Filling in Book Details and Studio Details: title page, copyright, store links, cover, genre and blurb
The Book Details tab fills in your title page, copyright page, front and back matter, and the store links for your ebook. In Pendrilo Formatter, it's one of the four tabs at the top of the window. In Pendrilo Studio, click Format in the top bar, then Book Details. The page preview on the right shows the result.
This article covers the Book Details tab, Studio's Details workspace and the store links under Also by this author.
Title, author and series
Under Title and author, fill in Title, Subtitle and Author as they appear on your cover. The subtitle is optional.
If the book belongs to a series, type the name in Series name and the number in Book number in series. Leave both blank for a standalone book.
Details: cover, genre, logline and blurb
In Studio, click Details, the first button on the top bar. The Formatter doesn't have this workspace. Its fields are:
- Cover: click Choose Cover… and pick a PNG or JPEG of the front cover. It's kept with the book and isn't printed in your pages. It also shows on the book's card in My Books.
- Genre: type it as you'd say it, such as "Supernatural thriller", or pick one from Suggestions.
- Logline: the book in one sentence. It shows when you point at the book in My Books, and as the tagline on your author page.
- Blurb: the back-cover description, one paragraph per line. The Publishing Desk uses it as the description too.
- Where to buy it: a row for each store, with the store's name, the edition, whether it's live, and a link to the book's page. Click + Add a Store Link to add one. These rows are the same as the Publishing Desk's Releases.
The box at the bottom shows what your author page will display and anything still missing. When you publish with Pendrilo Online, the cover, series, genre, logline, blurb and a buy button for each store link that's a web address go to your author page. To keep them on your computer, untick Also send Book Details to my author page on the Publish tab before you publish.
Publishing and copyright
Under Publishing, fill in Publisher and Copyright year as they should appear on the copyright page. Print ISBN and Ebook ISBN hold the ISBN for each edition, and Language is the language of the book.
Description is the blurb for your store listing. The Publishing Desk uses the same description.
Tick This is non-fiction to leave out the "work of fiction" notice. Leave Custom copyright page blank to use the standard wording, or type your own.
Front matter
Under Front matter, fill in Dedication, and Epigraph with Epigraph source for a quotation at the start of the book.
Picture descriptions
Under Picture descriptions, write one sentence for each picture saying what it shows. Screen readers read these aloud in the ebook. A picture without a description uses its caption instead. Generate Book lists any pictures that have no description.
About the Author
Under Back matter, write a short bio in About the Author. Pendrilo adds it at the end of the book, unless your manuscript already has an About the Author page.
Store links and one ebook per store
Store links go under Also by this author. Type your other books' titles there, one per line, then click a title to open its links. Paste a store link into Paste any store link here, and Pendrilo files it under the right store. You can also fill in Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and Universal link yourself.
With any store links, Generate Book makes a separate ebook for each store, such as "My Book - Kindle.epub", each linking only to that store. It also makes a general ebook using your universal link. With no store links, it makes one ebook, "My Book.epub".
The Where to buy it rows in Details are separate from these links. They list your editions for your author page and the Publishing Desk.
Sharing pages across your books
If you write several books under one pen name, you can keep your About the Author and Also by pages the same in all of them.
- 1. In Book Details → Back matter, tick Share About the Author and Also by with all my books by, then choose your author name.
- 2. Edit the pages in any of your books. Each of your other books picks up the latest version when it opens.
Each pen name has its own shared pages. You can share any other page the same way: right-click it in the chapter list and choose Share with my other books. In another book, click + Add and choose the page under SHARED PAGES. Editing a shared page in one book updates the others when they open.
To keep a page in one book only, right-click it and choose Stop sharing. Your other books keep their copy.
After you change details
Click Generate Book in the top bar to make new files with your changes. Then open the print PDF and the ebook files and check the title page, copyright page and store links before you upload them.