Google Docs for Authors: Not Quite

I just finished writing a number of posts about using Word to write books. I gave advice to make it easier for the author to format the book themselves, or to make it easier for their hired formatter to create both a Kindle and print book. The advice also would have created a nice, low-hassle writing environment for the author. 

I wanted to do the same thing for Google Docs. Google Docs has some of the same features. It has pre-defined styles that are mostly suitable for writers. Plus, they can be modified to your taste in terms of font, size, line spacing, paragraph spacing and so on. It's easy to create a new page using Ctrl-Enter, just like Word. You can add page numbers and get them to start on the right page. It does a lot of things right.

But, when I tried to create a Kindle book I ran into problems. I exported it as a Word document and it looked OK in Kindle Previewer, but it didn't show the title at the top of the screen. I could not find a way, despite many Google searches, to add metadata -- even simple, basic metadata like title and author. The only way to fix it was to go into Word and add it there. But, if you already had Word, why bother with Google Docs? I also tried the ePub export. The title came through OK, but the table on contents didn't display. Many Google searches later I discovered you had to add your own table of contents via Calibre or Sigil. Both of those programs can appear quite complex to the average author. Once again, I thought an author should just buy Word and make their lives simpler.

I have tried LibreOffice and I was able to create a good looking Kindle book and print book. I found the process more cumbersome than Word, but LibreOffice can do it. It's free. It comes with a spreadsheet, a PowerPoint type program and some others. I might switch to it someday when I get tired of paying for Word. 

Most of KDP and Draft2Digital, the two platforms I'm most familiar with, are based on Microsoft Word. Their instruction guides, their help files, all assume you're using Word. Their conversion programs also assume you're submitting a Word file. Sure, you can export to Word from various programs, but as my experiment with Google Docs showed, the exports usually miss something -- and it's something you want in the print and Kindle version of your work. If you are going to take the author / publishing business seriously you should invest in Word.


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