Read Paul - Why You Need to Create an eBook: A Really Simple Guide to Digital Publishing and Distribution

Once life was simple and straight forward. If we had something to say then with just the humble PDF or Word Doc we could happily pass around our data. Then tablets, mobile phones and an array of devices came along that needed text that would adjust its size to the screen on which it was being read. PDF's can't do this and Word docs, well, they belong to a previous age. Hence the birth of new formats such as the ePub and the birth of the eBook.

EBooks vary in format depending on the device they are to be read on. This can make things appear more confusing than they actually are: Kindle books are produced in the mobi format, whilst most others use the ePub format. People lodged in other times may just stick with the tried and trusted - but limited display possibilities - PDF.

Contrary to popular thought, the PDF has not died just yet. It is still being used by people who read on desktops or laptops or want to print something out. For writers, the PDF is still in use when we need to convert an eBook into a paperback. Though this too may change in the near future as something called fixed layout e-pubs are introduced. But for now, PDF's are still alive, if not exactly kicking very hard.

But don't get too stressed, as you don't need to learn how to format in all these different ways. The Really Simple Guides aim to clarify the confusing world of ebook production and give you a straightforward solution to easy eBook publishing.

No, it is not a British pub with free a wifi connection. An ePub is a short way of describing the new Electronic PUBlishing format that you want to learn about. EPub files contain images and text - like web pages - that adapt to the screen so users can change them to suit their device or eyesight. An ePub file is acceptable by all eBook distributors. It's the future, so it is the format we are going to concentrate on, in most of our guides.

This is the proprietary format for the Amazon Kindle store. For advanced users its worth learning something about, but for most of us, our ePub will upload fine. Even a Word file can be uploaded and automatically converted into Mobi format, but formatting in Word can be a nightmare. So our advice is, forget learning to create a mobi file, just concentrate on the ePub.

Great for fixed layout choices and graphics, but no good on sizeable screens. The text does not adapt so users are left squinting at minute text or trying to zoom in and scroll over documents. Great for laptops though or big iPads. And of course, PDF's are still used in creating a lot of paperbacks, so if you are interested in your book getting into print, then you will have to look at our special PDF walk through to be released soon.

This is a free tool from Apple to create beautiful eBooks but only in "iBook author" formats, (basically a proprietary version of ePub3) which means they cannot be read on any other devices than apple products. Great if you just want to distribute within the apple ecosystem, but limiting if you want to get your material to the rest of the world.

Decide what you want to create, and where you want to distribute it. Look at some of the options below. At the end of each sentence we list the formats you need to learn to complete your book.

• I want to create something to distribute on Amazon as an eBook. After that I'll look at other options. (ePub)
  
• I want to create something to give away, or sell from my own website. I'm not interested in Amazon or Apple or any other platforms. (PDF & ePub formats)
  
• I want to create an eBook for iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Scribd and for my own site. I'm not interested in that monopolistic mega-animal Amazon. (ePub or Word).
  
• I want to just create a paperback to sell on my site, to sell in person or to sell on the Amazon paperback store (PDF)
  
• I want to create an eBook of my great photos (ePub & PDF)
  

A lot of people associate Amazon or eBooks with authors. But if you look at the variety of books on the Kindle store, you will see that amongst the 3.5m available (a new book goes up every 5 minutes), there is a great deal of factual information that serves to introduce customers to a service or an idea. These are written not by professional authors, but by people like you and me. People who know something about their field of interest and want to share that with a bigger an audience as possible.

So, before deciding about whether you can or cannot write an ebook, ask yourself the following:

• Do you use video? If you use video, do you only post it to your blog or do you put it up on YouTube?
• Do you create podcasts? Do you only post them to your blog or do you offer them via iTunes? SoundCloud, Audioboom?
  
• Do you take photos? Do you keep them on your hard drive or post them up to Instagram or Flickr?

So... if you produce written information - either as entertainment (fiction) or as instructional (non-fiction) - then you should think about having that information available on the biggest text distribution channel on the planet. That's why?