is really a fantasy world modeled after our world. Mythology also delves into the realm of fantasy. Vampires are not real, so they cannot be a part of magical realism. Witches (as in people who can cast magical spells) are not real and casting a spell that works is not real. Once you use a spell as the method of something in your book happening, you have stepped into the realm of fantasy. If your animals talk or narrate the story--you have delved into fantasy.

So let's look at Amazon's top best sellers in magical realism and what they really are (numbers are skipped when they are just the same book listed elsewhere in a different form:

(1) Some Other Time: A Novel  This is a sci-fi parallel universe book. A woman wakes up and discovers she has gone back in time and traveled down another path. No miracles--just something that absolutely could not happen in the real world.

(2) The Lost Apothecary: A Novel This is historical fiction mixed with modern day fiction. There is really nothing magical about killing someone with poison... Sadly, this author/publisher should know better, so I can only assume it was listed as magical realism because there are fewer books to compete with in that category. In other words, it is a lot easier to be a best seller in magical realism than in, say, fantasy, where you are competing against  a ton of other books. 

(3) The Measure: A Novel This should be fantasy. Everyone in the world wakes up with a box that contains a piece of string depicting how long they will live. This is not a miracle, but for fans of mythology it should sound familiar (think the three Fates). Nothing else miraculous or magical happens in the book.

(4) Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartwarming Novel of Time Travel, Magical Realism and the Power of Healing  Good gravy! This one put "magical realism" and "time travel" in the same subtitle!! It is true that many magical realism books jump forward and backward time wise in telling the story--but that is NOT time travel and the characters are not actually travelling back in time!! That is not realism or a miracle. Time travel is a standard of science fiction and that is what this novel is. 

(5) The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2024 and the perfect gift for book lovers! (These authors all get an "F" for in writing subtitles! Notably, this "subtitle" is nowhere on the book. )  Hmmm.. the bookshop is more like a haunted bookshop. Weird , unexplainable things happen, but they happen to random characters and they are not "miracles" in that they are observed by the entire populace. Once you have characters keeping the "magic" secret, you have stepped into the realm of fantasy. 

(6) Grim Beginnings: An Aisling Grimlock Mystery Books 1-3 Deals with a family of "Grim Reapers"--100% fantasy, but that is how it is listed, so I have no clue why it is on the magical realism list on Amazon?

(7) Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel The octopus tells part of the story--no realism there. Again, this book is not listed as magical realism, but is listed as "Arts and photography?" Maybe these authors first list it as one thing and then another, and Amazon can't keep up with its lists?

(8) Eva Luna: A Novel Listed as historical fiction

(9/10) The Bookstore Sisters/Wedding--Fantasy not magical realism. Again, this is not something miraculous happening in the real world. 

(11) The Conjurer's Wife: A Short Story  Fantasy (Contains secrets and magic)

(12) Better Luck Hex Time Fantasy/mystery

(15) The Seven Year Slip Sci fi-parallel universe

(17) One Hundred Years of Solitude Magical Realism