Site Map l Free tools for selling ebooks online

How to Produce and Format Ebooks

The length of ebooks vary from twenty to hundreds of pages. I have seen ebooks that were 400 pages long. However, ebooks of 100 pages or less are quicker to download and therefore, easier to sell.

Ebook compilers

Ebook compilers are specifically designed to allow you to format and prepare your manuscript for viewing with a browser or downloading as an ebook. Compilers can give your ebooks a professional look fast. Many compilers provide password protection and/or the ability to block viewers from copying the text or images.

Here is a partial list of compilers described in Ebook Publishing Success:

  • Activ E-book Compiler - www.ebookcompiler.com - Create an unlimited number of ebooks. Each ebook is a self-contained Windows program. Password protect entire ebook.

  • E-ditorial - www.e-ditorial.com - Unlimited creation of e-books. Security features. Link your ebook pages directly to the internet.

  • Ebook Edit Pro - www.ebookedit.com - No limits on the number of ebooks you can publish. Compresses file size for quick downloads. Wizards guide you through step-by-step creation of ebooks.

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This article is copyrighted and excerpted from the book Your Guide to Ebook Publishing Success by James Dillehay

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No portion of this material may be published, resold or reproduced in any form including electronically for any purposes.  

Site Map l Free tools for selling ebooks online

Ebooks can take several forms. They can be viewed through email messages; email attached text files; PDF files; LIT files for Microsoft Reader, OEB files for ebook readers and Palm Pilots; CD's; and HTML web pages with or without restricted access. The actual conversion from a document file to its ebook format can take minutes to several hours, depending on the complexity of your file and its final output format. Additional time is needed for adding in hyperlinks, images, audio or video attachments.

Email content

Your entire ebook can be incorporated into email messages. However, text delivered by email is completely vulnerable to copying. Anyone receiving your ebook could copy and paste the file and begin selling it themselves or giving it away to friends. Use email for delivering ebooks only as a back up solution or when you have no concerns about piracy.

PDF

The leading standard for formatting documents electronically, including ebooks is PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF formatting fixes the appearance of the output file so that it appears exactly the same on whatever system or platform it is viewed. PDF files look the same whether the customer is using a Mac or a PC.

PDF files are much easier to create than OEB documents described below. PDF formatting is developed and supported by Adobe who makes and distributes Acrobat Reader, a free PDF file reader already downloaded by over 100 million users worldwide.

Adobe Acrobat converts documents to PDF files from other applications. The full version of Acrobat costs around $240. Do not confuse the full version of Adobe Acrobat with Acrobat Reader, the free reader anyone can download to view PDF files.

Adobe provides a free 90 page PDF document on how to create ebooks with PDF click here

 

Text files

Ebooks can be created with a word processing program like WordPerfect or Microsoft Word and delivered as email attached text files. Word processing software allows you to format text, create styles, add graphic images and produce a clean looking document. 

HTML

Ebooks can be created as web pages using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), a programming code that appears in a web browser according to the browser's capacity. You can set up an ebook as web pages which a customer can view after paying with their credit card and receiving a password and login code from you. In effect, you are turning your book into a password protected web site. 

Many of the ebook compilers can create your ebook in HTML so they are viewed through an Internet browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer. If you create HTML ebooks, you will want measures to insure that viewers cannot copy and paste your source code. Most of the compilers come with piracy protection features.

Converting to multi formats

In most cases, you can convert text files to PDF and HTML with few challenges. However, converting to OEB may require software or a service provider. One service is Textcafe.com, an automated document conversion service that accepts PDF, Quark, and Word files and converts them to structured XML, HTML and OEB formats. TextCafe also supports automated creation of Microsoft Reader, Rocket eBook, and Adobe PDF formats. Another conversion provider is www.dclab.com .