Everything between your last sentence and a reader
The back half of self-publishing, in one menu.
The annoying part — the one that usually costs a few weeks, a few freelancers, or both — is a menu here. Type the last sentence and the print PDF and the EPUB are already sitting there, properly typeset, because the page was right the whole time.
Print · Small trade 5×8″
THE LANTERN OF QUIET HOURS
Out at Lantern Rock the keeper kept the light, humming an old song against the wind, over work that no longer needed the tune.
Whatever the tide left, it left at his door first: a boot, a bottle, once a whole door with its hinges still on.
On the lowest neap of the year the harbour gave up its floor, and the town walked out onto it to see what the sea had been keeping.
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, in an order no one had written down and everyone kept.
The station had not sent a boat in nine days. She wrote it in the ledger the way she wrote everything, in a small level hand that gave nothing away.
Out at Lantern Rock the keeper kept the light, humming an old song against the wind, over work that no longer needed the tune.
Whatever the tide left, it left at his door first: a boot, a bottle, once a whole door with its hinges still on.
146
THE STATION AT DUSK
On the lowest neap of the year the harbour gave up its floor, and the town walked out onto it to see what the sea had been keeping.
* * *
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, in an order no one had written down and everyone kept.
The station had not sent a boat in nine days. She wrote it in the ledger the way she wrote everything, in a small level hand that gave nothing away.
Out at Lantern Rock the keeper kept the light, humming an old song against the wind, over work that no longer needed the tune.
Whatever the tide left, it left at his door first: a boot, a bottle, once a whole door with its hinges still on.
On the lowest neap of the year the harbour gave up its floor, and the town walked out onto it to see what the sea had been keeping.
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, in an order no one had written down and everyone kept.
147
Kindle
The Station at Dusk
Out at Lantern Rock the keeper kept the light, humming an old song against the wind, over work that no longer needed the tune.
Whatever the tide left, it left at his door first: a boot, a bottle, once a whole door with its hinges still on.
* * *
On the lowest neap of the year the harbour gave up its floor, and the town walked out onto it to see what the sea had been keeping.
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, in an order no one had written down and everyone kept.
The station had not sent a boat in nine days. She wrote it in the ledger the way she wrote everything, in a small level hand that gave nothing away.
Out at Lantern Rock the keeper kept the light, humming an old song against the wind, over work that no longer needed the tune.
Whatever the tide left, it left at his door first: a boot, a bottle, once a whole door with its hinges still on.
On the lowest neap of the year the harbour gave up its floor, and the town walked out onto it to see what the sea had been keeping.
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, in an order no one had written down and everyone kept.
Location 1,204 · 38%
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, down at The Quiet Harbour before the neap.1
At Weirwater Station the lamps were not yet lit. Someone had left before the end of their watch.
* * *
The crossing that mattered was set down in the harbour ledger, in a level hand.
Preview
One manuscript
The print spread and the e-reader, from the same words — checked before anyone else sees either.
Files that pass
A print-ready PDF with mirrored margins and a true gutter, sized to your trim. A valid EPUB 3 with your cover, and store-ready versions tuned for Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books. Word and Markdown for editors and archives. A proofreading PDF, two pages a sheet, for a red pen. A large-print PDF, same book, set bigger.
Two checks before you upload
KDP preflight reads the trim, margins, metadata and page count and tells you what Amazon will reject. Delivery readiness answers the harder question — is the book actually finished — and it is unsentimental about it: empty chapters, a missing copyright page, comments still open, a permission still to clear.
Trim size
Small trade 5×8″ — offered by KDP
Bleed & margins
Inside margin 0.75″ at 6 chapters — clears the gutter
Embedded fonts
EB Garamond — licensed for commercial print
Front matter
Title page, copyright and dedication present
ISBN
None set. KDP will assign a free one — fine, unless you want your own imprint.
Cover
No cover uploaded. KDP will reject the book at submission.
Table of contents
Built from 6 chapters in 2 parts
Image resolution
No images below 300 dpi
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, down at The Quiet Harbour before the neap.1
At Weirwater Station the lamps were not yet lit. Someone had left before the end of their watch.
* * *
The crossing that mattered was set down in the harbour ledger, in a level hand.
Publishing
Fixed here, not there
Every KDP requirement checked before you upload — so you deal with it on your side, not in a rejection email.
Layout and ebook formatting are the same job here
Most people buy two tools for this: something to lay out the print interior and something to format the ebook. Both are conversions, and both are where a manuscript picks up the small wrongnesses that make a book look self-made. Galley has no conversion step, because the layout was decided before chapter one. The trim, the typeface, the chapter openings, the running heads and the house style are properties of the book rather than settings applied to a file at the end. The print PDF and the EPUB are two renderings of that one object, which is why they cannot disagree with each other.
Copies made for other people
Share a copy watermarks one per reader, so you know whose copy went where. Send it as an EPUB or a PDF they keep, or as a link that opens the book in a reader. A link takes a password and an expiry date, and you can turn it off when the read is over. The submission package is standard manuscript format with your synopsis and bio, the way an agent asks for it. Your cover, blurb, ISBN, categories and keywords live in one place, and the copyright page writes itself from them.
Then do it again, in another language
Group books into a series and the design carries across them. Derive an edition or a translation and it brings the chapter structure and the story bible with it, linked to the original — then write the translation beside the original, one column each. Hyphenation and quote marks follow the language you set, so a German edition looks German.
Original · English (US)
CHAPTER ONE
The Station at Dusk
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them. She had come down to The Quiet Harbour before the neap.
At Weirwater Station the lamps were not yet lit. Someone had left before the end of their watch.
* * *
Whatever the tide left, it left at the keeper's door first, and the crossing was set down in the harbour ledger.
Translation · Français
CHAPITRE UN
La Gare au Crépuscule
À Weirwater, on allumait les lampes à la main, et c’était Mara Vale qui les allumait. Elle était descendue au Quiet Harbour avant la morte-eau.
À Weirwater Station les lampes n’étaient pas encore allumées. Quelqu’un était parti avant la fin de sa garde.
* * *
Ce que la marée laissait, elle le laissait d’abord à la porte du gardien, et la traversée était consignée dans le registre du port.
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, down at The Quiet Harbour before the neap.1
At Weirwater Station the lamps were not yet lit. Someone had left before the end of their watch.
* * *
The crossing that mattered was set down in the harbour ledger, in a level hand.
Translations
Français
The original beside you, read-only, while you write the translation — one book, its own design inherited.
What's included
Every card goes to the part of the docs that explains it.
Thirty minutes in it beats reading about it.
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