![]() ![]() There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to eBook formatting. By file type, I mean the software they’re written in. Using multi-columns or horizontal orientation.Non-typically, you’d format a fixed-layout eBook for: Ensuring maximum usability on smaller devices like smartphones.Works with small images embedded between paragraphs.Publications with mostly continuous text.Typically, you’d format a standard eBook for: Fixed-layout eBooks are popular with publications like cookbooks, children’s books, comic books, graphic novels, and educational textbooks. The graphics won’t “flow” across the page if you change settings but you can zoom in and out. These are popular for graphic-laden publications with images, graphs, tables, and charts where the material size can’t be changed. The other format is a fixed-layout eBook. Most novels are formatted as standard eBooks so they can be conveniently read on all types of devices like eReaders, desktops, laptops, and smartphones. There are no page numbers (pagation) on standard eBooks because the total page numbers change according to the user’s size preference. The most popular format is a Standard eBook that uses real-time, flowable text where the end-user can make personal changes to features like font type and size (settings). If you look up “eBook” in the dictionary, you’ll find it’s a noun meaning “a book composed in, or converted to, digital format for display on a computer screen or handheld device.” An eBook is really a collection of digital characters forming a readable document. Tip #1 - Understand What eBooks Really Are That’s fine, but I’m sticking with what I know, and I’d like to share my top ten tips for formatting eBooks from MS Word. ![]() They’d rather use a tool like Scrivener or their Mac equipped with Vellum. I know many writers detest using a PC infested with Word. Besides, I’ve found the formatting process to be one of the best self-editing tools out there. Doing the math… at a $2.00 royalty that’d be at least 50 sales to break even on formatting costs. However, I don’t pay for eBook formatting services which could run $100.00 or more for a proper and professional product (not a ten-buck Fiver special). I also pay for promotions through discount email sites like Booksy (Free and Bargain), Ereader News Today, and Fussy Librarian as well as click-ads on BookBub and Amazon. Mary, my proofreader, and Elle, my cover designer, like to get paid and they’re totally worth it. It takes money to indie publish eBooks, and there’s no getting around it. Someday I’ll make new online friends at Apple and Google as well. ![]() Rather, I have a lot of help from a proofreader, a cover artist, and a whole bunch of friendly folks who I don’t know at Amazon, Kobo, and Nook. That’s because I don’t publish all by myself. Notice how I used the term “indie” instead of “self” publishing. But, I keep at it day-in and day-out-partly thanks to a simple system of formatting eBooks from Microsoft Word. I’ve been indie writing eBooks for eight years now, and I’ve put twenty for-sale publications online. Sometimes I wonder why I subject myself to this nonsense. ![]() And, it requires a lot of commitment mixed with dogged determination and a blind belief that someone is actually going to read the stuff. It takes creative imagination along with some technical knowledge. Indie publishing an eBook is a lot of work. ![]()
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