15 Steps to Formatting Your eBook
15 Steps to Formatting Your eBook
by
David Rieckmann
15 Steps to Formatting Your eBook is a simple step by step guide for getting your eBook ready for the publishing process.
Smashwords Purchase Link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
The guide walks you through every step of the process for making text only eBooks. If you want to include pictures, then I would suggest checking the guides from the major eBook publishing companies for specifics on inserting images.
I also did not talk about designing cover art. Cover art should be left to professionals. One of the major factors in marketing and selling your eBook is your cover. (as mentioned in Indie Authors and Books previous blog post - "10 Tips on Self Publishing" http://indieauthorsandbooks.wordpress...) Take the time to pay a cover artist for the cover your book deserves. Many cover artists already know how the cover needs to be formatted for the major eBook publishing companies, so let them do that part of the work so you just have to upload the image.
If you follow the steps in the guide exactly, then you will should never have an issue when uploading to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords.
I wish you the best of luck in your self publishing journey.
David Rieckmann
Indie Authors and Books
www.indieauthorsandbooks.com
Here is a short preview of the Formatting Guide.
Due to blog formatting, the images and text may appear slightly different on the blog than in the eBook version.
Introduction
There are many guides on the internet for formatting your eBook so you can submit it for publishing on many of the many eBook publishing platforms. What I am going to try to cover here are some very basic concepts to help get you going. Some things will not be covered as I am writing this very basic guide for the majority of eBooks.
What will not be covered:
Pictures
Illustrations
Cover Art (will be covered in a later post)
Formatting for print versions
Let’s start with the basics. Formatting for print and Ebook formats vary in different ways. The premise for eBook formatting is that your eBook needs to be converted so that it flows on digital readers. Improper spacing and tabs can create many problems in the flow of your book. Hopefully these steps will help you format to alleviate many common problems.
Don’t worry about formatting for your chapter titles at this point. We will get to them later.
Step One: Turn off AutoCorrect and AutoFormat
Turn off autocorrect before you begin. Leave the spelling and grammar check features on but set them so they only mark the error and you have to manually make the change. When doing section breaks, sometimes word-processors turn those section breaks into page breaks. You do not want the page breaks in your document.
Click the Office symbol at the top left of word.
The drop down menu will open and click Word Options at the bottom of the drop down menu.
Click “Proofing”
Click “AutoCorrect Options...”
Now, turn everything off under the AutoCorrect and AutoFormat tabs.
On the “AutoFormatAsYouType” tab turn everything off except for “Format beginning of list item like the one before it”
On this tab you may elect to leave the “smart quotes” and “fractions” tabs turned on.
Ok, it is time to get started with the meat and potatoes of formatting your eBook.
The first thing you need to do to your eBook is to get rid of any formatting that you already have included in your manuscript.
The way I accomplished this was very simple.
Step Two: Get Rid of the Formatting
Hold the “ctrl” button on your keyboard and press “a”. This will highlight your entire manuscript.
Right click on the highlighted text and select “Paragraph”
Make the following changes to your word document from the “Paragraph” menu.
Alignment: Left
Outline: Body Text
Indentation Left: 0”
Indentation Right: 0”
Indentation Special: First Line (You can elect to not have any indentation but I find it helpful for the first line of every paragraph to be indented.)
Indentation By: 0.3” (Only if using first line indents.)
Spacing Before: 0 pt
Spacing After: 0 pt
Line Spacing: Single
Spacing At: Blank (If you change this it will change your Line Spacing.)
by
David Rieckmann
15 Steps to Formatting Your eBook is a simple step by step guide for getting your eBook ready for the publishing process.
Smashwords Purchase Link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
The guide walks you through every step of the process for making text only eBooks. If you want to include pictures, then I would suggest checking the guides from the major eBook publishing companies for specifics on inserting images.
I also did not talk about designing cover art. Cover art should be left to professionals. One of the major factors in marketing and selling your eBook is your cover. (as mentioned in Indie Authors and Books previous blog post - "10 Tips on Self Publishing" http://indieauthorsandbooks.wordpress...) Take the time to pay a cover artist for the cover your book deserves. Many cover artists already know how the cover needs to be formatted for the major eBook publishing companies, so let them do that part of the work so you just have to upload the image.
If you follow the steps in the guide exactly, then you will should never have an issue when uploading to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords.
I wish you the best of luck in your self publishing journey.
David Rieckmann
Indie Authors and Books
www.indieauthorsandbooks.com
Here is a short preview of the Formatting Guide.
Due to blog formatting, the images and text may appear slightly different on the blog than in the eBook version.
Introduction
There are many guides on the internet for formatting your eBook so you can submit it for publishing on many of the many eBook publishing platforms. What I am going to try to cover here are some very basic concepts to help get you going. Some things will not be covered as I am writing this very basic guide for the majority of eBooks.
What will not be covered:
Pictures
Illustrations
Cover Art (will be covered in a later post)
Formatting for print versions
Let’s start with the basics. Formatting for print and Ebook formats vary in different ways. The premise for eBook formatting is that your eBook needs to be converted so that it flows on digital readers. Improper spacing and tabs can create many problems in the flow of your book. Hopefully these steps will help you format to alleviate many common problems.
Don’t worry about formatting for your chapter titles at this point. We will get to them later.
Step One: Turn off AutoCorrect and AutoFormat
Turn off autocorrect before you begin. Leave the spelling and grammar check features on but set them so they only mark the error and you have to manually make the change. When doing section breaks, sometimes word-processors turn those section breaks into page breaks. You do not want the page breaks in your document.
Click the Office symbol at the top left of word.
The drop down menu will open and click Word Options at the bottom of the drop down menu.
Click “Proofing”
Click “AutoCorrect Options...”
Now, turn everything off under the AutoCorrect and AutoFormat tabs.
On the “AutoFormatAsYouType” tab turn everything off except for “Format beginning of list item like the one before it”
On this tab you may elect to leave the “smart quotes” and “fractions” tabs turned on.
Ok, it is time to get started with the meat and potatoes of formatting your eBook.
The first thing you need to do to your eBook is to get rid of any formatting that you already have included in your manuscript.
The way I accomplished this was very simple.
Step Two: Get Rid of the Formatting
Hold the “ctrl” button on your keyboard and press “a”. This will highlight your entire manuscript.
Right click on the highlighted text and select “Paragraph”
Make the following changes to your word document from the “Paragraph” menu.
Alignment: Left
Outline: Body Text
Indentation Left: 0”
Indentation Right: 0”
Indentation Special: First Line (You can elect to not have any indentation but I find it helpful for the first line of every paragraph to be indented.)
Indentation By: 0.3” (Only if using first line indents.)
Spacing Before: 0 pt
Spacing After: 0 pt
Line Spacing: Single
Spacing At: Blank (If you change this it will change your Line Spacing.)
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D.R. Racey
D.R. Racey has served on active duty in the U.S. Military since 1998 and spends much of his time off writing, developing his next story, and designing his own cover art. He has been married since 2000
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