Following on from my previous point regarding pages, footnotes do not work in ebooks, as you cannot be sure where the page break will fall. Instead you can use endnotes, either at the end of each chapter, or at the end of the book.
The above tips cover the essentials when preparing your work for ebook formats. All ebook sellers will have their own list of requirements for the files you submit to them and many still will not accept Word documents for automatic conversion. Some that do, such as Smashwords, have further stipulations such as limitations on font colours, restrictions on indentation options, and the requirement to credit them as publishers. A quick Google search should provide you all the info you need on your retailer of choice.
How to Format a Ebook
Unfortunately, creating an ebook from a Word document can still be a bit hit-or-miss as the process is an automated one. This is why many people employ people like me to create their books using html code. If you have any questions about this article or have other ebook-related queries, you can reach me via my website or email address below. I hope this short guide comes in useful.
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If you want to pay for more in-depth program that allows you to add content like front and back matter, adjust styling, and produce files for both print books and ebooks, you might be interested in either Atticus or Vellum. Vellum costs $249.99 and only works on Mac. However, Atticus is only $147 and works on both Mac and PC.
One more tip! If you are looking for a free way to make professional book formats. Kindlepreneur has designed a free Word Doc template generator for formatting. Here, an author can go and select a trim size, and then the style and download a word doc that has all the proper settings and systems in place for the print version. Worth a look if you will be working in Microsoft Word!
This article explains formatting ebooks for conversion, regardless of whether you eventually decide to convert your book yourself or hire somebody. You can follow the advice we give from the first word you type in the editor (this is what we recommend) or applied to a manuscript you have already finished.
Most ebook reader apps and devices let users customize the font size, font type, line & paragraph spacing, and even the background color or disable these settings altogether, which leaves them with a standard design.
While this is amazing from the reader's perspective, it also means that whatever ebook formatting you use will likely be overwritten by the user. Because of this, there is no need to spend hours selecting the perfect color for your headings; only a percentage of your final readers will keep it that way.
However, it doesn't mean that you should not use any formatting or that there is no use in creating a beautiful epub. Quite the contrary. But bear in mind that you must adhere to different standards when preparing your manuscript for publication.
Also, pay attention when you copy and paste something from another document or a website. It's easy to forget what your previous chapter title looked like or whether your paragraphs have a 1.15 or 1.5 line spacing. When you copy and paste the text into your word document, it's best to use the Paste without formatting option.
Before moving on, I must mention that from Google Docs, you can download the file directly as an .epub, but there are formatting options you can't find here. So you'll have to format it correctly from the start carefully.
In Word, you have some extra options for ebook formatting. For example, you can see the non-printable characters, while Google Docs doesn't have that option. In this case, you can write your manuscript in Docs, then check it once more in Word.
Moreover, styles for bulleted lists are often predefined on ebook readers, and they often receive different formatting, making your book look unpleasant. If you are using bulleted lists for your dialogs, use the trick mentioned previously.
When it comes to ebook formatting, 4 million pixels are enough to provide good quality without unnecessarily increasing the size of the book. Keeping the ebook size low is common courtesy as most of your readers will read the book on a device with limited storage capacities.
Convert your footnotes into endnotes. Many tools for formatting ebooks would do this automatically, but you should do it yourself. You can decide to place them at the end of the book or at the end of each chapter. Here is a detailed guide on how to do this.
There are many different ways for self-published authors to format their ebooks, from farming out the task to a specialist formatter, to doing it themselves. Experienced indie authors often become passionate advocates of one system or another, and some are more accessible and affordable than others. But while Vellum, for example, is a favorite among Mac users, a very common starting point is Microsoft Word. In today's post, Ian Andrew, former Microsoft trainer turned self-published author, provides a simple beginner's guide to using Word to format ebooks.
Learn to view your document correctly. You need to see the formatting marks, so turn them on, as well as the navigation pane and the ruler, by clicking the back-to-front P sign (the paragraph symbol used by proofreaders).
If you look online, then you might come across numerous programs that allow you to convert your book into a Kindle version automatically. However, you might find out that the result might look like an amateur wrote the book; awkward spacing issues, entire paragraphs or sections simply italicized or bolded, texts flowing around pictures, and other wacky formatting issues.
Once you have followed Step 1 and used the recommendations to correct any wrong or awkward formatting, then your next step is to use page breaks. Your first is probably going to be the title of the book. If so, move on to the next section and place your cursor at the beginning of that section. Use the Page Break setting to automatically transfer that section to a new page. Keep following this process until all your sections begin on a new page.
You should ideally use the above typefaces to format your book in your preferred word processor. You can add bold or italic styles to your font (to identify the difference between Heading 1 and Heading 2), but if you are, then make sure that the rest of the book does not have styles (for example, paragraphs or sentences that are bolded or italicized or both). Make sure that you are not adding font colors, as this could add unnecessary code to your book.
Most Word processors automatically allow you to add in Table of Contents, or TOC for short. When you add the TOC, most word processors automatically link the sections of the TOC with the font style you have used for those sections. For example, if you have used both bold and italic format options for Heading 1s, then the Heading 1s in the TOC will also appear bolded and italicized.
If you have followed Steps 1 to 4 for your kindle ebook formatting, then you should not have any formatting problems with bullet points, page breaks, tables, images, etc. Quickly browse through the book one more time to check for any errors that you might have missed. Once you are confident about the presentation of your book, use any online tool or program to convert your file into the .MOBI format. A .MOBI file is recognized by the Kindle and many other eBook readers and apps. 2ff7e9595c
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