The Checklist?
As an indie publisher one’s hats multiply like dustbunnies. Not only must you, the author, think of the book, write it, and edit it; but you must perform or cause cover creation and precise formatting for publication to happen. And you, the all-knowing author, are the head-hauncho of it all. You will take red hot poker heat for even one egads.
As for my experience, there’s nothing quite as embarrassing as forgetting to paginate or not catching misspelled words. Why? Because Daddy would have me jailed in my room for that. And Grandpa would be the jailer.
Why does it happen? Because I get in a hurry and zip over what I think I have down pat. I do. I confess. When I’m overwhelmed my mind turns to gloppy oatmeal. When the oatmeal oozes, important details go on an adventure.
But when it comes to publishing a new book, zero mistakes is better.
To reduce the risk or prevent embarrassing and time-consuming mistakes altogether, I now use a pre-publish checklist.
It looks like this:
- First edit – for tightening, flow-test, spelling, punctuation, and …
- Second edit – into Hemingway (one chapter at a time) for grade level, adverb overuse, passive, lazy actions, and confusing sentences… like this one.
- Third edit – for reading experience details like titling, consistency, table of contents, pagination, copyright, and credits.
- Fourth edit – After the cool-down period. For page-turning prose and spelling. The final step before preparing the manuscript for specific formats.
I format for *E book, **Print, and ***Narrating. Sometimes for ****Serializing.
Different Book Formats Require Different Formats — Add to the Checklist:
Note: My experience is with Amazon Kindle and D2D.
*E Books
The original manuscript is for E books. All other formats are ‘save as’ from this original manuscript.
I go through all four edits completely before copying for different formats because… wait for it…
If you change even one period anywhere after the reproductions are made, you have to remember to change the period in all the others… It’s a time consuming and hair-pulling affair.
So, before I replicate the original manuscript for other formats, I go through one more time. This time to confirm that:
- All the chapters are listed in proper numeric order within the Table of Contents. No chapter numbers are missing or out of order.
- Each chapter fits on one line of the Table of Contents.
- No words are misspelled unless I intend them to be.
It’s time to format.
*E-book – No changes to the original manuscript.
**Print – Paperback and Hardback – Change the paper size (or margins) to ½ inch smaller than the size of the finished book. For instance… a 6”x 9” book needs a 5 ½”x 8 ½” paper size.
Scroll the entire manuscript for visual issues and blank pages. Double check the Table of Contents for one chapter per line. Shorten chapter titles and/or reduce the font-size within the Table to make it fit – one line per chapter.
If PDF is the preferred file type, be sure to open the ‘options’; check ‘PDF-a Compliant’ to embed the fonts. Without this step, you will get an error message about embedding fonts. And it takes a lot longer to process your book for previewing. A bunch longer!
***Narrating
Put yourself in the storyteller’s shoes. Remove anything that your talented, oh so valuable, narrator cannot read… like:
- Pictures
- Drawings
Then it’s good to go.
Simplify web links. Instead of ‘https://www.alexielinnauthor.com’, make it ‘alexielinnauthor.com’. Make it easy for the narrator to read. And easy for the listener to hear clearly.
****Serializing
Change the ‘Chapter…’ to ‘Episode…’ at the logical ‘Episode’ divisions.
And that’s about it. Unless I’ve forgotten something.
Happy Publishing…
Alexie Linn
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