Write the book then upload it to Kindle, sit back and rake in the royalties. It simply isn’t that easy. Formatting an eBook by yourself seems like a trip into the nether regions of Hell itself. If you have a nice, clean eBook with no bullet points, graphics, or fancy quotes, then turning your Microsoft Word document into a Kindle-ready book can be done in six easy steps.
Step 1: Clean type is our friend
Leave the MS Word default settings alone. Don’t justify text, don’t go crazy pounding on the “Enter” key. Like to hit that “Enter” key over and over to get the next chapter to a new page? No! Don’t ever do that!
Step 2: Page breaks must be done right
If you didn’t follow Step 1 exactly, go back and do it, then come back here to Step 2. Now, place your cursor at the beginning of each section, starting at the top. Hold down the “Ctrl” or “Cmnd” key and press “Enter”.
Every section should start on a new page. Do the same at the beginning of each chapter.
Step 3: Those different styles
The entire book should be in the default “Heading 1” style for titles, and “Heading 2” for subheadings. This will make sure your headings and subheadings are set apart from the text.
While you can get fancy with some fonts, the best rule is to just keep it simple.
Step 4: Build Your Table of Contents
The good news is that Microsoft Word has built-in capability to generate Table of Contents. This function is usually found under the “References” section. Start at the beginning of your TOC page by placing your cursor at the top, then insert your TOC. It should all be hyperlinked.
Step 5: Go for MOBI
You should have completed steps 1-4 by now. If your book doesn’t have a lot of special formatting like bullets and tables, you’re ready to use a converter tool to create your MOBI file formatted book. This is the file format that Kindle likes. There are several such tools out there, but Kinstant formatter or Scrivener are highly recommended.
Step 6: You Are a Go for Upload
To upload your eBook to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing system, you’ll need an account with them. Once you hit that “publish” button, you need to check back within 48 hours to see your published eBook for sale.
The Kindle Conundrum
If you followed these steps and think you have this process tackled, here’s the good news: new software for Kindle reads files differently on different devices so you may need to do it all over again. If you’ve pulled out most of your hair already just to get your eBook through the first upload, then you may want to consider hiring someone to format the eBook for you and convert it for the new software. Go with what works for you.