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Getting your book ready to upload with the Publishing Desk

What the Publishing Desk does

The Publishing Desk gathers what you need before you upload your book to a store, in one place. Open it with Book → Publishing Desk…. Its sections are listed down the left side: Readiness, Keywords and Categories, Description, Keyword Research, Releases, Marketing, Ads and Sources.

The Publishing Desk checks your book and keeps your notes. It doesn't upload anything for you.

Work through the Readiness list

Readiness lists what is still left to do before you upload. Each item is marked READY or TO DO. Click Show beside an item to go to the place where you fix it.

The list checks:

  • the title and author, the description, the keywords and the categories
  • chapters not yet marked Final, and empty chapters
  • notes to self left in the text. Pendrilo looks for TK, TODO and XXX. To add your own, type them under NOTES TO SELF TO LOOK FOR, one to a line, then click Save and Check Again. Capitals matter.
  • open to-dos and comments, a revision pass still under way, and story findings
  • the print checks from Checks (see below)
  • Your own read-through

Chapters you've left out of the book are ignored.

When you've read the finished PDF and ebook from start to finish, click I Read This Version. Changing the text undoes this, so click it again after your last edits. The list reports only what Pendrilo can see. It can't replace reading the finished files yourself.

Enter your keywords

Under Keywords and Categories there are seven keyword boxes. Each one is counted in bytes against KDP's limit, and accented letters count for two bytes, so an é uses more of a box than an e. Click Copy to copy a box.

Choose your categories

Choose three categories. They're written the way KDP's menus show them, such as Fiction › Horror › Supernatural.

Write your description

The Description section holds the sales copy for your store page. The Desk counts it against KDP's limit of 4,000 characters, with paragraph tags included. A blank line starts a new paragraph.

Click Copy for KDP to copy the description with its paragraph tags, ready to paste. It's the same description as in Book Details, so you only need to write it once.

Research keywords

Keyword Research helps you find phrases readers search for.

  • Add phrases. Paste phrases one to a line, or paste rows from a spreadsheet with their headings. Note where they came from under Where from, then click Add What I Pasted. Or click Import a File… to bring in a .csv from a keyword research tool. Pendrilo finds the columns by their headings.
  • Fill in the numbers. If you know them, enter the searches, the competing books and a competition score.
  • Sort. Most Promising First sorts the list by searches, weighed down by competition. It's a guide, not a promise.
  • Use a phrase. Use puts a phrase in the first empty keyword box. Fill the Empty Boxes fills every empty box with the most promising phrases that fit.
  • Check the competition. Amazon searches Amazon's books for the phrase in your browser, so you can see what comes up.

Pendrilo doesn't look anything up on the internet by itself.

Track releases, marketing and ads

Releases records each edition and where it's on sale. For each one, fill in the edition (Ebook, Paperback, Hardcover, Large print or Audiobook), the store, the date, the price, and the status (Planned, Uploaded, Pre-order, Live or Retired). You can also add the store page, the ISBN or ASIN, and notes. Click + Add a Release to start a new one.

Marketing records promotions, newsletter swaps and interviews: the date, where it was, what it was, what it cost and what came of it. Click + Add.

Ads records each ad campaign, with what you spent, the sales, clicks and impressions. The Desk works out the ACOS, cost per click and click rate. Click + Add a Campaign.

Use Sources for non-fiction

If your book cites other works, use Sources. Click + New Source, choose its kind, and fill in the author, title, year and so on. The Desk shows the source as a Chicago-style footnote and a bibliography entry.

  • Put This Footnote at the Cursor adds the footnote where your cursor is in the book.
  • Put the Bibliography in the Book makes a Bibliography page in the back matter, or updates it. Run it again after you change a source.

Before you generate your files

The status bar at the bottom of the window shows Checks: all clear, Checks: N to look at, or Checks: N to fix. Click it to open the list. Fix any FIX items before you publish. Look at the CHECK items and decide whether each one matters.

When the Readiness list and the checks are done, click Generate Book in the top bar to make your print PDF and ebook. See the help center for more on each file.