Mark Coker - Smashwords Style Guide - How to Format, Publish and Distribute an Ebook for Free (Smashwords Guides)

The SmashwordsStyle Guide

By MarkCoker

rev9.11.10

Copyright MarkCoker 2008-2010

SmashwordsEdition License Notes:

This free ebookmay be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared,provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and thereader is not charged to access it.

Cover design byPJ Lyon

Also by MarkCoker , Published atSmashwords:

Smashwords Book Marketing Guide

BoobTube

Smashwords Style Guide Table ofContents

About this guide

Before you begin

What Smashwords publishes,what we dont publish

Five common formattingmistakes to avoid

How Smashwords publishesbooks

How Smashwords distributesbooks

How ebook formatting isdifferent from print formatting

How we convert your bookinto multiple ebook formats

The three secrets to ebookformatting

How to avoid (and fix)AutoVetter errors

Frequently AskedQuestions

Introduction to Meatgrinderconversion system

Your required sourcefile

Understanding the differentebook formats

Formatting your work (thefun stuff!!!)

Making Wordbehave

Normalize the text (Changeeverything to Normal paragraph style)

Purging old or corruptedformatting + The Nuclear Option

Managing and modifyingparagraph styles

First line indent, or blockparagraphs? (choose one only)

Why you should never usetabs or the space bar for indents

Working withimages

Add the Heading style toyour Chapter headers

Front Matter

Blurbs

Adding Smashwords LicenseStatement

The end of yourbook

Preparing your coverimage

Premium Distributionrequirements

After the formatting iscomplete, Publish!

How to upload yourbook

How AutoVetterworks

After you publish: CheckYour Work

How to market yourbook

Send feedback

Helpfulresources

INTRODUCTION

This guide helps Smashwords authors andpublishers format their ebooks for Smashwords. Dont upload yourbooks to Smashwords until you have carefully read and implementedthe recommendations in this Guide.

The Style Guide is writtenfor non-techies. It presents simple, step by step tips to help youformat your ebook for the best possible presentation across allebook formats and devices. Its required reading if you want yourebook accepted into the Smashwords PremiumCatalog for distribution to majoronline ebook retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony,Kobo, Diesel and Amazon.

If you dont have the patience, time orskills to properly format your masterpiece per these requirements,consider hiring someone. Several Smashwords authors havevolunteered to provide low-cost Smashwords Style Guide formattingservices for around $25/hr and up. If you would like a reference(we dont earn a referral fee), contact me, Mark Coker for myprivate list. Please note: if you utilize one of these formattingproviders, remember youre hiring them, not Smashwords. By usingthem you will not receive any preferential customer support orfast-tracking for the Premium Catalog.

Below are two examples of well-formattedSmashwords books. You can download the free RTF which you can openand view in your word processor.

1. Jigglers by GeraldWeinberg - http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/22171/3/386145/jigglers-aremac-a-century-later.rtf

2. The Unsuspecting Mage:The Morcyth Saga Book One by Brian S. Pratt - https://www.smashwords.com/books/download/1444/3/null/0/0/the-unsuspecting-mage-the-morcyth-saga-book-one.rtf

This Smashwords Style Guide is a livingdocument. As you learn formatting tips not presented in this guide,please forward them to Mark Coker at first initial second initialat smashwords dot com.

Smashwords publishes onlyoriginal and legal works, direct from the author or the exclusivedigital publisher. We do not publish public domain books unless youare the original author. We also dont publish incomplete orpartial books, or books that appear elsewhere on the Internet underother authors names, as is common with Private Label Rights scams . If youwrite erotica, all your characters should be adults. And finally,we strongly discourage any book that advocates get-rich-quicksystems for making money on the Internet. Smashwords is a seriouspublishing service for serious writers only.

. Improper Indents - Dont use tabsor space bar spaces for paragraph indents (instead, code yourparagraph style to define a special first line paragraph indent,or, use the ruler bar indent: see step # 9 below)

. Repeating paragraph returns - Never use more than four consecutive paragraph returns toarrange text on the page (this creates blank ebook pages onsmall-screened e-reading devices)

. Improper paragraph separation - Paragraphs require either first line paragraph indents or the block paragraph method.Otherwise your paragraphs run together and become unreadable. Useone or the other (indents are best for fiction and muchnon-fiction, blocks are usually only for non-fiction), but dontuse both. If youre aiming for the block style, d o not add paragraph returns betweenparagraphs on empty lines (to create theblank line). Instead, modify your paragraph style to add 6 pttrailing space at the end of the paragraph.

. Font and style mistakes - Dontuse fancy non-standard fonts, colored fonts (colors often disappearon some e-reading devices), kerning, large font sizes over 16pt,and dont go overboard with multiple paragraph styles (makes yourebook look ugly, and compounds odds of unexpectedproblems)

. Copyright page mistakes - Dontforget to include the required front matter (required foracceptance into the Premium Catalog), described in tip 21bbelow.

After you carefully implement the formattinginstructions in this Guide, your book is ready to upload andpublish to Smashwords. Simply click Publish from any Smashwordsweb page and follow the instructions to upload your book.

Smashwords takes your original MicrosoftWord source file, usually in .doc format, and converts it intomultiple ebook formats such as .EPUB, PDF..RTF, .PDB, .MOBI, LRFand TXT, as well as into online HTML and Javascript formats. Bypublishing in multiple formats, your book will be readable on anye-reading device, including the Amazon Kindle, Apple iPads,personal computers, the iPhone (via the popular Stanza e-readerapp), Sony Reader, Kobo Reader, Android smart phones, etc.

From the Publish screen, you can designate apercentage of your book that you want to make available as a freesample. Most authors choose between 15-30%. If you dont make afree sample available, your book will not be distributed to someimportant outlets.

Smashwords distributes your book via twoprimary mechanisms:

1. StandardCatalog : This catalog contains all thebooks for sale at Smashwords.com. Sample distributors includeStanza on the iPhone, which is used by over 4 million people todiscover and purchase ebooks; and Aldiko, an e-reading app forGoogle Android devices; and Word-Player, another e-reading app forAndroid devices. To qualify for distribution on Smashwords.com andin the Standard feed, an author or publisher is simply required toabide by the Smashwords Terms ofService and follow the instructions inthis Guide.