The Journey of King's Heart Part 2

 In the post before last, I told you about the first part of the journey my first book has taken.

1. Formatting King's Heart

The next step of the journey was not necessarily my favorite part. I get frustrated with the nitty gritty details like formatting. Thankfully there is such a thing as YouTube. I have found a lot about writing and self-publishing. One of the first I would like to mention is Reedsy. Reedsy has been so helpful, from their posts to their YouTube tutorials. They are not a (Christian) organization, so when they use illustrations from the world's movies and books, I have to be careful. Another Youtuber I came across was Mandi Lynn with Stone Ridge Books. She has a lot of videos about self-publishing, formatting, and book covers. One more place I would like to mention is the blog - Helping Writers Become Authors.

  (Again, it is not a Christian website, so I have to be careful with the examples. I want to be a Christian author that has clean wholesome books for young ladies and even their moms to enjoy. At the same time, I want it to be professional and not cheesy. It is not okay to follow the world's standards, watch the world's movies, and talk like the world. But it is okay take advantage of things like writing tips that do not have anything to do with doctrine. Some of the people I have learned from are not Christian, but I have learned many helpful techniques and writing tips.) 

I may have mentioned it before. I found it around November 2021 during NaNoWriMo - National November Writing Month. It was very helpful when I was planning my plot and story arc for the book I started in November - Redeeming Louise. I was able to use some of what I learned for King's Heart.

It took me a while, for some reason, to decide what I wanted to use to format my book. I really struggled with it at first. Should I use Word? Find a different tool? Or should I use Kindle Create? I finally found a really handy template from Kindle Direct Publishing. After I downloaded it, I chose the English file then I picked the size I wanted. The download includes all the different sizes, including 8.5x5.5, which I chose for King's Heart. I do not know if it was the easiest way, but it worked for me. I could just download the Microsoft Word template and go from there since they already set the margins for me. I took out the contents page since King's Heart did not need it. I also took out the Acknowledgements page from the front and moved it to the back. Then I just started copying and pasting one chapter at a time. I actually started this part after my Dad had already helped me edit a few chapters.

2. Choosing the inside design

During the middle of this, I had to decide how I wanted it to look. What should the chapter page look like? What font did I want? Did I want my name at the top? The book title? These were questions that needed answers. I have heard that one of the best ways to decide is to look at other books and see how other authors/designers/publishers did it. Some things I looked up online, but mostly, I just pulled ideas from the numerous novels on my bookcase and Brenna's bookcase at her house. I even did some of this one afternoon at Brenna's house. A lot of ideas ended up being a lot of Brenna's mysteries, but that's okay. I did try to find some in my genre as well. Then I took them, opened them to their first chapter page, and lined them up side by side. I was able to see what I liked and what I did not like. 

I had read and seen that most chapter pages start on the right side of the book (or the odd-numbered pages). Once that was decided, I chose for the chapter heading to be six spaces down and to the right of the page. I also had to choose which font I wanted. One guy I watched on YouTube used Garamond. It looked good to me, so I went with that. For the Chapter heading, I made it gray, Lucida Calligraphy, and 16pt. font. I also added a Drop cap. I also learned from researching and playing around with Word that I could preset the Styles. I don't know why I never noticed that before. Once I had the Style set, it was so much easier to copy and paste and then click the style I wanted.

3. Designing the cover

I am so thankful for a brother that is good at graphic design. My brother Josh is the assistant to the pastor as well as the youth pastor at my church. He did the church website, and he also designs the thumbnails for our live stream services. I was so glad when he agreed to design my cover for me. I was not able to tell him the size for a while, for I did not know how many pages I would have until I was done formatting the inside. When I could give him a page count, then he was able to start designing. He asked for ideas of what I wanted. I went back to research and studied other book covers. I gave him a couple ideas from my bookcase then I looked up books at the main library in Ocala when I went there with Callie one day this summer. It was fun getting ideas.

Once I had a general idea, he ran with it. He ended up giving me six book cover ideas. I had a hard time deciding between the last two. Josh told me I should take a few days to decide what I wanted. He did them all on Canva, so I was able to log into Canva to look at them again. I made a copy of them so I could play around with them a little. It was a fine balance of not being nit-picky but getting the cover how I wanted it. I added the description to the back and my name to the front. I was almost going to go with a purple cover he designed. At first, he put a plane on the front, which had been Dad's idea. I liked it, but that was such a small part of my story that I did not know if it fit. I also was unsure if it would attract the readers I wanted. He took out the plane, and I liked it much better. Then I changed course and decided on Cover#5. We both played around with it. I liked the design, but I did not know about the color. I was able to keep the picture he had but changed the color of it on Canva.

Deciding on the cover took about three weeks, but I am very happy with the results.

4. Plugging it all in

I had already started setting up my account with KDP - Kindle Direct Publishing. I went to my new favorite Youtube videos by Mandi Lynn. I also watched other videos, though I don't remember which. After I set up my taxes for KDP, I started putting in my book details - title, subtitle, author, description, audience, marketplace, categories/genre, and keywords. That was the fun part. 

The next step was setting up an account on Bowker and purchasing my ISBNs. When that was done, I put it on KDP. When the inside and cover of my book were finished, then I uploaded them to KDP. After that, I previewed the book to check for errors before ordering a proof copy. A proof copy is the finished product but with "Nor For Resale" on the cover. The proof copy is for me, the author, to check for printing errors and other mistakes I may not have noticed. It said that I was able to order up to five proof copies - all I had to do was pay for the shipping and printing. Before I ordered the proof copy, I had to set the book price. I chose for my book to be $13.99. I get 60% of the royalties - which ended up being $2.97. But, hey, since I am publishing through Amazon, I don't have to worry about an upfront cost. Yay!

I hit publish Thursday, so right now, my book is in review while I wait for KDP to approve it.

5. Choosing the name of my book line

I wanted to come up with a name for what I would write under. I asked my family for ideas. I liked Ms. Francie Taylor's Keep the Heart. The first book I started writing when I was 14 was based off my purity ring. I wanted a name that would go with that and involve the heart as well.  I asked my family if it should have books, publications, fiction, literature, or something like that in the name.

Here is what I finally decided on...

Thank you, Callie, for helping me with the design!

I want to write books that are gripping, heart-touching, and encouraging. I want books that will encourage young ladies to keep a heart of purity. 

I've enjoyed the journey King's Heart has taken, but I am so glad it is almost published. I hope you enjoy reading The King's Heart in the LORD's Hands when you get your copy. If you enjoy the story, I would love for you to leave a review on Amazon. Meanwhile, you can now follow Heart of Purity Literature on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time...

Elisabeth Kristine