Saving Time with Kindle Previewer Tool

Kindle Previewer is a free tool that emulates how your book will look on Kindle devices and applications and shows how the text displays for any orientation or font size. Once you’ve finished formatting your MS Word manuscript for KDP and saved it as a filtered web page, you can use Kindle Previewer to check the layout of your book and make sure it’s displayed properly. You can also check that the Table of Contents and any links are working properly.

It’s a lot easier and quicker to make changes to your book now, rather than waiting until after it’s been published to KDP!

Using Kindle Previewer

1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6 and download the latest version of Kindle Previewer (v2.9 at the time this book was published).
2. Open your formatted MS Word manuscript and select “Save As” to save the document as a “Web Page, Filtered” (for PC) or “Web Page” (for Mac).
3. Open the Previewer and then open your filtered web page. The previewer automatically converts the web page into the mobi file and opens it.
4. The tabs at the top of the document allow you to preview it in several different Kindle viewers. You can also select “Devices” from the menu bar at the top of the screen to see what your file will look like on an iPhone or iPad.
   
   
   For more tips like this one, check out our latest guide on self-publishing “Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle” available on Amazon’s kindle store at http://amzn.to/1gJSDmj

Describing Characters from Single Viewpiont versus Multiple Viewpoint

This can be difficult because it’s awkward to step outside of oneself and describe ourselves.  In third person subjective and first person narrative voices, we follow the main character along and share in his or her thoughts at the story progresses.  But how can we reveal important details about our main character or describe him or her without sounding awkward or forced?  Many writers use revealing devices such as having their character stand in front of a mirror, but this is an over worn cliché that you should avoid.  You can give bits of description through the dialogue of other characters.  What do they say about the character or how do they react to him or her? You could also reveal a character's emotional state through a description of the weather. 

Many writers find the single viewpoint narrator makes for cleaner and more engaging writing.  The reader gets invested in the main character’s perspective and follows the story more closely rather than meandering from viewpoint to viewpoint of different characters.  Still, if you like writing from multiple viewpoints, you’re not alone.  But it’s a good idea to limit one viewpoint per chapter rather than include two viewpoints within one chapter.  That can confuse the reader and also break their reader’s trance—interrupting the flow of the story.