E-Book Formatting for Novelists: A step-by-step guide for the independent novelist or small press
By K.C. May
3/5
()
About this ebook
You’ve written a novel. Congratulations! Now you want to sell it as an e-book online at Amazon and other ebook retailers. You have three choices:
Upload a .doc or .rtf file and hope for the best.
Hire someone to format it for you.
Learn to format it yourself.
This intermediate-level guide for Microsoft Windows users is intended to help you do it yourself. If you use a Mac, this guide may or may not help you.
This book assumes you have a comfortable, working knowledge of Windows, that you know how to download and install software, create text files and perform operations like copy/paste, search/replace and so forth. Familiarity with Microsoft Word styles is highly recommended.
K.C. May
Hi! I'm K.C. May. Thanks for visiting my author page. I grew up in the mid-western USA and in Hawaii, and earned a B.A. in Russian from Florida State University. After a year in Taiwan teaching English and studying Mandarin Chinese, I lived in the Arizona desert where I founded a Rottweiler rescue organization and worked as a computer programmer and technical writer. My interests include karate, backpacking, motorcycle riding, dog training, and computer gaming. In 2010, I retreated to cooler, greener Georgia. I earn my living as a full-time writer. My first novel, The Kinshield Legacy, was initially published in hard-cover in 2005. Now it's available as an eBook and in paperback. It was named one of the four best reads of 2010 by review blogger Grace Krispy at DailyCheapReads.com. If you enjoy that book, you will probably like the rest of the series -- The Kinshield Saga. I also write science fiction, and I've started a new series called The Mindstream Chronicles. I hope you enjoy my stories!
Read more from K.C. May
Sole Sacrifice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Kindness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInhuman Salvation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to E-Book Formatting for Novelists
Related ebooks
Start-to-Finish Visual Basic 2015 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5DAX Patterns: Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Word 2019 Intermediate: Word Essentials 2019, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearn Photoshop for Print on Demand Business Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Scrivener Windows EBook Creator Quick and Dirty Resource Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVisual Basic .NET for complete beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Book Publishing Using Asciidoc Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrosoft Office 365 for Beginners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPowerPoint 365 Essentials: PowerPoint 365 Essentials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPowerPoint 2019 Intermediate: PowerPoint Essentials 2019, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Self Publish Your Ebook: Succeeding on Kindle, Smashwords, Clickbank, and Your Own Ebook Store Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsE-Book Formatting: How to Create an EPUB for Kindle and Other Self-Publishing Platforms: Location Independent Series, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreating EPUB E-books Using EPUB Editors and Converters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAffinity Publisher 2.0 for Book Formatting Part 1: Affinity Publisher 2.0 for Self-Publishing, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUsing Microsoft Word 2007 for Academic Papers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Word 365 Page Formatting: Easy Word 365 Essentials, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord 2019 Track Changes: Easy Word Essentials 2019, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMastering Excel Macros: Introduction: Mastering Excel Macros, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Keynote For Seniors: A Ridiculously Simple Guide to Creating a Presentation On Your Mac Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUse LibreOffice Calc: A Beginners Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Simple EBook Do It Yourself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord 365 Essentials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord 2021 For Seniors: An Insanely Simple Guide to Word Processing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreating Print On Demand Interiors & Covers Using Scribus 1.4.1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Supercharge Your Book Description Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScrivener 3 For Mac: Scrivener 3 - From Beginner to Published Author Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAffinity Publisher for Fiction Layouts: Affinity Publisher for Self-Publishing, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord 2016: Up To Speed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Costs of Self-Publishing a Best Seller - Facts You should Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBook Formatting for Authors: Books for Authors, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Applications & Software For You
Adobe Illustrator: A Complete Course and Compendium of Features Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdobe Photoshop: A Complete Course and Compendium of Features Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Create Cpn Numbers the Right way: A Step by Step Guide to Creating cpn Numbers Legally Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Do I Do That In InDesign? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Sixth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adobe InDesign CC: A Complete Course and Compendium of Features Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdobe Illustrator CC For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Best Hacking Tricks for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vocal Rescue: Rediscover the Beauty, Power and Freedom in Your Singing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excel : The Ultimate Comprehensive Step-By-Step Guide to the Basics of Excel Programming: 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn to Code. Get a Job. The Ultimate Guide to Learning and Getting Hired as a Developer. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5GarageBand Basics: The Complete Guide to GarageBand: Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExperts' Guide to OneNote Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Audio Engineering: Know It All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5iPhone Photography For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLogic Pro X For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExperts' Guide to Todoist Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/580 Ways to Use ChatGPT in the Classroom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Photoshop For Beginners: Learn Adobe Photoshop cs5 Basics With Tutorials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearning Robotics Using Python Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultra User Guide for Beginners and Seniors Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mastering ChatGPT Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdobe Premiere Pro: A Complete Course and Compendium of Features Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGarageBand For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kodi User Manual: Watch Unlimited Movies & TV shows for free on Your PC, Mac or Android Devices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSynthesizer Cookbook: How to Use Filters: Sound Design for Beginners, #2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Unofficial Guide to Open Broadcaster Software: OBS: The World's Most Popular Free Live-Streaming Application Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSound Design for Filmmakers: Film School Sound Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for E-Book Formatting for Novelists
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
E-Book Formatting for Novelists - K.C. May
Introduction
Chapter vignetteYou’ve written a novel. Congratulations! Now you want to sell it as an e-book online at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, and/or Barnes & Noble. You have four choices:
Upload a .doc or .rtf file and hope for the best.
Hire someone to format it for you.
Use a 3rd party tool*.
Learn to format it yourself.
*Some authors have reported that ebooks formatted with certain 3rd party tools sometimes look terrible on Amazon's Look Inside.
Why chance it when you can format the ebooks yourself and be confident they look great?
This guide is intended to help you do it yourself. I use Microsoft Windows exclusively. If you use a Mac, this guide may or may not help you. I recommend consulting Guido Henkel’s guide at http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-e-book-formatting/, as it is written for Mac users.
This book assumes you have a comfortable, working knowledge of Windows, that you know how to download and install software, create text files and perform operations like copy/paste, search/replace and so forth. If you lack these basic skills, you might find these instructions frustrating. I suggest you go through a course or How-To guide for Windows before you start the process of formatting an ebook.
If you write non-fiction or poetry, this guide may or may not help you. It’s intended for novel writers, who use similar formatting. If you’re comfortable with styles and HTML, you can adapt the instructions to work for the kinds of text styles you work with.
This probably goes without saying, but please have your well-revised book edited by a qualified editor before publishing it. Publishing first draft
material has the potential of ruining an author’s reputation.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Assembling the tools
Chapter vignetteThe best way I’ve found to format e-books requires a few software tools, all of which are free. If you don’t already have these programs, download and install them before you start.
Open Office: get this from http://download.openoffice.org/index.html. Alternatively, you can use Libre Office which you get from http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/. It is essentially the same as Open Office.
Kindle Previewer: this isn’t the same as Kindle for PC. Get it from http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621. Be sure to scroll down to where it says Download Kindle Previewer x.x (currently 2.94).
Calibre e-book Management: get it at https://calibre-ebook.com/. This program is freeware, which means you are free to use it as needed, but if you find value in it, consider making a donation
to