Tips to Format Your E-book for Mobile Device

An e-book, short for ‘electronic book,’ is a digital form of a printed book designed to be read on devices like PC, tablets, or mobiles. E-books are vital marketing assets with multiple digital ‘pages’ that deliver information to readers.

E-Books are released in multiple formats like .mobi, .epub, and .pdf. Different applications handle different formats.

If you are creating an e-book, you can choose to format your book and release it in multiple formats. This allows users a choice of the kind of reader app to use.

How to Format Your E-book for Mobile Device

This is the most complex and confusing phase for many authors in the eBook publishing process.

They are thrilled to write a fantastic book that will benefit their readers. Still, they need to cover the technical aspects of structuring it for publication. This is why you can consider hiring book editing services.

Professional help always makes your job easier. In case you are thinking of formatting your book all by yourself, this article will walk you through 5 simple ways to format your eBook like a pro.

1. Import Your Finalized Manuscript

You may utilize the .docx import feature to continue working on manuscripts you started on any popular word processor, regardless of the writing program you’ve been using. Observe the following to maintain all chapter breaks and headings:

  • Use “styles” for the chapter headings and titles.
  • Every chapter should begin with “chapter…”

Another choice is to copy-paste your book into the Book Editor, then divide it into chapters using the “chapter break” tool. The formatting may start after the editor has a cozy place for your text.

2. Organize the Paragraphs and Chapter Headings

A book creation tool has a formatting bar as one of its clever features; just choose the kind of paragraph or character style you wish to use, and the formatting will be applied.

The possibilities for paragraph formatting are:

  • Standard formatting: your usual mannerisms
  • Use headers at three levels to organize your information (mainly for non-fiction books)
  • Two distinct lists: numbered lists and bullets
  • Quotations

After defining the design for your paragraphs, you may choose from the following choices to alter the font styling:

  • Bold
  • Italic
  • Underline
  • Link and cross-references

You should be aware that there are widows and orphans as well. No, not the ones from Dickens’ Oliver Twist series! Widows and orphans are terms used in publishing to describe words or tiny groups of words appearing at the bottom of a paragraph or page.

Book font sizes typically range from 12pt to 14pt. However, e-book readers may change the display settings on their equipment to show the most comfortable size.

3. Include Graphics, Footnotes, and Page Breaks

Books that adhere to industry norms while yet being distinctive and individual? Brilliant! The following should be added to your existing material as a future step:

  • Images with captions
  • Endnotes
  • Scene breaks (for fiction)

Your book’s endnotes are located in a separate chapter at the end for reference:

Now that the core of your work has been addressed, you should concentrate on the outside.

4. Upload the Appropriate Size of Your Book Cover

You may now select the Export icon to access the Export page, where much of the magic takes place.

Uploading your cover should be your initial action on this page. Make sure you upload a picture that complies with the specifications of e-book distribution sites We advise using a cover picture ratio of 1:1.6 and a minimum length of 2500 pixels for the best effects. Check out our advice on picking the ideal book cover proportions.

Keep in mind that for physical publications, POD providers will want a PDF with the complete jacket and a different PDF for the book’s inside. We advise working with a designer for the book’s jacket who is familiar with the specifications of various POD services and can give you the appropriate file.

5. Create Your Copyright Page and Table of Contents

The sections of your work that appear before the main body of text are referred to as “front matter.” The same holds true with e-books. The “Copyright Page” and the “Table of Contents” are the two areas in which you may control the front matter components of your book using the editor.

Copyright

On this page, you can manage your:

  • Title
  • Subtitle
  • Pen name
  • Edition number
  • Year of publication
  • Collaborators
  • Publisher name and logo (if any)
  • Copyright clauses
  • ISBN number(s)

You should be aware that most e-book vendors have unique identification numbers, so you won’t need an ISBN. For instance, each time you publish using Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon generates a new ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) at no cost (KDP). Similarly, an ISBN is no longer necessary for Apple iBooks.

You may learn more about the ongoing discussion around the usefulness of ISBNs here. For the time being, if you intend to print POD copies, you’ll need an ISBN; most POD services will give you one free of charge. After adding your ISBN, you may focus on creating your table of contents.

Conclusion

To make a successful e-book, you need to have a solid understanding of design, writing, editing, proofreading, web design, and marketing. Before the advent of the digital age, most individuals couldn’t imagine writing a book. However, you may now enjoy witnessing your words come to life in an e-book. E-books may be essential tools to help you collect leads and communicate your expertise if you engage in content marketing. But, whatever your motivation, you cannot simply slap some text on a page and call it an e-book.

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