Tag: indie publishing

Email or Send Ebooks to Kindle for Self-Publishers to Edit and Format Their Books

March 9, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

Updated: March 2025

With the popularity of my Self-Publishing Resources page, I’ve decided to share some self-publishing tips and tricks on the blog as well. First up is the trick of sending your ebooks and documents to show up directly on your Kindle ereader.

You can upload a file directly with the Send to Kindle feature. The types of files compatible with this method are PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPEG, BMP, and EPUB. Note that MOBI files are not included in the list. Alternatively, you can email these compatible file types to your Kindle email address, which includes instructions on finding your Kindle email address.

For readers, this is useful for when you purchase or download ebooks from somewhere other than Amazon–like from an author’s Bookfunnel link or itch–and want to read them on your Kindle. You simply download the book in a compatible file form and follow the instructions in the links above.

As a writer, I like to do this for when I’m doing my own copyedits on a manuscript, but it can work for any point in the editing process when you feel like you need a different perspective on a story you’ve already read a bunch of times. Similar to printing out a physical copy of a manuscript, taking a look at it in a new format can do wonders for catching things you might have missed.

This is also useful for seeing what the actual ebook will look like in the Kindle ereader when you’ve gotten to the formatting stage. It’s nice to be able to see what a reader will actually experience before uploading those final files.

I’d love to hear if there are any specific topics self-publishing topics you’d like me to cover here on the blog.

Happy Book Birthday to THE BEDTIME KNIGHT by Katie L. Carroll & Illustrated by Erika Baird

January 26, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m so happy to have THE BEDTIME KNIGHT out in the world today! This book was first released as an ebook for a picture book app way back in 2012 (see “The Bedtime Knight” Is Born”), and it’s exciting to have it out in print for the first time.

Erika Baird, the illustrator, really did an amazing job of using the pictures to tell the story along with the text. And I love the purple color scheme she chose. The original layout was the text on one side and the illustration on the other, much like this page in the version releasing today.

That wasn’t going to work for the entire picture book for a print version. The design would have gotten stale, and the number of pages wouldn’t have worked. When I purchased the illustration rights from Erika, it was for the originals, so I had to bring my own design skills (or lack thereof) to the table.

Wow, did I learn a lot in the process of designing a picture book. If I never hear about adjusting page size for bleed again, I will be a very happy person indeed! One of my favorite spreads is this one with the closeup the young mouse character. It’s hard to see in this screenshot, but the illustration has a white border around it, and it was fun page to design.

This book is all about facing fears, especially the ones in our own heads. The mouse daughter keeps imagining the shadows in her dark room are scary things (like a giant on the ceiling). When Daddy Knight shines the light on them, they discover the shadows are just ordinary objects (like a ceiling fan). Then together, they use their imaginations to turn those everyday things into something else (like a friendly sea creature).

As the story progresses, the young mouse grows more independent in using her imagination, until finally at the end, she is alone in her room (with Daddy watching from the doorway) and reimagines the shadows all by herself.

As a person with a very active imagination, I often see things in the dark that scare me, especially when I was child. I love the way the dad character in the book so lovingly guides his daughter to see things (literally) in a new light and empowers her to reimagine them.

THE BEDTIME KNIGHT is available in print and ebook from Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, IndieBound, and other book retailers.

Also a quick reminder that I’m teaching a virtual ShopTalk for the New England SCBWI called “What to Expect When You’re Self-Publishing” this evening, Tuesday, January 26, at 7:00 p.m. (ET). This is going to be packed with information! I’ve also added a Self-Publishing Resources page to my website for anyone interested in exploring more on the topic.

Event Announcement: Indie Author Day at the Norwalk Public Library

October 2, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

So by now most of you know that I have a book coming out soon (since I’ve been talking about it ad nauseam here!), my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND. The paperback and e-book are available for pre-order on all the major book selling sites. And while it doesn’t officially release until October 17, I will have copies for sale at Indie Author Day at the Norwalk Public Library!

The event is on Saturday, October 14 and

will feature 40 authors, live readings, SELF-e demos by the librarians, refreshments, and book sales. I’ll be reading a selection from PIRATE ISLAND at 1:00 p.m. and hanging around for the afternoon, though it goes the full day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. In addition to paperbacks of PIRATE ISLAND, I’ll be selling ELIXIR BOUND paperbacks as well. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for readers and authors alike!