The explosion in eBook popularity over the last two or three years has been a Godsend for self-published authors. In fact, Kindle eBook sales outstripped paperback sales on Amazon.com for the first time in 2010, a gap that continues to widen. In many cases now it can be ABSOLUTELY FREE to get your novel converted into an eBook and on the virtual bookshelves, leaving you to channel all your energies and finances into where it really matters – marketing.

This article explains the various formats eBooks take, which ones you need to worry about and how to get your book into the virtual marketplace.

Why publish an eBook?

Many of us have heard of dedicated eBook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s eReader and Barnes and Noble’s Nook to name but three, but ever evolving advances in technology mean that eBooks can now be read on most tablet devices and, increasingly, mobile phones. This portability and flexibility is of course as beneficial to the literature market as it is to authors themselves, although some publishing houses, like music companies did when digital music burst onto the scene, have buried their heads in the sand and are not so much at the cutting edge of this new technology as falling off the handle. There has, in short, never been a better time to be a self-published author, as the success of digital authors such as John Locke and Amanda Hocking can testify.

Traditional publishers are beginning to catch up, but contracted authors are at the mercy of their publishers’ pricing structure whereas self-published authors can not only set their own prices but can also change them as they see fit once published. Many of the self-published authors who make the headlines through huge sales have done so by setting the price bar astonishingly low. Selling your book for £1 or $1 may seem financial suicide, but with eBook royalty rates typically being vastly higher than print books (70% in some cases) a bit of marketing, word of mouth and, of course, a good book with equally good reviews, you can rack up thousands of sales in a matter of days and shoot up the rankings (before maybe putting the price up a little). Compare this with the fact that many traditional publishers list their eBooks at the same price as their paperbacks and you can see why customers are willing to take a chance on a self-published author for the price of a can of drink.

Formats

Creating an eBook or turning a previous work into one isn’t the easiest of processes if you choose to do it yourself, but it can be hugely rewarding and much easier to manage than dealing with hard copies. There are a few considerations to take into account when creating an eBook, one of which is the format. As with much of the digital world at present, certain manufacturers such as Apple and Amazon who already own vast digital empires do their best to ensure that you can only use material purchased from them on their devices. Therefore, rather than just creating one eBook for all devices you must create two or three separate ones to have maximise market visibility.

The major formats in use are:

ePUB

The ePUB format is rapidly gaining popularity and as of 2011 is the most widely supported vendor-independent e-book format. The ePUB format should be your first port of call when creating/converting an eBook. It is compatible with Apple and Sony devices as well as a whole host of other lesser known eReaders and desktop readers.

Amazon Kindle (azw)

Used, unsurprisingly, by Amazon, this is the only eBook format currently recognised by the Kindle hardware (apart from HTML – see below). It is however slowly being rolled out to other devices. To get your eBook onto Amazon you must create/convert it into this format using either Amazon’s own converter or a third-party converter such as Mobipocket or Calibre.

PDF

We all know about PDFs, but did you know they can be read on an eReader? They can, to an extent (most eReaders bar the older Kindles accept PDFs). Rendering problems can sometimes occur with a PDF however and they are recommended as a supplement to others rather than a standalone format.

HTML

Many eBooks start life as an HTML file, after being converted from plain text of course. ePUB and Kindle eBooks utilise this format, with each chapter treated as a separate HTML file and the whole lot zipped up to form the book (you can actually ‘unpack’ many eBooks using a compression manager like 7Zip or Winzip). It is therefore possible to leave your book at one entire HTML file, but this doesn’t look as well presented and usually isn’t as functional as the previously mentioned formats. Practically every eReader will accept HTML file eBooks however.

Where to sell your eBook

There are a number of avenues self-published authors can take when it comes to distributing their eBooks, but only a few are really worth investigating in – at least at the start. Increased knowledge about the world of eBooks will uncover more niche-friendly services, but for now I’ll focus on the big boys.

Amazon Kindle Store

Everyone has heard of Amazon, and most of used have used it at one time or another. Their eBook marketpace is the biggest in the world (their fiction section alone carries over 345,000 titles). This may seem overwhelming, but self-publishing is all about getting people to your book and if you’ve done your marketing properly they will be typing in your name and book title, not browsing. To put it bluntly, if you’re not on Amazon you’re not in the running. Getting your book onto Amazon is a synch, too – all you need is an Amazon account and fifteen minutes of your time.

Apple iBookstore

Apple’s bookstore is gaining popularity as their technology advances and allows people to read eBooks easier and more conveniently on their various Apple devices. Getting your book onto the iBookstore isn’t as easy as getting onto the Amazon store, but it’s still a large market to aim for and worth doing if you have the patience.

Barnes and Noble eBooks

The American book giant released their Nook device in 2010 and have built up an unsurprisingly large following. Their restricted use in the UK however means that their self-publishing platform PubIt! is only available to US users. Many eBook creator/conversion services however allow conversion to their eReader format, although the Nook also accepts ePUB and PDF files.

Smashwords

Smashwords is an alternative to the above stores in that it focuses solely on user-generated content and doesn’t sell existing commercial works. It is a very popular indie service which offers authors the chance to convert and sell their work in all the major formats in one go, meaning that all readers have to do is select and buy the version they want – all from one shop. This sounds idyllic, but there are drawbacks (see the following section for details).

Creating your eBook

There are three ways of creating an eBook – either create it yourself, use a free third party application or pay a company/individual to do it for you. They each have their merits, but, as you’ll see, the DIY method (and the self-publishing method to a certain extent) is only for those who have some computer competency, a keen desire for self-achievement and a death wish. Using a free third party is slightly less harrowing than doing it completely yourself but you can still run into problems you have to sort out yourself. Paying someone to do it, like anything in life, is the nadir. I’ve never done it this way (I have the death wish) so I can’t comment on these companies’ reliability and results, but I guess you can judge their merits for yourselves with a little bit of search engine jiggery pokery.

Given that my experience with paying third parties is the square root of nothing I can only comment on the DIY and self-publishing methods, and very little comparative information exists online about professional eBook converters. Below then is a rough guide for creating an eBook using these other two avenues.

Doing it yourself

Please note: The below tips are taken from my own personal method of creating an eBook drawn from months of searching, installing, uninstalling, HTML editing, ranting, raving, hair-pulling-out and mug smashing. Free online conversion services do exist, but don’t expect the end product to be anywhere near the same quality. I have suffered so you don’t have to (as much).

Please note too: This is not a strict how-to guide, more hints and tips to implement along with a guide, such as this one by PC Pro’s Simon Brock, using free software.

Please finally note: I offer an eBook conversion service at a hugely reduced cost to other online companies. Email me if you’re interested (you may be by the end of this article!). Aside from offering advice it’s the only way to make the months I spent learning it worthwhile!

Step 1 – the source file

• Create a new folder for your eBook project that’s easy to find. You’ll be creating quite a few files on the way and, trust me, you’ll want them all in one place.
• Don’t use a PDF file as a source file. It will damn near drive you mad trying to format it properly. Start with an HTML file and go from there (Word users can Save As a Web Page to do this).
• Make sure that ALL the text in your manuscript has a style applied to it, and only include the styles you’re actually going to use. You should only need about three or four but it is vital that no word is left un-styled. If you don’t know about styles, stop reading this guide and read this instead. Seriously, do it now. The future of your eBook rests on it.
• Ensure that every new chapter heading is given a Heading style so that the converter will know when it has found a new chapter and can include it in its table of contents (TOC).
• Ensure page breaks are correctly placed. EBooks flow continuously until instructed to do so with a page break, so make sure each chapter starts on a new ‘page’ and think about other new pages you want the reader to come across.
• Don’t worry too much about fancy fonts etc. eReaders come with their own fonts (usually standard serif and sans-serif) from which users can chop and change, so it will probably not be rendered properly anyway. Italics, underlines and bolds are about as fancy as you need to get.
• Also don’t worry about the font size – just stick to 12 for the body of the text. Again, eReaders give users the option to choose their font size so the size you choose is largely irrelevant.
• Get rid of page numbers and all other headers or footers. They can sometimes be implemented, but eReaders have their own page number system and using your own usually just screws up the eBook.
• Validate your HTML file using the W3C Markup Validation Service. It’ll tell you if you’ve made a Horlicks of your source file or not, which is always good to know before you start.
• Try and avoid images where possible in the text. They will be reliant on the page being a certain size in order to accommodate it, which is useless if your customer changes the font size and thus effectively alters the page size too.

Step 2 – converting the file

• Prepare yourself for a potentially lengthy and frustrating spell in front of your PC. Creating/converting the perfect eBook is not, sadly, an easy thing to do first time.
• The quality of a conversion will depend largely on the quality and clarity of the HTML file going into it. The converter can only read what it has been given after all. Garbage in, garbage out, remember.
• No one converter is better than the other – they all have their advantages and foibles. You may wish to conduct research to see what will suit you best. I prefer a combination of Calibre to create and Sigil to tweak (see below).
• The best way to check the output is to view the converted file on the appropriate device. If this is not possible, there are plenty of free computer based readers to choose from, but they may not give such an accurate view.
• Kindle (azw) eBooks cannot currently be edited once they have been created, whereas ePUBs can. You should note the errors in the azw file and change the source file appropriately before converting again. ePUBs can be tweaked with Calibre or Sigil.
• Major formatting errors (recurring ones, large passages of text incorrectly formatted) are best sorted by editing the source file and re-converting.
• Issues with text formatting are normally to do with styles. Ensure your styles are correctly configured and applied. I can’t stress the importance of this enough!
• An eBook that seems fine to look at will almost certainly have other issues underneath the surface that eReaders can pick up but mere mortals cannot. Once the book looks okay, run it through a validator to see what treasures lurk beneath (Sigil allows you to both find and fix errors). Kindle files cannot be validated, but they’re generally not as fussy anyway.
• If your eBook passes all checks at the first attempt, go and buy a lottery ticket.
• Some, if not all, of the errors picked up will make no sense whatsoever. I can only advise you to search online for these errors in the hope that someone else has had the same problem (warning – there is a LOT of computer speak involved here!).

I told you it was fun! This explains why even reputable publishers end up making a mess of their eBooks. That said, if you can master this technique you will end up with an eBook you know looks fantastic and works flawlessly, rather than putting your faith in the hands of online converters and taking a chance.

Recommended software:
Calibre
Sigil
EPUBcheck (ePUB books only)
Mobipocket creator (Kindle books only)

Using a free third-party

Plenty of free third-party applications exist which promise to convert your eBook from any format into any other, but many of these fail abysmally. With one or two exceptions (such as those listed below) most who offer instant online conversion rather than asking you to download some software are generally not up to the task. Also bear in mind that the quality of the source file is vital here (see the above tips).

I’m going to focus on the five main platforms most eBook creators first consider when deciding how to get their eBook created and onto the virtual shelves. Again, others exist, but these are the most recommended most and used.

Amazon DTP

Apple iBookstore

Apple doesn’t let individual authors upload directly to the iBookstore and as such has no app for converting your book to their format (ePUB). Fortunately there are a number of converters, such as the next three listed, who allow you to convert into the popular ePUB format, two of whom also act as on of Apple’s aggregators, meaning you can convert and upload top the iBookstore all in one go. Naturally these converters all have different ways of operating, so rather than breaking these services down stage by stage, here is a link to a great guide by Christine Mark at gravityswitch.com which compares all the options for you. You have been warned...

Smashwords

Smashwords, as well as being a standalone eBook store, is also one of Apple’s aggregators and a multi-format converter. It is a very popular service, but one that suffers, a little like Apple itself, of being located in the US and therefore not very user-friendly when it comes to the publishing of work by overseas authors. I’ll get to that in a moment, but what I will say in its favour is that it converts one type of file to many formats (HTML, Javascript, Kindle, ePUB etc.), even if you do have to conform to a whole host of formatting guidelines which can take a damned long time to get right. There is, then, much tweaking necessitated to your eBook, but you do end up with all your formats done at once, so it balances out in the end.

However.

The situation may have eased slightly, but last year I tried to get my novel University of Life onto Smashwords, but was met with a raft of US red tape involving the IRS and foreign tax exemption. It boiled down to me having to fill in a form and send my birth certificate or passport out to the US in order to be approved for a tax number which I could then use to fill in another form in order to be able to get another number which I could then supply Smashwords with in order to get paid for the books I sell. Understandably I gave up. To be fair, Smashwords themselves were honest and apologetic at the ridiculous situation the IRS had put them in, so I was pre-warned – to an extent. As I say this situation may have changed, and here is a link to the formatting guide you NEED to adhere to if Smashwords is to work for you. In its favour it is incredibly self-publisher friendly and has a growing customer base.

Lulu

I am by and large a huge fan of Lulu. I’ve been using them for some four years to create self-published work in both hard and digital format, often with great results. I believe that they have embraced the digital age more than any other self-publishing outfit and offer a huge variety of packages on top of the free standard basic service. Not only can they convert your text into any of the major eBook formats and help you design the cover, but they also distribute your eBook to Amazon and the iBookstore as long as you already have (or get from them) and ISBN number. All of this is completed via a simple step by step process, which has come a long way since the early days. Distribution to the iBookstore is not guaranteed however given Apple’s separate set of formatting laws you must abide by, but you will also, should you choose, get your booked lumped into the Lulu Marketplace, which is a bit like being given a paper fireguard; it’s largely useless, but hey, it’s free. Click here to read Lulu’s guide to eBook creation through their website.

Calibre

Calibre is an eBook management tool, library and converter and is probably the most complete eBook software available – and it’s free. It can convert from format to format with great results, it can retrieve further information on your eBooks from the internet and it can transfer books to and from your eReader or compatible device. It doesn’t have the facility to add your eBook to any online shops, but it is one of the better converters with levels of detail to suit beginners to advanced eBook creators. Click here for a how-to guide for eBook creation using Calibre.

Conclusions

Creating an eBook is, unless you hire someone to do it, not an easy process, but however you manage it I would thoroughly recommend you do it – probably more so than producing a physical copy of your book. The eBook market will continue to grow and grow, and it makes absolute sense to do what you can to be part of such a burgeoning market. Of course, if you can’t bear the though of the conversion process then drop me a line and I’ll do it for a ridiculously attractive fee.