Review: Couldn’t have done it without ya...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 6, 2013
Well, actually I probably could have, but it would have taken me a LOT longer, with all that fumbling trial and error. I needed to publish something on Kindle, and an expeditious time frame was important, and Aaron Shephard’s title described exactly what I wanted to do: take my book which I had written in Microsoft Word and have it published on Kindle.Although I have a reasonable strong background in Information Technology, in terms of Microsoft Word itself, I would rate myself at an elementary level – I never really need to use 90-95% of its functions. So...when Shephard gives his warning at the beginning that says the book is for “intermediate” to “advanced” users, it is not necessarily so, with that caveat that one has had other experience in the IT field.The main benefit I obtained from his work was being forced to consider all the various factors that needed to be reviewed for a proper-looking publication, such as the character, paragraph and page formats, as well as a table of contents. I had never used the “bookmark” and “hyperlink” features inside Word, and Shephard provided reasonable explanations, and they really do provide a much more professional looking, and functional book, particularly if there is a complexity of issues. I was also able to insert a number of pictures into the book, with the help of another publication of his, as well as a niece who had experience “tweaking” pictures in Photoshop, and the streamlined version works just fine.I found his “version history” at the back of the book most interesting. He updated the book 13 times, sometimes within a week of each other. The last update, however, is in September, 2012, in “tech time,” before the First World War. Despite various “raps” against Amazon, they really do continue to make immense improvements which facilitate publications by writers without all the leaden and lengthy waits one used to experience if the “high priests” of publishing in Manhattan become involved. Thus, as some other reviewers have indicated, certain information is obsolete. He suggested Courier as a font style, or Georgia, but I found Verdana or Calibri preferable. And in terms of style, he prefers paragraph indents, and no space between paragraphs, and as this review indicates, I prefer exactly the opposite. It is only 33 pages, and at the current price of 1 cent, it is crazy not to have it in any publisher’s library. 4-stars