How to Prepare and Format Manuscripts

You can watch these videos in full-screen mode by clicking the full-screen button in the lower right corner of each video image.

If you want to see what the finished results would look like, start the Book Formatting From Scratch video and jump to 37m49s (37 minutes and 49 seconds into the video) to see how the eBook looks, 39m35s to see the “camera-ready” PDF for submitting to Amazon (formerly CreateSpace), and 41m10s to see the “proof” version of the PDF suitable for printing on 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper.

Otherwise, we suggest you watch the Essence of eBook Formatting video first, followed by the Book Formatting From Scratch and Find and Replace Using Patterns videos (in either order). After that, Book Formatting From a .doc File might be a good choice, followed by any of the other videos that interest you.

Essence of eBook Formatting

This is a 6-minute video showing how to mark chapter titles, scene breaks, and italics.

Start with this video to get a flavor of how it all works. There is more to it, of course, but this shows what you will do day in and day out as you write and polish a manuscript.

It shows the marking of italics (for example) by hand. (If you have an existing manuscript, there is a much faster way to mark the italics as shown in the Find and Replace Using Patterns video.)

Book Formatting From Scratch

This video shows how to create eBooks (Mobi and EPUB) and a “camera-ready” PDF for print books through Amazon (formerly CreateSpace) starting from scratch. It shows the steps of

Find and Replace Using Patterns

If you are starting from an existing manuscript, there is no need to tediously “eyeball” your manuscript searching for each italicized word or phrase to mark. Your word processor can search by patterns to find them all and add the markup in one fell swoop.

This video shows how. The same technique can be used for other changes, for example, for finding pairs of quote marks.

Book Formatting From a .doc File

Book Formatting From a .doc File

Book Formatting With Scrivener

Book Formatting With Scrivener

Older Videos

We also have some older videos available on the Nepo Press YouTube channel. Here are a few that might still be of interest.

The videos were made on Windows 7 Professional, but hopefully everything probably applies any version of Windows.

After clicking on a video, you can click near the bottom right corner to enlarge it to full screen, or click on the YouTube button to watch it directly on YouTube.

How to Install Firefox on Windows 7

After installing Firefox, be sure to configure it as shown in the next section.

How to Configure Firefox

How to Configure Windows Explorer

How to Download an Image File to Your Computer

How to Download a (non-image) File to Your Computer

How to read Kindle eBooks (mobi files) on your computer without a Kindle

How to Install Kindle for PC

How to Save a Mobi File From Email to Disk

How to Copy a Mobi File from Disk to Kindle

How to Read (a local) Mobi File in Kindle for PC

How to Set Up Manuscript Directories

Solving a Rare Problem – How to Expose Hidden windows in Windows