Formatting your books for kindle and smashwords publishing. How to format your novel for smashwords veronica sicoe. Page count can change, but word count is constant and reliable. Smashwords style guide a book by mark coker smashwords. Ebook formatting is the preparation of a digital file, to ensure that it meets the publishers requirements and is an enjoyable reading experience. Smashwords for authors, publishers and literary agents.
How to format and upload your novel to kindle, smashwords and createspace. The differences between amazon and smashwords roger. He covers all the peculiarities of kindle, especially the legacy devices that are still out there. There is a lot of debate about kdp select exclusivity, especially among indie authors.
Smashwords formatting tutorial thank you for visiting this ebook design tutorial. You can use it to create beautiful ebooks and print. How to format your book for kindle using microsoft word in 6 easy steps by kristen. How to make an ebook kindle, epub and smashwords this is a quick guide to formatting ebooks i hope its useful. The best source of information for publishing on smashwords is the smashwords style guide written and collected by none other than the founder of smashwords, mark coker. It is available on both smashwords in a multitude of formats and its even available on amazon for kindle download. Jan 24, 2017 for new kindle publishers i think learning how to format your book is an essential skill.
The differences between amazon and smashwords roger gerald scott june 20, 20 march 4, 2014 guest post since i started text formatting services a few years ago, the question i get asked most is what is the difference between smashwords and amazon and do i. We now have an ebook design startup bb ebooks dedicated to helping independent authors and small presses get their ebooks formatted, converted, and ready for sale at all the major online retailers e. It is a free open source program available for both pc and mac. Received an email from us, or wondering if something changed at smashwords. Professional ebook formatting is required to get proper chapters tagging, clickable table of content, and a flexible layout compatible with all ereaders. Smashwords has a formatting guide that you can download, but heres our top tripups that weve encountered. But it shouldnt be used to prepare a book for kindle.
We will turn your word document into a beautiful, professionallooking ebook and spare you the frustration of dealing with style guides and pre formatting. It gives you the power to make changes to your book without having to hire a formatter, it also allows you. My smashwords formatting service includes formatting of your ms word document to pass smashwords autovetter on the first try. Kindle formatting entails conversion of ebook manuscripts from pdf, microsoft word, or any other digital format to a file format specifically designed for amazon kindle devices. Popular alternatives to smashwords for web, iphone, android, ipad, windows phone and more. Ebook formatting services kindle formattingebook formatter. Smashwords style guide how to format your ebook smashwords.
A professional ebook formatter will go through your content line by line, ensuring consistency and that you meet the requirements for amazon and smashwords. Most outbound links financially benefit me and the channel through affiliate programs. The tool you choose depends on your book and file format doc, docx, pdf, and whether you want to use a guide or downloadable desktop formatting tool. I am new to smashwords and im reading the formatting guide and came to this post. Would you like a simple smashwords formatting tutorial. Consider cost and timings for publication, as well as options for updates later as there will be an inevitable typo or two. One of the common questions authors ask me is about how to get the right formatting for an ebook for kindle, smashwords, or draft2digital. Smashwords has multiple distributions and many people just upload it here and let smashwords take care of distribution to these platforms. You just completed a kindle book in six easy steps. How to format your books for kindle and smashwords publishing. Whether you use smashwords, amazon, or draft2digital, formatting your ebook is a skill that. Smashwords interviews our fun, selfinterviewing tool helps you tell the story. Uk amazon kindle forum kindle tipstricks discussions.
They saved my book and can certainly do it for yours as well highly recommended. This decision tree can help you choose the best resource for your book. Smashwords style guide how to format your ebook smashwords guides 1 kindle edition. Smashwords offers marks list of freelance cover designers and ebook formatters to save you tons of time. Now, the time and expense i have to invest in creating stellar books are, at the very least, halved. We transform your manuscript into kindle, epub and smashwords files, which will get your book into the hands of any reader, regardless of what retailer or device they use. Sep 04, 2019 while id used vellum to create ebooks before, the release of vellum 2. Because the kindle ebook format automatically indents any leftaligned paragraph that has no indentation defined, we have to use styles for a little trick.
Amazon has received much criticism in the the industry for insisting publishers must supply drmprotected books for the kindle. It is a simple explanation of the variables involved in formatting your book. Word2kindle was a integral part in getting my 2nd book framer into publication as its formatting was pretty problematic. Mar 03, 2015 formatting your book for smashwords is similar to formatting for the kindle this post. Good formatting and a great cover design bring it all together and theyre the goto guys for all your book formatting and cover design needs. You dont need to be scared of this task again and you dont need to hire anyone to do it for you. Smashwords indicates on their website that images, charts, and graphs wont work well with their automated meatgrinder conversion software. Smashwords smashwords style guide a book by mark coker. The other way to get the file onto your kindle is to attach it to an email and send it to your kindle email address.
Depending on your ebook, some steps may be unnecessary e. Smashwords is the worlds largest, and the original, ebook distributor for indie authors. This is a short step by step guide to formatting an ebook in a microsoft word document. Each publisher has specific requirements that need to be met to be accepted. Kdp tools and resources amazon kindle direct publishing. Passing means your book meets all their standards, and will be submitted to smashwords premium catalog for distribution to their huge ebookretailer network.
How to convert a file from word to epub or mobi file format the first step is to download a free software program called calibre. Then, today youll want to check out my smashwords tutorial so you meet the rather. Explore 9 websites and apps like smashwords, all suggested and ranked by the alternativeto user community. When preparing your book with smashwords, activate words showhide feature with the pilcrow. Smashwords formatting and amazon kindle formatting in ms. Rtf rich text format, or rtf, is a crossplatform document format supported by many word processors and devices. How to format an ebook for kindleamazon publishing in under. Ms word is a wonderful piece of software that gives the user plenty of alternative ways of doing things. The most popular ebook formats revealed which ebook formats are the most popular. Smashwords meatgrinder formatting mobileread forums. This video was made using microsoft word on a macbook pro. Kindle conversion services pdf or word to amazon kindle.
Theres the regular kdp program, and then theres kdp select which is the optin option that forces you to go. Using the above steps does not always guarantee your kindle book will remain free of errors as new kindle software is released. The information we give is specific to the 2016 version of word, but the steps are similar in most versions. How to make an ebook kindle and epub conversion diy book. Now, the good news is for all these other retailerswe just have a few alterations to make. Make sure you visit the homepage and sign up for the free book formatting templates. Do you need ms word formatting for smashwords or amazon kdp. Format your manuscript for smashwords and kdp ebook by. Nov 26, 20 the only direct formatting you can do is bolding, italicizing, and underlining. Jun 20, 20 the differences between amazon and smashwords roger gerald scott june 20, 20 march 4, 2014 guest post since i started text formatting services a few years ago, the question i get asked most is what is the difference between smashwords and amazon and do i really need to publish on both. Book formatting for ebooks and print the creative penn. If youre not going to submit your book to kindle through. In the mobi formatted ebook, when viewed on a kindle 4, i get a bullet point and then the text for that point appears on the next line. Kindle format is best since i own a kindle, but pdf is my next best choice since its one of the easier ones to convert to.
The mobi format is the one for our trusty grey friend. Now at thirtyone, shes determined to make sam see her as more than just the little girl who used to follow him around the family farm. How to format your book for kindle using microsoft word in. And do remember at the end of your book,as i mentioned before with smashwords,to delete any. My ebook formatting services include both epub and kindle formats along with smashwords formatting. I highly recommend cokers smashwords style guide as an essential tool for formatting your ebook. We empower you to reach more readers with our professional publishing and distribution tools. Formatting your books for kindle and smashwords publishing 0. For me, kindle format is best since i own a kindle, but pdf is my next best choice since its one of the easier ones to convert to azw kindle format. There are many options available to authors these days, for both print and ebook formatting. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Its not that hard to format your word document for a kindle ebook if you know how.
Ebook enhancers is a professional kindle conversion and ebook formatting company offering high quality, yet very affordable digital conversion services. In fact i highly recommend that everyone uses the standard shown by mark coker as a standard for formatting all ebooks. The smashwords style guide has helped thousands of authors produce and publish highquality ebooks. This is a quick and easy tutorial on how to format your manuscript for publishing on amazon and smashwords. Smashwords formatting and amazon kindle formatting in ms word. These platforms will take your book and distribute it to a list of publishing retailers, control the analytics, collect. Draft2digital is a dilemma facing authors who have already published their works with amazon, both as an ebook with kindle, and as a paperback with createspace. You dont need to be scared of this task again and you dont need to hire anyone to do book formatting for you. For reasons unknown to me, my software works well only with latin alphabet, so i accept.
We cater to all categories of authors and publishers who are dead set on epublishing their manuscripts to attract global readership that could successfully lead to revenue generation. For that, it is much better to pay a few pounds and get shepards from word to kindle. Full editing, proofreading, typesetting, and design services available for. This is a great guide for any author who formats their own ebooks. A plain word file if youre starting to write your book or have a plain manuscript, you wont need to worry about removing styles. Just uploading an unformatted word file does not give good results. Fast, free and easy ebook publishing and distribution.
How to convert a word document to epub or mobi for kindle. Thankfully, this is where book distribution services like smashwords, draft2digital, and publishdrive step in. Formatting experts are more than what their name implies. I was so happy with their work that i had them format my next book, light for the burning soul, for print, kindle, and nook. E book formatting involves the creation of professional and highquality electronic formats that enable you to publish your book at all major retailers. In the posts on this blog i cover the option for microsoft word, as this is the best option for most fiction and narrative nonfiction authors because its the easiest method. You can do it yourself and keep control, or you can hire others to do it for you. Some companies use ebook formatting software, which can miss things.
Hadley hayes has been in love with her brothers best friend for as long as she can remember. This is a very clear and helpful guide to smashwords formatting, which is what its supposed to be. A blog post by mark coker from smashwords opened up a fierce debate about the pros and cons of open publishing versus amazon kdps kindle direct publishing select exclusivity. This self publishing course will show you in simple steps how you can begin to format your books for kindle and smashwords indie publishing. How to format an ebook in microsoft word using styles. On her website, she gives all the different formats equal promotion and lets the customer decide if they want print, kindle or smashwords. Take advantage of the free smashwords style guide for instructions on formatting your book. Remember, formatting your book for smashwords is like old fashioned typewriting, and you need to strip away all special styles from your manuscript, if you have these in your book. There is also the video version of this book, in think i saw it on youtube. You need to get rid of any tabs and unusual formatting, plus. Open publishing with smashwords vs amazon kdps exclusivity. How to format and upload your novel to kindle, smashwords and createspace kindle edition by bickley, shauna. Meatgrinder generates highquality multiformat ebooks.
For those that simply have a book that includes text, the formatting process seems to be straightforward. However, kindle direct publishing requires enrollment of ebooks in its exclusive kdp select program to unlock all ebook promo options. But formatting a book and submitting it to all the different platforms can be tedious work. However, unlike kdps one kindle reader format, smashwords offers nine ebook formats so readers can use the device of their choice apple and android devices, nook and kobo, along with various online and mobile ereader apps. Custom handcoded ebook conversion of your manuscript to epub, kindle, or smashwords formats. This free guide offers simple stepbystep instructions to create, format and publish an ebook. Smashwords was created by an author mark coker to make it fast, free and easy for any writer, anywhere in the world, to publish an ebook click here to read the profile on smashwords in forbes magazine.
Tagged as book design, book formatting, format a book in word, format kindle ebook, formatting for smashwords, selfpublishing online, smashwords style guide format a book with word. Mar 10, 2015 remember, formatting your book for smashwords is like old fashioned typewriting, and you need to strip away all special styles from your manuscript, if you have these in your book. Kindle ereaders, fire tablets, nook, kobo, ipad, iphone, android devices, laptops and desktop computers. Even though pdf and microsoft word documents can be viewed on kindle devices, they cannot be rendered in a reflowingtext presentation. Theyre also cover design experts, customer service expertsand the list goes on.
Smashwords alternatives and similar websites and apps. Affordable formatting for inclusion in premium catalog for smashwords and kindle direct publishing. When viewed in calibre i get the text on the same line as the bullet but its indented a long way to the right of the bullet point, and if the text wraps to the next line. Publisher rocket will help get your book in front of more amazon shoppers. This stepbystep guide shows you how to turn a manuscript written in microsoft word into a file ready to be uploaded to kdp. But you would rather be writing than formatting your manuscripts.
Even though pdf and microsoft word documents can be viewed on kindle devices, they cannot be rendered in a. Smashwords how to publish an ebook with smashwords. While many authors might think that it is difficult or even tiresome trying to get a manuscript passed by smashwords. Once youve saved it to your hard drive, plug in your kindle and either drag and drop the file into the documents folder on the kindle, or copy and paste it there. You need to get rid of any tabs and unusual formatting, plus its just helpful to see exactly whats going on. Docdocx formatting smashwords, amazon kindle and other platforms combining splitting ebooks for boxsets sample books up to a certain position of your book given for free for promotion either as a downloadable from your web site or any other service. The only direct formatting you can do is bolding, italicizing, and underlining. A service for formatting public domain titles is also available. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading smart formatting. Smashwords is an online book aggregator that distributes your ebook to online retailers. Our formatting creates a wellstructured ebook with easytoread text that makes it enjoyable and compatible with all ereaders.
Its free and the easiest way to ensure your book is available at the most popular ebook. Im creating my epub file with adobe indesign or other software, any tips. The smashwords version of mobi is not burdened by drm, whereas the version sold by amazon is. More on the tech software side of things, calibre is a nice substitute for diy book formatting but is favored by programmers and not authors with specific formatting needs. Formatting your book for smashwords is similar to formatting for the kindle this post. Kindle ereaders, fire tablets, nook, kobo, ipad, iphone, android devices. This format guide will work for both smashwords books and kindle books.
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