Self-Publishing with ProWebWriter on a $0 Budget - Part 1 - The Manuscript

After running into a few Steemians who want this information, I decided to publish a series of posts to help you get published on Amazon for the Kindle, and a few other platforms as well, including Paperback.

This is on ZERO budget. Please read through the full post before you get started.

What You Will Need For Part 1

• A Google Account
• A Kindle Direct Publishing Account - This is easy, just go to https://kdp.amazon.com/ and sign in with your existing Amazon account. If you don't have an Amazon account, you will need to create one.
• An existing manuscript - If you have one, you're a few steps ahead, if not, you'll need to go through the writing process and come back to this

What You Will Learn in Part 1

• How to write/format your manuscript using free tools

Let's Get Started

The reason you need a Google account is that we are going to be using Google Docs to create/format your manuscript. 

Why not Word, you ask?

Word is a bit too complicated for the level of formatting we need. 

With Google Docs, you can jump right in without having to set up styles, etc. To access Google Docs, log into your Google account and use your browser to navigate to https://drive.google.com/.

In case you weren't aware, this is your Google Drive and you have 15GB of free cloud storage space attached to your account. This is great for self-publishers because it creates a backup of your work in the cloud. It also auto-saves every time you make a change to your document.

Step 1. Open a new document by clicking New and selecting Google Docs from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Create your Title Page using the Title and Subtitle (if you have one) styles. Also, type the Title of your working file by clicking in the Untitled Document area. 

Step 3. You will probably want to insert a generic copyright statement at the bottom of your title page.  Perhaps something like this: 

 Copyright © 2015 Caroline Winston All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Step 4. Insert a Page Break once your Title Page is complete. You can either press Ctrl Enter or click Insert and select Page Break from the drop down menu.

Step 5. Use the Heading 1 style for all of your Chapter headings and other pages you include such as a Dedication, Foreward, Preface, etc. 

NOTE: If you adjust any of the font sizes, say for Headings or Title, do NOT make them more than 20 pt. This will make them display incorrectly in smaller format devices. 

Step 6. Write the body of your chapters using the Normal text style. If you have already written your book, and you are just formatting, make sure there is consistency with your styles.

All Headings should use the Heading 1 style and all body text should be normal and have the same font size and type. Go through and highlight the areas you need to format. The most simple way is probably to set the entire document to Normal text with a consistent font size and type. Then go through and highlight and format your headings. 

Step 7. Insert Page Breaks after each chapter.

Step 8. Create a Table of Contents at the beginning of your manuscript, usually by inserted a new Page Break after the Title. Then click Insert and select Table of contents from the drop-down menu. 

NOTE: You can easily update your TOC by right-clicking it at the top and selecting Update table of contents near the bottom of the fly-out menu.

Wrapping Up Part 1

Once you have formatted your entire manuscript using these simple steps. You are done. Do not make your formatting more complicated than it needs to be. Do not EVER use the Tab key when formatting for Kindle as it will really cause problems for you. Use the First Line Indent instead if you insist on more fancy formatting.

The final step is to download your manuscript as a Word document by clicking File, hover your cursor over Download as and select Word document from the fly-out menu.

This will be the file that you upload to KDP.

Coming Up

In Part 2, we will go over editing, proofreading, and creating a cover for your book. If the process of self-publishing your book is something you are interested in, I hope you will follow me so you don't miss any of these upcoming tutorials. I will come back and edit this post with links to new parts to make the process as seamless as possible. 

If you have questions, please comment. I will respond and that way your question will be here for others who may be looking for the same information. If I've forgotten anything, it will be added to the process. 

Thanks for reading and good luck with your book!

Go on to Part 2.