Microsoft Word formatting - Next paragraph changes style

Word formatting

I occasionally format books for others so they can publish to Amazon, Smashwords, in print, and to others.  It's rare that anyone sets up their documents to be automatically formatted while they write like I do, so I get a lot of weird formatting issues, none of which relate to the quality of writing, just the way it looks on your eReader.

I had an issue where every time I hit enter on a document I was formatting, it would indent the entire next paragraph instead of the first line.  It changed styles from "Normal".  It took me a couple of hours to figure it out and fix it.  Googling led me to a bunny-load of solutions for other problems, mostly to do with indentation.

The document I'm formatting in this case is "Vanx Malic: The Tome and the Lens" for M.R. Mathias.  You can read the beginning of the series here: The Legend of Vanx Malic: To Kill a Witch  The series is excellent and I highly recommend it.

The problem

You'll see in fig 1 that the new paragraph that I tried to create moves over instead of lining up with the others.  I'm using the "Normal" style edited to fit my book.  However, when I hit enter, it stops using the "Normal" style.  It didn't show me which style it switched to, so I spent a lot of time experimenting how to change it.

fig 1

The highlighted section shows that the entire paragraph was indented 5 spaces to the left.  If you look at the arrows in the ruler at the top, you'll see that the bottom indent is moved to the left of the shaded area instead of lined up with it.

The solution.

To fix this, you need to modify the style you're currently working in. (fig 2)  In this case, we're working in the normal style.  Right click on it and select "Modify"

fig 2

It was here that I discovered the issue in "Style for following paragraph" (fig 3 (I have a sudden craving for figs . . . ))  The style in this case was "Normal Indent", which indents the entire paragraph.

fig 3

I changed that to "Normal" instead of "Normal Indent" and from then on, everything worked the way it was supposed to.

Conclusion

The chances of the average user ever having a problem like this is minuscule.  However, if you do, here's the solution.  This can apply to any style that you may be using in Word, whether it be normal or a heading style.

All my best,

John H. Carroll

Where to self publish your book

Publishing is fun and easy

Easy compared to spending years trying to get agents and publishers to realize how brilliant you are.
This is a list of where I publish my ebooks.  Other authors will do it differently, but hopefully this will give you insight in to what an author goes through in this new publishing world.

Before you publish a book, it's helpful to write it . . .  After that, I recommend editing it, then editing it again, having others edit it, setting it aside for a couple of months, then edit again a couple more times.  There's a good chance you'll still miss a thing or two, but the important part is that you polish it and publish a high quality product.  If at all possible, get a professional editor.

You'll also want a cover.  If you can afford a professional or semi-professional one, that's good.  Otherwise you can make your own with Photoshop, GIMP or some other editing software.  The better your cover, the more likely it will be noticed among the countless others.  The better the quality of your book, the more likely people will be to buy the next.

At the end of all my stories, I add authors notes with a brief description of me.  In it, I also add links to my blog, twitter, facebook and goodreads pages.  Then I add short descriptions to my other stories.  I have different copies of the author's notes for each store with links to that store.  In other words, I don't add Smashwords links to Amazon publications or Amazon links to Barnes & Noble publications.

Formatting

I write using Microsoft Word, which makes the formatting easy for me.  In addition, I write fantasy and don't have a lot of pictures, other things that make it easier.  I have a detailed formatting guide here if you need it http://ryallon.blogspot.com/2012/11/publishing-checklist-for-my-book-files.html


Publishing

Before I continue, I want to alert you to a company you should avoid.  Author Solutions and its many tentacles is a company that preys upon hopeful writers.  You can learn more about them here https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/the-case-against-author-solutions-part-1-the-numbers/

There are the places I publish my ebooks.  Others exist and you can look them up.

1. Smashwords.  I recommend using the Smashwords Style Guide to format your word document.  In fact, it's vital if you want to publish through them.  I distribute to Apple, B&N, Kobo, Scribd, and numerous other small bookstores through Smashwords.  Due to time constraints, Smashwords and Amazon are the only two I publish to at the moment.

2.  Amazon.  I make a copy of the Word Document that I used for Smashwords.  Then I add page breaks after the title page, copyright page and chapters.  After that, I save it as a filtered web document and then convert it using mobipocket.  Here is a more specific guide:  https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6

3. Kobo now has self-publishing platform though I use Smashwords. With Kobo, you transform your word document into html by saving it as a filtered web document. Then you use a program such as Calibre to transform it into an epub. You can find more info here: http://download.kobobooks.com/writinglife/en-US/KWL-User-Guide.pdf

4.  B&N has a Smashwords version of my novels, but you can publish directly with them if you like. Warning!!! B&N now partners with Authors solutions.  If you do publish with B&N, do not pay for any of their services.  It's just not a good value. With B&N, you just use the word document used for the others with the exception of specific author's notes and any publishing info.  You can find more info here:  https://www.nookpress.com/ebooks#

5. XinXii is a European competitor to Smashwords.  I haven't used their services, but from my reseach, I personally prefer Smashwords, http://www.xinxii.com/default.php/en

Print books

5.  Createspace is my favorite for print on Demand Books.  I only publish my novels in print, not my short stories.  Createspace is owned by Amazon and has been a dream to work with.  I make all of my covers to fit their guidelines, with a spine and a back cover.  https://www.createspace.com/

5a.  Createspace's biggest competitor is Lightning Source, and many of my peers use their service.  http://www1.lightningsource.com/

5b.  Lulu is the third company that does print on demand books.  I'm not certain how good their service is.  https://www.lulu.com/s1/paperback_b/r/site

Other

6.  Another lesser known place to publish is Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/  You can sell books in PDF form.  I distribute there through Smashwords.  The site has made vast improvements in recent years.  The biggest issue most writers have is its reputation of being a source for pirates to get material, though I don't know how accurate this currently is.

7.  There is also a site called Wattpad. http://www.wattpad.com/  They don't have a way for you to sale books as far as I know, but this is an excellent place to publish free books.  It's also a good way to get input on your writing, especially if you're willing to join groups and return the favor with other writers.  They only accept uploads in .txt, so you'll lose most of your formatting.  Links and tables of contents won't work. 

8. There is also a site called Obooko where you can put free books as well.  In it, you give the readers the right to print out pdf documents for personal use.  You can also supply .mobi (Kindle) and epub (everything else) for people to read on ereaders.

Note:  All of these sites enable you to retain your worldwide copyrights.  You are only giving them the right to distribute or sell for you.  None of them prevent you from distributing elsewhere.

Other opportunities

There are other sites out there where it's possible to publish ebooks.  Look very carefully at there terms and make certain that they don't have any sort of restrictions preventing you from publishing elsewhere, or exclusivity clauses.  Publishing your books is an endeavor where you truly want to read the fine print on everything.  I recommend hiring a contract lawyer if you're not confident about what you're agreeing to.

I don't publish to Google Documents because they have been known to reduce the price on all books, which means Amazon and the rest are going to price match.  This can really mess with your royalties.

Whatever your decisions, don't expect to hit it big right away.  Being a self-published author is a LOT of hard work.  Not only do you need to write quality books, you have to market them.  You can find some marketing tips here on my blog, but those are only a start.

All my best and good luck. :)

John H. Carroll

How to make a clickable table of contents in Microsoft Word

This is how I make my table of contents for Smashwords and Amazon.  If you would like to see how they work, you can download my first novel “Rojuun” for free.  (links at the bottom of this tutorial)

I would like to note that this is a tutorial on how I do it.  I’d say there’s more than one way to skin a cat, but that’s just mean and my children will beat me up if I do.

Table of Contents

Here is a screenshot of what my hyperlinked table of contents looks like in my first novel.  As you can see, all the chapters have the blue, underlined hyperlinky effect.  (That is the official term)

You may notice that it says “Compatibility Mode” at the top of the document.  Smashwords doesn’t play well with Word 2007 and 2010, so I save everything as a Word 97-2003 document.  I’m using Word 2010, but I originally did this with Word 2003.  The process is the same, but Word 2010 has that ribbon thingy Bill Gates is so proud of at the top.

  

I like the left aligned table as shown here.  You could center it if you like, it’s a personal choice.  You’ll notice that I have my maps on there too.  If you have maps, I highly recommend it.

Okay, so now we get to how to make all of this. 

Make a Table of Contents.

We’ll start with this:

Nothing is hyperlinked, just written out.

Bookmarks

The first thing you want to do is create a bookmark.  Select “Table of Contents” and then go to your ‘Insert’ tab.  Click on ‘Bookmark’ in that ribbon:

and you will get a screen like this:

Type in ref_TOC  Then click “Add”  It is important to name it exactly that, because that’s what Smashwords Meatgrinder looks for.  I have this in all of my books with a table of contents.

Chapter Headings

Okay, the next thing you want to do is make a Chapter 1.  Use Heading 2 and set up the style as you like it.  I personally use 16pt Times New Roman with an underline.

Now it’s time to bookmark Chapter 1  Do it exactly the same way, but let’s name it title_chap01.  ‘title’ will be a unique identifier for the name of your book.  ‘chap01” is because it’s chapter 1.

The reason I name mine ‘roj_chap1’ instead of just ‘chapter1’ is because “Rojuun” is the first book of a trilogy.  I sell an omnibus with all three books of the trilogy.  The table of contents has ‘roj_chap1’, ‘ani_chap1’ (“Anilyia” is the second book), and ‘ket_chap1’ (“Kethril” is the third book).

Creating the links

Now it’s time to hyperlink the table of contents to the chapter.  Select ‘Chapter 1” in the table of contents, go to the insert tab and click on ‘Hyperlink’

You will get a screen like this:

On the left, you want to ‘Link to:’  “Place in this Document”.  That will bring up your bookmarks.  Select ‘title_chap1’ (or whatever you call your chapter 1) and click OK.  That will make your blue hyperlinky Chapter 1 in the table of contents.

If you click on it, it will take you to the beginning of chapter 1.  Repeat this step for every chapter and you will have a working table of contents.  You can do the same thing for your maps too.  Select the map, the same way you did the chapter and add a bookmark to it.  I name mine ‘map_ryallon’.  Then hyperlink ‘Map of Ryallon’ in the Table of Contents (or whatever you call your map.

Linking your chapters back to the Table of Contents.

This is a wonderful tool for the reader to get back to the beginning of the book, especially if they want to be able to glance at the map and then return back to the chapter they’re on.

For this, you want to select the Chapter 1 heading and select hyperlink:

This time, select ‘ref_TOC’ as the place to link it to.  That will link it back to the Table of Contents.  You can do this with every chapter.  You get an underlined chapter heading.  (It’s purple now instead of blue because I’ve clicked on them)

Hidden bookmarks.

I discovered that clicking on hyperlinks within a document creates hidden bookmarks, like this:

The ‘Hlt…….’ Bookmarks are the hidden ones.  They are unnecessary and take up extra space, so before I publish, I always delete all of those.

In conclusion.

So that’s the basics.  If you want to test the links, just press shift and left click the mouse.  This works wonderfully on the Kindle Touch and Fire, which I’ve been able to test.  I hope this helps for you too.

Here are the links to Rojuun:

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31154?ref=johnhcarroll

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TXS0DI 
Amazon UK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004TXS0DI

Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/rojuun/id409277486?mt=11 

Sony: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/john-h-carroll/rojuun/_/R-400000000000000323599

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/rojuun-1

All my best,

John H. Carroll

With assistance from multiple emo bunnies.