Now that I’ve brought up a drawback to the Kindle (which I believe will be quickly ironed out in future generations of the product), I thought I’d write a little on one unexpected benefit I’ve enjoyed with the Kindle…squeezing in extra revision time.
In the past, my revisions have mostly been done at a planned time and place—not spontaneously at all. I write on the go in little unexpected pockets of extra time, but haven’t really been able to edit that way.
Instead, I’ve just taken my laptop and headed off to the library or coffee shop. There are definite drawbacks to revising on paper—one is the transcription process from paper to computer if I get too far ahead. Besides, it’s a pain lugging around a 2-inch pile of paper in the off-chance that I can catch a few minutes to edit or revise.
The Kindle does make it easier to edit on the go.
I’ve just saved my Word docs as text files (.txt) to make things easier. (You can do that when you click ‘save as’ when you save a file, or you can just copy/paste the document onto NotePad.) You could also save them as PDFs, but the PDFs are like photos on the Kindle—and you can’t make the font any bigger (and small type is starting to be a problem for me.)
There are a couple of ways to upload a file to your Kindle (my directions will be for PCs). The free way is to connect your Kindle to your computer using the charger you got with your device (the plug part of the cord comes off and you’ll have a USB connection underneath.) Plug one end of the cord into your Kindle, the other into your computer USB port.
When your computer recognizes your Kindle, go to Start/Computer. You’ll see “Devices with removable storage.” And your Kindle will be there. Click on the Kindle icon and open the documents folder. This is the destination for your manuscript file.
Go to your Documents library and select the file you want. Drag the file to the Kindle (on my computer, I can see the Kindle listed in a column to the left of the Documents library.) Drop it in the Documents folder for the Kindle. Disconnect your Kindle from your PC, hit home on your Kindle device, and you’ll see your file.
Or…you could email it to your Kindle. The cost, I believe, is now 15 or 25 cents to do so. Your Kindle has an email address—you can find it on the Manage Your Kindle page when you pull up your Amazon account on your computer. It’s a @kindle.com address.
Editing on the Kindle is best for a global read of your manuscript for content problems and less for doing line editing. You can make notes on your Kindle for changes you’d like to make to the document. All the notes that you make on your manuscript can be transferred to your computer. You’ll just attach your USB cable again, go to My Computer, find your Kindle device, look in the documents folder, and you’ll see a My Clippings folder. Your notes will be in there and you can just copy the file to your computer.
Does it sound complicated? It’s actually more intuitive than I’ve made it sound. It certainly does beat lugging around a huge manuscript with me everywhere. :)
How do you like to do edits and revisions on your manuscript? Do you print them out, do them all on computer, or have you tried using the Kindle?
I haven’t even tried to use it for editing, but I noticed that the instant I started reading on it, I found three typos I had overlooked on computer, on the iPod Touch, and on paper.
I haven’t got the hang of taking notes. I’ll have to play with that. This would be EXTREMELY useful for proofreading.
Oh, these are excellent tips, thank you! I am eager to learn new ways to use my Kindle :)
Elizabeth – I don’t have a Kindle or other portable E-Reader, so I haven’t tried editing that way. I use my SD-Card or memory stick that has my files, my edits list and so on. That way, whichever computer I happen to be working on, I’m good to go. I take my Netbook when I travel and when I can’t take that with me, I at least take my memory devices, so that I can work on the go.
Hi Elizabeth .. great to know some more advantages .. so when I get one I’m more aware of their functionality. How on earth did anyone ever write a book with pen and paper, or before pen .. just papyrus?! Cheers Hilary
Although I love my red pens, I’ve begun editing only on my laptop more and more. Using the Kindle is another great tool. Thanks for the advice!
I make my revisions/edit directly on my computer but what never ceases to amaze me is how I still manage to miss those typos! Sigh…
I’ve tried my Kindle now on 2 manuscripts. But I still takes notes on paper/pencil while reading. I also read beta ms on my Kindle.
But I believe it doesn’t cost anything to send through email. You have to use the @free.kindle.com address.
this sounds good and the editing thing was a reason that I thought I might get an iPad instead of a Kindle but now you’ve got me thinking! I sometimes haul around big ole notebooks and the manuscript – depends on where in the revision I am…
Jan Morrison
Oh, this is handy to know! I don’t have a Kindle, but I had a critique partner recently ask if this was possible–we didn’t know to do the text thing and the PDF version was too cryptic in how her notes came out, so she did hard copy. This is very useful for future versions, though!
I have used my nook to do revisions after I’ve let the ms simmer a few weeks. It gives my eyes a different focus and I see a lot of errors. I think it’s important to use a different medium while revising. Everything looks so nice on the computer. ☺
The Daring Novelist–The different format just seems to show these errors up really quickly. It’s a nice tool for proofing.
Hilary–I remember the typewriter days with the correction tape and return carriage! I do miss the bell that the return carrriage sounded, though. :) Maybe I can get my PC to do it…
Cruella–Hope you’ll enjoy it!
Diane–They’re SO easy to miss!
Laura–Ah! You know, I read about that, but I thought it was a hack, so I didn’t include it in my post. Looking it up, though, it looks like Amazon just holds the document until the next time you turn on your wireless and you pick up the file that way? I was charged when I sent my files to the regular address (not that a few cents really matters much.) Thanks for the tip!
Margot–That’s another great way to handle it.And there are flash drives that clip right onto keyrings these days.
Jan–Right now the Kindles are a lot smaller than the iPads, which sure does make it easy to transport. I’d like to see the iPads get a little smaller.
Hart–I wasn’t happy with the way the PDFs turned out, so I’m not trying that again. A text file was really quick and easy, so I went that route. There are also free conversion programs to convert Word programs to Kindle (mobi) format–but I thought .txt was just as easy.
E. Arroyo–Excellent point. Otherwise, it’s just too easy to miss mistakes on the computer.
Janel–One of the nice things about the Kindle is that it’s just so slim. It’s incredibly easy to just carry it with me wherever I go.
I can do that with my iPad – save it as a Word file and upload to the Pages app or save as a pdf and upload to the iBooks app.
Alex–That would be nice…not to have to convert the Word doc. I know that Kindle is supposed to be able to convert docx files, but it sure didn’t when I gave it a try. I think it’s still in beta.
I love my Kindle, but never thought of it for manuscript revision. I’m going to try it. Thanks for the clear directions.
I was just tweeting with @charitygirlblog about this subject yesterday. She recommends using Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) to convert documents to Kindle format.
She also read somewhere that people are using the text-to-voice function on the Kindle to help with the editing process. Having my story read out loud to me always helps me find awkward spots and errors, so I can’t wait to try this out!
Thanks for another great post!
Don’t own a Kindle. But I always print everything out, do about 5-10 pass throughs, making changes and corrections, then I enter that into the computer and print out a fresh copy for more editing. I miss things on the screen that I catch when it’s printed.
Nancy–You’re welcome–hope you’ll find it useful. :)
M.E. Summer–Calibre was one of those programs that I came across! I haven’t tried it yet, so thanks for the info on the app.
I’m *very* curious about that text-to-voice function! Thanks for the reminder on that–I’ll start playing around with it.
Diane–It’s funny how looking at the manuscript on another format is key to finding errors!
I got an iPad after nearly a year with my Kindle and it’s an excellent option for editing.
Pages, as Alex noted above, is a good option (possibly the most common). As a lifelong Word user something about it didn’t click with me.
Google’s free app has the option to use Google Docs. It’s pretty basic compared to Pages, but does the trick for me.
There are a number of other simple text editors (Simplenote is a good one) that strip all bells & whistles.
Thanks for the interesting post (I never thought of using my Kindle that way!)
I agree that Kindle is a great tool. For me the main advantage is that once I begin reading my own Kindle version, it feels more like reading someone else´s book. It gives me the necessary distance to look at it through fresh eyes. So when I have got to the stage where (I think) I am ready to let other people take a look, I rush through it on Kindle and see the whole story, not the details.
I was just blogging about this very thing, but it never occurred to me to make noted on the kindle. I used it for a read through and then again to proof and made notes on a printed version in parallel. I’ve now transferred it to two friend’s kindles for their critical feedback -which saves a lot on printing costs (and trees)
By the way I turned my manuscript into mobi format using calibre which is free to download and really easy to use. It looks great on the screen – a perfect for which you don’t always get with PDFs.
I do freelance proofreading and copyediting, and I use my Kindle exclusively for it. You’re right, it’s fairly intuitive.
-Neal
Great article. There is a great site that I use to organize the notes and highlights I make on my Kindle. It’s http://www.clippingsconverter.com
I use to export the notes I make