Book Launch – Read First Chapter.com

3 Quick Steps to Add a Direct Review Link

How to Add a Direct Link to eBooks on Amazon

As authors, we all know how hard it is to get readers to take a few minutes of their time to leave reviews. I believe one part of the problem is that the Kindle app doesn't make leaving a review from the app from a tablet or phone easy.

Aside from that, I think people are just busy. But there is a way to add a link to the end of your eBooks that can take the reader to the exact review page.

However, it is just a bit tricky because you need to have the ASIN number when you don't get until the book is actually published.

3 QUICK STEPS TO ADD REVIEW LINK:

Publish your book.
Add the ASIN number to the end of this link (Replacing the Xs):
https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=XXXXXXXX
No quotes.
Reupload your final manuscript and check the link in the preview window.

That's it! It's that easy.

EXAMPLE PAGE TO PUT THE LINK ON:

Below I have an example page where you can put the link and what verbiage you can use for it. If you already have a thank you page for your readers, you can also add it there.

NOTE TO READER (Page Name)

Dear Reader:

This is my first short story/novelette. I have not received any feedback from readers yet – except friends, who always tell me the books are great! But I would love real reader feedback. So if any of you would be good enough to fill out a short questionnaire, I can send you my next novelette (Working Title: Writer’s Block) that will be released sometime in August for your trouble. Here is a link to the questionnaire that is on my website.

This short story has only been out for a few weeks, so if you would be good enough to leave me an honest review at Amazon.com, I would be so grateful. Here is a direct link to do that.

I love to hear any feedback about the book and enjoy interacting with my readers, so if you would prefer to just send an email, that will work too!

My email is mailto:rshannon@readfirstchapter.com?subject=Feedback about Uninvited Remains.

Thanks again!

2nd Edition or Relaunch – What Happened in Scrivener

COPYING INTO SCRIVENER

I watched a video on YouTube teaching how to import a Word document into Scrivener. It suggested that you could use a symbol like the pound sign (#) to indicate the end of a chapter. It sounded so easy, but it didn't work. At least for me, it didn't work.

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So I just copy and pasted each chapter into a new document. By breaking up the novel back into separate chapters and having the tools inside Scrivener to keep an overview of things, it made the whole process seem a lot easier.

CHANGES I MADE:

I decided not to change the actual plotline of the story because I still liked it. I chose to polish up my prose and add some additional foreshadowing.

When I originally wrote the book, I wasn't sure there would be a second book. I wound up writing 5 books in the series. There wasn't much foreshadowing in the book, and the characters had developed over the series, so I was able to beef up the characters in the first book and add some foreshadowing now knowing how the series would end. I decided that these changes would bring Book 1 to a place I would be happy to then let go of the series.

Now, this decision was made in real time. In other words, until I hit a stride in about the fourth chapter, I was still unsure if I would even continue on with the rewrite. But by the fifth chapter, I realized that the changes I was making, even though it wasn't changing the actual plotline, were good and well worth the effort.

The advice I would pass on to anyone who is considering a 2nd edition and you're not sure of it, try to be okay with proceeding one step at a time with some general doubt. Let that be okay. This is the advice I would have given myself on the day I started in Scrivener.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE PROCESS AND WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

Now that I have been through the entire 2nd Edition process once already, I realize that there are continual doubts along the way that I needed to just push through.

The one change I would make to how I did things is this: I would make a separate copy of my final manuscript and go into Word first. If I decided to change the actual plotline, then I would bring the book into Scrivener as I would need to use the outline mode to keep track of everything. However, since I only added foreshadowing and improved he prose, I would have done the work in Word.

The only reason for proceeding in Word only is because compiling the book from Scrivener to Word does mess up the styles and the formatting a bit. This gives rise to a need to re-read the book again before handing it off to an editor.

TIME OUT FOR A LITTLE ADVICE ON EDITING:

I had the book edited originally, but I just changed every other sentence, so it had to be re-edited. I knew that going into this, so it was okay. Now, I like to edit the book myself and I have an elaborate multi-layer stage of proofreading that I go through so that when I pass the book to an editor, his or her time is not eaten up with correcting silly typos and adding forgotten commas.

By doing a thorough proofread, and with a suggestion that my weakness is verb tense and reading over my own typos, the editor can focus on the things I need the most help with.

THE NEXT DECISION TO MAKE:

The rewrite with prose improvement and foreshadowing added turned out to be MUCH easier than I anticipated. So after passing off the first book, Darius - A Vampire Story, to my editor, I decided to do an upgrade on the second book too. I just passed that one off to the editor yesterday.

SHOULD I MAKDE A NEW BOOK COVER?

I wish I could say this was an easier decision to make, but it wasn't. I really like the present book cover on my first book, but I changed the artwork a little bit for one reason:

I wanted to tweak my marketing strategy when I get the second book done so I wanted the book cover to look like a cross between a cozy mystery and a low-fantasy paranormal romance. My book has a ribbon of Catholic morality running through it, as well as a satirical commentary, so readers who are used to vampire hunters, or dark despair-saturated books like those of Anne Rice, or teenage books like Twilight would be disappointed in my book.

So as I move forward, I'm still experimenting. I decided to go with the new cover, but I'm planning a marketing relaunch when this 2nd book comes back from the editor and then I will watch to see if the new cover or even the 2nd edition makes any difference in sales or reviews. If it doesn't make a difference, then I may go back to my original book cover and then let go of it entirely.

So even now, I'm still proceeding one step at a time. I'm still waiting to see what happens. All I do know for sure is that once this last change is done, I will be ready to let go and let the series be what it is.

The Long Saga of My 2nd Edition of Darius – A Vampire Story

THIS IS NOT THE 'HOW-TO' BLOG POST

Before I get to how to do a 2nd edition of your book, the preliminary questions you need to answer are:

1. Should you do a 2nd edition of one book or the entire series?
2. Why should you do it?
3. Is it worth it?
4. Should you just accept the earlier book as not your best and move on?
5. What will I get out of it?
6. Isn't it easier to just move on and write a better book or book series?

The reason I'm sharing my experience in publishing a second edition of Darius - A Vampire Story is because it seemed overwhelming when I was thinking about doing it. It turned out to be one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my writing career, and I had doubts the entire way through the process.

However, in looking back, the decision itself -- answering all the above questions and deciding to move forward with it -- was the hardest part. I assumed reworking the book would have been the hardest part, but it wasn't. But in the end, it was much easier than I thought.

SHOULD I DO A 2ND EDITION OR NOT?

Although I decided to move forward with doing the 2nd edition, I was unclear even as I went about it.

I read Chris Fox's book Relaunch Your Novel and he had great advice. He got my wheels turning and he asked the right questions about why you would want to relaunch your novel.

These questions were what triggered the process. There are lots of reasons why you would want to relaunch a book. It's important to know what your particular reasons are because although it is not hard, there are a lot of steps to it, some costs, and you will need a sense of mission to spur you on in the process.

THE BIGGEST TEMPTATION:

The biggest temptation along the way was to take the attitude that everyone's early books aren't that great, so let go and just move on. This would have certainly given me a quick fix. But in my case, I just couldn't leave the book alone knowing that I could probably polish it up a bit before moving on. So for me, even though it was tempting to just let go and move on, I decided I want to fix the book -- and maybe even the entire series -- but I wasn't sure whether I just wanted to do a re-edit or to change the storyline, etc.

ONE STEP AT A TIME:

I decided that I wanted to just fix the first book in the series because it had the lowest ratings. The second reason I wanted to make the effort with fixing the book is that I have now finished the series with the 5th book, and now that I know how the story ends, I wanted to put a little foreshadowing into the book while I was buffing it up.

I let go of the idea of redoing the entire series because I knew I could be happy to just fix the one book, so that's one reason I proceeded forward.

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

This was the one question that led me down the road of choosing to write a 2nd edition: What will I get out of it? The answer was and is: I knew if I fixed Book 1 that then I would be able to let go of the entire series and move on. I still like the stories and the series itself. It's not my most popular book series, but I still like it. So fixing the first book was important to me in terms of 'my body of work'. I knew I had more experience and I could improve the book, even if it was just adding some foreshadowing or improving on the prose.

The first decision I made was to pull the novel into Scrivener, divide it up into chapters and read through it. The next question I had to answer was: Do you want to change the plotline? Or do you want to add some foreshadowing and just improve the prose?

To be honest: I wasn't sure but I knew reading the book chapter by chapter would lead me to the answer. So I pulled the manuscript into Scrivener. The first question I needed to answer was: What do you want to change? Will this just be a normal update or will it be an actual second edition.

In the next installment of this blog series, I will go into what happened when I went into Scrivener and began the read through.

Converting a Word Docx to an ePub for KDP

IS THIS CONVERSION NECESSARY?

If you only sell on Amazon and don't give your books away, you may not need to convert your docx at all. You can successfully upload a Word docx document and the converter behind the scenes at Amazon KDP will convert it usually without a problem.

HOWEVER, I would caution you that you should do all of your styling using the style gallery. I have a few videos on my YouTube Channel that will show you how to format and how important using the style gallery is.

That being said, if you use the style gallery, don't give your books away and only sell on Amazon, you are good to go with only a Word document.

EBOOK GIVEAWAYS - THAT'S ANOTHER STORY:

If you, however, are self-publishing and are planning to do your own marketing, giving away your book, especially when you are just breaking in as an author is crucial. Once you decide to give away your books, you will need a PDF document and an ePub document.

As I'm sure you already know, you can create a PDF inside Word, so that's not a problem. However, you will need a conversion program to create the ePub. I use the program called Convertio.co. This is a paid plan, and it comes to $9.00 a month at the time of this blog. If you only have one book, you can sign up for one month and then stop the service -- but check to make sure that's an option before you do that.

Otherwise, you can take a trip over to Fiverr.com and search convert DOCX to ePub and see who comes up. One word of caution: I tried this and Fiverr is now defaulting to a slightly higher price on almost all services, so look for the drop down that lets you put in your budget. I was able to find someone who was willing to do it for $10.00.

However, if Convertio.co allows you to quit after one month, you may be able to use it a few times. I offer this suggestion because I remember when I was brand new, I had to do things multiple times -- I'm not even sure why. So be aware that you may want to do more than one per month.

Another example is that I am presently preparing an ARC copy of the document and will need to add several pages for the final manuscript when it's back from the Final Edit. So, I will need two conversions at least on this one book. So be aware of this type of thing.

TO SIGIL OR NOT TO SIGIL:

Sigil is a program for making or polishing up ePubs after conversion. I always had to get rid of a lot of crazy codes in the ePub so that's why I used Sigil throughout the years.

However, what I noticed with this last time I used it, and this is because I have disciplined myself to use only the Style Gallery in Word and not use individual changes, I had very little clean up in Sigil. I could have even skipped the Sigil step all together.

If you are intimidated by computer code -- and it can be a little tricky -- then you may want to clean up your formatting in Word by using only the Style Gallery.

I have a video below where I go into a little detail as to why you have to be so careful with sigil and computer code. I wish I had known about the importance of the style gallery when I first started, but at least I know now and I'm passing on the knowledge to you!

WHERE TO GET THE TOOLS:

Here is a link to go to Convertio.co This is a service you use online. There is no download or anything. You simply upload the Docx file and then download the epub.

Here is a link to go to Sigil to download it. This is an actual free program that will download and put an icon on your desktop. When you want to open it, you will double-click the icon and it will open a blank document. Then you will click on File > Open and bring in your converted epub.

IT HELPS TO SEE IT IN REAL LIFE:

Below is a short video I made going through the process starting from pulling the document into Convertio and then taking it through the rest of the process to checking it on KDP. I hope this helps you if you are struggling in any way or if you are new and just need information.

Advanced Reader Campaign – The Recipe

THE RECIPE FOR AN ARC CAMPAIGN?

Yes, the recipe. I just finished planning a Private Advanced Reader Campaign and although it's not hard, it does require several steps and knowing what order you need to do each step is important. If you do them in the proper order, it will be an easy process.

I've made this list for myself and decided to share it on this blog because knowing the order can remove a lot of the stress and having to go back and forth between the book, the forms, the website, etc.

INGREDIENTS - AN OVERVIEW:

You will need an eBook and a book cover.

For any Advanced Reader Campaign, I would suggest you add a disclaimer that it is an advanced copy, a watermark, and a link to fill out a questionnaire about what the reader thought about the book.

You will need to produce the eBook in a pdf and ePub format, which will require you to convert it from a Word file to an ePub. The ePub may need to be cleaned up a bit in a free program called Sigil. Then you will need to test the ePub with the KDP viewer. This step may or may not be necessary.

You will need to create the questionnaire for the readers to fill out. Now, if you don't have a website where you can create a form, you can use a google forms or you can ask the readers to send an email with feedback about the book to your email. I have found the forms get more interaction.

Also if you don't have a website, you will have to upload the ePub and PDF onto Google Drive and record the share link in order to include them in an email to send to your ARC readers.

I also need a form for readers to sign up to become an ARC reader, with an auto-responder that will send them the book.

And lastly, you will need graphics to post on your website or social media.

Now that I have given you an overview of everything that is needed in the whole campaign, I'll post below the order you need to create them in.

THE ARC CAMPAIGN RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS

Finish your eBook and have it edited. When the editor has your manuscript, you at least two weeks to prepare the ARC campaign, which is enough time.
Create the eBook cover. If you don't have your final cover, you can create a temporary cover for the ARC campaign, if necessary.
Create a questionnaire form for your readers to fill out when they are done. I find asking about 10 or 15 short questions, most with yes or no answers that it makes it easy for the readers to give me the specific feedback I'm looking for. This should be done right after the cover because you will need to put the link to this questionnaire into the back of the book so the readers can click on it.
Create a sign-up form to become an ARC Reader. I use a form from my WordPress website using a plugin called Contact Form 7. This allows me to get the names and emails of the ARC readers. I keep a running list on my work diary so that I can then send them an email when the book is published asking for a review.
Create a page on your website, or whatever social media platform you use, that has a graphic of the final book cover, with a short summary of what the book is about. Add the form to sign up to this page. I also put a notice that I am looking for ARC readers on the homepage of my website.
Make social media graphics (1000 px x 1000 px for most platforms and a 1000 px x 1500 px for Pinterest) so you have them when you launch the book. If you have the time, skills or budget, create several graphics: ARC Campaign Sign Up, Coming Soon, New Release by AUTHOR NAME, Release Date, and a seasonal graphic based on what season you are releasing in.
The above steps can be done with the manuscript in the editor's hands.
Once the editor returns the book, make the corrections and add a request to fill out the questionnaire and add the link to your form.
Add a watermark that this is an early release. This allows you to change the book or tweak the book based on feedback.
Once the manuscript is finalized, save is as a docx and PDF.
Then convert the book from a docx file to an ePub using a conversion tool. I use Convertio.co which is $9.00 a month. Check their website and see if you can cancel at any time and you can create your ePub once or twice (after your feedback if you change anything) and then cancel the membershipAnother strategy for conversion is to go to Fiverr.com and search convert docx to epub and make sure you select a budget because they default to showing you people who charge $25.00 to start. I found someone that would have done it for $10.00.
Once you have the epub file, upload it to KDP -- as a draft -- and check it using their previewer. Check every single page! If there are no errors and everything looks good, you will then be good to go.
If you have some formatting issues, you may want to watch my video on using the style gallery for best ePub results (which I'm planning to do at this time).
Once you have a PDF and ePub, you are ready to launch the ARC campaign. You can use whatever service you use for your newsletter to create an auto-reponder form or you can answer each sign up by sending them an email with both documents attached, the epub and the PDF.
The campaign is now set to go. Post it to your newsletter, social media and on your website!

Why Have a Private ARC Campaign

WHY HAVE A PRIVATE ARC CAMPAIGN?

private-gathering The one main reason I have right now is that I want to avoid offering this to the general public because I am not sure if the book, even though it is edited, is in its final form.

I normally will offer the ARC copy knowing that people want free copies, but this book I’m unsure about. I want to at least start with my newsletter readers who I can ask to help me with feedback and fill out a questionnaire about the book.

I’m not sure I will go with this exact ending. So this is not set for pre-order and although it has been edited, I may change the book based on feedback and then it will need to be re-edited. So I don’t want a lot of copies of this book floating around.

By limiting the number, I can make sure I send a free copy to the ones who read it for me and I can tell them where and why I changed the text.

THE STEPS I WILL BE PASSING THROUGH:

checkline and outline In order to offer a limited ARC copy, I will use my newsletter list, which is really my reader list, and my website. I will limit the invitations to these two places.

Here is a list of the steps I will need to go through. I will be making short videos and/or blog posts to share what I did in each of these phases. Nothing is hard, but it all takes time.

Finalize the ARC copy of the manuscript in Word docx file. Add a watermark indicating this is an ARC copy. Make sure this copy has a link to the ARC Questionnaire where readers can share their feedback with you.
Convert the docx file into an ePub. I use convertio.co, which is a paid site. It costs $9.00 a month. I used it more than the old plan used to give you as a free trial. However, I believe it is all paid now. So you can go to Fiverr and search convert docx to epub and choose the budget of $5 or $10 — because it now defaults to people who charge $25.Once the document is converted, download it onto your hard drive.
I usually bring these epubs into Sigil, a program to create and/or edit ePubs in order to make some global changes and/or clean up the extra codes it may bring inside. I will have a video on this one.Create a PDF from your docx file. Once you have the epub and PDF, you are ready to upload to KDP and test it. I will cover this in one of the videos.Upload the PDF and the ePub up to google drive and copy the links; you will need them later.
The next steps are done with my website. They have to do with pages and forms. So if you don’t have a website, then you can use google forms or whatever system you presently use to get signups. I use Mailerlite and could have set this up through them, but I want to receive the emails and names myself so I can keep a list of who the ARC readers are so I can ask them for a review when the book is ultimately published.

I need a page with graphics introducing the book.
I need a graphic and link for the front page of my website.
I need a Contact Form 7 with an auto-reponder where I put the two links from Google Drive to download either the PDF or the ePub. I need to check the form to make sure it works.
I need to create a form for my feedback questions and post it on a separate page on the website.
Then I need to create a list to keep track of who my ARC readers are and their emails.

So that is the process I am now going through. In the next blog posts and videos, I will be addressing these very creations and/or changes.

Where to Find Beta Readers

WHERE TO FIND BETA READERS
DEPENDS ON TWO THINGS:

Some writers have no-to-little money to work with and they will take one route. Other writers have no time but have some money to work with. Where you are on this road will determine what your choices are.

I HAVE TIME BUT NO MONEY:

This could be a person who works full time, lives alone, or has a few kids and there is just not enough extra money around to fund all the things necessary to do when self-publishing a book. Not to worry. There are a few choices for you.

Goodreads.com is an active website for readers and authors and is filled with other authors who are also looking for help to publish their books. The trick is to find them.

If you search "Beta Readers" in the search box on Goodreads, it will bring up all of the beta reader groups that are available to you at that time. You can access this under the community tab on the navigation menu. Be sure to read the rules and regulations for the specific group because the last time I looked, there were a few Gestapo-like warnings and instructionals about how people should post.

If you happen to be extraverted or bubbly, good with people, you will have no trouble finding someone in one of these groups or forums to help you. I'm introverted and don't do well in these large groups because I always feel like I'm bothering people. But not everyone is like this, so if you are good at making acquaintances and friends, give Goodreads a try.

Try to google "beta readers" as well and you will find other forums that claim to have people willing to read your book. I never gave this much patience because I chose to just pay someone.

TRY A FAMILY MEMBER AS A BETA READER:

If you have a family member who you can trust to give you honest feedback and gentle criticism, this is probably the best choice. Make sure it's someone who will want to do a good job for you and they will know you are counting on them. That's what I did. My Aunt Gen offered to read my books and I jumped at the chance. She read them and kept a notepad by her book and jotted down everything she thought about.

I also had a friend who needed computer help and I bartered with her for beta reading. That was also a great experience.

The trick to making working with amateurs, so to speak, work is knowing two things. (1) Your readers will feel that they have to give you some level of criticism so you have to be ready to make that work for you. I'll go into that below. (2) The second thing is that sometimes people will give you advice about writing books that come out of left field. They will not know what they are talking about, so it's important to be prepared for this. Just be ready to thank them for their ideas.

Once you have chosen a family member or friend to beat read for you, you need to direct their attention to what it is you are interested in having them do. Tell them that after they read the book, you will want to know the following 5 things:

Do you like the characters?
Is the plot easy enough to follow or was it confusing at any point?
Were there any plot holes or anything about the plot that felt unfinished?
How were the character and location descriptions?
Did my prose read easily or did you find yourself having to re-read sentences sometimes?

That's it. Let them have the book with those questions. Then after they're done, you can ask them other questions. By guiding them as to what you want to know, you will get feedback and criticism that is helpful.

I HAVE MONEY BUT NOT TIME:

If you are working, raising kids, or just working 60 hours a week, you probably have a few extra dollars and will need to get someone two help you for a reasonable price. There are full industries that have sprung up around the entire self-publishing industry, but it's important to know how not to be ripped off!

I used Fiverr.com for my beta readers. I found someone who was willing to read my book and give me feedback. The person I chose read the book in Microsoft Word and she used commenting in the Track Changes feature. I hadn't thought of this myself at that point. She commented all throughout the book. This was so valuable because it was like being in the reader's head when she read the book.

I gave her my list of 5 questions above and between her answering the questions and commenting throughout the book, she did a great job. She charged me $80. This was back in 2022 so it may have gone up to $100, but I believe it's still worth it.

I have become a repeat Fiverr user as I have had nothing but good experiences on their website.

Here is a video you may like where I go over pretty much the same material I just explained in the blog post.

Book Launch – Early Market Research – Part 3

* EARLY MARKET RESEARCH *

While your book is still being edited, you can do early market research. Begin by going to Amazon.com and searching out your main category. Record the names of the authors, the name of the books, and any series names. These will come into play later on when I tell you about two YouTubers you should watch and subscribe to.

Below are two videos from these two YouTubers who really helped me the most when it came to marketing eBooks on KDP and also researching eBooks with marketing in mind. You should watch these videos and comb their video library for other helpful advice. The only additional thing I will mention is that I also scroll down the book pages on Amazon and notice what other categories my competition is listed in. Write the category names down. You will get many more categories this way as Amazon is adding new ones all the time!

PICKING THE BEST CATEGORIES FOR YOUR BOOK LAUNCH:

Below is the video from Self Publishing Titans. He offers a free tool that I have used and it is great for picking the best categories for your eBooks. The tool is free and it's a cinch to install. He goes over the tool and what it can do in the video below. I would also recommend that you subscribe to his YouTube channel as he has amazing insights and his videos are straight to the point.

I learned from Self Publishing Titans about doing my pre-launch research. I found many more categories that I never knew existed. By doing this early research, I was ready with my 7 keywords and 10 book categories that I would need when it came time to upload my eBook. So have a look see at his video.

THE BEST LAUNCH STRATEGY VIDEO:

Below is a Best Book Launch Strategy video that I found amazingly helpful as a beginner. He also has wonderful insights into how the algorithms work, etc. Be sure to watch the video and subscribe to Dane's channel as he has a lot of great information.

This could take several days, but your eBook is with the editor anyway, so you should have the time!

Book Launch – Writing Descriptions and Blurbs – Part 2

* WRITE DESCRIPTIONS & BLURBS *

I start by writing a rather long (350 to 450 word) description. This is good for Amazon and the paperback cover. To be honest, I’m not that great at blurbs and descriptions, so I find someone on Fiverr and have them write a blurb and description. I paid about $25.00 a piece for two blurbs.

From the larger description, I keep reducing the description down to one or two lines. I do this because if you run ads on Amazon, you only have a couple of sentences. Same with Bookbub and some other websites. So it’s a good idea to do this when you have the time. I get antsy when my book is being edited so this is a good way to spend my time!

I also begin work on 3 new possible stories for new novels to get my juices going.

* CREATE A LAUNCH CALENDAR *

I don't pick a launch date until my book is back from the editor and ready to upload. I prefer stress-free writing and launching, so I wait until I'm ready to go. Once the book is done, I pick a date 2 months away. This gives me a chance to get Advance Review Readers and some feedback from at least some people.

You can create a separate Google calendar for this. I use an Excel sheet, as shown above, and fill in the dates and what is going on at that time. This allows me to keep adding and removing things.

Book Launch – From Proofreading to Editor – Part 1

* FROM PROOFREADING TO EDITOR *

Go over your proofreading check list and make all the changes. Read it on NaturalReader.com or use Microsoft Word to read it aloud to yourself. Then hand it off to an Editor. They will take a minimum of one month to do a line edit.

Once the Editor has the book, I usually rewrite the first chapter to see if I can improve upon it. And often, I do the same for the last chapter.

* BEGIN ON YOUR BOOKCOVERS *

If you do your own creative work, make at least one eBook cover. The template for Amazon KDP is 1600 pixels wide x 2560 pixels tall. Make the front cover using the template and a back cover using the same template.

If you do not do graphics, find a eBook cover maker on Fiverr or somewhere on YouTube. Copy about 5 book covers from your genre to show to the eBook creator. Tell him/her that you want yours to “fit on the shelf with these”.

The Paperback cover will need to know the page count in order to get the proper template from KDP. When you have a page number for the paperback, go to the KDP Paperback Calculator: https://kdp.amazon.com/cover-calculator Once you have your template, you can add the front eBook cover and the back eBook cover that you made and blend them.