Archives for ebook formatting

Ebook Conversion vs. Ebook Formatting

Open-Letter-to-Amazon


Have you ever been wondering why it is possible to get a free ebook version from your online book distributor?  Or seen people offering to convert your novel manuscript into an ebook for $30 or $50?

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While $30 or $50 are almost expensive for just clicking a button to import the (pre-formatted) manuscript, fill in a form with details about the book – such as title, author name, and retail price – click another button to add any required companion files to the project, then clicking one last button to output the ebook in the desired file format. It is mostly an automated process – done in less than 15 minutes.

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I wrote a while ago that I had once paid $70 in advance for .mobi and epub, and received both versions after a wait of almost two months! and dozens of emails. I immediately transferred it to our distributor. He refused the epub version as it contained 63 !!! technical errors, and it cost me, even more, to have it done by a professional. Very frustrating!

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Formatting an eBook – Especially Non-Fiction
Book formatting is mostly manual, because every manuscript is different, and the process of formatting a manuscript for ebook publication is primarily a process of minimizing and standardizing formatting.

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List of eBook Formatting Steps for Mobi
Web content manager A. Hamilton once blogged this list:

* “Save As” to create Kindle file copy
* Insert cover image on the first page
* Remove blank pages
* Remove headers
* Remove footers
* Set margins to 1” all around, remove gutter
* Replace section breaks with page breaks
* Set two carriage returns before each pg break and one after each
* Insert page breaks before each chapter heading, if necessary
* Replace double spaces with single space between sentences
* Standardize body text style
* Turn off auto-hyphenate (Tools > Language > Hyphenation)
* Remove any tab or space bar indents, replace w/ ruler indents as needed
* Set line spacing to 1.5, max 6pt spacing after paragraphs
* Standardize chapter headings
* Standardize section headings
* Remove/replace special characters
* Reformat graphics as needed to 300dpi resolution & optimal size     (4×6” or smaller)
* Verify images are “in line” with text
* Insert page breaks before and after full-page images
* Modify copyright page to reflect Kindle edition verbiage
* Add correct ISBN to copyright page
* Insert hyperlinked TOC
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Time and effort demands in creating ebooks are highly variable.  So, you better send a sample chapter and ask if the price quoted for the ebook conversion service includes formatting – and also the creation of any required companion files.

 

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Good News for Your Ebook Conversions

Bridge

The worst experience I ever had with ebook formatting was last year when I commissioned – my usual professional ebook builder was ill – a manuscript to let it format by a person in South Africa which I had “met” on social media. She promised to deliver within days.
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I paid in advance for .mobi and epub, and received both versions after a wait of almost two months! and dozens of emails.  I immediately transferred it to our distributor. He refused the epub version as it contained 63 !!! technical errors – which they offered to fix for just $50. When I reported this to the “formatter”, she emailed me after a couple of days that she charged only for .mobi – and the epub version was only a complementary version… which was certainly not true, according to my order and her invoice. In the end, she wrote me an email and called my inquiries “nasty”.  Well, I should have been warier of her work, as in her first attempt she even did not know how to hyperlink the TOC’s.  My own fault – cannot blame anyone else!
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Ebook formatting is a never-ending topic in writer circles, forums, and blogs since the dawn of self-publishing.  And many authors have their fair share of hit-and-miss, and of experiences with so-called “professional” formatters.
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Popular DIY programs to format ebooks are:

  • Calibre
  • Sigil
  • Jutoh
  • Vellum (for Mac)

Read also Author Alex Hallatt shares tips on how to produce ebooks using the Mac-only Vellum software, including books with lots of illustrations.  Many authors need formatting for their new books only two or three times a year at the most.  However, the more they use the software, the more competent they will become.
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The New Kindle Create:
Amazon Kindle recently launched a new free app, called Kindle Create, which provides a simplified conversion process for formatting Kindle e-books from Microsoft Word.  When you finish your manuscript and upload it, Kindle Create (Beta) automatically converts the file into a Kindle-compatible file. Then it will help you format it. A rich illustrated conversation instruction will help you.  For example, building a TOC manually can be time-consuming. Kindle Create automatically scans your file for chapter headings and builds a table of contents for you.
You can download the software for Mac or for PC. 

Beta Limitations
The program is still in Beta, which means it will take a while to perfect it.
Some features are not available yet warns Amazon early users:
Limited support for lists and tables: Kindle Create (Beta version) will allow you to import your document, but you may not be able to edit the lists and tables. Lists and tables are marked as ‘un-editable content’, however, you can still publish the eBook and the list or table will display as depicted in the previewer.
Limited support currently also for modifying images.  Kindle Create (beta) will import documents that include images and will place them as block images. Re-sizing, re-positioning, and deletion of images is not supported.
If your document includes hyperlinks (external to the World Wide Web, or internal to other locations in the document), those hyperlinks will be preserved, but can’t be edited in Kindle Create (Beta).
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Editing Lists, Tables or Images is Difficult.
Under “Beta Limitations,” it states that you may not be able to edit lists or tables for example – you need to go back to Microsoft Word and start the whole Kindle formatting again.  Upload a Word .docx or .doc file. Open your file in the previewer on all devices to see if they format well enough for you in the previewer, before you go ahead with your file in Kindle Create.
Same with images: you can’t reposition, or delete them. Preview these right away or go back to Word and get them right before proceeding with Kindle Create.  Hyperlinks cannot be edited too.  Test them in the previewer after loading in Kindle Create to make sure that you’re happy with the links before you do anything else in Kindle Create. These are just a few, read more technical tips on Chris Mullen’s blog post.
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Previewing is Important!
Kindle Create Has its Own Previewer. Or you can download the Kindle Previewer 3.0 that shows books with enhanced typesetting.
Please, give your input to help with beta testing and to improve the program, visit the Kindle Create page, use the Feedback link, complete the survey or email KDP.
If you’re looking for a simplified conversion process, and if your ebook formatting is not too complex, this tool may be worth exploring. If you visit the Kindle Create page, click the link called, “So how does it work?” You will find some important information.

BTW: Another, relatively new offer is KDP Paperbacks, that might retire CreateSpace soon. Check out this article by John Doppler.
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Even Better: FREE Formatting
Another route for authors is to use the conversion services offered by certain distribution platforms, for example, the FREE service at Draft2Digital. They are one of the most author-centred and customer-friendly distributors I have ever encountered: they answer emails and calls promptly, manuscripts are formatted in hours, corrections are made immediately – and they deliver .mobi and epub.
They do not work with Amazon, even they deliver you a free .mobi version, so you can upload it yourself – which has its benefits: it makes it easier to create your Amazon author page and your sales page. Or if you decide to switch in and out of KDP Select and their associated perks, you don’t need to go through the distributor, which may be a pain or not work at all.

Draft2Digital distributes your book for free to Apple, Kobo, as well as to Barnes&Noble (good for non-US authors) and many other online retailers.  You receive immediately the direct link to your e-book’s sales page – something that is not common or even possible at other aggregators.

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Formatting and Converting Your Manuscript

ebook-formatting

 

No matter how you publish, and if you upload your book to online retailers by yourself, or if you use a service provider: a perfectly formatted e-book is a must!

Most distribution services / aggregators and online retailers ask you to upload a completed book file that is appropriately formatted, and vary widely in the types of files they accept.

Fortunately, many e-publishing services accept a Word document and automatically convert it to the appropriate format, but you still must go through an “unformatting” process for best results.  All major services offer step-by-step guidelines for formatting your Word documents before you upload them for conversion.  Here an example:
Guidelines for formatting and converting preparation.

Do NOT include any of the following:

  • Page numbers (some devices will allocate page numbers to the eBook based on the preferences of the device owner, but eBook files do not have universal page numbers)
  • Headers and Footers
  • Borders, background colors or background images – not recommended, as these can look make the text faint or indistinct on grey scale e-reading devices
  • Fancy drop-caps at the start of each chapter
  • Different text colors– see above
  • Multi-column layouts – just use a single column
  • Text Boxes – These can be included but bear in mind that the box may break if the text within runs onto the next page.  This can happen if someone is viewing the book with a large font size, and therefore as less text on each ‘page’ or screen view
  • References to specific eBook retailers such as Amazon or Apple, as the retailers do not allow promotion of competitors in products listed on their websites.
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What’s the Difference between Formatting and Converting of Your Book:
“Too many authors’ books are only converted – and not formatted.” Formatting and converting e-book files are two different things.  Formatting is when a designer polishes your manuscript to professional standards for both, print and e-book formats.
Conversion is an automated process of changing files from one format into another, without editing or styling.  It’s often easy to convert files with software, but the resulting file will most likely look unprofessional, or even appear unreadable, if not formatted appropriately before.
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This is How the Formatting Process Works:
PublishGreen explains what goes into creating an e-book: “When we make an eBook, we take your manuscript, break it down to its most basic parts, then rebuild it from the ground up using eBook-specific code, similar to what is used to create a website.  Here is a look at the steps we take when creating your eBook:

  • First, create a copy of your manuscript text.
  • Strip out any headers, footers, endnotes, footnotes, page numbers, etc. that interrupt the flow of text.
  • Extract all the raw text from the manuscript.
  • Reformat the raw content using eBook-specific HTML (code) to recreate the style and design elements seen in print (ie. bold, italics, underlines, chapter headers, drop caps, etc.).
  • Create the structure of the eBook by inserting prefaces, parts, chapters, sections, etc. that will reflect appropriate page breaks and table of contents hierarchy when viewed on a device.
  • Re-create bulleted and numbered lists, using HTML.
  • Insert and hyperlink footnotes so readers can zip back and forth between the text and the corresponding note.
  • Code hyperlinks for any outside websites that appear within the text.
  • Insert images using specific code that tells the eReader how to display the image.
  • Create a metadata file that will provide the device or software with pertinent information about the book, such as title and author.
  • Create a hyperlinked table of contents that will be accessible in the navigation function of each eReader.
  • Create eReader-specific title and copyright pages.
  • Adjust the CSS (another type of code) of the file to reflect any universal styling that will apply to the entire eBook.
  • Convert the HTML (the eBook’s source code) to EPUB and MOBI formats (the actual file type recognized by eReaders).
  • Test the files on each major eReading device.
  • Make changes to the source code (now that we can actually see what all the code looks like on the eReader!), convert to MOBI and EPUB, and re-test as necessary.”

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Apple iBooks:
You can create an e-book in the .ibooks format by using Apple’s free iBooks Author software.  The advantage of this software is that it allows you to easily create multimedia e-books optimized for tablets.  However, there are drawbacks.  Apple has restricted the sale of any e-book created through the iBooks Author tool to Apple’s iBookstore.  You may not sell your iBooks anywhere else.  iBooks can be read only on their iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and iPad.  However there are ways to transfer them to your PC as well – as shown on YouTube .

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Is This Your e-Book?

There’s been a rush in the last year to get as many ebooks out as possible and the quality shows. Surveys show readers’s attitudes towards this. The overwhelming point respondents demanded in the survey was quality, even above cost of the ebooks.

When a market first develops, the early adopters are willing to forgive things because they’re the techies and they know this is new, but as the market broadens the people who usually read print books are not going to accept this.

The public will punish those ebook publishers buy simply not buying their titles. I’ve seen articles about people returning ebooks because of the errors in formatting, and you see blog comments and reviews on books that mention these mistakes. I’ve heard authors talk about a particular “publisher” (how he calls himself, also he is none) they were using due to very low cost, but the errors made them rethink it. The market will dictate the readers’ demands for error-free reading.

 

Take Pride in Your eBook Formatting – or Hire a Professional

Melbourne

Melbourne

In his blog author and ebook professional Guido Henkel rants about sub-par quality of ebooks. He wrote, starting a series of introduction to ebook formatting:

“To me, one of the key elements that sets apart a professional eBook release from that of an amateur has always been the technical presentation of the book. Sure, anyone can write a document in a word processor, run it through some export tool, use a fully automated conversion utility or peruse the services of an online service, but the sad fact of the matter is that none of these approaches typically results in, what I call, production-level digital books.

I will never again touch the book of an author who has made a bad impression on me by delivering a broken eBook that is clearly sub-par. I can forgive many things in a book if I so please — stilted language, poor pacing, logical errors, uneven style, even the occasional typo. However, one thing I cannot forgive is poor eBook formatting, particularly if it is to the point that it becomes distracting from the actual reading experience, and sadly I have seen too many of these in recent memory.

Many authors simply don’t know any better. They write their book, complete it and look for the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to deploy it. Don’t be one of those authors! It is a sad testimony in my opinion, and certainly not a valid excuse. You have labored over your book for months, maybe even years, you have read and re-read it countless times, cleaned out typos and grammatical errors, massaged the style and worked on the structure, grinding away in the wee hours of the night alongside holding a daytime job and maybe having a family. You did not get here just to break the first cardinal rule of book publishing: Don’t get sloppy on the home stretch! It will reflect poorly on your work.

Another reason why many authors never take the time to create proper, optimized eBooks is that they are perhaps intimidated by the process. It is a technical process, to be sure, but it is nothing to shy away from or to be afraid of. All it requires is a very basic sense of structure and sequencing, things we’ve all been taught since first grade and that we have down pat.”

Read more: http://guidohenkel.com