Formatting your e-book can be a nightmare. There is so much to consider. Are your images going to show up right on a mobile device? Is your text size too big or too little, and have you chosen a font that is easy to read? How about your page breaks and chapter breaks? Do they provide an easy reading experience?
In almost every case, you are going to be publishing your e-book on Amazon. It is free to do so, and the world’s largest online retailer does such a good job at promoting your e-book, it just doesn’t make sense to skip this step. Check out the Amazon guide to formatting for Kindle at https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6.
That is a one-stop resource which spells out every step of the process.
Fiverr and other top outsourcing and freelancing websites mentioned in the section on writing your e-book are lifesavers for this step. Seriously, formatting can drive you batty, especially if you are not the most technically inclined individual. For a surprisingly small amount of money you can hire someone whose specialty is formatting e-books, and you would be surprised how little you have to spend for that expertise.
There are freelancers on Fiverr that do nothing but format e-books! The same is true with the other freelancing sites we mentioned earlier. Just to keep you from having to find out where they were mentioned, here they are again. (It is highly recommended you have someone else handle this detailed, in-depth and lengthy process.)
- Fiverr
- UpWork
- Freelancer.com
- People Per Hour
- Hire The World
In the very last section of this e-book, you will choose where you are going to publish the culmination of all your hard work. In most cases, the EPUB format is the system you will be using to qualify for publishing on those sites. If you decide to go it alone for this daunting task, stock up on your favorite headache pain reliever and check out the “Smashwords Style Guide” offered for free at Amazon.
This is a must-have resource for formatting an e-book. At 130 pages it is an exhaustive how-to lifesaver that covers anything and everything you need to know about formatting your e-book properly so that it gets accepted for publishing on Amazon and the other top e-book selling sites.
