This step can be done during Step 2 or separately. Either way, I always suggest taking a couple more looks through the finished product when that time comes.
To format your content in a method ready for publication to Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords, the best advice I can offer is to keep it as simple as possible. This is not the time to get fancy, beginners.
Use Microsoft Word’s Styles to keep everything neatly organized. New chapters should get a “Heading 1” and a page break before it. Headings in the chapter should get a Heading 2 style. Text should be generally left as it normally appears in Word. You should either place spaces between paragraphs or you can use the standard first-line indents for fictional works.
More complicated formatting is not for those that lack technical prowess.
It is always possible to hire someone to format the book for you, but with Kindle Direct Publishing at least, if your simple book looks decent in Word, it usually translates pretty well to the Kindle. This isn’t always true, but it is generally true.
The most important step, and perhaps one of the hardest for newcomers to publishing, is to create a linked table of contents.
For Kindle books, this can be done simply by going to the “References” tab in Microsoft Word and inserting a table of contents. If you’ve used Heading 1 styles to define chapters, it will do the rest of the work for you.
For Smashwords, you will have to insert bookmarks for each section and create hyperlinks on the table of content items instead. This is all outlined in the Smashwords style guide, which I strongly suggest you read, as following it is perfect for highly compatible Kindle books as well.
Step 4. Create a Book C over
Once your content is written and edited, you need a book cover. If you’re savvy with image editing software, this is probably a breeze for you. Still, you have a few other options if that isn’t the case.
Kindle Direct Publishing includes a free cover creator online. These covers are simple, but you can upload your own image for the background and use
their templates to make quick, clean covers. These aren’t the best solution, but in a money pinch, they will get the job done most of the time.
You can also purchase premade covers from Etsy, Selfpubbookcovers.com,
Fiverr, and a number of other resources. While the prices will vary greatly from seller to seller, there are a load of high-quality covers, and most sellers will not resell the same cover more than once. With a service like Selfpubbookcovers.com, you can customize the cover on site with little effort required on your part.
Lastly, you can pay someone to produce an original cover for you.
Depending on your budget, a budget option like Fiverr may produce an adequate enough cover. If you need a highly professional design, expect to pay $100 or more, unless you can find a great contractor on Upwork.com
that’s still building a name for themselves.