Professional e-book conversion: do-it-yourself tips

Today the world is going digital. People now trust digital technologies more than anything else. And, reading habits are not far off as well. Now people prefer to read novels, books, etc. on devices like Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. However, these devices can read a novel, book, or magazine in specific formats like epub, epdf, mobi, etc. And the process of creating such a format is called professional e-book conversion.

While the process is known as professional eBook conversion, you can’t just assume you can’t do it. If you have a good understanding of tools like MS Word, you can also do it yourself. At least you can for aggregators like smashwords, lulu.com, KDP, etc. because these aggregators accept Word Doc files and convert them into an e-book format, which is available for purchase on their networks. However, they do have a set of rules, which you need to follow when setting up your Word document to send to these aggregators; otherwise, the Word document will be rejected and you will have to do the work again.

Here are some do-it-yourself tips for professional eBook conversion. These are the tips that, if you apply them in the Word document, will be accepted by all the aggregators.

Step 1: Decide which aggregator you will send the Word document to because each aggregator may have some agreement on the duration. And, once you’ve submitted the file to an aggregator and the aggregator has converted it into an ebook, you won’t be able to put it up for sale with another aggregator for a certain period.

Step 2 – Once you’ve selected an aggregator, check to see if you’d like them to add any particular copyright notices to the eBook. In case you don’t add that particular copyright notice, the aggregator will reject your Word document. Smashwords is an example in this case.

Step 3 – Make sure the size of the Word document is 5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9.

Step 4 – Set the top, bottom, left and right margins to 0.5 inches.

Step 5: Add no header or footer.

Step 6: Don’t use fancy fonts.

Step 7: Don’t use any type of text box or table.

Step 8 – Create a clickable table of contents using bookmarks than any other automated way.

Step 9 – Add metadata to the document.

Step 10: Don’t use images that have a lot of text.

Step 11 – If you want to use images, make sure the text is inside the image. Placing a text box on the image is not allowed.

Step 12 – Don’t try to use too many styles except Heading 1, Heading 2, and Paragraph.

Step 13: Don’t indent the first line, etc.

Step 14 – Add a manual page break at the end of a chapter.

Step 15: The maximum font size should be no larger than 16 pt and the font type should be Arial, Times New Roman, or Georgia. Fancy fonts are not allowed.

Step 16: There should be no broken links.

These are the tips for professional ebook conversion. Follow these tips and you will surely be able to publish your book. However, in case you have a complex structure in your book or you are not good at MS Word, please contact me. I provide professional ebook conversion services.

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