This is an E-Book
Smashwords Edition
by
Robby Charters
© 2011 by robby charters
Chapter 1 -- You and Your E-book
This is an e-book. Of course, you knew that already, didn't you?
You'll also notice a few other things: It's got a lot of pictures in it, and it's very short. It's main purpose is to show you what's possible in an e-book, what you can do, how you can do it -- or if you'd rather, what I can do for you.
In fact, I want to show you how to turn your work into an e-book like this.
Oh -- er -- that's me.
If you are writing, or have written a book which you want to publish in e-format, you may want to know about some of your options.
An e-book with no illustrations and a generic cover design is the simplest to publish. Just open an account at KDP.Amazon.com to have it published in Kindle format, or Smashwords.com, where they will do it up in the other e-book formats. Follow their instructions, upload your text in the format they specify, and they create your e-book for you and put it up for sale. There might be a few hitches along the way, but we'll talk about that later.
Now, if you want to add a table of contents and make sure it works, you might need to do a bit more than that.
Then, there's your kids, or grandkids, nephews and nieces whom you no doubt want to impress, who will find that boring. "Where are the pictures?" they'll ask.
... and that's my kid, on a long walk to the top of Cave Hill.
Of course, if you're writing a children's book, it has to have pictures.
But children aren't the only ones who like pictures. You may have written a grown-up's book, and maybe you're an artist, or one of your friends is. It is 100% okay to put illustrations in a grown-up's fiction novel.
Or, it might be non fiction, in which case, you may want to add photos, maybe maps, or a how-to manual with a lot of diagrams, or maybe you need tables for your statistics that prove what you're trying to put across...
Then, you'll have your work cut out.
But, the existence of this e-book is proof that it can be done.
Chapter 2 -- Very Simple E-books
We'll start with the basics. If you only want a simple e-book that has your story in text format, no frills, no drawings, no map of Bilbo's journeys, and you don't worry about boring your grandkids (you didn't write it for them anyway, so there!), you needn't read beyond this chapter -- well, maybe you might want to read the chapter on cover designs --
...and there one of my books on Kindle.
There are many places where you could publish your e-book, Apple's i-Books, for example, or Barns and Noble, or Sony. However, we'll major on just two places: Amazon's Kindle Store, and Smashwords.com. Between those two, you will have nearly covered the whole e-book market.
Amazon Kindle, as of this writing, enjoys more than %50 of the market share in e-books. There are authors who haven't been published by the traditional media, but have launched their careers the "indie" way, by self publishing through the Kindle Store, and have made a killing! Some of them have gone from there to a traditional publisher who saw they were doing very well, and didn't need much persuasion. So, Amazon Kindle is a good place to be. Their website is https://kdp.amazon.com/.
...learning to think outside the box.
Smashwords.com covers the rest of the market. While Apple's iPad is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of e-books, Smashwords has that covered. They will market your book at Apple, and at B&N, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, and they're negotiating other places as well. They don't do Amazon Kindle yet (If they do in the future, it will still be worth your while to have an account with Amazon). Check them out at www.Smashwords.com.
So, how do you publish? First, gather together what you'll need.
1. A blurb of no more than 400 characters. Say as much as you can about your book in as little space as you can. Do a character count. If it's more than 400 characters long, cut out any unnecessary words, shorten any sentences, prune it until you get it down. You'll find the exercise good for you, and the blurb will be the better for it.
Why 400? Because Smashwords requires a blurb of no more than that size. You can also add a second longer blurb, which will go on the book page, but the short one will appear on your authors page, and on the search results. Amazon Kindle accepts up to 4000 characters, so you can use the longer blurb from Smashwords for that if you want. It's also good to keep both the short one and the long one around for marketing purposes.
While you're at it, write a short bio of yourself, and pick out a photo you don't mind the whole world associating with you. Have them ready to upload whenever you're asked to.
2. A cover. We'll have a whole chapter about that later. Actually, you can proceed without a cover, if you're in a hurry to get your book published, but it won't look as nice. The cover will go a long way towards selling your book, so I advise you to get one.
3. The text of your book in the right formats. For Smashwords, you'll need it in MS Word (.doc) format. For Amazon Kindle, if it's a text only book, you'll need it in HTML format (the file format that web browsers read).
To get the file into either format, just go to the "save as" function of your word processor, and "save as" either .doc or .html and ...
-- well actually, there's a bit more to it than that. If you want it to sell in all the outlets that Smashwords has access to, it has to look good so as to be included in Smashwords' Premium Catalogue. Paragraph style, font size and other things have to be right. I won't go too much into that here, because Mark Coker at Smashwords.com has a book that will take you through all that, Smashwords Style Guide, which is a free download.
For a perfect, ready-to-publish text document follow the guidelines in the Style Guide before saving in both formats. Two reasons: first, you want your book in one shop to look like your book in the other one. Second, Mark Coker's guidelines are basic good practice anyway.
Now that you have all the materials, open an account with Smashwords and Amazon Kindle. Fill in the on-line forms with the blurbs you've prepared, answer the other basic questions, assure them that you own the copyright, select the genre of your work, supply some key words that describe your work, decide on the price, upload the cover, and then the file in the format they ask for.
Once it's uploaded on Smashwords, they'll send you an email telling you how you did. If there are any errors in your formatting, they might tell you then. Also double check by browsing to your "dashboard" on your Smashwords account, or click through to the new book page. If either place indicates that there are errors, you'll need to check the Style Guide once more, and try again. Meanwhile, the version you just uploaded will already be up and ready to sell, though it might not make it into the Premium Catalogue until you upload a perfect copy.
For Amazon Kindle, it takes a day or two for your book to go on-line.
Then, tell all your friends you've published a book. Everyone (except your grandkids) will be impressed.
Chapter 3 -- E-books with Illustrations
Now, we take it a step further. You've written a nice story your grandkids would like, a how-to manual, your autobiography, whatever. You also have lots of illustrations, photos, tables, drawings that you've done yourself, or that were drawn by a friend -- or by me (if you fancy the style of drawings you see in this e-book, check out the "About Me" section at the end).
It's not all that difficult to have illustrations included in an e-book. The question is, how will it look?
If you're not careful, you'll end up with your pages looking lopsided, text too close to the graphics, pictures trying to occupy the same line as the text, or worse yet, all the graphics floating to the wrong part of the book and piled up like a log jam (you don't believe me, do you? You'll see for yourself!).
How do we sort that out then? In two simple (maybe not so simple) steps:
1. Create a perfectly formatted .doc file that you can upload to Smashwords. I hinted, in the above paragraph, that it might not be so simple. We'll talk about that in a minute.
2. Use your perfectly formatted .doc file which you've already uploaded to Smashwords, to create a .prc file, one that can be read by Amazon Kindle. On the Kindle publishing page, you'll notice that you have a choice of uploading your file either as HTML or as a .prc file. A .prc file is already a Kindle e-book that you've created yourself. We'll talk about that after we talk about the perfectly formatted .doc file.
But now, you're wondering, why have an e-book formatted with colour illustrations for Kindle? Don't they just do black and white?
Yes, the Kindle electronic e-book readers only have a black and white display (though, I understand that's soon to change). However, that's not all there is to Kindle. There's Kindle software for PC, Kindle for iPad, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for Android -- the only platform I know of that doesn't have a Kindle built for it is LINUX (and I hope they remedy that quickly). Everything but the actual Kindle machine shows illustrations in living colour.
Now, just one more thing before we go on. If all of this seems like a lot of work, and you'd much rather spend your time writing (and maybe drawing), and leave the formatting to someone else, check out the "About Me" section of this book. We might be able to work something out.
Formatting the DOC file -- The following is a list of guidelines. Some of them are included in the Smashwords Style Guide. Some of them, I could have included in the earlier chapter on doing simple e-books.
1. Don't use all the bells and whistles included in your word processor. Remember, you're formatting your file for export to other systems that might not be able to interpret everything your word processor is capable of. Don't embed any macros; use straight quotes and apostrophes; stick with generic fonts like Times New Roman or Arial; and don't use multiple style formats.
Now, it's time to go to the View menu at the top of your word processor, and click on the paragraph sign, so that all your nonprinting characters show up. Use that mode to check for compliance with rules 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 below.
2. Be careful with the space bar. Make sure none of your paragraphs begin with a space. Make sure there are no more than two spaces between any two characters. Never use the space bar to separate objects on your page. There are other ways, which we'll look at later. The space shows up as a dot when you have the nonprinting characters showing.
3. Use only your normal carriage return (the ENTER key) to make a new line. If using the carriage return creates too wide a space between lines, then highlight the area where you want narrow spaces, and then use the Format/paragraph function from the menu to change the spacing. The normal carriage return shows up as a paragraph sign. The other kind of line break shows up as a backwards arrow. Delete these, or replace them with a carriage return.
4. Never have more than three carriage returns in a row.
5. Don't use the TAB key to indent. Don't use the TAB key for anything. To organise your indents, use the ruler bar at the top of your writing space. TABs show up as a bent forward arrow. Delete them. I'll show you what to use in its place later on -- in fact, you can look right now, by highlighting the space between the two pictures below:
mmmmmmmmmmm
6. Have all your graphics anchored "as character". To do that, after you've pasted in your picture, right click on the picture, choose "anchor" from the pop up menu, and then choose "as character".
7. Make sure all your pictures have at least one carriage return before it and one after, unless you have two pictures side by side (making sure they're not too wide for the narrow e-book reader screen). In this document, I've used two carriage returns in front and behind -- except where the graphic has a lot of white space.
8. Don't try too hard to make the e-book look exactly like a print book. That's never going to happen. Don't try to wrap your text around the graphics. You might manage it for ePub, but not for Kindle, and not on Smashwords. At best you get just one line along side the picture, with the rest being empty space. It doesn't look good. Having a nicely centred picture occupying its own space doesn't actually look bad. Also, don't try to place a picture in middle of a paragraph to make it look like the paragraph continues below. Because each e-book reading device is different, you don't know where the line break is going to end up. It may make it look like you have a new paragraph where you didn't intend to.
9. As a rule, have your pictures centred. Centre them by putting your text cursor next to the picture, and centering it with the tool bar at the top of your writing space (that will work so long as you've anchored your graphic "as character" -- as per #6). However, if you have many pictures on the same page, you might want to add variety by having one aligned right and the other aligned left, or vice versa.
10. The simplest way to create a table of contents in the Smashwords environment is to type your chapter titles beginning with the word "Chapter". Then insert a page break just before it. It should look like this:
- --------------page break-------------
- CCCChapter 3 -- The Pea Soup ThickensCCC
- "We're in the soup this time," said Mac... blah blah blah blah blah ...he clung to the dandelion for dear life as he dangled over the 1000 foot precipice.
- --------------page break-------------
- CCCChapter 4 -- The Plot SickensCCC
- Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
- ... etc.
Keep all your chapter titles the same font size, preferably in bold face. If the word "Chapter" is too much of a cliché for you, there are other, more complicated ways of doing it, but you'll need to read the Smashwords Style Guide.
11. The Smashwords system doesn't allow tables. However, if you really need a table, there's a way around that. It's not perfect, but it might do.
The following table was created without using the table function of my word processor, without the use of tabs, and without pressing the spacebar multiple times. If you're reading this on a PC, or a reader that's equipped with copy and paste, then highlight the table below and you'll see.
- Service.........................US Dollars............Euro......British Pounds
-
- Formatting of 1..................$100.00..........€73.00.........£60.00
- E-book with
- 100 illustrations*
-
- Formatting of 1....................$50.00...........€36.00........£30.00
- E-book with
- no illustrations
-
- As you see, I filled in the spaces between each item with full stops, or similar marks, and then changed the font colour to white. I'll show you the first two lines again, with the fonts adjusted to black:
-
- Service.........................US Dollars............Euro......British Pounds
-
- Formatting of 1..................$100.00..........€73.00........£60.00
- E-book with
- 100 illustrations*
-
Some formats and e-book reading devices may not handle it as gracefully as others. Some might show everything the same colour. As a .txt file, of course, it won't work, and on Smashwords, people do have the option of downloading as a plain text file. Of course, plain text format won't show the illustrations either. At least you know how the device you're using right now, to read this e-book, will handle it.
There are other rules, such as font size, the format of the title page, and a host of others. Rather than pretend that I know everything, I'll refer you to Smashwords Style Guide, which again, is a free download.
Creating the Kindle file -- Now that you have the .doc file the way you want it, let's make the .prc file, or whatever format you want. The .prc format is for uploading your perfectly formatted book to the Amazon Kindle store, so that it remains a perfectly formatted book.
Now, it's time to introduce a couple of nice programs that are good for compiling your text into various e-book formats. One of them is Calibra (calibre-ebook.com/download), and the other, MobiPocket Creator (www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft). They're both free downloads. Calibra will turn any book that you have from any e-book format (or a text file), and transform it into any other e-book format you choose, except Amazon Kindle's .prc format, which you'll need if you want to upload your book directly to their KDP site. For that, you'll need the MobiPocket program.
While you're at it, go to Amazon Kindle, and download their Kindle for PC. You'll need that to test the .prc format of your e-book you're about to create.
To make best use of the MobiPocket program, you'll need to know some HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). You don't need to be an expert to use it. Though some of the advanced script can look daunting, the basics are quite simple. I won't go into it thoroughly. There are quite a few resources you can find on the Internet that will teach you (just Google "HTML Tutorial"), and the MobiPoket program and others will write the script for you. All you'll need to do is correct it.
You might be able to convert your DOC file directly, using MobiPocket Creator. If it doesn't work, try one of the following: Either save your DOC file as HTML, or distill it as a PDF (Adobe Acrobat file), or create your own HTML file. If you create the HTML file from your word processor, make sure that your word-processor is set to export to HTML for the earliest version possible.
Each of those choices has its pros and cons. HTML files created by word processors tend to be very complicated. They use a lot more code than is really necessary. It will be much more difficult to find the objects that you'll need to edit, which we'll talk about below. The advantage is that, if the DOC file is properly formatted, and all the graphics centred like you want them, they'll still be that way. You still need to insert other objects, though, such as the tags that go with each chapter title. If you import a PDF file, the MobiPocket Creator creats an HTML file for you, and it uses much simpler code. However, it also mixes some things up, and you need to re center your pictures, and correct some of your paragraph breaks.
The simplest way is to create you own, very simple HTML file. There's a very nice text editor, written by Richard Salisbury, called Roughdraft, which can be downloaded free at www.salsbury.f2s.com. It's actually a text editor for authors -- like you and me. Before you can use that, you need to save your DOC file in Rich Text Format, as that's the format Roughdraft reads it in. Inside Roughdraft, you can export it as a very simple HTML file. However, Roughdraft doesn't do graphics, so you'll have to go through it and add the HTML code for the pictures yourself. That's not as difficult as it sounds. We'll talk about that in just a bit.
Once you're ready, open up MobiPocket Creator. It will look like this:
Creating the .prc file is a two step process. Step one imports your file, and Mobipocket creates its own HTML file, which you can edit. Start importing by clicking on the choice below the heading "Import From Existing File". Choose the format you want to try to import, either HTML document, MS Word Document or Adobe PDF. "Text Document" won't work for you because that won't import your graphics and formatting.
Click on the "Import File" button, and you'll be taken to this page:
Your page should look like the above, except it won't have the Table of Contents file yet. You'll create that later.
Now, make sure that the MobiPocket program put all of your graphic files into the same directory in which it wrote the new HTML file. If it didn't, you need to move them there yourself, or copies of them.
You can now build your e-book by clicking on the "Build" button in the blue menu area. Then, you can see how close you are to a perfect Kindle E-book. Check to see if the graphics are centred, if there is enough space between the text and graphics, and if paragraph format is uniform. You may have to go back and fix them by correcting the HTML code. You'll have to go back anyway to create the Table of Contents.
Now, open the HTML file with a text editor to make the following changes.
1. If you converted your e-book from a PDF file, it will have messed up your line and paragraph breaks. Do a search and replace, replacing all <br> and <br/> codes with <p>.
What the heck is <br> and <p>, you ask? They are two ways of starting a new line of text. <p> creates a new paragraph. <br> does it in the way I told you not to do it when we were talking about the perfectly formatted DOC file. However, the distinction was lost during the conversion to a PDF file, and now you have to correct it all over again.
However, you might need some <br> tags later, such as if you spot parts of your text where you want to break at a certain point but not as a new paragraph, like lines of poetry, or a non indented beginning of a paragraph. Kindle will otherwise treat all <p> the same, indenting the first line. Using <p> and <br> together can manipulate paragraphs in the way you want them, but do that after you've already made the correction I told you to make above.
2. Look for your graphics, and correct them, (or, in the case of a Roughdraft created file, insert them) one by one. This is what to look for:
<img src="MyNovel_pic0001.jpg"/>
Explanation: img src is the code that defines it as a graphic image. Inside the quotes is the name of your image file, in this case, "MyNovel_pic0001.jpg". In converting the PDF file, named MyNovel.pdf, the MobiPicket program has separated all your pictures into their own files, and renamed them, using the name of your original PDF file as part of each pictures file name, and added a number. To figure out which picture is which, you'll have to open the directory in Thumbnail mode.
Now, have you found a picture yet? First, make sure it's centred. You do that by adding the <center> tag (that's right, it uses the American spelling). Begin the line with <center> and close it with </center> (the closing tag always looks like the opening tag, except with the "/"), so it should look like this:
<center><img src="MyNovel_pic0001.jpg"/></center>
If you want the graphic to be aligned left or right instead of centred, then do this:
<img src="MyNovel_pic0001.jpg" align="right"/>
Replace "right" with "left" for left alignment.
Now, make sure that it's not mixed up with the text by adding the <p>.
<p>...................................................................................
<center><img src="MyNovel_pic0001.jpg"/></center>
<p>...................................................................................
If you need a bigger space between the text and the graphic, do it like this:
<p>...................................................................................
<p><br></p>...................................................................
<center><img src="MyNovel_pic0001.jpg"/></center>
<p>...................................................................................
<p><br><p>....................................................................
You do the <p><br></p> combination, because otherwise, HTML doesn't recognise two paragraph breaks in a row.
If you're inserting your illustrations into a file created by Roughdraft, you can past either the three or the five lines of code as shown above. Then, change the filename to the one you want there.
A note for those who are already familiar with HTML code for browsers: When using tags like <center> etc. in the MobiPocket environment, you need to remember that very single line needs to have the opening and closing tags, even if several lines of text follow the same format. If you try to encase several lines of text with one set of tags, MobiPocket will forget the tag by the time it reaches the next line.
3. Now, we're ready to add the chapter breaks. You have to do this even if the formatting went perfectly the first time around.
The following is the code you'll use:
<!---****BEGINNING OF CHAPTER TITLE AREA***--->
<div style="page-break-after:always"></div>..........................
<a name="mbp_toc_0"></A>....................................................
<center><h2>Chapter 1 -- I Am Born</h2></center>...............
<!---*******END OF CHAPTER TITLE AREA******--->...
Explanation: The tags beginning with <!--- aren't read by the MobiPocket program (or web browsers either, for that matter). They're what programmers call "comments". If you're worried that you'll forget why you did something, that's a good way to write a note to yourself (or other programmers) within the script. In this case, it's to make the chapter area easy to find in case you have to come back to correct a mistake.
The line with the <div ...> tag forces a page break when it includes the notation "page-break-after:always".
The next line, <a name="mbp_toc_0"> is there to be used by the Table of Contents. It marks the spot that the hyperlink in the Table of Contents will look for when the reader clicks on "Chapter 1 -- etc". Notice that it ends in "0". The next chapter (Chapter 2) should have a marker that ends in "1", that will look like "mbp_toc_1". Why does it count "0, 1," and not "1, 2,"? I don't know. That's how they count in some computer programing languages. Also note that it should be numbered using Hexadecimal, or base 16 numbering system. Therefore, Chapters 1 through 19 would be tagged as: "0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f, 10, 11, 12". Chapter 28 would have the tag: "mbp_toc_1b". I know that's confusing, but that's computers for you...
Then the next line, <center> <h2>Chapter 1 -- I Am Born</h2> </center>
You'll recognise the <center> tags already. That just centers the title on the page. The <h2> tag does two things: It turns the chapter title into a size 2 heading, and it marks it so that the Table of Contents will grab it and add it to the list of chapters. You could use <h1> instead, but you might find the resulting font size too big. Just remember, after deciding to use <h2> (or <h1> or whatever size down to <h5>), don't use that tag for anything but chapter titles, or for anything you don't want to appear in the Table of Contents -- for example if you wrote: "I'm trough with you," screamed Jane. <h2>"Get out of my life!"</h2> You'll find that "Get out of my life!" has become a chapter title.
You can also add subheadings to your Table of Contents by marking them with the other <h#> tags. If you used <h2> for your chapter titles, you can then use <h3> for divisions within the chapter, and <h4> for subdivisions. In this way, you can turn your Table of Contents into an outline.
4. Finally, if you've hidden any text by colouring it white, ie. tables, spaces between pictures, etc., you'll need go go through it again and do it the HTML way. Simply surround the text you want hidden with the right tags, like this: <font color="#FFFFFE">Colour me white, please.</font>
Also, check the .prc file to make sure that your table isn't too wide for the Kindle screen. You might have to reduce the size of the font, or carefully reduce the space between each item, making sure each column is still straight.
Alternatively, you could simply insert the HTML code for creating a table. However, I don't want to turn this into a long book, so I'll just refer you to the HTML tutorials you'll find on the internet.
Now, it's time go back into your MobiPocket program. You need to make sure that the program is going to create your Table of Contents.
Open your working file, and then look on the left side of your MobiPocket work area. Under View, click on Table of Contents. Then, click on the button, Create a Table of Contents. That will open up the form that you see above. In the row, First Level, under the column Tag Name, type in H2 (or whichever <h#> you decided to use. If you have subheadings, then put those in the spaces below. That's all you really have to fill in. Then, go to the bottom of that form, and click on "update".
Another heading you'll see on the left is metadata. There, you'll find a form you can fill in with information about your book, ie, who the author is, the genre, a description, etc. It's a good place to paste in your 400 character blurb you wrote earlier.
Another heading is where you'll add your front cover. That's where you'll select your cover image. The next chapter is about your front cover.
After that is done, you're ready to build the e-book. Go back to the work place, and click on "build", and follow through.
Once you've finished your Kindle book, you can now use the Calibre program to convert it into any other e-book format you want. The only format the don't create is the .prc, which of course, you have already. If you publish directly with iPad, or any of the others, or if you just want to have an ePub version of your book for free give-aways, that's what you can use. Other formats include the PDB (for Palm Pilot), LRF (for the older Sonys), and many more.
One question seems to be lingering: If the Smashwords environment creates perfectly good ePub, LRF and PDB versions of your book already, why not use them? Because, legally, you're not allowed to. The agreement you made with Smashwords says, the e-books created by Smashwords are only for sale through the Smashwords marketing machine (and, as we said, they do have very good marketing machine). That's why it's good to have your own e-book making devices.
Again, if all of this seems like a lot of work, and you'd much rather spend your time writing (and maybe drawing), and leave the formatting to someone else, check out the "About Me" section of this book. We might be able to work something out.
Chapter 4 -- The Front Cover
The cover is your book's shop front, the first glimpse that people will have of your book. It will create the first impression. Many people (maybe not you nor I), do judge a book by its cover. They'll buy, or decide not to buy, depending on how they like what they see. Others will at least be pulled in far enough to read the blurb, or the first sample chapter, and then buy your book. So the cover is important.
m
These are some of my covers. Since I'm not only an author, but an illustrator as well, I suppose I have an advantage ...
m
... however, you don't have to be a good artist to design a catchy cover. In fact, a cover doesn't have to include pictures at all. Since I haven't done any covers for myself that don't include pictures, I did the ones below just to prove my point:
m
I suppose anyone reading this could get away with using one of these ideas, but putting your title on it.
Here's a couple more:
m
I used a program called Gimp on these, which is a free download at www.gimp.org. It's a full graphics manipulation program that has as many features as programs that you'd pay through the nose for. In fact, after trying this out, you'll kick yourself for having spent good money on any of the others! I suggest you download it, and then putter around and see what you can do. To come up with some of the above effects, I used the layers feature in combination with the "blend tool". On a couple of them, I had two layers, each blended in a different direction, and then cut away part of the top one to reveal part of the bottom layer.
Anyway, download and enjoy...
Once you've come up with some good ideas, you'll find that just a bit of artwork goes a long way, even if it's just a crude drawing, or some clip art:
I just now drew the flower, using Gimp.
Or else, try some photography with some of the special effects you'll find on Gimp:
Now, this one is something I did write and publish. To create the "time warp", I used the "whirl and pinch" function, found in the "Filter" menu under "distort". Otherwise, it's just a photo of some rubbish bins not far from our house.
Now, here's just a few things to keep in mind as you're designing your cover:
1. The minimum size to start with is 500 x 800 pixels. That is the minimum size for Amazon Kindle's covers. Smashwords accepts them slightly smaller (600 pixels tall), but if you're going to publish in more than one place, you might as well have it in a size accepted by all. The maximum size for Amazon is 2000 pixels on the longest side. For Smashwords, 20 megabytes is max (whatever the size). If you think you might want to have a print edition later, make it 1200 x 2000, so you'll have less stretching to do later when you need to fit it into a cover template. Doing it in the larger size will also make it that much more crisp and clear when it's viewed in a smaller size.
2. The title needs to be clear and stand out. Use a colour that will contrast with the background, but at the same time, be pleasing to the eyes. Choose an appropriate font. It should be easy to read.
3. All the elements, the title, the picture (if you have one) should tell the prospective reader what to expect. If you are targeting a particular audience, the cover should tell them in their language that this is for them. The cover picture should be like an illustration that somehow represents the whole book. It could depict one of the scenes in the story, but it should be one that the whole book could be remembered by.
4. It should be clear enough so that you could reduce your image down to one inch, and still see it clearly. That's how people browsing the on-line e-book stores will first see your cover.
There are websites, such as www.thebookdesigner.com that will tell you more.
Now, if you still don't feel up to it, and you want someone else to do your cover for you, feel free to check out the "About Me" section of this book, at the very end.
Chapter 5 -- And There You Are!
So, that's what goes into creating an e-book.
Now, you have to sell it. That's another task, which we won't go into detail about here. The Smashwords Marketing Guide, again, is a free download at Smashwords.com. There are also a number of websites that are usefull:
- www.TheCreativePenn.com
- www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/
- www.indiebookevent.com
- www.40kbooks.com/
- blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/
All I'll do here is wish you good luck with your book -- unless you decided that formatting the e-book is a lot of work, and you'd prefer to spend your time writing, in that case, go to the next section...
We get by with a little help from our friends...
Appendix: About Me...
I've lived with my foot in two worlds, Thailand and N. Ireland. If you're reading this close to the time I wrote it, I'm living with my wife and kid in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. If you're reading this a few years from now, and if I haven't updated this, who knows...?
But you can keep up with me at BobCharters.blogspot.com, or at www.TinyUrl.com/RobbysBooks, or via Twitter @RobbyCharters.
I've written a few novels, some short stories, drawn some cartoons, a tiny bit of poetry, and scripted my own web sites to show-case them. I also design my own covers. They and a few of my illustrations are included in this e-book.
To put bread and butter on our table (so that the kid you've been seeing in the photos doesn't go hungry), I do e-book design. That includes e-book formatting, cover design, and/or illustrations.
I can format your e-book for Smashwords, for Amazon Kindle, or for both. If you want, I can also draw some illustrations, and come up with a cover design. I could also design an Author's web page for you. The table below is a starting point for discussing the cost:
- Service.........................US Dollars............Euro......British Pounds
-
- Formatting of 1..................$100.00..........€73.00.........£60.00
- E-book with
- 100 illustrations*
- for either Amazon
- or Smashwords
-
- Both Formats.....................$150.00........€110.00.........£90.00
-
- Formatting of 1....................$50.00...........€36.00........£30.00
- E-book with
- no illustrations
- for either Amazon
- or Smashwords
-
- Both Formats.......................$75.00...........€54.00........£45.00
-
- Cover Design.......................$50.00...........€36.00........£30.00
- with artwork*
- (depending on complexity)
-
- Colour Illustration..............$100.00...........€73.00........£60.00
- (depending on size
- and complexity)
-
- Line Drawing.......................$50.00...........€36.00........£30.00
- (depending on size
- and complexity)
-
- Web Page*.........................$150.00.........€110.00.........£90.00
-
- *artwork provided by customer
For the exact cost, I'd need to know details of what you want, such as how many illustrations to be included, how complex the artwork you want me to do, etc. For that, we'd need to communicate. My email address is RobbyCharters [curly"A"sign] Gmail [dot] Com.
Okay? Now, for the sake of displaying yet more samples of what I can do for you, and for your enjoyment, here are some more illustrations:
This one was originally supposed to be part of the cover for Eetoo. I chose a different idea instead.
Some of these ideas started out as boardroom doodles (read bored room) during team meetings at a company where I once worked...
An illustration looking for a novel.
The following one started out as an English teaching tool. I originally penciled it out on A4 sheets of paper, and had my private students look at them and tell me the story as an exercise in using their English. Later, I inked them in, touched them up, scanned them and put them on line.
Remember to contact me at RobbyCharters [at] Gmail [dot] com
That's all!