How to Convert your Book into an E-book

Need help self-publishing that amazing novel you just finished?

I’ve published on Amazon before, using their KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) site, and honestly, it was so great! I loved that I could get a printed copy of my book. It felt so real! What I didn’t love was that I was no longer in control of my book. I couldn’t just send a copy to friends, or give it away for free, or really just do what I wanted with it. The benefits were great, but I needed something a little different.

So, I did a lot of research into formatting and publishing an ebook on your own. The downside- no hard copy. HOWEVER, you can go through this process and then submit your finished, formatted manuscript using KDP’s website and still sell your book on Amazon. You can even get a hard copy. Holding a copy of a book you wrote all by yourself is THRILLING. But, alas, the world is digital. And digital can be FREE if you want it to be!

So grab that completed novel or novella or short story and let’s get started!

For formatting:

You’re going to want to format your book. This is a painful process, especially once you realize that you didn’t know how to use word that first time you wrote a book. Hint: in the search bar of Microsoft word, type ‘show formatting’, and all the formatting will show up, making it easier to see what you did right and wrong. Takes out all the guess work. You can read more about formatting your book at this website that I discovered while formatting my own book:

https://justpublishingadvice.com/using-word-styles-to-perfectly-format-an-ebook/

One of the biggest hiccups I ran into was section breaks. We tend to just hit enter until we get to the right spot on the document, especially when starting a new chapter. The link I provided above also explains how to use ‘styles’ in microsoft word. I’ll eventually write something more in depth about this topic, but for now, a lot of information already exists on the web for how to format your book. A quick search will bring up lots of info. For now, here’s a quick explanation of how to insert a section break so that your ebook looks right when finished.\

To insert a section break, follow these steps: Click where you want to insert the section break. On the Page Layout tab, click on Breaks, and then under Section Breaks, click Next Odd Page. This will insert the section break, and text following the section break will begin on a new page. More specifically, the next odd page, so that the new chapter doesn’t start on the back, or left side, of a book. This doesn’t really matter with ebooks, but it will make it easier to create a hard copy manuscript if you end up going that route.

Now that your book is formatted correctly (which you need to do whether you use the next steps to self-publish your ebook or publish used Amazon’s KDP service, which is also free to use), it’s time to convert your book into a version that can be read on any device.

You NEVER want to hand out a copy of your microsoft word doc or google doc or anything like that. Why? People can change it! You want a copy that can’t be edited. Think PDF. PDF is also an acceptable format for reading on an e-reader, so you can just save another copy of your word document as a PDF (more on this below). However, PDF won’t allow the reader to keep their place in the book (i.e., bookmark). If you want your book to be readable like every other ebook you read on your kindle or other device, follow these steps:

To Convert Manuscript to e-book readable format:

Download Calibre

https://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows

(Calibre is an open-source (or free) software that lets you convert your document into readable e-books. It has many uses, but one of its greatest qualities is its ability to convert your book to various formats)

In Microsoft Word, save your word as docx (word 2007 or newer saves it in this format)

In Calibre, click ‘Add books’ arrow, then click ‘add single book’

Select your document from your computer or device that you just saved in Microsoft Word.

***Note: make sure the title of the word doc you are loading into calibre is the title you want others to see. Make a clean, saved copy with just the title of your book with maybe the word ‘ebook’ added in, e.g., a penny’s worth ebook

Click ‘Convert books’ arrow, then ‘convert individually’

Add cover if available (you can create one in the Free software Canva)

Click ‘ok’ at the bottom, then wait for it to convert (it displays as ‘job 1’ with a rotating symbol)

The default format Calibre will convert your book into is mobi. You can keep converting the same book into all the versions you need by following the ‘convert book’ steps above, then changing the drop down menu in the upper right corner to desired version before clicking ‘ok’ The best option, in my opinion, to choose to convert your book into is EPUB. Most devices have an app used to read EPUB. PDF is also compatible with every device, but not as user friendly. I.E., you can’t bookmark your spot, etc. But it WILL pull up in the kindle app. Best idea- just send your readers both EPUB and PDF.

***The EPUB will be converted through Calibre, but the PDF can just be saved from your word document. Click ‘File’, ‘Save As’, and choose ‘PDF’ from the drop down menu, instead of ‘Word Document’

Amazon used AZW3 for kindle devices, but I haven’t figured out why that version won’t read on my kindle. Still a work in progress.

Click ‘view’ and choose ‘view with calibre ebook viewer’ to see your finished product.

IF you find mistakes in your e-book, don’t worry! Go back to your original document in Microsoft Word and edit, paying special attention to the formatting (remember, in the search bar, type ‘show formatting’ and you’ll see all the errors). For example, if there are a couple of lines in between a paragraph, you’ll see the indentation format or lots of dots (spaces) in the word doc when you use ‘show formatting’. Make the necessary corrections, then delete your book from Calibre. Follow the steps again to ‘Add a book’ and ‘Convert a book’. Once you’ve done it a couple times, it only takes a matter of seconds to redo it.

Good luck! If you have questions, feel free to comment!

-Amber M. Hooper