Notjohn's Guide to E-book Formatting

The self-publisher's bible In this clear and entertaining ten-step guide, a prolific American author reveals how he formats his books for sale throughout the world. The secret is to use the universal "epub" format to create a single e-book file that will be accepted by every digital retailer, from Amazon.com through Barnes & Noble, the Apple iBookstore, and smaller booksellers like the Canada-based Kobo.

"Most beginners write their books in Word or Open Office," he explains, "and they expect the same document to convert easily to an e-book and a paperback. Sometimes that happens, but more often it doesn't, because word processors litter the book file with hidden formatting. The result can be a disaster."

Instead, the book should be converted to clean HTML, the markup language used to create a web page. (All e-books are web pages at heart, and the Kindle and other e-book readers are just special-purpose web browsers.) The conversion takes seconds and costs nothing. It can then be plugged into a simple template that "Notjohn" includes in this Guide and makes available on his blog for anyone to use.

If all else fails, there's Plan B: a stripped-down template for books that consists mostly of text. He concludes with a chapter on how best to present your e-book on the Kindle platform, with hints on encrypting the book, copyrighting it, and pricing it for the greatest return.

Revised and updated July 2020 edition, with a new chapter on adapting the e-book to a paperback.