Fun With Indie Publishing Part 3 - Front and Back Matter

Thanks for stopping by for part 3. You can find Part 2 here.

Now, I'll talk about the front and back matter of what to put in your master file.

I put my cover on the front page.

Page Break. 

Title page comes next. Example would be:

WHITELIGHTER
by
Angie Derek
****
Smashwords Edition
****
Page Break


Published by Thoroughweb Press.
Whitelighter
Copyright © 2011 by Angelia Almos
Cover design by Tamra Westberry.

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 author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
****
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
****
License Notes
 Each retailer has a different license notes requirement and will be added in when we get to that point.
****
Page Break
Acknowledgements or Dedication Page
Page Break
Table of Contents
Hyperlinks to all chapters in book and sections (good instructions are within the Smashwords Style Guide if you've never done this). You don't want to use the Table of Contents feature within Word according to the style guide so you will need to do it manually.
Page Break
Chapter One
......
About the Author (example)

Angie Derek writes steamy paranormal romances and romantic suspense. She lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with her husband, two daughters, two cats, two dogs, and one pony. Connect with Angie:

Page Break
Sample from other books or bonus material (this is up to you whether you want to include any extras). I included the blurb and an excerpt from my other Angie Derek title The Beast's Redemption along with a spot for the "buy link" (you'll insert the actual links in the next round of files).

Save the file. Then Save As three times: Title Smashwords, Title Kindle, Title Pubit. There will be very little to do in those files. Just some minor adjustments for each file.

Smashwords:
Front Matter: You'll put "Smashwords Edition" on the title page. You will use their License Statement. You can find it here: http://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq#avcopy and in their Style Guide. They require you to use their license statement or your book will not be approved.
Back Matter: You can add in links to other books you have for sale, but only to the Smashwords editions (no links to Amazon or other retailers). If you don't have books for sale through Smashwords (traditionally published books would be an example), you can list them and include a link to your website for your reader to learn more. You'll use the hyperlink tool in word to create an outside link. The same button that you used to create your Table of Contents links, but the link will go to a website instead of within your document.

Amazon: 
Front Matter: You'll put "Kindle Edition" on the title page. You can use any License statement you choose. You can find several here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ and use them with their permission.
Back Matter: Same as above, you can add in sample chapters and links to other books. But again you want the links to go to Amazon.

Barnes and Noble:
Front Matter: You'll put "PubIt! Edition" on the title page. You can use any License statement you choose. You can find several here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ and use them with their permission.
Back Matter: Same as above, you can add in sample chapters and links to other books. But again you want the links to go to Barnes and Noble.

I'll go over some tips on cover design next week - you can do this before or after you format your files since you can insert the cover either within the master file or within the other files depending on where you are. Part 4 is here.

Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing these information! It could get overwhelming at first, but as you've listed the front & back matter according to different self-publishing platforms, things'll get a little easier. :)


    Claudine
    http://www.carryusoffbooks.com/blog.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for stopping by, Claudine. It can be overwhelming when you first start, but I find if you break it into bite size chunks it becomes more than manageable. Kinda like writing a novel. If you think of everything you have to do in one big swoop it could stop you dead in your tracks, but break it into doable chunks and the task no longer seems overwhelming.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! You are breaking this all down. What a great resource for people who are self-pubbing. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kelly. I wasn't originally going to go this in depth, but then I figured why not. :-)

      Delete
  4. Thanks for all the great info, Angela! I love when writers share what they know.

    ReplyDelete

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