This quasi-book is written for the non-technical writer who wants to join the growing community of self-published authors. Topics include how to create your manuscript in Microsoft Word for publication on various eBook platforms as well as Print On Demand (POD).

There are numerous methods of producing eBook or POD files. Those utilized in this document are, in the experience of the author, the simplest and least expensive.

Procedure:

1. Create a fully formatted Word manuscript that can be used to produce various other file types for publication.

2. Create a limited formatted Word manuscript for Smashwords.

3. Create an eBook and cover.

4. Create a basic HTML document.

5. Create a MOBI compatible document for Kindle and Mobipocket supported devices.

6. Create a PDF document.

7. Create various cover images.

8. Upload files to various publishers.

Software Requirements:

Microsoft Office Word 2003 or higher http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/

Free - Sun Microsystems OpenOffice.org 2.31 or higher (optional) http://www.openoffice.org/

Free- Mobipocket Creator/Reader (optional) http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/default.asp?Language=EN

Free - Calibre eBook Management http://calibre-ebook.com/

Any full featured graphics application such as:

Corel Draw (used in this book) http://www.corel.com/servlet/

Adobe Photo Shop http://tryit.adobe.com/us/cs5/photoshop/

Free - Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Styles and Formatting in Word:

This document (written in Word 2003) will serve as our example as we proceed through this topic. The image below shows the Styles and Formatting panel that we’ve created to get this far. In other applications, this would be called a Style Sheet. We’ll use that term herein interchangeably with Styles and Formatting panel.

To pop-in the styles and formatting panel, select Format from the main menu…

…then select Styles and Formatting to pop the Style Sheet in to the right of your Word document.

The elements within your Style Sheet allow you to define parts of your document such as headings or paragraphs to make formatting easy.

You can change the parameters of any element by clicking the drop-down arrow of the element and choosing Modify from the drop-down list.

The popup window contains the parameters that will be applied to any selected text when a formatting element is applied.

Let’s try an example. The below formatting style has been applied to this paragraph.

Now we’ll apply the Heading 2 format parameters to a paragraph by highlighting the paragraph and clicking Heading 2 in the Style sheet.

Heading 2 style has been applied to this paragraph.

As you format the individual elements within your document, the formatting rule will be added to your Style Sheet.

Page Layout:

Using the layout for a paperback book will provide you with the best possible view of how your book will look in both print and in eBook format. Although some of the parameters won’t translate to an eBook, we’ll create additional copies of the document to eliminate unsupported properties.

The Page Setup window contains three tabs:

1. Margins

2. Paper

3. Layout

Choose margins based upon your content. Mirrored margins will move the printed page away from the spine. Remember that bigger books require bigger gutters.

The Print Layout view will provide you with a reasonably good example of What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get.

Use this view to find any orphaned phrases that are pushed onto an empty page.

Use the paper size that matches your paper book. For this exercise we’ll choose the standard trade paperback size of 5 ½ X 8 ½.

We’re going to include the book title and/or author name in each page header and a page number in the footer. One half inch should be more than adequate. (The headers and footers will only be used for the print versions.)

Building a table of contents:

In the print version of our book, the table of contents will need a page number.

Chapter 1………………………….. Page 1

Chapter 2………………………….. Page 10

Chapter 3………………………….. Page 19

In the eBook version, the table of contents will be active – meaning that when the user clicks on a topic the cursor will jump to it in the body.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The easiest method of accommodating both formats is to first create a version with the active table of contents and save it. Then, when you’re completely finished and have a ready-to-publish document, save it to a new name and add the page numbers next to the topic or chapter names and remove the hyperlinks.

You can enable the reader software to jump to the start and table of contents in your book by adding bookmarks such as start and toc.

Table of Contents

An active table of contents:

The first step in creating an active table of contents is to create a Bookmark at the chapter heading.

Highlight the entire chapter/topic name…

Then from the main menu click Insert and select Bookmark from the menu items.

In the popup dialog window, enter a tag name with no spaces. We’ll substitute an underscore character for the space making our entry chapter_1, but it really doesn’t matter.

Now we’ll create the link from the table of contents to the bookmark:

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Select Chapter 1…

From the main menu click Insert and select Hyperlink from the menu items.

In the popup dialog, select Place in This Document in the Link to: column, then double-click on chapter_1.

Repeat the process until all chapters or topics have a bookmark with a corresponding hyperlink.

Book Properties (Metadata):

The metadata are generally ignored by most publishers, but not by all, so entering them is a good practice. To edit the metadata of your Word document, click File on the main menu and select Properties from the menu items.

Enter the appropriate information on the Summary tab.

Best Practices:

When saving a file in Word 2007 or Word 2010, save as a Word 2003 *.DOC file rather than the *.DOCx standard.

For ebooks other than Adobe PDF files Do Not use tabs or spaces; instead use the ruler bar at the top of your Word document to set the size of the indent in inches. Below shows a one half inch indent.

This will be added to your style sheet:

Drop caps don’t work well in eBooks. Instead, you can increase the size and embolden the first character in a new paragraph. The additional white space will appear above and below the first line.

Use hard page breaks at the end of chapters instead rather than repeated carriage returns to force an automatic page break.

Headers and Footers:

Save your manuscript with a name that will identify it as having no headers or footers before adding headers and footers, then save it again to another file name before modifying.

To add your headers and footers, click View from the main menu and choose Header and Footer from the menu items.

There’s no requirement for a header – most reading devices will use the metadata to display the title and authors name. Creating a header with your title and name is a nice touch for print books.

In the below example we’ve added the title to the top of all odd numbered pages and the author’s name on even numbered pages.

The title at the top of all odd numbered pages is left justified.

The author’s name at the top of all even numbered pages is right justified.

The footer contains centered page numbers.

Be sure to match the page number font to your style. The default character set may be too large or too small.

Now you can go back to your table of contents to remove the hyperlinks and add page numbers.

Chapter 1 ………………………… Page 1

Chapter 2 ………………………… Page 10

Chapter 3 ………………………… Page 19

Conversion to HTML:

The most reliable method of converting your Word file to useable HTML is via Sun Microsystems’ free OpenOffice.org Writer.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Open your Word file with OpenOffice.org Writer then save as an HTML document.

Type in the name of your new HTML file and select HTML Document from the Save as type.

If for some reason you don’t want to use the OpenOffice.org Writer program to convert your Word file, saving the file as Web Page, Filtered may be adequate but there are occasionally some odd results when imported for the Kindle.

Conversion to PDF

Word 2007, Word 2010, and OpenOffice.org Writer all support saving as PDF, but Word 2003, and older, do not. Below is a screen shot of Word 2007.

In the OpenOffice.org Writer application

Creating a Cover

Corel Draw was used to create the covers in this tutorial but all full-featured graphics applications are similar in method and behavior. If you don’t own a full-featured graphics program you can download the full version of Gimp (free) from the below URL:

http://www.gimp.org/

To minimize the effort of making many covers we’ll start with the cover for a paperback book and use that artwork to produce our other versions.

Before we begin, we must know the spine width. All the POD publishers provide tools to calculate cover size and spine width. We’ll show you an example later, but for now, we’ll just state the numbers.

Our 100 page book printed on 60# paper will have a spine width of 16.22 Postscript points or 0.226 inches. Consequently, the paperback cover size will be twice the paper width plus 0.226 inches or 11.226 inches wide and 8.5 inches high. This size doesn’t include bleed or flaps for a dust jacket. We’ll add those later.

We’ll create a new image to match the basic size.

The spine is marked so that we can see our working area.

Our goal in this exercise is technical, not artistic so we’ll create a very simple cover on a black background using the title, sub-title and a single, slightly modified public domain image of a man sharpening a quill pen.

The spine of this book is so small that printing on it is almost impractical but we’ve done so as an illustration.

This is our master cover. We will use it to create covers for several resellers.

Below is a JPEG copied from the right panel of the paperback cover. Although we may have to resize it, we can use this cover for the Kindle, Mobipocket, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords versions:

You should save each image to a different file name as you progress.

Most POD printers ask for at least ¼ inch bleed so adding a half inch to the width and height should be sufficient. The bleed area below is shown in red to set it off.

This is the actual image with the bleed area filled to match the background color.

A copy must be saved as a PDF in order to upload it to Create Space or Lulu. Hardcover book jackets also need flaps added on each side.

Formatting for Mobipocket and Kindle

Mobipocket SA, a French company incorporated in 2000, distributes eBooks in a proprietary format. Mobipocket files (*.MOBI or *.PRC) can be read on PDAs, Smartphones, cellular phones and eBook devices including Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, webOS, Java ME, BlackBerry, Psion, Kindle and iLiad. The Mobipocket Reader software can also be installed on computers running Microsoft Windows or, using WINE, under Mac OS-X or Linux.

In 2005, Amazon.com purchased Mobipocket SA and adopted a variation of their eBook format for the Kindle reading device. The Kindle supports both PRC and MOBI files that do not have Digital Rights Management encryption enabled.

Mobipocket Creator is a wonderful application, whether you decide to publish with Mobipocket or not. In addition to several useful tools, it has its own markup code which enables publishers to create very sophisticated documents. You can download it free from the below URL:

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/default.asp?Language=EN

Creating a Mobipocket/Kindle eBook:

The Mobipocket Creator interface is a bit intimidating but if you take it step-by-step you should find it easy to use.

To create a new Mobipocket eBook, we’re going to import the HTML file that we converted from the Word document. Click on HTML document.

Browse for your HTML file.

Be sure to set the proper publication folder before clicking the Import button.

The image from the right (front) panel of the book cover that we created will be resized by the software to fit the Mobipocket Reader and Kindle.

Be sure to click the Update button that’s all the way down at the bottom. The save button on the menu bar only saves the project file, not the references.

Now click on Book settings.

Set the Book Type to eBook if you want it to open with the cover. Set it to Default if you want it to open on the first page. Be sure to click Update.

You can enable the reader software to jump to the start and table of contents in your book by adding bookmarks such as start and toc to the source DOC or HTML file.

To link those tags within the eBook file, click Guide.

Click New guide item

The filename should columns contain the name of your book with .html#tag appended to it:

Your Book Name.html#start

Your Book Name.html#toc

The metadata is used by the Reader software and by Mobipocket to catalog your book. Amazon gets it from your DTP dashboard, which we’ll discuss later.

Author is last name first.

Complete all the fields and click Update.

Now you’re ready to build your eBook as a PRC file. Click the Build icon on the menu bar.

If there are any errors during the build a warning icon will appear.

You can view any error details by clicking the Show build details button.

Previewing your book:

Here is the book we just produced (viewed in Mobipocket Reader).

Be sure to test the active TOC. This is the most likely point of failure.

Here’s the book in Kindle for PC.

Publishing to Mobipocket.com:

Once you have created a publisher’s account with Mobipocket, the below URL will give you access to your publications:

https://www.mobipocket.com/ebookbase/en/publisher/default.asp

Let’s add our book.

The Choose file button will provide a browsing window. Locate your PRC file then click Upload to eBookbase.

If you upload from Mobipocket Creator, all the data fields will be populated. When going through the web site, you will have to enter them manually.

Upload a cover to be used on Mobipocket’s web site. (Just resize you larger JPEG to 525 pixels wide.)

Publishing to Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP):

The DTP control panel provides easy access to your published work.

Click the button at the bottom left to add a new title.

Enter the title, description and contributor information.

In the next set of fields, enter the primary language, the publisher’s name (if any) and an ISBN if you have already bought one for this particular eBook.

Choose the publishing rights option.

Set the categories and keywords.

DTP likes large product images. The front cover of the paperback image is about perfect.

Choose whether or not to enable DRM then browse for your PRC file and upload.

Here’s the preview:

The new book will appear as a draft until you release it for publishing. After DTP approves your files, it may take a few days before the title goes live.

Publishing to Smashwords

Smashwords is a web site that will convert your Word document to a variety of formats and optionally distribute the book to online retails.

Conversion is accomplished by a web application that Smashwords calls The Meat Grinder. The Meat Grinder is sometimes temperamental if the Word file hasn’t been formatted in accordance with the Smashwords Style Guide.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

From the Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker.

The Ultimate Secret to Ebook Formatting: Keep it Simple, Keep it Simple, Keep it Simple!

The big secret to ebook formatting success is “Keep it Simple!” Unnecessarily complex formatting or layout WILL hinder the readability of your ebook. If you attempt to make your ebook appear as an exact facsimile of your print book, you will cause yourself unnecessary frustration. It may also cause your ebook conversions to fail, or could cause you to provide a poor reading experience to your readers. Many authors who have previously formatted for print, and try to upload their print-formatted books to Smashwords, get very poor results (because they didn’t follow the Style Guide!).

Re-envision your book as free flowing text with only the essential formatting. Restrict your formatting to paragraph returns (one at the end of each paragraph), proper first line paragraph indents (see tips below on how to create), italics, bolds, and very few paragraph styles.

How to Avoid AutoVetter Errors:

AutoVetter is Smashwords’ automated technology that inspects your book after you publish it and identifies formatting errors for you. You’ll find your errors documented in the Dashboard after you publish, underneath the “Premium Status” column. If the link reads, “requires modification,” click the link.

If you receive AutoVetter errors, it will delay your book’s acceptance into the Smashwords Premium Catalog.

To prevent AutoVetter errors, avoid using:

- more than 4 consecutive paragraph returns (creates blank ebook pages)

- tabs (eliminate all tabs, which you created by hitting the “Tab” key)

- extra paragraph returns between paragraphs in an attempt to create a blank line

- exotic fonts (instead, stick with Times New Roman, Garamond and Arial)

- large font sizes (14pt is a recommended maximum, 11 or 12pt is better)

- tables of contents with page numbers (ebooks don’t have page numbers!)

- indents made with spaces or tabs (the most common bad habit of all authors)

- text in columns (we don’t support columns)

- text in tables (ebooks don’t handle tables. Import tables as images)

- text in text boxes

- multiple text or paragraph styles for your body text

- automatic footnotes (not supported, may cause the conversion to fail)

- text wrapped around images (instead, right mouse click image, click format: advanced: align with text)

On your copyright page, add the below text:

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

https://www.smashwords.com/upload

Enter the title, a synopsis, choose the language and indicate adult content with the appropriate option box.

Smashwords permits setting your book price as free, to be determined by your readers or fixed.

Choose a category and sub categories.

List tags (keywords) used for search engines.

Choose the formats that you want to support. Note that books that rely heavily on graphics (like this one) should not be distributed as a plain text file.