Writing Critique 101: Writing and Formatting an eBook
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eBook Writing Guidelines
It is extremely important that we write our clients quality eBook. I put together this so you can use it as a guideline when writing our eBooks.
How to Write a Description for EBooks!
Whenever you write an eBook please follow these guidelines when writing the eBook/product description that sells
1. A question that touches the problem the book should solve (you got that semi-right)
2. A brief intro of whole foods, one paragraph or so. No fluff. No two same sentences right after each other such as: "Whole foods are the only supplements you’ll ever need. A diet based on whole foods will provide all the nutrients that you need." No useless fluff about GMO's. No one cares about that in the description.
3. Bullet points what the book is about, what will the reader learn inside. 4-5 of them (please do not take this literally again. 7 or 3 are also okay and so on)
4. One paragraph commenting on the bullet points and introduction paragraph. Something like "as you can see, this book is really full of information... etc." Again, please do not use this literally, only as a reference.
5. Call to action
Here are 2 examples of quality EBook Descriptions
Writer E-Book Quality Control Checklist
o The Book is free of all spelling and grammar mistakes
o The Book has a clickable table of contents
o The book covers all the topics specified by the customer in the project details
o The book is plagiarism free. You can use: http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ It is a free online software that I find picks up more than copyscape.com does.
o Use your spell check in word, but also read the work out loud to make sure it sounds correct to you.
Plagiarism Guide
(How to avoid plagiarism)
1. Make sure that you do not copy and paste anything from the internet into the book.
2. Make sure that everything you put in the book is re-written and not the same as the content you are researching online
3. When doing recipe books make sure to reorder the ingredients (especially in the instructions/directions paragraphs) and add some words to make sure it does look plagiarized
Amazon Guidelines
Building Your Book
We recommend building your book in Word for ease of formatting. You can write your book in Word or convert an existing source file to Word format (DOC / DOCX). For the best eBook presentation, refer to the tips below.
File Format: Save your content in DOC or DOCX format. Save your work periodically to avoid losing your changes as you go.
Tables: If your book requires tables, select "Insert Table" in Word.
Layout: You can use Word-default paragraph indentations, bold characters, italics and headings in your Kindle book. Avoid special fonts, headers, and footers, which do not translate into Kindle format.
Page Breaks: Insert a page break at the end of every chapter to keep the text from running together. In Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."
Line Breaks: Don’t hit enter at the end of a line. Word automatically wraps to the next line as you type. If you need to insert a line break in the middle of a paragraph or sentence, press Shift+Enter together so the spacing between sentences will stay the same.
Image Placement: Insert JPEG formatted images with center alignment. Don't copy and paste from another source.
In Word, select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for optimal contrast and clarity.
Don't include your cover image in your manuscript file. When you publish or re-publish your book, we'll automatically add your cover image to the inside.
Spellcheck and Grammar: Use Word's built-in spellcheck and grammar tools, but proofread your file manually as well. The automated tools may not catch every error.
Creating Front Matter
Front matter includes the beginning pages of a book, such as Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Preface, and Prologue. For a stylish and professional presentation, add a Title Page at a minimum.
Title Page: Center the title page with the title on top and Author Name underneath, like the example below. Insert a page break.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain
-Insert Page Break Here-
To insert a page break in Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."
Copyright Page: This page normally follows the Title Page. Insert a page break after the Copyright details.
Dedication: If you have a customized Dedication, it should follow the Copyright page. Be sure to insert a page break.
Preface: If you have a Preface, it should follow the Dedication. Be sure to insert a page break.
Prologue: If your book includes a Prologue, it should follow the Preface. Be sure to insert a page break.
Formatting Text
Once you've created your front matter, you're ready to format the rest of your text. The indentations, text spacing, and separate paragraphs should have been included when you built your book in Word.
The remaining step is to insert a page break after the last sentence of each book chapter to keep them from running together. Depending on the number of chapters you have, this may be a time-consuming process but the effort is worth the improved reading experience.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs display text with justified alignment by default.
If you would like to manually indent paragraphs in your book, use the Word-default Paragraph Formatting to indent paragraphs. You can indent paragraphs in one of two ways:
1. Click "Page Layout" and specify the amount of indentation in the "Indent" option.
2. Use the ruler at the top of the page to change the indentation. If you don’t see a ruler in your Word document, click "View" and check the Ruler option.
Don't use tab spacing, which won't convert to Kindle format.
Creating an Active Table of Contents
We recommend an active Table of Contents in your book for ease of navigation. Since Kindle content is resizable, page numbering doesn't really apply.
On a PC, you can use Word's built-in Table of Contents tool (learn more).
On a Mac, you'll need to create a Table of Contents manually using the Hyperlink and Bookmark functions.
Guide Items (optional)
Kindle books give readers the option to go to specified guide items (such as cover image, beginning, or Table of Contents) from anywhere in the book.
Cover
If you upload a cover image, we'll automatically set the first guide item to your cover.
Beginning
Place the cursor at the opening chapter of your book. Click "Insert > Bookmark." In the Bookmark name field, type Start and click "Add."
Table of Contents
Place the cursor at the beginning of the first entry in the Table of Contents. Click "Insert > Bookmark." In the Bookmark name field, type TOC and click "Add."
Creating Back Matter (optional)
Back matter is additional information at the end of your books, such as Bibliographies, Appendices, Notes or Glossaries.
Back matter can be laid out in any order you choose, as long as you insert page breaks after each section. Indexes are not recommended.
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