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E-Book Formatting

Are you interested in self-publishing? Looking for help with the technical stuff? If so, you’ve come to the right place. If you’ve been visiting this site for long, you’ll know a couple things about me:

These days those three things come together in almost every article I post to the blog. And if you’re visiting the site, I’m constantly encouraging you to do the same: tell stories, share your knowledge, and when it’s ready, publish your work. Not everyone’s ready for that last step though.

Maybe you’re still earning your wings as a novelist. Maybe you’re still doing research or building up material for your book. Or maybe you’ve got it all ready, and the only thing standing in your way is the technical expertise necessary to format a professional-quality e-book.

If that’s the case, I can help.

In the summer of 2010 I decided to establish my own publishing imprint, Consortium Books. As a Technical Writer by trade, I was determined from the very beginning to produce well-formatted, professional-quality e-books. We’ve now published a handful of books (with many more on the way), and in the process I’ve perfected e-book formatting. If you’re looking to self-publish your novel and in need of an experienced and professional formatter, let me help.

What We Need

If you’re interested, contact us for a schedule and cost estimate. We can generally process a manuscript in a matter of days. Here’s what we’ll need from you to do our processing:

  • The manuscript in an editable format (generally Word .doc or Google Docs)
  • A front-cover image to embed in the e-book (generally a JPEG at 600×800)
  • Some general metadata concerning the book:
    • Title (and Series Title if applicable)
    • Language
    • Subjects and Sales Categories
    • Author Name
    • Copyright Date
    • Publisher Name and/or ISBN (if you have one)

What We Do

With that information, we’ll convert your manuscript into an e-book. There are a couple caveats to this offer.

  • We don’t do layout. We’ll do our best to match your existing formatting to available e-book styles, but we’re not going to improve your existing layout, and some more advanced styles may not convert at all.
  • We don’t do editing or cover design. If you’re looking for those services we can probably recommend someone, but that’s not part of this service.

It’s important for you to know exactly what you’re getting, so we put that warning right up front. Now here’s what we do provide:

  • We convert your manuscript into a format readable on all major e-book readers (including dedicated readers, tablets, desktop software, and mobile apps).
  • We embed your e-book with cover art and relevant metadata.
  • We build a working table of contents.
  • We insert clean chapter breaks.
  • We add any frontmatter or endmatter you want to include, but make sure the reader starts on Page One.

In short, we avoid a lot of the most irritating formatting oversights of even legacy-published e-books. Starting as low as a couple hundred dollar, we’ll make your e-book look like one of the best.

What You Get

Once the conversion is complete, we’ll provide you two digital files: book.mobi and book.epub. You can open them right in your e-book reader of choice and review our work. We have no doubt you’ll be satisfied. And when you are, you’re ready to publish your book. You can upload “mobi” file to Kindle Direct Publishing for Amazon. You can upload the “epub” format everywhere else.

After that, all you need to do is provide them the same metadata you put together for us (things like title and category information) and your cover image, and then you’re ready to hit “Publish.” Is that what you’re looking for? Then drop us a line, and let’s get started!