by Karen Powers
In the next chapter you will learn how to format an eBook you already have written and turning it 100 % Kindle-friendly so you can upload it as soon as possible to the KindleStore.
I highly recommend you read and follow all the steps in this chapter first, so you get the hand of why you do the things you do when creating an eBook that is 100 % Kindle-friendly!
Chapter 4: How to format your eBook to Kindle!
If you want to turn your already written eBook into a 100 % Kindle-ready eBook I highly recommend you first read and exercise the 9 simple steps found in the chapter above.
It teaches you the basics of how an eBook must be structured in order for it to work correctly with Kindle devices.
In this chapter I will only show you the simple steps of copying and pasting your current content and making sure the so called “styles” are correct.
If you do not understand what I mean with styles I once again highly recommend you read and exercise the 9 simple steps in chapter 3 since it will make you understand everything that I am about to talk about in this chapter on formatting your eBook to Kindle!
Let us begin!
The main importance when you copy and paste your already written eBook into a 100 % Kindle-ready eBook is that you make sure that the styles are correct.
If you create a new Microsoft Word document and you are about to copy and paste everything from your eBook let us start with some basics.
In order to copy you can either select the text so it gets highlighted and then right-click on it with your mouse or choose the option Copy by left-clicking on that option with your mouse (see picture below):
You can also select the text with your mouse and then hold down the CTRL-key on your keyboard and press down the C-key once and release the CTRL-key afterwards.
This is quicker and will copy your selected text!
When you want to paste in the text, you first place your cursor in the document (where the cursor is will the text be pasted into) and then you right-click with your mouse where the cursor is placed and this pops up:
The option “Paste” will only be available if you have actually selected and copied something from your other document.
If you cannot choose the option “Paste” you have not copied anything yet.
You can also paste by holding down the CTRL-key on your keyboard and pressing once on the V-key and then release the CTRL-key.
Okay, now you know the basics of copying and pasting.
I will now show the importance of making sure your styles are correct when you paste in your headings and text from your already written eBook into your upcoming 100 % Kindle-ready eBook.
For example, let us say that I copy my Heading 2 from this eBook (this is actually the color, font type and size of heading 2 from which this eBook were written in; see picture below):
When I paste this text into a newly created Microsoft Word document, the text will look like this (see picture below):
If we look up in the “Styles”-section found in the “Home”-tab in our supposed Kindle-ready eBook we are copying and pasting to, we see that the text we copied is using the Heading 2-style (see picture below):
This is the case since Heading 2 is yellowy highlighted when we have the cursor on the text we pasted into the new document.
If this heading, that we copied was supposed to be heading 1, what you simply do is to have your cursor placed somewhere in the text you have copied and just left-click with your mouse on the Heading 1 in the “Styles”-section found in the “Home”-tab and simple magic happens (see picture below):
Click twice with your left mouse-button if you have to, and the way we can see that this was a success is to see what heading is yellowy highlighted now in the “Styles”-section in the supposed Kindle-ready document (see picture below):
Perfect!
There is really just one more thing you need to be able to fix correctly that you copy and paste and that is the raw content text.
For example, let us say that I would like to copy this text from the template that this eBook is written in.
I select the text with my cursor and hold down the CTRL-key on my keyboard, hit the C-key once and release the CTRL-key, then this selected has been copied (see picture below):
When I have copied this text, I just right-click where I want to paste this text, and I chose to paste it just below the passed the heading 2 that I then changed into heading 1.
If your text now keeps the same font type, font size and margins that it has from your original document, you look at the bottom right and you will see a brown briefcase-icon (see picture below):
Left-click with your mouse on that brown briefcase-icon and left-click on the choice labeled “Match Destination Formatting”.
What happens now is that your text turns into the Normal-style that you have in your new supposed Kindle-ready document!
You know this to be the case when you place your cursor in the text you pasted into the new document and you take a look at the “Styles”-section to see what style has been yellowy highlighted (see picture below) and it seems to be the Normal, as it should:
Now you know how to copy and paste headings and raw content text from your already written eBook into the supposed Kindle-ready document.
The last thing you need to remember now is that when you copy images, you should save them in Microsoft Paint as JPG-files and then use the “Picture”-button found in the “Insert”-tab in your new supposed Kindle-ready document since otherwise the converting when uploaded to KindleStore will be a complete mess.
The same goes for the cover you want to copy and paste; copy and paste it into Microsoft Paint and save it as a JPG-file and then insert it as a picture on the first page in your new supposed Kindle-ready document.
When you do this you will have options to move position your image in the middle by left-clicking with your mouse on the “Text Wrapping”-icon and choose the “In front of Text” (see picture below):
As you can see, your images gets circles and quadrants that you can use to resize it and move it around (by holding down your left-mouse button and move it at the same time and then release your left mouse-button when you want your image to stay there; see picture below)
Of course, as you can see in the picture above, if you have some text on the same page where you paste your image and text-wrap it as “In Front of Text” it will be in front of your text and make a big mess for you.
To fix this you just need to move down your headings and text by the power of the “Enter”-key.
To place your cursor in front of the very first letter of the heading so you can move it all down, place your cursor somewhere in the heading-name and press on the “Home”-key on your keyboard and then press “Enter”-key until you have your headings and text where you want it to be!
Eventually, when you have copied and pasted a whole chapter you must insert a page break BEFORE you start copying and pasting the next chapter heading and its following text.
You insert a page break as told before using the “Insert”-tab and then choose the “Page Break”-button with your left mouse-button when your cursor is at the last character of your last line in your last paragraph in your latest chapter you have just copied and pasted into the new supposed Kindle-ready document!
So, there you have it!
You create a table of contents when you have copied and pasted all headings and text (including the inserted page breaks after each chapter with its related text).
Then you create the bookmarks and then just save the document as a .DOC or .DOCX (depending on your Microsoft Word version).
Finally, you just upload the newly created document that is 100 % Kindle-ready up to the KindleStore and you can preview it with Kindle Previewer to make sure it looks and works the way it should and you want it to, before you “enroll it” out to the whole wide Internet-user’s world!
Chapter 5: Invaluable Resources at Your Disposal!
Invaluable resour
ce #1: Have you written an eBook now using this guide and want to publish it online on Kindle but you don’t know how to go about it?
Then click on this link below and you will be taken to my other very simple handbook on how to publish your eBook on Kindle, an illustrated simple step-by-step guide:
http://www.amazon.com/eBook-Publishing-Guide-Publish-ebook/dp/B007L9UXDC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333233357&sr=1-1
Invaluable resource #2: Have you stumbled across something in the eBook writing and/or formatting that does not help you right now by reading this book?
Then click on this link below and you will be taken to Kindle’s great community forum where you can get the latest updates and help in your Kindle eBook creations (simply log in with your Amazon-account):
http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/forumindex.jspa
Invaluable resource #3: If you really want to see how your eBook will look like and behave on the different Kindle devices you must get the free Kindle Previewer software:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621
Invaluable resource #4: Do you want to know what you can and cannot have in your eBook depending on what Kindle device you want to appeal to?
Then click on the link below to get to the well-referenced Wikipedia page for the Amazon Kindle devices:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
Invaluable resource #5: Are you writing your very first eBook for the first time for Kindle and you need an account so you can upload it?
Then visit the page for Amazon Kindle Self-publishing by clicking on the link below (and register a new user and you will be ready to go):
http://kdp.amazon.com/
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why Should You Format your eBooks To Kindle? 3
Chapter 2: What are and how do Kindle eBooks look like? 7
Chapter 3: How to create your First Kindle eBook From Scratch! 20
Chapter 4: How to format your eBook to Kindle! 51
Chapter 5: Invaluable Resources at Your Disposal! 57