Once your manuscript is edited, proofreaded and ready for publishing, please upload it by filling the form below.
eBook formatting
In addition to a bestseller look, your ebook should provide a good reading experience for your readers.
The advantages of a well-built eBook file are:
- It looks professional in any reading device.
- It allows the reader to profit from all available digital tools (table of contents, dictionaries, bookmarks, search engine, notes, etc.).
- It has the smallest file size, which saves you money since main publishers like Amazon charge a size proportional fee. A small file size is also appreciated by the readers because of their fastest download and file handling easiness.
- Images are optimized and inserted with the flexibility that a digital format needs
- Metadata, which is a set of information attached to the eBook (like Title, Author, Genre, Keywords, etc) that allows classification and optimized library or publishing searches. Metadata is also an important feature for book marketing.
The main eBook formats are ePub and Mobi. The ePub format is the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)'s official standard, designed for flowable content and compatible with all reading devices, while Mobi format is Amazon's proprietary standard for its Kindle reading device. As even Amazon is accepting uploads in ePub format, we advise you to use a single ePub file for your book (handling several versions of the book makes updating a hassle).
Keep in mind that, unlike print books, eBooks don't have page numbers; they have a flowable text programmed to fill any screen, and as screen size depends on the device you are using (PC, tablet, cellphone, etc.), the page number can't be used as reference. That's why an eBook formatting job consists in cleaning the text of hidden characters coming from the Word manuscript, mark the text hierarchy in a consistent way, build an html table of contents, and make it technically and functionally flawless. Chapters can be programmed to start on a new page, but requests like "I want this sentence to be on the next page" don't make sense since hardcoding the book will work only in one device and will look broken on any other. Also, although typography selection is also part of the design job, it is not as relevant as in a print book because many users have their reading devices configured to use their own font and font-size selection.
Summarizing: designing an eBook is not the same as designing a print book.