Write an eBook in 2014—Kindred’s Working Guide

So, you have something to say, and you’d like to write an ebook in 2014. Or maybe you’d like to see how many you can sell. Or you’re a passive aggressive monster that wants to write a tell-all novel about someone without them knowing. Hopefully it’s not that last reason, but whatever the reason, writing, editing, and compiling an eBook to sell on Amazon (or other platforms, like Nook) is moderately difficult. If you have the patience and focus to write a book in the first place, you’ll do just fine. We don’t like to be vague, so we’re going to give you some great tools, right off the bat:

Download these 3 (free) tools to get started, and write an eBook in 2014!

Here are some tips to save you time and (moderate) grief:

Write or copy & paste (if you’ve already got it written) your book into OpenOffice, and save it as an .ODT file. It’s the easiest format to work with, once we convert the book into .EPUB or .MOBI format, in Calibre. Don’t worry about the formatting too much when working in OpenOffice—more precise formatting happens later, in Sigil.

For the cover of your book, Amazon suggests: “For best quality, your image would be 1563 pixels on the shortest side and 2500 pixels on the longest side” – and save it as a .JPG or .TIFF (at the highest quality, when uploading to Amazon. Optimize your file sizes/types when sharing your cover artwork online, like on Facebook). We’ll have another blog, specifically eBook covers, out soon.

– and save it as a .JPG or .TIFF (at the highest quality, when uploading to Amazon. Optimize your file sizes/types when sharing your cover artwork online, like on Facebook). We’ll have another blog, specifically eBook covers, out soon. Don’t use PDFs…just…don’t. If you have the patience & focus to write a book, you’ll be fine converting it into an eBook. Don’t be discouraged.

Sigil is fantastic for fine-tuning your formatting. Calibre isn’t—but it’s great for more broad changes, across your document. Experiment with export settings. Keep experimenting until you find a process that works. We’ll have a more in-depth guide on Calibre and Sigil in the future.

This: Compile your working copy of the book in OpenOffice > Save As .ODT > Convert/format with Sigil, Save As .EPUB > Open in Calibre, Convert to .EPUB > Preview final copy in Amazon KDP, and rework any formatting that looks incorrect. You’ll end up converting the files a few times. Don’t let miscellaneous formatting errors discourage you—Google is your best friend in this process.

We’ll be adding more in-depth blogposts on formatting and converting your eBook soon—including preliminary steps authors should always take when dealing with Amazon & KDP. Until then, stay tuned!