Tips to Make E-book Creation a Breeze

As more and more book readers turn to the Internet to search for the next potential best seller authors everywhere are turning to the E-book. For the more famous authors this process is usually handled by their equally famous publishing house. Meanwhile, the rest of us less known writers are left to scour the internet and bookshelves for some inkling of how to handle the daunting task of turning our paperback novel into an e-book.

The first thing an author interested in placing their works into e-book format must do is make sure the novel is in old fashioned e-format. This might seem like common sense but with all the technology available it is extremely tempting for authors to try and simply scan their published work into their computer one page at a time. Not only is this a time consuming process but it doesn't always convert in the flawless manner we hope and expect. I myself have tried to scan documents for school or work to convert into a word document only to discover missing phrases, odd characters, and other mishaps.

To avoid wasted time and energy the best thing to do if you don't already have your manuscript in Microsoft Word or any other word processing format is to start typing yourself. If you are not the best typist or have a long manuscript that is going to be time consuming to type on your computer you might consider contacting Data Entry or Transcription Services. Many are available locally or online which will be willing and able to type up your manuscript at a reasonable hourly or per page rate which leaves you free to concentrate on other things while waiting for the finished product.

Once you have your manuscript available on your computer it is time to start tweaking it to make it more E-book friendly. First you should be aware of the contents usually found in most E-books.

•Title Page

•Copyright Page

•Dedication

•About The Author

•Table Of Contents

•Body (Chapters)

The title page is pretty standard with the title of your book in attention grabbing text and you're (the authors) name. Next a copyright page is extremely essential with the standard copyright message including the year of the copyright, your name, contact information (optional) and a warning not to reproduce any part of your work in anyway. I personally only put my email address in the copyright warning if that but some authors but their email address, mailing address, and a contact number. I can not stress how important it is to mention that your work is not to be reproduced via electronic, print, or any other means since there are some unscrupulous people out there who think it is acceptable to plagiarize work as long as they do it online and not in print.

After you've made sure all of your contents are in order it is important to make sure the e-book is visually pleasing. Chose attractive text for your chapter headings, page numbers, and more. It might seem like a little thing but your readers will notice if you take the time to make the text appealing and most importantly make sure your font is a nice size. In most print work the text is 10-12pt but for an e-book I recommend 14pt because the last thing you want is to leave your readers squinting at their computer screens.