I thought today I’d offer some tips and encouragement for those of you preparing to format an ebook for self-publishing.
Ebook formatting is usually done in Word (unless you have a program like InDesign that can create epub and other formats for you) which makes it simple. However, there are a few things you want to watch out for:
No hard line returns unless you are ending a paragraph. Either remove them all or be prepared for weird formatting in your ebook.
No extra spaces at the end of sentences. If you’re uploading to Smashwords, you’ll get an error message. Those also need to be removed.
Watch your line spacing - single is best.
Since the font size can be changed by the reader, you need to think of your ebook as one long scroll rather than a physical book - don’t try to guess where pages will end or begin.
For that same reason, no page numbers in your table of contents.
Go easy on graphics.
Taking care of those things before you begin formatting will save you hours of frustration!
If you’re still beating your head against the keyboard, let me know, as I do formating for both ebook and print book form HERE. Believe me, I’ve seen just about every weird formatting issue out there!
Don’t let ebook formatting get the best of you.
And do I dare tell you about Word’s weird way of including ghost formatting in documents? Fun!
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