How to Publish Kindle Books

For the past few weeks, often bravely battling on despite the wintery weather, I have been playing with sorbets and granitas. It’s hell writing cookbooks! Now, at last, I have tried all my ideas, taken pics, written about the recipes, eaten the results and finally published a little ebook which looks like this!

It is really as an addendum to my ice cream book because there were some ideas and recipes I wanted to include but they didn't fit.

There is, however, even more to this story. After writing my ice cream book which I originally titled “Lush Ice Cream without a Machine” but have now slightly re-named as “100+ Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine”, it occurred to me that I know several other useful, super-flexible base recipes. I have therefore devised a cunning plan.

I have decided to publish a few more eBooks each one dedicated to one of these key recipes under the series title “Suzy Bowler’s Key Recipes”.

So, after I uploaded “Sorbets and Granitas” I adjusted my ice cream book a little, to bring it in line with this new series of which, to be fair, it was the first.  Don’t worry if you've already bought it, all the recipes are the same, I've just added links to this new book and more photos. Click here to have a look at it in detail or even buy it – surely it will be spring soon!

For some reason this caused me all sorts of problems and I spent the whole day “sitting on the settee” (as my darling calls it even though I was on a hard wooden chair) trying to upload it to Amazon. I still don’t know what the problem was. Sometimes the photos were in the wrong place when I previewed the book, sometimes it just wouldn't upload. I did exactly the same as I usually do and as this is my 5^th self-published ebook (read about the whole set here) I have uploaded, so far), I am befuddled.

Anyway it worked in the end and I have no idea why it did, either! I think it was probably a glitch on Amazon rather than something I was doing wrong – I’m never wrong!

So as I am never wrong here, briefly, is how I (usually successfully) prepare, convert and upload my ebooks.

To prepare a book for Amazon Kindle

~   Have the finished document in Word.

~   Add any photos in their correct place using the insert photo method (not copy and paste or anything else!). Pictures should ideally be in the proportions 9:1I. I usually make mine 900 pixels wide but sometimes less than 1100 pixels high, that just means it doesn’t fill the page.

~   Modify the “Normal” Style to Times New Roman, font size 12, single line space. Within Normal set the Paragraph style to 6 points after a paragraph and 6 points indent, if you like, for a new paragraph.  Save these modifications.

~   Highlight the whole document (press cntrl A) and set it all to Normal.

~   You will now have to go through the document re-setting such things as centring, bold and italic.  Don’t have any unusual fonts or anything larger than 14.

~   If in some places, such as lists of ingredients in my case, you don’t want a break after a line or paragraph press Shift/Enter instead of just Enter.   

To convert a book for Amazon Kindle

~   Save the prepared document as Web Page, Filtered to Desktop.  You will then see this …

~   Say YES.

~   Right click on the document on your desktop (as it is now in HTML it will be have the same icon as your browser), go down to Send To and select compressed zip file.

~   If your document included photos open the zip file that has appeared on the desktop using Windows Explorer.

~   There should also have appeared a separate folder on the desktop containing your photos. Drag and drop this into the zip file you have just opened with Windows Explorer.

To upload a book to Amazon’s Kindle

~   Go to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.

~   Sign up, log in and follow the instructions!

Easy Peasy (Usually Pusually)!

Free Book!

Speaking of self-published books, if you’d like a copy of my “219 Cooking Tips & Techniques you might find useful” pop over to Sudden Lunch and click the link in the sidebar.  There is an option to sign up for my Sudden Lunch! posts to be delivered straight to your inbox, it’s not compulsory but you might like them!

No. 1 Best Seller?

This is a question that I have often pondered even before the days of ebooks, Amazon and self publishing.  Often I would see books advertised at "The No. 1 Bestseller" even though I who read avidly and spent far too long in bookshops and libraries had never heard of it.  How, I pondered, was best seller status established?

Now, with a couple of ebooks and a "real" book published this question is no longer purely academic for me - what does No. 1 Bestseller mean?  Does anyone know?  In reading and talking to people in the publishing and self publishing industry I understand that choosing one's category is a good way to reach the top of certain piles.  Incidentally and oddly the categories my books are actually listed under on Amazon are not quite what I selected but close enough. 

A couple of days ago my ice cream book was rated on Amazon thus ... 

#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Food & Drink > Cooking by Ingredient > Cheese & Dairy

#38 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Food & Drink > Desserts

#69 in Books > Food & Drink > Meals & Menus > Cheese & Dairy

And what I want to know is - in accordance with the first line above can I now advertise it as a best seller?  It would feel a bit cheeky but if that's way things are done I don't want to miss out!  What do you think?

In other news ...

Here's a picture of Rum Roasted Banana Ice Cream from the aforementioned book ...

... and rumour has it that my real book, "The Leftovers Handbook" has been favourably mentioned in Great British Food Magazine, if I find it I'll report back. 

I've just realised, I don't think the recipe for the crispy bananas in this picture is in Lush Ice Cream without a Machine but no worries - here it is.

Banana Brittle

30g butter

½ tbsp vegetable oil

3 tbsp caster sugar

1 possibly leftover banana

~   Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4.

~   Melt together the butter and oil and brush evenly onto a baking tray.

~   Sprinkle with half of the sugar.

~   Thinly slice the banana and arrange on the tray in a single layer.

~   Sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

~   Pop in the oven and keep an eye on them.  Every time a slice is golden and looks crisp (it won't actually be crisp till it cools) remove it from the oven and set aside.

~   Keep cooking till the plate is full and the tray is empty which takes about half an hour.

~   Cool the brittle till crisp - it will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days but you will probably have eaten it by then.

My Neverending List!

I have always been prone to list making, I even enjoy it - especially the crossing off bit when a thing is done. I like that bit so much that if I do something not on the list I add it and then cross it off.  Sad or what!

Now, with my "writing career" "taking off" I have so many things to do I have a running list which despite all my delicious crossing off never seems to get any shorter.  I use iDailyDiary a very simple and free program which means I can copy and paste my unaccomplished tasks to the next day.

 

I do highlight urgent stuff in red and that usually gets done but some things just get transferred over and over again and then when I do look down the list I can no longer remember what I was talking about, eg.

·         "Twang it into a tree" - this is a little catch phrase we use at home but why did I add it to my list?  Twang what?

·         "Wombles - I mean it this time" (I did eventually remember what this was and wrote this blog post as a result but I'm still not sure why I put "I mean it this time"!)  

·         "Laupahoehoe Position" - after some stroky chin pondering this too resulted in a blog post. 

·         "Senegalese" - no idea.

Click here!

For a while I have had "Update Lush Description" in red on the list, waiting to be accomplished and yesterday I got round to it.  This is as a direct result of reading an excellent little eBook on my Kindle; "Unlimited Books Sales Machine" which makes some really good points and from which I realised that I could probably do better than just repeating the start of the book when describing my "Lush Ice Cream without a Machine" on Amazon, it does after all have a Look Inside option.  Have a look and see what you think of the new improved description here. 

Whilst I was making changes and also, as the sun was out (note the past tense!) I decided to do a Summer Special and reduced the price by 12%!  I put at the end of the description "get it whilst the sun's out!" which I wrote in a burst of enthusiasm but there's nothing like being prepared and anyway ice cream is good at any time.  Here's one I made earlier ...

Maple Syrup Ice Cream with Sugared Walnuts

Surely it's time for ice cream now, isn't it?

Lavender Honey Ice Cream

I have been concentrating so hard on my Leftovers book I had almost forgotten my ebook, "Lush Ice Cream without a Machine - or much time, or effort or having to mash the stuff as it freezes" but now, with the weather so much improved, it has somehow sprung to mind again.

I wrote Lush Ice Cream having seen how many homemade ice cream books there are on the market, often involving complicated methods and expensive ice cream machines.  I felt it would be shame not to pass on this undemanding but excellent recipe

Cherry Ice Cream Sandwich

(recipe for Chewy Marzipan Cookies here) 

In the book I give over 100 ice cream recipes plus lots of others for accompaniments, inclusions and serving idea.  For more details and photos see the tab at the top of the page or go here and have yourself a "Look Inside".  At only £2.25 it's about the price of a tub of ice cream in the supermarket and I am sure it will give you more pleasure.

Peach Melba Ice Cream from Leftover Fruit

The thing I hadn't realised is that this recipe is superb for using up leftovers - raw and cooked fruit, broken biccies, cake crumbs, crushed meringues, leftover sauces and "unwanted" chocolate.  Bonus!