Smashwords Style Guide

by Mark Coker

  The following errors may prevent your book from gaining inclusion in the Premium Catalog:

  - more than 4 consecutive paragraph returns in a row (creates blank ebook pages)

  - tabs (eliminate all tabs, which you created by hitting the “Tab” key)

  - extra paragraph returns between paragraphs in an attempt to create a blank line

  - exotic fonts (instead, stick with Times New Roman, Garamond and Arial)

  - large font sizes (14pt is a recommended maximum, 11 or 12pt is better)

  - indents made with space bar spaces or tabs (the most common bad habit of all authors)

  - text in columns (we don’t support columns)

  - text in tables (ebooks don’t handle tables. Import tables as images)

  - text in text boxes (Ugh, the horror!)

  - multiple text or paragraph styles for your body (for example, don’t mix Normal style with Body Text style)

  - automatic footnotes (not supported, may cause the conversion to fail)

  - text wrapped around floating images (instead, right mouse click on image, click Format Picture: Advanced: Align with Text, then use Word’s center button to center)

  - and finally, to avoid the copyright error, carefully follow tip 21b below

  Frequently Asked Questions:

  Q. Can you show me an example of a well-formatted book?

  Yes! Check out Gerald Weinberg’s Jigglers, which is a good formatting example.

  Q: How long will it take for me to format my book for Smashwords?

  This depends on your knowledge of Microsoft Word. The average author, if they take the time to carefully study and implement the Style Guide, can successfully complete their formatting in under two hours. Most Smashwords experts can complete a book in under one hour. Novels are easiest. If you decide to skip the Style Guide because you already have decades of experience in publishing, then you’ll frustrate yourself and waste time. People with decades of print publishing experience tend to have the most trouble with Smashwords formatting, probably because Smashwords was created by someone (me!) without publishing experience who decided to create a faster, simpler approach to ebook publishing. Don’t be discouraged by the length of this Guide. It has a lot of pictures to help guide even computer novices down the path to formatting success, and it’ll save you money in the process. We created Smashwords so you shouldn’t have to pay anyone a penny to publish with us. If you don’t have the time, skills, or patience to follow the instructions, and you’d rather hire someone to help you, ask me for a referral to a low cost formatter on my private list (fellow Smashwords authors), who for probably $30 to $75 can probably make your life simpler and help you get in the Premium Catalog faster.

  Q: Can you share time-saving tips?

  Yes! You’ve already taken the first step, which is to read this Style Guide. It will save you a lot of time, prevent frustration and help you get your book distributed more quickly. Next, jump down to my Keyboard Shortcuts if you want a quick refresher on some keyboard tricks that will save you time and reduce errors. Next, take a look at the sample files above. Next, use Microsoft Word. Although many Smashwords authors use other word processors, it’s more difficult to do so because these other programs have a habit of introducing hidden anomalies into your file.

  Q: What types of books work best on Smashwords?

  Straight form narrative (all fiction and some non-fiction), biographies, memoirs, poetry, essays, narrative-heavy non-fiction, scripts, screenplays and plays. Yes, the book can contain images. Follow the instructions below.

  Q: How many books will I sell?

  Any book, ebook or print, is difficult to sell. Some Smashwords authors haven’t sold a single book. Others have sold thousands. The latter group is not the norm, so you should keep your sales expectations modest. Read the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide to understand what we do to help you sell your book, and what you must do for yourself. You are responsible for writing a book that resonates with readers, and for marketing that book. Our responsibility is to help you get your book published and distributed. Approximately 80 percent of your sales will come from Smashwords’ rapidly expanding network of ebook retailers, thus the urgency for you to follow the Style Guide so we can quickly distribute your book. All your sales originating at Smashwords.com, our small retail operation, will be reported instantly to you. Sales reporting from our retail partners is time-delayed. Learn more about how Smashwords royalties are calculated and paid by reading our Royalty FAQ.

  Q: What types of books are most difficult to format for Smashwords?

  The most challenging books at Smashwords include coffee table photo books, and books where the words are part of the image. If complex layout is essential to the enjoyment of your book, you’ll need to reformat it to achieve readability as an ebook. Restrict formatting to paragraph returns at the end of every paragraph, indents, headings, and a little bold or italicized text here or there. With some special care, you can modify most types of books to work fairly well on Smashwords. If you cannot separate the complex formatting and layout from the content of your book, then consider restricting your ebook output formats on Smashwords to only PDF and RTF, because these formats will most closely match the form of your original Word file. The downside of restricting your book to PDF and RTF, however, is that you’ll reduce the potential readership for book because EPUB is the most commonly distributed format at Smashwords.

  Q: Can I upload a work in progress?

  No. Smashwords is only for books that are complete and ready for public consumption.

  Q: Can I upload only a sample chapter or two?

  No. We only publish complete books. If your story doesn’t represent a complete reading experience, you can’t publish it at Smashwords, because our customers expect a complete story. However, when you upload your complete book, you can designate a certain percentage of the book, starting from the beginning, that you make available as a free sample.

  Q: Can I upload public domain books?

  Only if you are the original author.

  Q: Can I upload “Private Label Rights” articles to Smashwords?

  No, never. If you do this, we will delete your account without warning and you will forfeit all earnings.

  Q: Do I put my book cover in the manuscript file?

  Our EPUB and MOBI formats will automatically insert the cover image into your ebook file, though our PDF and RTFs will not. If you want the image in all formats, import it into the top of your Word file. Meatgrinder is programmed to strip the duplicate from its EPUB and MOBI versions, but if it misses the extra image, it’s not the end of the world.

  Q: Do you edit my book prior to publishing?

  No. It is your responsibility to upload a completed, professionally written, edited and proofread book. Although Smashwords makes it easy to publish, your potential readers expect you to produce a quality, well-written professional work.

  Q: How important is it that my book has been proofread and copy edited?

  Extremely important! Don’t publish your book at Smashwords until it has been thoroughly proofread for grammar, spelling and typos. One of the biggest criticisms leveled against self-published authors is that their work is not professional quality. Don’t perpetuate this stereotype. Take pride in your work and invest the necessary effort to have others proofread and copyedit your book prior to publishing it on Smashwords or anywhere else. Your readers will thank you and your book will be more successful.

  Q: Will Smashwords format my book to make it look perfect?

  No. If we did that, our service would not be free. Our technology is completely automated. All file conversions are automated by our Meatgrinder file conversion system.

  Q: Does Smashwords provide professional formatting and text design services?

  No. Smashwords does not provide paid services of any kind. This guide provides guidance on how to prepare your book for quality ebook conversion through Meatgrinder. If you decide you require assistance, email m
e for my private list of fellow Smashwords authors who provide low cost formatting and cover design.

  Q: I’ve already formatted my book perfectly into separate versions for PDF, Mobi and others. Can’t I just upload my books and bypass the Meatgrinder?

  No, sorry, we don’t accept this, and for good reason. It’s important that books come to us in a common format so we can ensure the files are virus-free, free of DRM, and free of strange permutations that could cause unexpected problems for our customers. One of our retailers, Sony, requires us to create a specially modified EPUB file for them, so this is another benefit of having Smashwords perform your conversion. We also need the file as a Word document so we can reliably convert it into all the different formats, as well as future formats. But don’t fret; after you read this guide you’ll realize it’s easy to format your book for Smashwords! If you only have your manuscript in PDF form, read the section below, entitled, “Your Source File,” for tips on how to get your PDF back into Word format.

  Q: Will Smashwords one day allow authors and publishers to replace Smashwords-generated files with files generated by the author or publisher?

  Eventually, yes. In the past, we’ve referred to this as the Meatgrinder Bypass. It’s a planned feature, but the implementation of this feature has been delayed in favor of focusing on higher priority projects such as building out our distribution channels. The current thinking is that this feature will be rolled up in a new future service called Smashwords Direct.

  Q: Can I use “drop caps” at the beginning of a paragraph or chapter?

  A drop cap is the large initial capped letter you may see in the first paragraph of a chapter in a print book. A drop cap usually extends down three or four lines. You cannot use drop caps in Smashwords, so eliminate all usage of them. Some authors will make the first letter of the first paragraph of a chapter a larger font size, and bold. This is a great, attractive alternative.

  Q: Will my finished Smashwords digital book look like my original print manuscript?

  Often, it will look different. Don’t try to make your ebook look like an exact carbon copy of your print book. Such an objective is ill-conceived. Ebooks are different from print books. If you carefully follow the Style Guide, you’ll get good results.

  Q: I don’t use Microsoft Word. Can I still publish on Smashwords?

  Yes, though Microsoft Word is your best option. If you want to ensure the best results for your ebook, and you don’t use Microsoft Word, consider investing in a copy. You can usually find it for around $150 or less. Word will give you the greatest control over your formatting by allowing you to follow the Smashwords Style Guide. If your time is valuable to you, and you plan to publish multiple ebooks with Smashwords, Word is a good investment.

  If your word processing software allows you to save a file as a Microsoft Word .doc file, then it might work for you. There are numerous free Word processors that emulate Microsoft Word or will convert files into Microsoft Word format. One free option popular with many Smashwords authors is Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/), which is available for the PC, Mac and other platforms. You can also use Apple Pages to output a Word .doc file. We do not recommend WordPerfect because it caused our authors headaches, which causes us headaches (see next question).

  Q. I use WordPerfect. Can I save my manuscript as a Word .doc or .RTF and upload it?

  Smashwords authors who try to convert their WordPerfect files into Microsoft Word .doc format are often frustrated beyond belief. Based on our experience, WordPerfect does not reliably export to Word .doc and RTF. It inserts tabs instead of proper first line paragraph indents, and it introduces corrupted data and strange control characters. If you use WordPerfect, we recommend saving your file as plain text, and then reopening it in Microsoft Word. Next, follow the recommendations in this Style Guide.

  Q. Is there a maximum size file I can upload?

  Yes. The source file you upload must be smaller than 5 megabytes. If your file is larger, it usually means it contains large images, or multiple images. Ask yourself if the images are really necessary. If you’re using images for chapter headings or similar artistic flourishes, for example, remove them and replace them with text. For essential images, reduce the file sizes (see the next tip for how to do this).

  Q. How do I reduce the file size of my images?

  First, if your file is an RTF, save it as a Word .doc. Word .doc files handle images much more efficiently. If you’re using Microsoft Word 2003 or later, Word has a GREAT feature that will compress your images without visibly harming quality. Just right mouse click on any image in the document, select format picture, then under the picture tab in the lower left hand corner you'll see a link for "compress". This will compress many images 80% or more without any visible loss of quality. You can also use a photo editing tool such as Photoshop, or free utility such as Picasa by Google at http://picasa.google.com/. Please note: It doesn’t impact the file size to click the corner of an image and drag it inward.

  Q. What’s the best way to format poetry?

  For best results, present your poetry left justified, or, if it’s meant to be centered, centered. Don’t use indents to arrange the text on the page, because the indents could cause your poems to appear too far to the right of the screen (or worse, word-wrapped) on small-screened devices. This is why we suggest left justified.

  Q. [Advanced] How do I eliminate Word’s Indexing Field Codes?

  Smashwords does not support indexing, so if your source document uses Word’s field code for indexed words or phrases, you’ll want to eliminate the field codes before you upload to Smashwords. The field codes become visible when you activate Word’s “show/hide” command (as we mention below, you NEED to activate “show/hide” to expose your hidden formatting). Although you could strip them out manually, it would take hours and will introduce errors. Here’s a quick tip that takes only seconds: See our Keyboard Shortcuts section learn how to use Word’s “Find and Replace” feature (type CTRL+H) and then in the find field enter ^d xe ^? and leave the ‘replace with’ field empty. Then click ‘replace all’. Below is an image of what the indexing field codes look like.

  Introduction to Meatgrinder

  We affectionately call our file conversion system Meatgrinder. In the last two years, we have continually enhanced it to produce high quality ebooks. The most recent upgrade was August 2010, where we made a series of great improvements to our EPUB and MOBI files.

  Your source file, a Microsoft Word .doc document, goes in one end of the Meatgrinder and comes out the other end as multiple DRM-free digital book files for use on a multitude of e-reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble nook, the Sony Reader, iPhones, iPod Touches, the Apple iPad, a computer screen or virtually any other e-reading device.

  If you ignore the formatting requirements of the Smashwords Style Guide, Meatgrinder will turn your book into hamburger. Please follow the instructions!

  Your Required Source File

  The file you upload into the Meatgrinder should be a Microsoft .doc file (the default). If you’re a screenwriter, scriptwriter and playwright and you work in a program called Final Draft, save your document as an RTF file (however, you will need to manually correct the margins), and then open it in Word, save it as a Word .doc, and clean up from there.

  PDF Source Files (Not allowed): You cannot upload a source file as a PDF. If you only have your book in PDF form, here’s a free online service that will convert your PDF into a Word doc: http://www.pdftoword.com/ You upload your PDF to them and then they email it to you as a Word file. But be warned, the output it gives you will *not* be ready to publish on Smashwords. You will still need to perform clean-up. To save time, you’re better off contacting whoever converted your original manuscript into PDF and ask them to forward you the original source file, saved as either a Word .doc or .RTF file.

  If You only Have a Print Book: Many authors only have print copies of their books. How do you bring your book to life as an
ebook? It’s easier than you might think. Consider this cool service called Blue Leaf Book Scanning, which use optical character recognition technology to convert your book back into digital form. For around $25.00, they will scan your print book and send it to you as a Microsoft Word file. I’ve seen the raw files they produce, and they’re remarkably accurate. However, the service is not infallible. The Word file they send you will still require careful proofing, editing and reformatting. http://www.blueleaf-book-scanning.com/book_scanning_service_order.html

  InDesign Source Files: InDesign is a common layout application used by professional publishers. Smashwords does not accept InDesign files. However, from InDesign, you can export your book to .RTF format. Once it’s in RTF format, you can reopen the file in Microsoft Word, save it as a Word .doc, and then remove all the garbage introduced by InDesign (you’ll have tabs in random places, and other ugly formatting). The fastest way to clean up an RTF from InDesign (or any file, for that matter) is to use what I call the Nuclear Method. With the Nuclear Method, you open your file in Word, copy and paste it into Windows Notepad (or some other simple text editor that strips out all formatting), close Microsoft Word, then reopen Word to a fresh new Word document, then copy and paste the book from Notepad back into Word, and then carefully re-apply the minimal necessary formatting by following the Style Guide.