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As many of you know by this point, I created a special edition & deluxe edition of my book, Sparks in Iceland, as a part of my Kickstarter. These editions of the book include photos from locations in the book, and I even have a digitally annotated edition of the book available as well! So many of you were asking how I created digital annotations, so in this video, I'm showing you how I took my formatted book in Adobe InDesign and added a few extra things to turn it into these beautiful special editions!
In this video:
0:00 – Intro
2:42 – Format as usual
3:37 – Annotate the book
4:38 – Find and edit photos
8:24 – Place photos in the document
10:58 – Add special chapter headers
14:24 – Add annotations
19:38 – Additional tip
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Mandi Lynn published her first novel when she was seventeen. The author of multiple books, Mandi spends her days continuing to write and creating YouTube videos to help other writers achieve their dreams of seeing their books published. Mandi is the owner of Stone Ridge Books, a company that works to help authors bring their books to life through cover design and digital book marketing. She is also the creator of The Book Launch Planner, a planner designed to help authors publish and market their books. When she’s not creating, you can find Mandi exploring her backyard or getting lost in the woods.
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links. By purchasing a linked product or service, Mandi Lynn will receive a small commission at no additional fee to you.
#bookformatting #selfpublishing #bookpublishing
Title:
How to Format a Book in Adobe InDesign (Special Edition & Digital Annotations)
Search terms: how to format a book, book formatting course, how to format a novel
I love the doodles in the annotated edition they’re so pretty!!! Sparks in Iceland looks beautiful!!!
Thank you! I’m so glad you like them! 😊
What’s the age recommendation for Sparks in Iceland?
Great question! I would say it’s 12+. It contains no swears or anything inappropriate. The main characters are in their 20’s though so it may not appeal to younger audiences.
Ok thanks!!! I’m thirteen and was curious of what age to recommend it to people. I got an annotated copy the first day because it was just to beautiful of a book to resist and I already read the road trip snapshot series the minute I turned thirteen and was able to so I knew it would be fine but I was curious of how to recommend it to people. It looks fantastic and I’m super excited for it to be released!!!!
@@MandiLynnWrites❤
Yay! I hope you love your annotated copy! If you enjoyed the Road Trip Snapshot Series, you’ll love Sparks in Iceland even more!
@@MandiLynnWritesI loved the road trip snapshot series and am super excited for Sparks in Iceland!! Oh and I had one last question if you wanted to change your pledge to like give money to the kickstarter without a reward how would you do that?
It’s herrrrre! Thank you so much for making this video!
Yay! So glad you like it! 😊
One way you could (probably) bypass KDP’s margin error is if you write your text as an image (example: maybe try writing the notes in Canva or Microsoft Paint) then place them in like you do any other image. But, make sure the text image is transparent. I assume it’s gonna take forever to place a bajillion note images. I’ve tried something similar, but I haven’t done anything with the margin before, so I’m just guessing.
It should (probably) work because the system may look at it as an image instead of seeing a text box. But, sometimes KDP has real people previewing the document, but you could just let them know that it’s done on purpose, I guess.
Oh! That’s an interesting workaround. I wonder if that would work…
Thank you very much for making such a good video.
Lots of great info!
I’m a graphic and publication designer, and I enjoyed watching this video. Watching someone else work in a familiar way felt surprisingly good.
Thank you so much. I don’t have the program but I am considering it after your tutorial. Thank you again so much!
Thanks for the video! When you mention using stock illustrations, do you have any experience using Adobe Stock, Adobe Firefly or Adobe Fonts and have you had any issues with copyright using content from these platforms? As I understand, if you have a Pro Adobe licence which includes Enhanced Licenses for stock and fonts these can be used for commercial purposes. Have you ever been challenged on this? Does the same apply for AI generated images using Firefly when publishing with KDP?
Thank you for this video! Can you tell me the name of the special book formatting for your deluxe edition? It sounds like ‘Bookville”? Can’t wait for your video on formatting and printing the deluxe edition, it looks beautiful.
I printed the book through BookVault, which I have a separate tutorial on
Hi, i tried clicking onthe formatting link and site didn’t come up. I am trying to set up book formatting (size, margins, etc.) — you said format as usual – that’s the part I need help with.
Sorry about that! I’m having issues with the link shortener. You can access the course here: https://formatting-print-books-and-ebooks-using-adobe-.teachable.com/p/formatting-print-books-and-ebooks-using-adobe-indesign
Hi, I am designing a book in InDesign which has a lot of images and Arabic text, so should I design it as a fixed layout or a reflowable design for an EPUB on KDP?
Please give me an answer.
Thank you ❤❤❤
Hi Mandi, thanks for all your great videos. I have a question regarding interior text formatting that has been bugging me for some time. I’m watching your video, and at minute 3:03, for reference, when I look at the text of your book, there are many uneven spaces between the words in the text. For example: In the last paragraph, in the sentence that starts with ‘My grip…’ When you compare the spacing between the words in that line to the last one in the paragraph, with the sentence that starts with ‘to jobs…’–you will notice that they are very different, the spacing is noticeably different. I thought InDesign was supposed to take care of these tracking issues. I think they call it rivers running through the text. If I’m going to create a great reading experience for my readers, this needs to be addressed. The spacing between words and even between letters needs to be seamless to the reader. Some lines shouldn’t have very big gaps between the words, while others may seem to cram the words together. I understand that this video is particular to formatting graphs and so on, but if the text is also critical. Can you elaborate?
Hello Maam, I have a problem and I need your help. I like to make Physical books 📚 from ePUB to PDF, converted through Calibre, and from PDF make signatures Booklets in Bookbinder JS, and I print it and make signatures, 📌 pinch holes, fold signatures, stitch the book, and Put hardcover. I like to add important books to my handmade library collection, I like to annotate them and write ✍ my handwritten thoughts on the paper of the book for the future generations and family.
My problem is, while converting the book from Epub to PDF in calibre, I can only change the font and Paper size, not much else. I want to be able to change the font size, line spacing, word spacing, highlight, etc like we edit a Word file for the final PDF (epub to pdf), *how can I have more customization in the conversion from epub to PDF??* I print the PDF to book for my custom-made family “Generational Treasure” library. I am waiting for your Reply.
Yes, advanced formatting a EPUB file, (like a Word file) to save it to PDF? How to do it?
Would be great if your link for formatting actually worked. However its a no go.
Thanks so letting me know! This one should work: https://stoneridgebooks.teachable.com/p/formatting-print-books-and-ebooks-using-adobe-indesign
Your formatting course link is broken – I can’t access it
Sorry, the link shortener isn’t working: https://stoneridgebooks.teachable.com/p/formatting-print-books-and-ebooks-using-adobe-indesign