Editing Life Hacks | Turn Your Draft Into An EBook!

Editing is an integral part of the writing process. It can also be a major pain in the bum—but wait! With the simple editing hacks featured in this series, you can edit like a Boss with little impact on your sanity. Sound fun?

Editing Hack # 1

In this post, we’ll go over one simple tip that is relatively easy to accomplish but can make a WORLD of difference: “printing” out your novel to read on the go. Pre-techno-crazed 2015, this might have been accomplished by simply hitting “print” on your Microsoft Word document (or in whatever program you deign to create in) and securing all of those loose pages in a binder to read and mark-up at your leisure.

That is still a very great idea, and plenty of authors still utilize this concept—however, if you want to save time, and trees, and if your printer is an ancient, cranky machine of vast unreliability...this method works too.

You will need:

-A kindle OR any device that can download the kindle reading app

-An email address

-Five seconds (seriously, once you get started, it’s that quick)

How to get started:

Whether you use a kindle or the reading app, you will be assigned a KINDLE email. It will look something like username@kindle.com. Memorize this, we’ll use it later.

Once you know your email, go into your AMAZON account by using the menu in the top right-hand screen of the amazon.com homepage. Scroll down to “manage my content and devices,” select the “settings” tab and scroll down to “Approved Personal Document Email list.”

Use this menu to add any emails you want to SEND documents to your kindle from. We recommend your personal email address or the email account that you use the most.

Whatever email you use, go into that account and draft a new email. In the “To” box, put your kindle email address (username@kindle.com). Now, scroll down to attachments, and search for whatever document you’re editing at the moment and would like to send to your kindle. Keep in mind that the kindle app or reader only accepts certain kinds of documents. I recommend using a Micorsoft Word document or a pdf.

Once the document is attached to the email, simply type “convert” in the SUBJECT heading, and then hit send. This will convert your file into a basic .mobi file that allows the kindle to open it much like a regular ebook.

And voila! You can make read your burgeoning novel on the go and make great use of the Kindle’s built-in highlighting and annotation features to keep track of problem areas or even make simple notes.

It's really that simple! (And thanks to Lana Sky who used her own WIP as an example in the pic above)

Have any burning questions about the editing process, or any hacks you want to share? Let us know in the comments, and stay turned for more tips and tricks to make your writing (or reading) life a little easier.