Looking for help formatting e-book

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morongobill

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Aug 1, 2013
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Location
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I have written a short e-book(17.5k words) on weightloss and stopping the onset of Type 2 diabetes,  how I did it
through exercise and diet change.

The plan is to upload it to Amazon and sell as a Kindle book priced around $3.49-99.

My problem is that I am having a real problem learning Calibre and Scrivener to try to get this thing converted to the Amazon format.

After beating my head against the wall for almost two weeks, I have decided that the only way this will get done is if I pay someone to do it.

Basically here is what needs to be done. I will do the uploading of the formatted manuscript myself.

I would need someone to add the front pages- title, copyright and a preface that I will provide.

Chapter headings will have to be added, I do have page breaks as needed. Btw, it is an intro and 10 short chapters. My understanding is that this is for the automatic generation of a clickable table ofcontents, an Amazon requirement.

There will be a few photographs to add into the text- me before and after, and some "mouth watering" photos of meals that my girlfriend has made that really helped drop  the pounds. 

Last would be an appendix which is about 6 pages of before and after blood lab results. I can get those scanned to provide a jpg images for insertion.

If this is something that you can do or if you have worked with someone else who is experienced at this, please let me know here or by a private message.

I will be heading out from socal on the way to Arkansas next week and if you are off I-40 I can find you and drop off a USB flash drive with everything on it if necessary.

No one works for free. I have a quote for $100 already from a publisher but thought someone here would probably do as good a job and it would keep it within the community so to speak.

Thanks for any info or help.

Bill Mcdonald
morongobill
 
If you have Microsoft Word, it can all be done right there and uploaded as a .docx document. I assume you have a Kindle, if so Amazon has a free Kindle book that gives easy and clear instructions about how to format the book with Word and upload it.

Word is so powerful and easy that most people can figure it out.

However, $100 seems like a really good deal so that's probably what I would do. Do you have a link to them?
Bob
 
akrvbob said:
If you have Microsoft Word, it can all be done right there and uploaded as a .docx document. I assume you have a Kindle, if so Amazon has a free Kindle book that gives easy and clear instructions about how to format the book with Word and upload it.

Word is so powerful and easy that most people can figure it out.

However, $100 seems like a really good deal so that's probably what I would do. Do you have a link to them?
Bob
Thanks Bob. My brain just seems to quit working now when I think about formatting, so I am seeking a pro. This lady is on the list of approved freelancers put together by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. Her list of testimonials is very impressive. Sent her an email, sure hope she will take on my little e-book project.

http://gopublished.blogspot.com/

Thanks again, Bob
 
Have you checked out places like Fiverr for things like this?
 
Amazon has its own list of independent vendors for design work -- covers and content.

I would guess that a Smashwords expert would also know how to do Amazon formatting. But you may want to double check on her Amazon prep skills. Is Smashwords still downloading books as a PDF only? There is not the slightest contest about Amazon being the lead seller you want for your book and they use the Kindle format (readable on almost any device not just Kindles).

Bob is right about the Word doc. If that is formatted properly, you should not have a problem -- though your pics and such are more involved than a book with text only (like novels). I've always been able to do my own uploads to Amazon -- even with using Word for Mac. Amazon has a "Cover Creator" that is very easy these days. If you can browse for a photo and attach it to email, you can use the Cover designer easy peasy.

You mentioned Amazon requiring a clickable table of contents. I have never seen that ... those all but one small book of mine are novels. Maybe this is new?
 
They do want a clickable table of contents, but with Word it's remarkably easy. You just use the paragraph styles and assign each new chapter as Heading 1 then use the Insert Menu to create a Table of Contents and it goes and finds all the Heading 1 and turns them into clickable links in a table of contents.

It really is just about that easy.

I also didn't put photos into my book, but it really isn't hard with Word.

Have the editor also get your book ready to go to CreateSpace. That is an Amazon company that prints on demand. If someone orders one of your books from Amazon, they send the order to Creatspace and they print it out and then mail it to the person. Also very simple.

The cover is also very easy. I suggest making your book 5 x 8. To make the cover find a high-res photo you want to use, crop it to 10 x 16 ratio and then add the text. That's all very simple with a free photo editing program from Google called Picassa.
Bob
 
ooohhh.... Bob's last post reminded me. If you FIRST put your book on CreateSpace (the printed copy part of Amazon), CreateSpace now allows you to click to instantly convert it to the digital (Kindle) version as well. I have not tried it but saves doing two formatting uploads if it works (and I expect it does since it is Amazon).
 
I wasn't aware of that, but uploading to Createspace was very simple, you just use your basic Word .docx.
Bob
 
Freebie for all writers.

Check this free writing app out.

Writemonkey
 

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