Getting Started in Blogging is now available in a Kindle edition. I decided to try Amazon’s Digital Text Platform using the excellent advice in this post from George Angus. The steps are just as George outlines, making it an easy way to publish your book.

There were a couple of things I noticed in the process:

1. Although Amazon lets you upload HTML, when I tried changing my Word file to HTML I didn’t like the results – maybe it depends on the version of Word you’re using or the export tools you have installed.

2. I didn’t even attempt to upload the PDF because I’ve seen the results of Amazon’s PDF conversions and they’re not all pretty.

3. Uploading a Word file worked best for me, but when I used the preview tool (a must, as George points out), I noticed that any text that had been in white  in the Word document simply didn’t show up. I had to make sure all text was black, remove unnecessary images (I’d had one at the back) and try again. Even with that, I’d done the whole thing in half an hour.

4. Amazon said it would take up to 48 hours to approve my book; it took a day.

5. It’s easy; more people should do it. I plan to provide Kindle editions of all future ebooks (and, for those who are using other readers, I will eventually publish regular editions through Smashwords.)

So now, I have a favour to ask. If you have previously downloaded  and enjoyed Getting Started in Blogging and you have a couple of minutes to spare, could you go over to the Amazon product page and leave a review? I’d really appreciate it.

(And by the way, there’s also a Kindle edition of this blog, if you want it.)

I’ve been talking for months about my new free ebook, Getting Started in Blogging, and finally it’s here! Newsletter subscribers got a sneak peek last week, but now I’m launching it formally.

Everyone’s got to start somewhere with blogging and that’s how this ebook came about. It was based on a series of posts targeting those new to blogging, originally written for PiggyBankPie.

What’s Inside

The collected posts have been edited and I’ve added a few explanations plus a list of useful resources at the end.  Getting Started in Blogging covers:

• Hosting
• Platform Choices
• Free Themes
• Customization
• Getting Ideas
• Planning And Management
• Stats
• How To Improve Your Blog
• Linkbuilding
• Advertising and Promotion
• Monetization
• Blogging as a Business
• Resources

Grab The Ebook

Even if you’re not new to blogging, you’ve got nothing to lose by downloading it – after all, it’s free (though I don’t mind taking donations) . I’m also happy for you to pass it on to anyone who’s curious about blogging as long as you tell them where you got it.

Here’s what one of my newsletter subscribers said about it:

I’d love to get your feedback on it and to find out if there are any questions it hasn’t answered so I can continue to update the book and make it useful for you.

Update: Getting Started in Blogging is also available for the Kindle at 99c.

I’ve produced a number of series on this blog which I know many of you have found useful. Now I’ve decided to make them available in another format.  I now have PDFs of:

• SEO Your Website
• Promotion Is Free
• Making It As A Freelance Writer
• Freelance Writing Questions

That means you can get all the posts in each series in one handy file which you can print or save.  Feel free to share them with others, provided you link back to this post, don’t edit the content and credit me as the author. There is no charge for downloading them, though if you find them useful, you can always come back and make a contribution to help keep the site going.

(And in case you’re wondering, I created them with Zinepal.)