Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
Bulletin Board
>
Formatting a book?
date
newest »
newest »
I use LibreOffice and you can download it free. I use Calibre to convert to EPUB and run the result through the Kindle Previewer (Calibre and the previewer are both free), and then upload the converted doc to Amazon. For Smashwords I convert the original to a doc file, but you have to be careful to remove the extraneous bookmarks before uploading. The best formatting instructions I've found is the Smashwords Style Guide, which you can find free at Smashwords. Basically, you have to tinker with everything until you get it right, but persistence pays off. For paperbacks, you can download a free template at Createspace.com.
By the way, since everybody has his own system, practically everybody will disagree with how I do it, but it works for me, and you can make your own choices.
By the way, since everybody has his own system, practically everybody will disagree with how I do it, but it works for me, and you can make your own choices.
Preston -- We found the book, Building Your Book for Kindle, really helpful in doing just that. We then followed word for word Smashwords' guidelines for formatting for them and although the process was a bit laborious, when we sent it off, we got an OK with no errors. That took care of the versions of the book sold by Nook, Kobo, iTunes, etc.
We used Ingram for the hardcopy version of "Murder Becomes Manhattan," and again followed their step-by-step guides which again were not the easiest to follow but resulted in a quick OK from them and a lovely book when it came off the press. Hope some of that helps.
I used the websites own guide to format mine.Smashwords (free) https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52
Amazon (Free) http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-K...
And Createspace templates (free) https://www.createspace.com/en/commun...
I also watched a video on youtube to complement the instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrJKg... (You can probably skip the first half of it since it's more about why you should also do a print version of your book, but I found the second part helpful as it shows you where to find the tools in Office words if like me, you are not too familiar with the program. Although I use it all the time, I knew nothing about its secrets. :P
Hope this help.
I go with Ken. The Smashwords style guide, I think, is the absolute best. I prefer to format my own, and the first few times I didn't do so great. But using the Smashwords guide helped me to really do a much better job on my more recent stuff, plus made me go back and redo my older volumes.
I use someone to format my books for me. It's not something I think I'd excel at and I feel there are better uses for my time. She has reasonable prices. If you're interested, message me and I'll give you her info.
I've never seen a self-formatted book that looked good. If you splurge on anything, I think you should splurge on the internal design of the book and the cover. If you don't want to spend too much money, Joel Friedlander (www.thebookdesigner.com) has some very nice templates for sale.
Most people don't know you don't really need any special formatting for Kindle anymore. Amazon does the conversion pretty well from .Doc or .PdfIf you're going to sell it somewhere else be sure to get the chapters headers formatted to HEADING 1 or 2 so the conversion will pick up the chapters correctly and create a Table of Contents (Apple, Barnes & Noble and other require this).
I distribute all my non-Kindle books through Draft2Digital. They do excellent formatting for e-pub and for CreateSpace, no complex style guide needed, and do excellent mobi formatting even though Amazon Kindle doesn't work with them. This is all part of the service if you distribute to B&N, Kobo, Create Space etc. through them--your choice which channels to use. D2D is Smashwords' competitor and has an equally good reputation. Unlike Smashwords, they don't have a store. I've been told my formatting is very clean by someone who likes to "crack open an e-book" and look at the formatting. I am so low-tech, I have no idea how one would do that. If you're like me, D2D would be a good option. Great customer service, very personal and helpful.
For my first paper print book, it was really a pain because I didn't have a template that CreateSpace would accept. So the next book I started with their template, and it made it so much easier. If you go with CreateSpace for a paper copy and don't have their template, you'll likely need to paste you test into theirs and then do some more formatting work. Go here to get those:https://www.createspace.com/Products/...
I like to download and keep them all for potential future use.
As for ebook, I echo Amber--Draft2digital.com is the bomb. Much much easier than any other type I have ever found.
Good luck!
Regards,
Bruce Arrington
Excellent points. D2D sounds awesome, and from what I'm reading they can help with the print side of books as well. It seems like it's free, but is it really?? Do they take a net percentage of future sales? Regardless, I'm looking into it, as I'd rather spend less time working out formatting/converting and spend more time writing.
If you are prepared to buy Building Your Book for Kindle and follow it carefully, and use the previewer provided, that book is all it need cost you to publish an eBook, but be warned.Createspace are equally easy to use, though the formatting process is completely different, but do get a cover FIRST, even if you intend to leave publishing a print copy for later.
KDP & Createspace do not provide the same selection of covers so they won't match, and they are boring. It cost me $12 to buy a good quality photograph from Canstock, who have a huge choice.
There is absolutely no need to employ anyone to produce top quality eBooks or paperbacks, but neither should you rely on Amazon "doing a conversion". YOU are the only one who cares about the way your book looks and whether all the features, like the Table of Contents, works, or even exists.
DIY does take time, but only the first time when you're learning how. Writing time is very precious, but if you've spent months on creating a novel, or a non-fiction book, which you are proud of, don't begrudge the time it takes to present it well.
Finding time to write the next book is where you hit the real problem. Publicity for indie authors is difficult and takes up far too many hours: it has to be done or the only people who'll ever buy your treasure is your family, and they are barred from reviewing it.
I used the Smashwords guide for formatting my e-books, but when I moved the book to Kindle I got a little fancier with things. I fell Kindle gives you more formatting leeway because Smashwords is trying to get your manuscript ready for multiple platforms. I definitely always preview the book to try and catch and weird formatting glitches.As for paperbacks, I use Createspace, but I always saw the document as a pdf. For some reason I have found that even if I use the Createspace templates, if I upload the book as a Word document, things get knocked off kilter a little bit. Uploading a pdf probably eliminates 95% of the formatting problems I had with Createspace.
James wrote: "I used the Smashwords guide for formatting my e-books, but when I moved the book to Kindle I got a little fancier with things. I fell Kindle gives you more formatting leeway because Smashwords is t..."I've never used Smashwords so I can't comment on that, but I certainly found I could use "fancy" features and check with the previewer if they worked the way I wanted.
For print books changing your completed Word document to a pdf is essential. The Createspace previewer then shows you any remaining faults and revised versions can be uploaded as many times as it takes to eliminate them. It's still worth ordering a proof copy. I found mine was fine, but it was good to see it and check before I hit publish.
Sarah wrote: "James wrote: "I used the Smashwords guide for formatting my e-books, but when I moved the book to Kindle I got a little fancier with things. I fell Kindle gives you more formatting leeway because S..."Sarah is right. It is definitely worth ordering a proof copy. I had a book once where the page numbering was off. I didn't catch it in the preview but in flipping through a hard copy, it became obvious that pages I wanted on the left were on the right and vice versa. I only order a hard copy proof the first time, though. If I update the book later, I just go with online preview.
Preston wrote: "Excellent points. D2D sounds awesome, and from what I'm reading they can help with the print side of books as well. It seems like it's free, but is it really?? Do they take a net percentage of fu..."
D2D takes a percent of sales just like everyone else does. In order to stay in business they have to make money, as do all the other distributors. But it's your choice to use them or not.
I use Kinstant Formatter to format my ebooks from a Microsoft Word file. It's easy to use and the results are great! (There is a charge to use it, but I think the charge is reasonable.)
James wrote: "I used the Smashwords guide for formatting my e-books, but when I moved the book to Kindle I got a little fancier with things. I fell Kindle gives you more formatting leeway because Smashwords is t..."Agree. If you can get your ebook past the Smashwords meatgrinder, you have one that will work great--and if you follow the steps in their FREE guide, you'll get there.
Also agree about CS--I use a PDF and get exactly what I want. The only question I now have, as I am formatting a non-fiction book for a friend, is about tables. I've seen recommendations to create them in excell or something and save as a jpeg. Anyone have experience with this? I'm almost certain that's what I'll have to do for Smashwords, anyway.
I've inserted jpeg pics into documents without a problem. I've not done a table. I would almost think you would have to make it a jpeg. Otherwise, all of the different publishing platforms would play havoc with your columns.
I added a simple graphic to my latest novel to denote the end of chapters. Although it appears correct in the downloaded file, some online readers blow it all out of proportion. It's difficult to make everything perfect for every platform, and impossible to know what the result will be.
The % D2D takes is small. It's well worth the wide distribution to so many retailers, and the pain-free formatting.
I'm wondering what some of you have used in the past? Did you find a resource and format it yourself, or did you hire someone to format it and have it ready to be published?
I was looking for templates, but none of them seem to be free, and most of the tutorials are a bit confusing.
Thanks in advance!