Preparing for eBook Conversion
BookBaby makes eBook conversion simple and easy. Here are some tips and guidelines for preparing your files for our conversion process.
Our retail partners require that eBooks are delivered in ePub or Kindle formats. We offer free basic conversion with every $99 eBook submission, which includes:
- a basic formatting check
- conversion from your supplied file (.doc, .docx, txt, .rtf, or .html)
- insertion of the cover image
- conversion of 10 graphic images
BookBaby also offers advanced conversion services if your eBook is a PDF, Quark, Pages, or InDesign file, or if you have more than 10 graphic images or 250 pages. Additional fees will apply. For more details, see our eBook conversion page.
The following guidelines will allow us to preserve your original formatting during the eBook conversion process:
- Proof your file for proper spelling, grammar, and syntax. Once your book has been converted to ePub format, it's too late to fix a typo! BookBaby does not proofread your book.
- Do not use tabs or the space bar to format paragraphs or individual lines. Please use the format paragraph menu or the alignment buttons in the toolbar of your text-editing program.
- If you choose to include the publisher's name and address, the date of publication, copyright information, ISBN number, or any appropriate collaborative credits, please do so within the first two pages of the document.
- Use a standard font for your document like Times New Roman or Courier New.
- Do not use very large or very small font sizes. We recommend 12pt font size for body text and 14-18pt for chapter titles.
- Extract content that is displayed in tables or sidebars and list it as ordinary text. Tables, inserts, and sidebars will not display properly in ePub format.
- Do not include any elements that refer to page numbers other than your formatted Table of Contents. On an eReader, whatever the user isolates on their screen is a "page," so all headers, footers, footnotes, and indexes will be deleted.
- Resize large images to 300 pixels high if you would like them to display in-line with text. Do all image resizing outside of the document, then reinsert them before saving. All images must be in .png, .jpg, or .tif format, 72 dpi, and in RGB color mode.
- Cover and full-page images: 800-1000 pixels tall by 550-700 pixels wide.
- Logos or simple images: 75 - 100 pixels high
- Do not wrap text around images. All images (except full-page images) should be set "in-line" with text.
- Be aware that special symbols may not convert properly to ePub unless they are characters in a standard font set. For this reason, we ask that you choose a font like Times New Roman for all text and symbols.
