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Tell a book by its cover

You can create a PDF of your manuscript to give to reviewers or to send to an agent or publisher. They are not expecting a cover.

When you create an electronic version of your manuscript – an eBook or for Kindle readers – the cover is an essential component. Indeed, if you expand the Front Matter folder in the Binder, you’ll find that Scrivener makes recommendations as to what ought to be provided, depending on what output you have in mind.

So far, in preparing a PDF, I’ve ignored this advice. Going forward, I (we!) need to take it into account.

Setting up the Front matter for the ebook

Before moving/deleting anything from the Manuscript, I’ll set up what I hope will work within the Front Matter section for the eBook.

Only if the output works for me, will I remove that information from the front end of the manuscript – aware that this will also impact on what appears in the PDF.

I want both the title page and copyright information as my first ‘page’, ahead of the Dedication, so I’ve duplicated that document and moved it into the Front Matter area.

Scrivener has called that document Title Page-1. I’ve also changed its section type to Frontmatter to match the Dedication document.

Setting up the cover

For the cover image, drag the image you’ve made (or had made for you) into the Cover folder within the Front Matter section in the Binder. Scrivener will name it Cover2. Move the default one to Trash.

Then, in the Inspector, there is a pane in which you can specify where Scrivener should find the image. It’s the fifth tab along in the Inspector. The default is where I put it!

Compiling with Frontmatter

Before you click on Compile, tick the ‘Add front matter’ box and select Ebook from the dropdown menu.

Then, click on compile (with fingers crossed!).

The cover works …

And when I look inside the material I duplicated appears twice. so I feel safe in deleting that.

However, for the PDF to still have this information, I need to set up the Front matter for the Paperback …

However, with a real sense of achievement, it’s time to take a break. Next time, I tackle that contents page!

Questions? Need a helping hand? Want a demo?

To watch me demonstrating how to set up the front matter for an ebook or to ask any questions, book a Simply Scrivener Special.

To help me to prepare, you could also complete this short questionnaire.

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