Does Size Matter?

Imagine you’re on your way to a flight. You stop off at the Airport Store for a paperback book to take along, since it’s a long plane ride.

You get to the book section, and all you can find is books sized the same as a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ typing paper! You ask the clerk where the paperbacks are.

He frowns and rolls his eyes, throws his hands to the air as if you’re a stupid, lazy idiot, and then points right to that same section you were just in!

“But … ” you start to say … and then just buy any old one because you’re late and can’t afford to miss your flight. You sigh, feeling like it’s hopeless, and wrangle the big thing all the way through the gate and onto the plane … wondering wtf….

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You’re back home now. The mailman delivered a package today, with the Kiddie Book Club publications for this month.

Little Max is all excited, because he knows the next in the series of his favorite dragon books is in there.

He gets his jammies on and climbs into bed, sitting up eager to hear the story.

You sit down next to him and hold the … tiny … book out. It’s only 4.25″ x 5″ – and the pictures and text are so small you can barely see, much less read them!

Max, feeling betrayed, asks angrily, “Mooommmm! Where’s the real book?” You wonder that, yourself, and squirm in your bedside seat, wondering if you’ve been transported to another reality….

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Your college dissertation team is finally going to read your thesis! You’ve been working on it for over a year.

You’re all excited, until … you get to the printer, who hands you a leaden 500-page lump that’s 5.5″ x 8.5″ long, and 5″ thick! You hold it in your hands for a second, wondering what universe you’ve dropped into. Again.

“But … ” you start to say, while the line grows behind you, and the clerk growls at you, “That’s standard dissertation size missy, now let’s move along….”

THIS IS WHY . . .

This is why the question I ask you first and foremost, is: “Why are you writing your book?”

• You may be thinking of writing a technical manual for your fellow gamer geeks.
• You might be creating an illustrated children’s story book.
• Or maybe a memoir that helps a specific segment of people to catch a little hope and know they’re not alone.
• Or a self-help book that shows women how to deal with narcissists.
• Or a book that you can give away as a bonus that helps people with some specific important information. You want it to help those readers get to know you and your business, and possibly become your clients.
• Or you might want a book as a cornerstone of a business you’re building.

NO MATTER WHAT IDEA . . .

Our society has unwritten assumptions about the size of the book you will end up with, according to the subject matter. Your dissertation will be one size, your story book another, and your sci-fi and romance another, and your self-help book, yet another.

SO ASK YOURSELF:

1. Who will be reading my book?
2. What size do they expect it to be?

AND THEN . . .

If you are really serious about writing that book, go here, to: kdp.amazon.com. Sign up for a free author account, and start going through the information sections.

I guarantee you that you will come out knowing a hell of a lot that will help you cut corners and wangle hard spots that you never even knew were there.

Amazon has gone to a lot of trouble to put great information there to help authors write and publish their books correctly. You’ll discover the accepted guidelines about sizes, fonts, pages, chapters, images, formatting – you name it. Plus templates you can use so creating your covers will be simple and easy.

I’m telling ya, if you ignore the guidelines and specifications outlined there, you’re going to have way more work to do on your book!

Why? Well, for one thing, let me just say how much of a damn hassle it is to go back and change the size of a book after you have already created it – especially if your book includes images.

And because your interior-designer, editor, and your cover-designer will all take you to task about the mistakes you’ve made, just because you didn’t know something simple and easy to avoid.

And it will be YOU correcting them. If you think writing the book took time, correcting stupid tiny mistakes will eat up more time than it took to write it. Add in tearing of hair, Bad Words, and gnashing of teeth… I’m kidding about that, really, but man, isn’t it smarter to do it right the first time?

WHAT NOW?

So go to kdp.amazon.com.

Get your free account all set up – even the money stuff. You’ll be SO glad you got that out of the way before you even think of going to publish there.

Set it up now, even if you think you want to use a conventional publisher. Really. I’ll go into why that’s a rotten idea in another article.

NOW . . . 3 MISTAKES TO AVOID

If you’d like to see the 3 major mistakes you must avoid before you even start writing, I invite you to go here:
https://writepublishnow.com/free-workshop/

… and enjoy my eye-opening 70-minute, easy-view video workshop.

The videos are short, sweet and to the point. You’ll be so glad you made the time for it.

Remember – work smart, not hard. Once you know what I show you in the mini-workshop, all the books you write will start out right.

NOTE: Yes, when you get the workshop, you’ll be added to my mailing list. You can always unsubscribe – no hard feelings!

THANKS!

For reading all the way through, and for wanting to add more Good Stuff to the world!

I’ll help you as best I can – just ask.

FREE FB AUTHOR GROUP

OH – and – I invite you to join me in my FREE Author FB Group: Write Your Book Right Now
HERE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/writeyourbookrightnow

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