On Writing : Paperback v eBook for Self-Publishing (Oh, and Scrivener) by Mike Childress

For solid answers I would ask that you Google Scrivener and see what's posted in their forums about what you're asking. Also Google your questions example, "Scrivener import from Word".

Lindbergh E Hollingsworth Anytime I journey into a new realm the internet (despite its inherent faults) is my first step. Having been on S32 for almost two months now I am superbly cognizant of the fact that this site is exponentially more worthy of stranger-bestowed gravitas re: multiple creative arts than posters on sites garnered from a simple internet search. I legitimately looked at tens of Scrivener posts before 1) purchasing the software, and 2) posting on this site. I also searched here for Scrivener and self-publishing-related posts on S32. The internet is a firehose to drink from, often filled with raw sewage. Also some of the internet returns you pull are from drum roll confederates of the product you are researching. Aggregating data to reach a conclusion only works through analyzing multiple sources.

I am an experienced indie author. I would always recommend publishing both e-book and paperback so you can have exposure in both markets. I have been seeing a lot of posts about Scrivener and I think I even purchased it back in the day, and never used it. It depends on what your goals are. I publish my manuscripts using Vellum (only available on Mac) and I love it. It frees me to write because it handles all of the formatting, and I find it very intuitive. I write in Word then import the file into Vellum. It also creates all of the files for eBook (for all of the different platforms) and print, so it makes it easy to do both. I hope this is helpful - Best wishes on your journey!

Nancy Golden Thanks! It seems a lot of authors are pro-eBook and paperback co-publishing. Also seems Apple users gravitate towards Vellum while others use Atticus for formatting before self-publishing. Scrivener, thus far, seems like Final Draft (FD) 13 (for screenplay writing), i.e. a ton of bells and whistles (I use very few of them in FD at this juncture), but after watching some video content on Scrivener I have to admit some of the features seem super cool (and potentially useful). Scrivener was way cheaper than FD, and also a perpetual license for it, so it was a no-brainer for me as I am just tired of Word in general and I started out wanting to write books, not screenplays. Now I view manuscripts as a potential avenue to getting scripts read!

Nancy Golden I got an email from The Black List stating it's starting free hosting on the site for novel manuscripts. Are books en vogue again?! Orrrrr is it (more likely) Hollywood wants to adapt more stories from books, and wants easy ways to source good material?...

Great advice, Nancy Golden!

Hey Mike Childress. I agree with Nancy and others regarding publishing in both markets. It's just too easy and you get more exposure. Have done it myself many times. I've never used Vellum but do use Scrivener. Once done, I simply generate a Word file and send it to Jera Publishing (https://www.self-pub.net/) who formats it properly for every platform including Kindle, Google Play, iBook, etc. Aside from Amazon Kindle, Draft 2 Digital is pretty widespread so you can check them out as well.

Leonardo Ramirez Nice. Funny how Word is still the common denominator haha. I had gotten so used to exporting to PDF, only, for screenplays from Final Draft I didn't even think about the formatting part re: manuscripts! I plan on playing around a bit with Scrivener this weekend, and maybe trying to import some of my old Word-based stuff.

Always good to publish in both ebook and paperback. In fact, even in traditional publishing, advances for ebooks can often be higher than the paperback advances for certain genres because they expect larger volumes of sales with ebook.

Jonathan Jordan That seems to be a consensus among many authors, thanks! Makes total sense.

eBook formatting is quite often dependent on the end-vendor. Amazon, for example, have specific formatting that is required. Other vendors, like those provisioned by Draft2Digital have different requirements. I've had perfect ePub files which have been rejected by Draft2Digital or which D2D's algorithms and formatting changes the paging/look to such a degree it's unreadable, yet the ePub is perfectly fine when viewed in a viewer or even on an actual device. Paperback formatting depends largely on the size of the book - I chose 6x9 for most of mine, as that was a format that was most in use and one of the easiest to conform to. That said, some formats can mess up table of contents etc. It's a sharp learning curve getting used to the different formats that are required. I've done it often enough that I can get through it relatively quickly. Even so, sometimes, particularly with Amazon, the way it recognises pages and page-breaks in paperback formatting can take hours to correct/facilitate, despite it looking great in Word. The main trick there is to export to a PDF and if that looks right, upload that! That has saved me a LOT of work previously.

David E. Gates Nice, thanks! Yeah, the formatting thing was one of the alien things to me as I have been plodding through Scrivener features...with screenplays drafted in Final Draft it's just print to PDF and voila! I did look at a blog post that discussed Scrivener compilation and export formats, and I like that it seems easy to output to PDF, which is how I read my screenplays and would like to read pre-formatting/publication manuscripts. Most of what I have seen online thus far involves Amazon publishing, and I saw on the Kindle Direct Publishing site that 6" x 9" is the most common trim size for US publications. I suppose I will actually have to get more into the nitty gritty of publishing after I finish a manuscript!

Mike Childress some other resources to be aware of if you pursue self-pub: Atticus is a program that helps with professional layout design/formatting, though I still typically encourage hiring a designer with experience for both the interior and cover design. Kindle Create is also a program that helps you transform the manuscript into ebook format and allows you to see previews of how it will appear on different devices, which is always handy.

Jonathan Jordan I have indeed looked at Atticus as well; it seems like many authors utilize multiple platforms, e.g. Word + Atticus, Scrivener + Atticus (or Vellum), etc. How did people actually write books in the Olden Times sans 2024 tech?! Good stuff, thanks!

Mike Childress lol, chisel and stone, my friend. That's how.

Mike Childress Sorry - I meant to check back sooner but I've been very busy with my latest book launch. I am celebrating that my local Barnes & Noble is carrying my fantasy books, and I am doing an in-store book signing on September 21st :) I wanted to get back to the discussion about software packages. David E. Gates brought up a great point about Draft2Digital in addition to publishing on Amazon. Draft2Digital is an aggregator. Yes, they will also take their piece of the pie, but they will distribute to a lot of different platforms for you. I typically use Ingram Spark for all paperbacks outside of Amazon, and Draft2Digital for all eBooks outside of Amazon Kindle. I will also go back to recommending Vellum. It will generate the files for all of the different platforms and once you purchase it, it is also a perpetual license with free upgrades. I have heard Atticus is a solid product, but I am sticking with what I know works for me. There is a lot to know as an Indie author - make sure and do your research. There is also a bunch of scammers out there preying on hopeful authors. Regarding the website you asked about, I am not familiar with it. Sure, Hollywood wants to adapt novels if they have potential and fit the medium but that said - I have high hopes for my science fiction novel to be adapted someday but I wouldn't trust those sites. Also, one last piece of advice - don't let all of the bells and whistles that are available (and learning how to use them) divert you from your primary task - writing! ;)

Nancy Golden Nice, congrats! I am putting the cart before the horse a bit as I haven't officially started my novel manuscript yet (but have a good part of a nonfiction one and some short stories), but I wanted to get a jump on the publishing bit regardless. I only use Windows systems outside of an iPad, which I don't write on, so likely would use Atticus for formatting. Re: adaptations the plan is to attempt to don the Author Mike guise, then approach film producers, and once in front of them dispatch of my façade to reveal Screenwriter Mike! Mwahahaha. Like a Scooby-Doo episode...

Congratulations on your book launch, Nancy Golden!

Mike Childress Just curious...since your goal is to get your writing produced as a film - why do the adaptation? Why not just write the screenplay? My dream was to write the novel which I did: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1956891013/ and now I am playing around with the idea of turning it into a screenplay. Looks like we are both wanting to tell a great story, but we are approaching it from two different directions. If you are already a screenwriter - wouldn't it be better to "pass go, get your get out of jail free card (skip writing the book)," and write it as a screenplay?

I found writing the novel and then writing out the Script is enormously expensive in time and frustrating. It's like designing and building a six-story masterpiece and then tearing it down to make it into a one-story building. It's more difficult if the writer does both. Certainly one gets rid of all the excess space.

Nancy Golden Books were the original plan all along! Screenplays were an enticing off-ramp. Some of the stuff I have written I view existing in both realms. Schroedinger's stories. I saw data on book readership (lament), and I think that kind of pushed me more towards screenplays. Of course now, writing scripts, I find myself longing for the verbosity freedom of book writing... I honestly don't want to think of myself, or be viewed as, solely a screenwriter or an author, but simply as a creator, and transcriber, of stories. The medium by which to accomplish that can be dynamic...

Charles V Abela I think I could also build out any of my scripts into novels too. Those script ideas always start out as expansive worlds more suited for novel life anyhow, but then get condensed into screenplay format like putting books on weight loss drugs... So I think it will be hard for me to compact ideas whichever way I start. So I will write in Final Draft and I will scrive in Scrivener and move betwixt the worlds letting the streams cross like they warned against in Ghostbusters, and maybe, eventually, there will be a Highlander-esque battle between the scripts and manuscripts, i.e. "There can be only one!"

Of late, I found writing the script without bothering with the novel (assuming script is the final goal and it's all you care about) is just as easy, and one needs to be more disciplined with words but the process delivers poetic justice as it handcuffs one as one thinks harder.

Charles V Abela I think one of the big points to consider for dual-worlders is "Do I adapt my novels myself, or do I get someone else to do it?..." I have seen people of both minds, and logical arguments on both sides. I should have 5-6 feature, and 3-4 Short, scripts completed by the end of this calendar year (and hopefully good progress into the novel) so I think by B-O-Y 2025 I should be able to concentrate on making the finished screenplays as good as possible for the portfolio, and at the same time keep chugging along with the novel.

True, likewise, bottom line considerations still dominate my thinking.