EPub Formatting and Beyond

When e-books broke onto the market many years ago, there were numerous formats required to make it available to everyone. Today, EPub is universal - everyone accepts it, from Amazon to Barnes & noble to iTunes to Smashwords and more. A Mobi copy is good to have for people with Kindles, but all other devices accept ePubs. And when it comes to uploading your book, ePub is all you need.

I format books for authors into ePub and Mobi format. It’s taken much trial and error to learn how to do it properly. For those interested in doing it themselves, I offer the following invaluable sites for learning the process.

How do you create a ePub? Often you can format in Word and run it through conversion software. You can also create it in InDesign. Two sites that offer some great tips:

Apple’s ePub creation guide
Jane Friedman’s tips

There are a lot of ePub creators and creation services available:

Jutoh
Calibre
writer2epub
Hamster
Online-Convert
EPubsoft EBook Converter
Wondershare
Scrivener

If you are creating the ePub yourself, you need to check it for errors. Two options available:

International Digital Publishing Forum and Validator
EPubCheck

There are many errors that would cause your ePub to be rejected. ITunes in particular is very picky and requires a perfect file. The primary errors are:

Missing the “http://” in Web Address (replace all www with http://)
Image File Misidentified (image not anchored or improperly imbedded.)
No index (no table of contents or chapter markers)

For a list of other errors and how to fix them:

EPubCheck
Smashwords

The final step is distributing your book to retailers. You can use a distribution service that will deliver your book to multiple retailers:

Smashwords
BookBaby
Booktango
Vook
Vearsa
EBookIt
EBook Partnership

Or you can set up accounts with the individual platforms and upload directly:

Amazon
ITunes
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Get your book in ePub format today!

Don’t forget our IWSG Anthology Contest is open to members until November 1, 2015!