Many writers want to get in on the eBook revolution, but they don’t know how to convert a Word file to an eBook, or how to format a file so that Amazon and Smashwords won’t horribly mangle it during their conversion processes. If they want to upload to a venue that only accepts ePub files, that’s another format to worry about. I’ve written several posts about eBook formatting because there’s a lot of confusion out there.
If you’re wondering how to do any of this, then run, don’t walk, to Amazon, and pick up How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else by Paul Salvette. At $2.99, this book is an absolute steal! As one of the reviewers said, buy it before the author raises
the price. You don’t need a Kindle to read the book. I read Kindle books using Kindle for PC, and there’s a free Kindle reading app for just about every platform out there.
Salvetti’s book covers everything you need to know to format your book for the Kindle, Smashwords, and venues that accept ePub files, like Barnes & Noble. Even if you’re an old hand at this, you might pick up a couple of things.
Want to convert your Word file to MOBI or ePub? The book walks you through how to create clean XHTML from your Word file, and how to run that XHTML through Calibre. Now, there’s plenty of free information around the Net about this, but, as usual, it’s in bits and pieces. For $2.99, you can get a detailed guide in one place that leads you through the steps.
Want to upload your Word file to Smashwords? Follow the steps in the book and you shouldn’t have a problem with the meat grinder or having your book approved for the premium catalog.
I like that the book has a chapter on basic XHTML. It’s great to tell people to do the conversion using Calibre, but what happens if the end result has formatting problems? What do you do then? If you don’t understand some basic XHTML, you won’t be able to tweak the formatting. Having said that, following the steps in this book means that you probably won’t encounter that problem in the first place.
I’ve formatted four books for the Kindle and Smashwords, and I’ve still learned from this book. For example, I didn’t know how to preserve formatting like italics and bold when I prepare my Word file for Smashwords. After nuking all the formatting, I’d go in and manually add the italics back. Salvetti explains how to use Word’s Replace feature to add back the italics in a second. Just that one tip will save me about two hours every time I prepare a Word file for Smashwords.
The book contains tons of images, and links to a bunch of video tutorials recorded by the author. Seriously, spending $2.99 on this book will save you time and, if you were planning to hire someone to format your eBook, money.
And yes, the book is impeccably formatted.
How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for your detailed information. I am following through with your suggestion to use Paul Salvette’s ebook. I’ve done everything to format for Smashwords, but I need a book cover–here’s to hopeful conclusions/beginnings. I emailed Karen Woodward, fellow blogger and ebook author, and she, too was most helpful. Truly, a kind community of folks helping each other. My First Day is starting with an extra warmth of heart. —Barb–
I’m glad you found the information useful, Barb. I agree–the self-publishing community is a generous and supportive one. I could never have published my first book without the advice and tips offered by experienced self-publishers.
If you haven’t found anyone to do your cover yet, you might want consider Patty Henderson. I use her for my covers. You can reach her through her website at http://boulevardphotografica.yolasite.com.
Thanks for the nice write-up, and I’m glad you found my scribblings useful. Please let me know if you have any questions about eBook formatting.
My pleasure, Paul. Your book is so comprehensive that I couldn’t resist telling others about it!
Hi Sarah, thanks for your piece. It was really interesting. Just letting you know about a friend of mines blog. Despite being a best selling author in the UK she has decided to self publish her book as an e-book in the US. Anyway, she’s blogging about her experience of the whole thing and I thought you, or your readers may be interested. The blog is http://www.michelegormanwriter.blogspot.com. I think writers like this are changing the game.
Best Peter.
Thanks for letting us know, Peter.
I recently finished my first book, the “No-Carb Revolution”. I am already selling it as a pdf on my own site (check it out here: http://www.NoCarb-Revolution.com) but I also want to put a version on Amazon.
I came across a $97 product called ePubTemplates that says it will do all the conversion for me, but before I could get it I stumbled upon your delightful site which is telling me that for the price of a $2.99 ebook on Amazon by Paul Salvette and the FREE program Calibre that I will have everything I need to convert my book to the Kindle!
There’s gotta be a catch somewhere, right?! It can’t be this easy, lulz!
Thank you so much for your help in this area!
Nope, no catch. I use a free program called eCub to convert my files to MOBI (Kindle) and ePub formats, but it requires some knowledge of CSS/XHTML to tweak the output. Paul’s book guides you through the process of preparing your files for Calibre, which is another common way of doing it.
If you decide you need a paid tool, I’d check out Jutoh. It’s a spiffier version of eCub that doesn’t require any CSS/XHTML knowledge, and it’s only $39 USD.