It’s amazing where the world is going when it comes to written content. Many authors are turning to the net to publish their work instead of traditional publishers. Because many publishers aren’t interested in you unless you have a following or a previously published work, online publishing seems to be the best venue for writers who are sick of all the rejection letters.
You may be wondering about the venues for online publishing. It isn’t just blogs and online magazines. Aside from those is the magical world of eBook publishing. This may seem a bit shady, and I admit that I was a bit skeptical, but if you do a little research you may be surprised how many people are interested in reading digital media. The Kindle, for instance, is one of the many tools that users use in order to read new books and is also one of the most popular items on the market for adults. It’s incredibly useful for college students who don’t want to lug a lot of books around as well as helpful for students pursuing their online education.
But students aren’t the only ones buying eBooks, many adults and children are downloading eBooks from iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other eBook sites instead of buying paper and hard cover books. eBook popularity is growing fast as the new generation becomes more dependent on technology and eventually all books will be downloaded and stored instead of bought at a bookstore. The future of books is the eBook.
However, writing an eBook isn’t easy. There are a lot of rules to follow when creating an eBook. The format needs to be correct before any eBook seller will agree to sell your books and each eBook seller has their own requirements.
Kindle eBooks, specifically, need to be formatted like so in order to be accepted on Amazon:
1. Scroll through your document and remove page numbers, images and other content that will not appear in the final eBook.
2. Next you’ll want to convert the story to a HTML file. Just click “save as” and change the format to Web Page (filtered). This will get rid of the extra unneeded code that appears in the regular Webpage selection. If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can use OpenOffice.org and it should allow you to convert your file to HTML.
3. Clean up the HTML further. There may still be a lot of extra stuff that doesn’t need to be there: specifically tags. If you are not too savvy on HTML then you may want to look up some tutorials. It is a relatively easy programming language to learn and will help you a lot in future eBook publishing.
4. You might have to change your font. The biggest size your font should ever get is 14 point. 12 is the best size. Also, keep your font to simple fonts, for example Times New Roman, Garamond and Calibri.
5. Do not overuse the enter button. Many eReaders will have trouble displaying your book the way you want it. Choose either block or indent paragraphs. Block paragraphs will have a space between each paragraph and indented paragraphs will simply have the indentation to indicate where the new paragraph starts. Combining may lead to problems with how the eReader displays the content.
6. The last suggestion for your eBook is to create a table of contents with hyperlinks. This will help readers get to the chapter they want quickly without having to maneuver to where they left off.
It’s been four years since the introduction of the Kindle and the Kindle eBook and since then the sales of eBooks have surpassed traditionally printed books. Getting on this eBook train is a great step for authors everywhere because eventually all books will be digital. And though self-publishing may seem scary, it’s becoming a lot easier than it once was. Now authors can utilize the internet to advertise their books and hopefully reap the reward they are looking for.
To read more insightful and informative articles from our wonderful guest authors, you can subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also choose to receive updates via email.
Join us on Facebook as well:
Post a Comment