Format for eBooks is really the simplest form of publishing you can undertake. There will always be a few visual issues when you get to the preview stage of publishing but platforms like Amazon have a previewer which you can load to your desktop, so you will have an idea of what your book will look like long before you push that Publish button.

When I say it’s an easy process, it is if you start off on the right foot. Don’t worry if you are a complete amateur, I have the basics for your eBook format right here.

The first thing to remember is that there is very little you can do in the way of style for an eBook. Its all very basic. If you choose to have pictures/images, you will hit a learning curve but it’s a matter of remembering to save any scanned/loaded images in jpg. I would recommend you do this if you are creating your own cover on a forum such as Canva (don’t worry there is a free facility on this site and you won’t have to sign up for a subscription, but a thumb-nail of your book cover will be required, whatever platform you choose.)

Graphics within text can be nice but you may find issues with downloaded images from sites such as Canva. I found this when I decided to put graphics at the beginning of each chapter for Amanda Drake’s Heart.

You’ll probably find that you will have to save graphics from Canva, or wherever, into pdf. This will not work for use in a Word document but there is a work-round. Go to a free site called “We Love PDF” and get “Word Shark”. Once you have this tool it will quickly and easily turn any graphic you wish to have within a Word document into a language Word will allow you to Insert. It took me a long time to work out what to do about this, you can thank me later.

Writing Styles within your document, get it right from the start.

Copyright etc, at the beginning of the book should be in Normal, chosen from Styles, in Home tab. This is because you don’t want them to show up in your Table of Contents, which every book should have to help the reader navigate to the chapter they wish to read, with an automatic Cntrl + Click button, which your readers will find by hovering over their choice of chapter.

To get your chapter headings to show up on the Table of Contents you must have them in Heading One of the Style Bar, on Home Tab. Once you have a heading in this it will be added, in the correct order, to your table of contents and if you wish to change the order of your chapters you can go to Table of Contents and Update Entire Table. N.B you will not need pages to be numbered for an eBook, it doesn’t work like that.

The main body of text should be written using Normal, in styles. Subheadings will normally be Heading Two and should show up on Table of Contents when you update entire table.

The only other thing you really need to remember is to Insert Page Breaks, found on the Insert Tab, at the end of chapters before you choose Heading One for your next chapter heading.

If you are using pictures within your book, NEVER, EVER, CLICK on the BLUE ANCHOR. This will irreversibly stick your picture in a fixed position and your only way of getting rid of it will be to reduce its size, so that it is so small it doesn’t show up in your document. I learned this the hard way and it took a long time to find out what to do about it. There are work-rounds for this using Text Wrap but it will mean everything else in your document will change position and you will have a frustrating time making it look like the book you want it to be.

I hope you benefit from my advice. Coming into Self Publishing from a Catering and Housekeeping background meant my experience was hard. I had to learn everything from YouTube videos and it took time to know everything I have shared with you here.

If in doubt, grab your phone and a cup of tea and Google/YouTube. GOOD LUCK!