E-Pub Formatting Services

Arden

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Okay, I've gotten a little ways down the road on my self-publishing journey but now I'm stuck.

I've decided to turn one of my novels and one of my novellas into ebooks, for starters.

Both are thoroughly edited. Check.

I purchased two excellent premade covers, for the e-version only. Check.

I've decided on Draft2Digital for the novel. It looks like where the novel is concerned, they'll take it from there. Check.

It's with the novella that I have a problem. It's too short for Draft2Digital, so I want to put it on Amazon.com myself... but I don't know how to format a Word docx into an e-pub doc and I honestly will not be able to learn how. I'm not unwilling to learn or to put in the time, it's just that I don't have reliable Internet access. I live in a remote area that has only satellite Internet and it only works in fits and starts. There's never a long enough connection to, say, watch a YouTube video or surf the Internet. If I hit a link, it can be awhile before I'm connected. If I hit send on an email, it might take as long as an hour to depart. So I need help with this conversion process since I can't do it myself online.

I am casting around for a service that will format my novella (which is in chapters and has a couple tricky paragraphs--mock newspaper articles and text message) so that it will look nice on Kindle.

I figure once I have this I can load the formatted text along with my cover from a computer at my local library, provided it will only take a half an hour.

Of course I'm willing to pay for this formatting service but I've so far only found more comprehensive package services which offer editing and proofreading (not needed), and cover design (have one), along with formatting (NEED) and an ISBN number (NEED). Some services offer marketing as well, but right now I only want to get the darn thing formatted.

Can anybody recommend such a service?

Thank you!
 

LJD

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I'm a bit confused. I've done novellas on D2D. AFAIK, they have no minimum word count? Or is there some extra service they provide that you are using?

You might look at Author EMS though: https://www.authorems.com/digital-print-formatting/ I've never used them personally, but it looks like they will do it for$40.
 

Al X.

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Formatting a Word document for upload really isn't difficult, and both Amazon and D2D have guides on how to do this. If you read them, it will take about twenty minutes to figure it out.

Also, just a couple points:

1. The end product from Amazon will be a MOBI file. You don't care about that. You can upload a variety of formats, but a Word document is preferred. KDP will do the necessary conversions in the upload process. The resultant end product from D2D will be an Epub, and again, the converter will create it.

2. You do not need an ISBN. Amazon will provide an ASIN, which is their proprietary ISBN type number, for free. D2D will likewise provide a free ISBN. You -can- supply your own, but for 99% of authors there is no advantage.
 

indianroads

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It's with the novella that I have a problem. It's too short for Draft2Digital, so I want to put it on Amazon.com myself... but I don't know how to format a Word docx into an e-pub doc and I honestly will not be able to learn how. I'm not unwilling to learn or to put in the time, it's just that I don't have reliable Internet access. I live in a remote area that has only satellite Internet and it only works in fits and starts. There's never a long enough connection to, say, watch a YouTube video or surf the Internet. If I hit a link, it can be awhile before I'm connected. If I hit send on an email, it might take as long as an hour to depart. So I need help with this conversion process since I can't do it myself online.

For amazon - the format I use for paperback also works for electronic (kindle). KDP has templates HERE. All you have to do is paste your novella into the template, add the table of contents, get the chapter headings set so you like them, and you're pretty much good to go.

Downloading the template doesn't take much bandwidth - but uploading to KDP could be an issue.

For paperbacks Amazon wants a PDF (MS Word can give you this). For kindle, they want a word (docx) file.

After you do the upload, you'll have to review and approve it on Amazon. This isn't usually a lengthy process, but it could give you some bandwidth issues.
 

Arden

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Thanks, everybody for the great suggestions!
As soon as I get some "Internet time" -- without that little countdown tab saying "reconnecting in 30, 29, 28... seconds" I will follow the links and take a look.

Do you really think this is something even a cyber-Luddite with a bad interconnection can do? Ya'll sound so technically sophisticated and I'm certainly not that.

But much thanks!
 

CatherineDunn

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If you download Calibre (which is free), you can convert an ePub or a Word file to a mobi. There may still be issues with the trickier bits of formatting that you mention, but it could be worth a try. I recently did this for a short story my cousin self-published (she actually paid my for the editing plus a little bit for my time to convert and upload it), but there was no formatting weirdness going on.
 

Al X.

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I think it would much behoove you to obtain the minimal amount of technical skill to format your own Word document. It's just a matter of following a small set of rules. Formatting a Word document for an ebook is dirt simple compared to say, formatting a print book. Margins, page size and fonts are completely irrelevant in an ebook and the Word defaults work fine. You just have to learn how styles work in Word.
 

cool pop

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Amazon doesn't take e-pubs. Amazon will take Word docs as well as mobi. I use HTML Word documents for Amazon. Have for years.

As for formatting, I suggest learning to do it yourself. There are many sites online where you can learn including Youtube. You'll be glad you learned. It'll save wasted money and once you learn, it'll be easy as pie.
 

raelwv

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Amazon doesn't take e-pubs. Amazon will take Word docs as well as mobi. I use HTML Word documents for Amazon. Have for years.

As for formatting, I suggest learning to do it yourself.

Agreed. Amazon has a book you can download on Kindle for free (Building Your Book For Kindle) that will walk you through producing an HTML file with a Table of Contents, chapter headings, and all that stuff. Once you get the hang of it it's easy (putting aside the issue of pictures - my books don't have any). I tried walking through D2D's system for Gods of the Empire, but I couldn't get the Table of Contents to come out right and their customer service was slow to respond (not usually a problem), so I went back to DIY.