Can you Really Write a Kindle Book for Free?

A thought occurred to me recently. Is it possible to write a professional looking Kindle book for free?

Don’t misunderstand me, I love my current software tools. I use UlyssesIII, Scrivener, Scapple, Affinity Designer, Pixave, Vellum and many others. I purchased these applications over the last few years, my decisions based mostly on blog reviews. When I purchase a piece of software I want it to be intuitive, easy to use, and feature rich.

The thought turned into an idea. Could I write a book about it? I started my research a few days ago, and do you know what? I reckon you can!

The beauty of writing a book using free software is you have to get down and dirty sometimes, and that is when you learn more about the process you have taken for granted in the past.

I have found some terrific free software. Some of it is a little clunky and not terribly intuitive, but others are real gems.

Take the writing application, for example. I looked at so many, most were good but lacking certain features I had become accustomed to. Some were in beta, and even though free they might not remain so. In the end only one application met my requirements.. and then some! TextNut!

TextNut reminds me of Ulysses, it doesn’t have quite as many features, but it is a joy to use and even offers some functionality that Ulysses doesn’t have.

I wrote 3000 very enjoyable words in it yesterday with no problems at all. The beginnings of the book structure are there, and my screenshot testing went without a hitch.

It exports via HTML, RTFD, PDF and Markdown. It uses Markdown, but you can write in wysiwyg.

The developer offers an in-app purchase to allow unlimited libraries and external folders, but the 4 libraries and 2 folders are more than enough for one book. It supports themes, exports to Medium, Blogger and Wordpress, and also has a ‘Zen’ mode for distraction free writing.

I am really impressed, can you tell?

Oh, and one final unexpected surprise, there is an IOS version that will sync via Dropbox or iCloud. The IOS version is also free with the same limitations as the OSX version, but it means I can write on my iPad too!

The developer is approachable and kindly gave his consent for me to use screenshots of the app in the book. TextNut is available from both Apple app stores. Here is a link to the app website: http://www.textnutwriter.com/

Thanks to TextNut, my next few weeks won’t be all cussing and swearing as I struggle to use free software to write the book. Although formatting is something I look forward to with a quiet foreboding.

SM

Visual Mapping for Writers is Alive!!

I am pleased to announce the release of my new book Visual Mapping for Writers in Kindle format. It is available from here:

UK: http://tinyurl.com/hoy2ede (Preview: http://preview.tinyurl.com/hoy2ede)
US: http://tinyurl.com/j675o6z  (Preview: http://preview.tinyurl.com/j675o6z)


I am debating whether to produce a Createspace version. My reticence comes from the predicted retail price of the full colour edition. I am not certain I could sell sufficient paperback copies to cover the time it will take to format it. I have done the usual things, such as increasing the book dimensions, choosing an appropriate font size, reducing line spacing and reducing image sizes. All this in an effort to reduce the number of pages. Unfortunately, the book is still 120 pages and would carry a retail price of £15.99 or $19.99.

The Vagaries of Kindle Image Formatting.

I am frustrated and a little disappointed at the moment.

I have spent the last week trying everything I could to reduce the file size of my latest book. The book has over 100 images, all created with care at 300dpi. I used my Retina Macbook Pro to ensure the original files had the highest resolution (144dpi) in lossless PNG format.  The results were very encouraging in the beginning….

Amazon charge a delivery fee for every kindle book sold. The cost is based upon the file size of the mobi7 folder. The greatest contributor to the file size is the image folder. I uploaded a draft copy of the book to the KDP and the delivery fee was shocking!

I tried various image optimisers. I hoped they would help optimise the images to reduce the file size whilst retaining quality. These worked extremely well. I had great results with Tinypng and ImageOptim.

Vellum is my formatting application of choice. I enjoy the experience, the simple and intuitive interface, and the results are always great.

I created larger dimension images at 300dpi, but smaller in file size than Vellum generates. I unpacked the Vellum generated mobi file and replaced every image with my own JPG version. I then recompiled using the Kindle Previewer. The results, in local testing, were very promising. The total mobi file size was reduced by over 35%.

Finally, I uploaded the file to Amazon KDP and the delivery cost was greater!

I now understand what happens in the background and, I must say, I am disappointed. Despite my optimised image files being smaller in file size than the original Vellum images, the mobi7 images are simply a reduced quality jpg. I had assumed the mobi7 images would be reduced in dimension, not quality.

I had increased the image size to a width of 1500px for all of my images and optimising them meant they were a smaller file size than the Vellum images. The Amazon conversion process for the mobi7 images is to simply reduce the jpg quality (to 69%). Because the image dimensions were greater (Vellum uses a 97% quality 1280px wide file) the mobi7 images were also larger in file size.

I even tested replacing a jpg with a gif. Unfortunately, the gif was over 200kb and Kindle Previewer converted it to a jpeg resulting in the same mobi7 size.

The conclusion to this sorry tale, at least for the moment, is the only way to reduce your Kindle book file size is to either reduce the image dimensions or the number of images contained within the book. The other option, one I am reluctant to entertain, is to increase the price of the book. My original target price was $5.99 or £3.99. The Amazon download fee means the price of the book may have to rise to $6.99 or £4.99, something I really don’t want to do.

Visual Mapping for Writers.

The book is coming along nicely. I reckon 90% of the words are written. The image capture and collation are almost complete.

Visual Mapping for Writers: Non-Fiction uses a different approach. It introduces the reader to visual maps, but aligned with the book itself. The maps and processes featured were all used to create the book.

I have found that visual mapping can help writers improve content, complete the book faster and have some fun on the way!

If the book does well I am looking forward to writing the sequel, Visual Mapping for Writers: Fiction. It is already planned and ready to start.