Editing a book can be a bit of a chore.
Whether you’re used to wading through a mountain of paper with a red pen, or going over and over the same chapters on the laptop, it can be a frustrating process.
That’s where the Kindle comes in.
Read your own novel on the Kindle
You might not know this, but it is possible to read a Word document on your Kindle. All you have to do is email it to yourself and voila, instant novel!
Follow the steps below and get ready to read:
- Go to the ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ page within your Amazon account.
- Click on ‘Your Devices’ to find out what your dedicated Kindle email address is. This is the email account you will send your document to. (If you use Netgalley, you’re probably already familiar with this).
- Next go to ‘Settings’. Scroll down the page until you come to the ‘Approved Personal Document Email List’ section. Make sure the email address you will be sending your manuscript from is included here; otherwise it won’t make it to your Kindle. To do this, click the ‘Add a new approved email address’ link.
- Now you’re ready to send your email. Simply attach the manuscript and use ‘convert’ as the subject line of the email. This will instruct your Kindle to automatically transfer the tricky Word document into a more readable format. Note: You can send a document without a subject line, but I’d recommend converting to the Kindle format for ease of use.
- Next time you open your Kindle, the manuscript should be there. If not, sync your files and it will appear.
But why should you use a Kindle for editing?
Read like a reader and not an author
When it comes to reading through draft after draft of your manuscript, it can be difficult to read it objectively. Your authorial eye tends to become over familiar with the words.
Printing off an entire manuscript to work through the hard copy can be a chore, but reading the book on your computer isn’t much better. With both forms you’re tempted to fix every little mistake that catches your attention, rather than analysing the book as a whole, like a regular reader.
Make notes as you read
When reading on the Kindle, you can highlight passages and make notes about the text. You can do the same thing with your own manuscript.
It’s a good way of keeping all your thoughts in one place, where you can come back to them after you’ve finished your read through.
You feel like a real author
Okay, this one is really only for the ego boost, but it reading your own book on the Kindle does allow you to imagine what it would be like to be published and readily available for download.
Maybe one day.
You can share with others
Do you have a beta reader or critique partner that you want to share the book with? Send it to their Kindle.
Whether you’re reluctant to email out Word copies, or your readers would prefer to peruse the story on their e-reader, using the Kindle is an easy alternative for everyone.
Remove an old manuscript from your Kindle
Once you’ve done some work on your manuscript and you’re ready to go through a new draft, you might want to delete the older version from your Kindle.
Simple.
- Go to the ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ page within your Amazon account.
- Tick the box beside any document or book that you want to get rid of.
- Click the ‘Actions’ box.
- Click ‘Delete’. Confirm that this is what you want, and you’re done.
So, what’s your preferred method for reading through your manuscript? Have you ever used your e-reader?
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