There was a time when long lines would have fallen outside the prestigious book shops of the cities, as the excited readers eagerly waited to get a hand on the newly released novels! But, in this age of digitization, the reading habits are digitizing too! A reader who would have gone to the book shop to enquire about the latest publications, now finds solace in Google!
It's obvious that they would prefer to get even the books right into their smartphones! So, instead of knocking the doors of coveted publishers, many writers nowadays are releasing their literary works online. And the reputed eBook platforms like Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, etc are helping them in this process.
Even to expand their business, many publishing houses are releasing the books online too! And Amazon Kindle is one of their preferred platforms too!
But, if you directly push the raw word file into the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), then, chances are high that your submission would get rejected.
That is why it is important to format the content. In this blog, we will discuss the process to format a book for Kindle, points that you should keep in mind, and how Kindle conversion services providers can help you in it!
Formatting a kindle ebook is a bit different from formatting a traditional book script, but it offers more flexibility and interactive features for the reader. Index of a book is typically included in the formatting process for a traditional book script, whereas in a Kindle ebook, an interactive table of contents is created to enhance navigation for the reader. Through softwares like Kindle Create will help you out in this process. But, for best results, you better keep the following points in mind!
When it comes to eBooks, a single reader can read it on different devices, like PCs, Tablets, and Smartphones. But, each comes with a different screen size and configuration. So, you need to make sure that the content looks almost similar on all devices. Otherwise, the reader might get confused when they switch devices.
Though eBooks give us space to experiment a bit, we must take care of the readers sentiments too! They might like the Printed Books more than what we are thinking of! So, most of the reputed publishers usually publish an eBook copy which is similar, in both look and feel, to its printed counterpart.
In eBooks, you might need to add a table of content. And it is recommended too! It helps your readers jump into the chapters they would like to read, without scouting through the entire book.
At times, you can make your eBooks interactive too! Adding media content like motion graphics and animated visuals can help make the content engaging for readers!
Now that you are aware of the key points that you need to remember, it is now time to take a more deeper look into the process.
When it comes to publishing any content on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) software is a must have. It allows the authors to self-publish their content as eBooks. The readers can buy these eBooks either as softcopies, or can request for a Printed-On-Demand version.
But, not only the authors, but the small-scale publishing houses are also using it nowadays. And using it is also very easy.
Also, since Amazon Kindle currently holds almost 80% of the eBook marketplace, releasing the eBooks on Kindle proves immensely profitable for the authors and small publishers.
Also, formatting the Kindle eBooks is easy too! You just need to gain mastery on a software called Kindle Create. It's a free tool which lets you format the Kindle eBooks efficiently.
Using this tool, you can create very professional and attractive kindle eBooks, which are never rejected by the KDP software. But, it does require professional expertise on the tool.
So, we will now look at the step-by-step process of formatting ebooks for Kindle!
As discussed before, eBooks are a bit different from the traditional printed books. So, obviously, their formatting requirements would also vary. But, it is a point that most of the publishers fail to understand. They apply the same formatting processes as they do for paper-based printing.
To help you avoid such mistakes, we will now discuss the stepwise process of formatting as an eBook. It will help you deliver the best eBooks to your readers.
When it comes to published books, we usually add certain features like page numbers, headers, and footers, which have no relevance when it comes to eBooks.
Because in eBooks, the pages can be reflowed. If you need, you can insert or remove content. Hence, adding page numbers will only mess up the process. Also, many softwares actually allow the readers to read the entire chapter in a single flow. So, the need for page numbers automatically does not arise.
Similar is the case for header and footer content. Their repeated appearance seems irritating to some readers. So, it's better to remove them.
When giving books for printing, you might have had the habit of adding the cover image in the front page of the manuscript. But don't do it in the case of KDP, as it might result in cancellation of your doc.
Instead, Amazon KDP needs you to upload the cover image of your book separately, in a separate folder. So, for that reason, you need to preserve the cover image in its original version, and upload it to the correct place.
In amazon kindle, one can publish different types of content. Starting from Fiction, to Science Fiction and hard core technical books, all are acceptable there!
In case you are planning to publish a book which uses a lot of technical terminologies, you might wish to make it a little easier for your readers! You can add footnotes, to explain the meaning of the difficult words. Also, you can add hyperlinks on texts, which the readers can click on and navigate to a different article which seems to explain the situation in detail.
In kindle, you need to mention the headings as H1, and subheadings as H2, H3, and other suitable heading types. Proper formatting is important for multiple reasons. Firstly, formatting makes your content look beautiful to your readers. They prefer to read cleanly and properly formatted content, rather than reading a bunch of messy alphabets.
Now, once you are done with the headers, it's now time to concentrate on the font styles. Many people ignore font style as they feel that font is not that important. But, if you think like that, then I must say that you are wrong!
So, if you see from the readers perspective, you will realize that our mind instantly reacts to the font. Sometimes, even before reading the actual content, we can get an idea of the primary theme, just by seeing the font. So, choosing an appropriate font is extremely important, when it comes to delivering an impactful reading experience to your readers.
Now that you are almost done with formatting your content, it's now time to add the additional features using Kindle Create.
First, you need to create a table of contents. And it is not at all a difficult process. Once you upload the new project file, Kindle create will ask you what type of content you are going to publish. Once you submit the desired type, Kindle Create starts scanning your files, and picks up all the H1 tagged headers, which are supposed to be your chapter names. It then automatically creates a table of content, where it links the name of the chapters with their respective pages.
Finally, if you want, you can also add prologue, epilogue, and images. And your kindle book will be ready to publish!
By reading this blog till now, you must be thinking that formatting a Kindle eBook is extremely easy, isn't it? Well, it's actually not. Though you can take help of tools, many steps need professional expertise too! For example selecting the font styles. Only professional experts can give a brilliant look to your book.
That is why the publishers often seek help from professional Kindle conversion services providers. These service providers offer different types of services. Starting from formatting and publishing a raw word file, to converting the printed books to eBooks! For this purpose, they first scan the printed books, and then convert the scanned copy into a Kindle-ready file.
While formatting a Kindle eBook, it is important to keep it as professional as possible. Otherwise the Amazon KDP software might reject your submission. You can also add tables of content, hyperlinks, footnotes, and other features to make your content engaging, accessible, and easy to understand.
But, many publishers often need the help of professionals in this process. If you are also looking for a professional Kindle Conversion Services provider, Acadecraft can definitely help you out! We have experienced kindle formatting experts, conversion experts, and software engineers who will help you deliver the best possible eBooks to your readers!
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