This way, you can see an actual example of the formatting in action. Smashwords conversion services pdf, word to smashword format. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, personal memoirs, poetry chapbooks, short. We make this list available to you as a public service. E book formatting involves the creation of professional and highquality electronic formats that enable you to publish your book at all major retailers. Formatting for smashwords before you start, i advise you to download the smashwords style guide by mark coker.
For the last few years ebooks have been revolutionising the publishing industry. The objective of formatting for smashwords is to take a sloppy manuscript in your word processor and convert it into a clean manuscript that will pass the smashwords meatgrinder and autovetter system. Software and services for book writing, article writing, novel writing, screenwriting, technical writing, k12 language arts, and other kinds of writing. I havent had any luck using any free versions of photo software like or whatever to make my own covers. Authors and publishers who dont yet use smashwords can still benefit from the guide. Draft2digital is a dilemma facing authors who have already published their works with amazon, both as an ebook with kindle, and as a paperback with createspace. This article is the condensed version of the basic dos and do nots to formatting your document for their meatgrinder. Since smashwords now also submits your ebook to kindle, you may be thinking that you only need to format it for smashwords, and save on the time to format it specifically for the kindle. An ebook reader can be a software application for use on a computer such. You will be ready to publish on amazon and smashwords. How to make an ebook kindle, epub and smashwords this is a quick guide to formatting ebooks i hope its useful. Mar 08, 2017 authors and publishers who dont yet use smashwords can still benefit from the guide.
Smashwords formatting tutorial thank you for visiting this ebook design tutorial. Those who have yet to experience the joy of using vellum are relegated to choosing from among a few timeconsuming or costly processes. Game over is a compendium of correspondences between a couple who are having problems in their relationship. Welcome to the writers supercenter, where youll find. Thats right, all the lists of alternatives are crowdsourced, and thats what makes the data. If you know of a resource weve missed, please email us via the contact page in the navigation bar. Formatting a document to satisfy many ebook formats at once is more like unformatting, and is confusing even to a book editor. For some reason my skill set stops short probably because i am too cheap to get a really good program. I attended the publisherslaunch ebooks for everyone else conference in san francisco on wednesday. One of the challenges in preparing farewell rio for publication was to format the poem fragments at the head of each chapter in a way that would look right not only in the printed paperback book but also in the versions for the amazon kindle and other ereaders. This book is his story of going into the unknown and discovering more of the. Apr 17, 2012 how to publish a poetry ebook in 7 simple steps. We offer both softcover and hardcover poetry book printing options in a variety of sizes and paper stocks. How to format an ebook in microsoft word using styles.
Title the one to be modified for smashwords as smashwords version or somesuch obvious title. You have two weeks of free unlimited revisions if you want to change. Whether you choose to go with smashwords, a professional formatter, or yourselfmore on that belowyou are. Good formatting examples what smashwords publishes, what we dont publish five common formatting mistakes to avoid how smashwords publishes books how smashwords distributes books how ebook formatting is different from print formatting how we convert your book into multiple ebook formats the three secrets to ebook formatting. Whether youve already tried the big publishing houses and gotten rejection letters or you just want to jump right in and take the doit. Steven spatz is a writer, marketer, and the president of bookbaby, the nations leading self publishing services company. Its the best reference book around for a new ebook publisher to help understand how to format an ebook. If there is a particular layout you have seen in another book that you quite liked, we can easily match it. Novels up to 100,000 words and poetry up to 100 pp. Jul 23, 2012 is bookbaby or smashwords best for selfpublishers. Format your ebook for smashwords to pass autovetter by bookaholic. For faster answers, check these links before you email us authorspublishers. Manuscript format for fiction writers, the way the professionals do it. Spatzs professional writing career began at age, paid by the word to bang out little league baseball game stories on an ancient manual typewriter for.
Ebook formatting for smashwords meatgrinder desktop. I highly recommend cokers smashwords style guide as an essential tool for formatting your ebook. Mastersongwriter software for songwriting and poetry writing. In 2010 amazons ereading device, the kindle, became its bestselling and most gifted product of all time and to date, apple has sold something in the region of 17 million ipads, the hitech tablet computer that enables users to buy and read ebooks through their ibooks application.
He is the 20 winner of boulevards poetry prize for emerging writers and the 2014 recipient of a maine literary award in the category of short works poetry. Its free, you can read it online if necessary, and you should read it from front to back even the parts that wont pertain to you. We can print from your pdf or even design your book cover and book interior. Poetry and chapbook printing and binding options include. Formatting poetry for ebook conversion, as for formatting a novel, is all.
Smashwords interviews our fun, selfinterviewing tool helps you tell the story. You may be a bit nervous about sending your poetry out, which is normal. The smashwords style guide has helped thousands of authors produce and publish highquality ebooks. Every ereader seems to like and dislike different aspects of html coding. I havent had any luck using any free versions of photo software like or whatever to make my own. Since smashwords developed that ingenious software that converts a word document into many ebook formats, surely, they could develop a program that would assist in formatting. Now, the next step is to go back to your folder containing the images and look at your image sizes. I did spend quite a bit of time editing them beforehand, and people who have bought them told me they are an easy read. This free guide offers simple stepbystep instructions to create, format and publish an ebook. Passing means your book meets all their standards, and will be submitted to smashwords premium catalog for distribution to their huge ebookretailer network.
Created by hugo and nebula award nominated author william shunn. May 05, 2008 the smashwords style guide has helped indie authors produce and publish over,000 highquality ebooks. A newbies guide to selfpublishing poetry or how i learnt to love. If you have any questions about anything in this post, please let me know in the comments. Smashwords how to publish an ebook with smashwords ebooks.
I usually discover that published authors who are having problems and asking me questions, havent read it. Four of my ebooks are now on smashwords, and i had no problem following the instructions in the style guide. Please note there are many third party ereading software applications, and. Its free and the easiest way to ensure your book is available at the most popular ebook. By colin dunbar special thanks to mark coker, ceo of smashwords for his permission to use material in this post. Special tips for poetry, cookbooks and learning materials. In the posts on this blog i cover the option for microsoft word, as this is. Book formatting can be costly, and a headache, depending on how complex your books formatting requirements are, and how techsavvy you are with file formats, software programs, and the like.
Poetry is a difficult form to layout consistently across the board. How to publish a poetry ebook in 7 simple steps katie davis. Its required reading for any author who wants to distribute their book via. Smashwords formatting and amazon kindle formatting in ms. Ebook formatting for smashwords meatgrinder desktop publishing ebooks at bellaonline. Professional ebook formatting is required to get proper chapters tagging, clickable table of content, and a flexible layout compatible with all ereaders. Formatting and submitting poems proper manuscript format.
Spatzs professional writing career began at age, paid by the word to bang out little league baseball game stories on an ancient manual typewriter for southern oregon weekly newspapers. Unlike some formatters, we dont use software to convert your book automatically. The best way to guarantee good conversions through the. The reedsy book editor is a free online writing tool allowing any author to format and create professional epub and printready files in seconds. Dec 27, 2019 smashwords serves as a global ebook distributor. Smashwords style guide by mark coker nook book ebook. Smashwords style guide a book by mark coker smashwords. Smashwords was created by an author mark coker to make it fast, free and easy for any writer, anywhere in the world, to publish an ebook click here to read the profile on smashwords in forbes. Finally theres a supercenter for writers who cant afford to. The smashwords style guide has helped indie authors produce and publish over,000 highquality ebooks. If i were formatting a color epub strictly for nook color or the kindle fire, id pick 150 dpi. Its the online formatting guide more editors point to than any other. Vellum software is one of the newest book formatting choices available to selfpublished and independent authors, but is it right for you.
I follow smashwords strict rules, and my formatting always passes. How to make an ebook kindle and epub conversion diy book. Whether you choose to go with smashwords, a professional formatter, or yourselfmore on that belowyou are in charge. Mar 30, 2018 steven spatz is a writer, marketer, and the president of bookbaby, the nations leading self publishing services company. I enjoyed meeting with authors, partners, agents and even competitors. Books formatted to the smashwords style guide earn inclusion in the. Format your ebook for smashwords to pass autovetter by. Smashwords is one of the wellknown selfpublishing and distribution service contributor that provides a selfserve platform for the writers authors, who opt for selfpublishing of their ebooks, across the globe. It provides detailed information on how ebook formatting is different from print formatting, how to create a reflowable ebook, and it offers step by step illustrated instructions on how to tame the beast of microsoft word. Dec 20, 2010 ereaders present special problems for formatting poetry. Become familiar with formatting and other ebook issues by studying born digital poetry ebooks. Feb 20, 2012 putting pictures in your smashwords ebook 20120220 by spearcarrier the first thing to remember when building a document to submit to smashwords is that they have a file size limit of 10mb. My ebook formatting services include both epub and kindle formats along with smashwords formatting. Smashwords formatting guide posted by ross harrison on 18 mar, 20 ok, its not a clever title, but thats what it is.
Robleys poetry has been published or is forthcoming in poetry, prairie schooner, poetry northwest, beloit poetry journal, rhino, magma poetry, and more. Alternativeto is a free service that helps you find better alternatives to the products you love and hate. My journey from warrior to gypsy is a collection of poems written by tom yeager. Self publishing costs ebook and print project estimates at 52 novels. Smashwords smashwords style guide a book by mark coker. Weve formatted over 6,000 books fiction, nonfiction, poetry, kids picture. When youre formatting a poem, youre usually making it ready for publication. Smashwords how to publish an ebook with smashwords.
These letters and exchanges are written in the form of poetry. Quite a lot of people seem to have trouble with formatting their ebooks for smashwords, so i am writing this guide. The site is made by ola and markus in sweden, with a lot of help from our friends and colleagues in italy, finland, usa, colombia, philippines, france and contributors from all over the world. If youre having difficulty formatting for smashwords, your best first reference is the smashwords style guide. Because we are formatting everything by hand, and not just using templates or some software to control the appearance, you are not restricted with how your book can look. How to format a poetry book for ebook selfpublishing. In the end, i found that the easiest, quickest, and most flexible means of formatting a manuscript for poetry was to use two free software tools one for kindle direct publishing and one for draft2digital.
Okay youve got your editing software and youve this is very important opened it. Smashwords mark coker talks about epublishing march 2011. Putting pictures in your smashwords ebook ebook services. Make sure you visit the homepage and sign up for the free book formatting templates. Using smashwords to publish your book is simple if you follow their rules for formatting. If you dont have the time to do the formatting yourself, check out marks list of.
For bigger wordcount, simply order additional gig for every 25. Game over brings to you the challenges couples face in their relationships and marriages and their struggle to resolve these challenges. Here are some of our most popular styles of poetry books. My smashwords formatting service includes formatting of your ms word document to pass smashwords autovetter on the first try. I gave a short presentation that explored the benefits of keeping ebook publishing simple. You can also check out the free sample if you have a kindle. Below is a list of book formatters who do freelance work. We work up custom quotes for all nonfiction, poetry, childrens books flowable, comic. But even if you dont like the book, you can still check out the free sample to explore the features and how they were made. Ebook formatting is the preparation of a digital file, to ensure that it meets the publishers requirements and is an enjoyable reading experience. It helps to have read everything once before you start. Smashwords for authors, publishers and literary agents. This is the future i imagine, and its the future were working to realize at smashwords on behalf of our 50,000 authors and publishers around the globe. If you have a poetry book, cookbook, or learning materials, please refer to the smashwords style guide for the specific formatting for these types of books.
Formatting a puzzle book or a workbook for kindle poses several formatting challenges. In the posts on this blog i cover the option for microsoft word, as this is the best option for most fiction and narrative. This guide offers simple stepbystep instructions to create and format an ebook using microsoft word. A list of book scanning services is a the end of the formatters list.
Line poetry poetry or lyrice within a novel or other text stanza for full length poetry books or stanzas within novels premade template and css included. Mar 03, 2015 formatting your book for smashwords is similar to formatting for the kindle this post. Smashwords direct, an alternate for smashwords conversion we are there to help you. You can upload the mobi file directly to amazon, or add it to your kindle. However, formatting shouldnt be something you worry about, as. Realize your bestseller potential 5 details to focus on. Our formatting toolbar makes it easy to apply styles as you write. Bookcreative create your own beautiful book covers start from a blank canvas or jump start with one of our professional templates, import any image, use any font in.
Overview smashwords now offer the option to upload the. Mar 10, 2015 if you have a poetry book, cookbook, or learning materials, please refer to the smashwords style guide for the specific formatting for these types of books. It isnt exhaustive, but it details everything ive done for. We now have an ebook design startup bb ebooks dedicated to helping independent authors and small presses get their ebooks formatted, converted, and ready for sale at all the major online retailers e. Smashwords style guide how to format your ebook smashwords. In the next post we look start with the actual formatting of your ebook. Smashwords is the worlds largest, and the original, ebook distributor for indie authors. This free guide offers simple stepbystep instructions to professionally create, format and publish an ebook. Smashwords formatting cheatsheet follow the instructions for doing a nuclear clean in the day three lecture notes. Smashwords style guide how to format your ebook pdf. Click on their site names to visit their sites and learn more about their work and pricing. As i said, meatgrinder is smashwords program to convert your word.