How do I create different file formats?

[Jay]

Just as importantly, how do I ensure that the formatting won't go screwy on different eReaders? That was a tough nut to crack initially. My best advice is to get Mark Coker's free Smashwords Style Guide It's funny as well as informative.

As for the file formats for different eReaders, if you publish on Smashwords ALL formats are available for download from your uploaded Word doc. They also let you know if there are any formatting issues left in your file.

If you want to create your own .mobi file, the route I take is to save as Web page, filtered (.htm), open that in Sigil and save as .epub, open the .epub in Calibre and let that convert to .mobi.

I'll probably be shot down in flames now for doing things the hard way, but I have my armour on so shoot away. That's the route my first fumbling steps took me and it's worked fine so far.

[Lynn Blackmar]

I make individual files for each place I upload. It is a lot of work, but it solves a lot more problems. Usually I try to start with a clean html file, but both Amazon and Smashwords have a little different preferences, so I follow the guidelines for each one separately.

[Jay]

For those of you who aren't sure about KDP files, the latest news letter specifies:

KDP lets you convert your content from several formats. For best results, we recommend that you upload your content in either Microsoft Word or HTML format.

KDP accepts the following formats:
• Zipped HTML (.zip)
• Word (.doc and .docx)
• ePub (.epub)
• Adobe PDF (.pdf)
• Plain Text (.txt)
• MobiPocket (.mobi and .prc)

and gives this link for more details:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishin...

My choice will still be mobi as I can pretest the file on my Kindle that way.

[K.A.]

I uploaded my short-story book in WORD and was able to preview both the hard-copy layout and the Kindle version (by downloading a Kindle previewer program onto my laptop - free). But this means that if you, perhaps, formatted your document for Nook, and now you want to put it on Amazon, you can use your same file in KDP. Yet another way Big Bad Amazon is helping authors out...

[Sharon]

This online converter does a great deal of different format. Might be useful.

All the types of files they convert are on the left hand side menu

http://ebook.online-convert.com/conve...

[K.A.]

Looks interesting, Sharon. Have you tried it?

[Sharon]

yeah, I couldn't get it to work with an image properly with Word, but it converts mobi files fine to epub and I assume would work fine with pdf and it also works converting html documents to epub, but I never tried the other formats.

[Sharon]

oh, and forgot to say, it has an online viewer, so when the file is processed it opens a viewer where you can check any output prior to saving on your hard drive

[K.A.]

Cool, thanks. A useful tool!

[Sharon]

welcome