Professional eBook conversion: tips to do it yourself

Today the world is going digital. People now trust digital technologies more than other things. And, reading habits are not far off too. 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 eBook 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 knowledge of tools like MS Word, you can also do it yourself. At least you can do it for aggregators like smashwords, lulu.com, KDP, etc. Because these aggregators accept Word Doc files and convert them into an eBook format, which is available for purchase on their networks. However, they do have a set of rules, which you must follow when setting up your Word document to submit 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, they will be accepted by all aggregators.

Step 1: Decide the 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 list it for sale with another aggregator for a certain period of time.

Step 2 – Once you’ve selected an aggregator, check to see if you’d like it 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 your 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: Do not 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: Do not use images that have a lot of text.

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

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

Step 13: Do not 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 not be larger than 16 pt and the font type should be Arial, Times New Roman, or Georgia. Fantasy fonts are not allowed.

Step 16: There should not be any broken links.

Here 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 if you are not good at MS Word, please contact me. I provide professional eBook conversion services.