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Give Your File a Bath

I’m not certain this step is necessary, but it worked for me. Click on your manuscript
and “select all” to highlight EVERYTHING. Copy it and paste it into a program that strips all formatting codes out of the file’s html information.   (I used Notepad.)  Stray formatting codes left in the manuscript can mess up the conversion.

Getting Started on the Conversion

What format is your manuscript in now?  .Pdf? .docx?  .html? .doc?

What you need to start the conversion is a sterilized .doc file. NOT .DOCX   –  So find
the source file you used to make the pdf of your manuscript, and save it as a
.doc (Word 97-2003). If you use Word2007, you can select Word97-2003 on the
“Save as Type” drop-down menu. Then at the top of the screen , the file will be
identified as being in “Compatibility Mode.”

After your file is a .doc file, make sure all your content is as you want it (I’m not
talking about images here – I know nothing about images). Now start sanitizing
by doing some deleting:

Turn off headers and footers

Delete the entire table of contents

Turn off or delete all page numbers (and references to page numbers.)
Ebooks change the size and number of pages according to the whim (or
near-sightedness) of the reader, so page numbers are irrelevant.

Make sure there is only one space after each period at the end of each sentence, not two

Why I used Calibre instead of MobiPocket

MobiPocket is recommended by Kindle. I tried it first and everything went well until I
tried to create the hyperlinked table of contents (TOC) in the ebook. Nothing I tried worked: not the version with a Word-created hyperlinked TOC, and not the
version after I took out the Word-created TOC, or any other version.  While browsing an online forum, I found posts from people with the same problem.  One poster informed us the problem was caused by using InternetExplorer 9 for the download of MobiPocket. He recommended uninstalling InternetExplorer9 and installing InternetExplorer8– then downloading MobiPocket converter and reader again.  The next poster wrote it was
easier to just download Calibre to use instead.  So that’s what I did. It worked.

Downloads /programs You Will Need
(at least for these hints):

Word

Wordpad or Notepad

Kindle Previewer

EITHER Mobipocket Convertor and Mobipocket Reader

OR Calibre (this is the one I ended up using)

If necessary,free-up memory space by housecleaning your computer to get rid of unused programs before you start the downloads. The downloads aren’t huge, but many computers chug along under a load of unused programs, so you should check on available space first.  Be careful, however, about which programs you uninstall. If necessary, ask some tech-savvy person to help you decide what can safely be trashed. (Unused games, programs you installed to use once years ago, etc.)

Useful URL’s:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin  = what used to be dtp (digital text platform) is now kdp (kindle digital platform).  You can sign in to create an account any time, but don’t try to do anything there until your ebook is ready for upload and you have all your bio and book blurb info ready.

indieauthorguide.com = April L. Hamilton is the Indie Author’s guru. Her book, The Indie Author Guide, is out in an expanded second edition. It’s clearly laid out, logical,
and detailed. Since the subject matter is subject to rapid change, however, some of the information is already out-of-date. The book’s website has a fix for that,  with frequent updates on new developments. Get the book.

Mobipocket.com = website for one of the recommended free conversion programs (don’t download until you read my post about a glitch some users might encounter)

Calibre.com = website for the other recommended free conversion program (there might be more out there, but I’ve only tried the two)

CreateSpace.com = This is the self-publishing service provider I used to make my trilogy
available on Amazon.com, and elsewhere, as Print-On-Demand paperbacks.
CreateSpace also has a Convert-to-Kindle service, but it will cost something.  Also, April L. Hamilton does not recommend using that type of “Add-On” service from a self-publishing provider like CreateSpace or Lulu. She lists six reasons starting on p. 111 of her book.

Disclaimer

I’m a PC. I’ve never used a Mac, so don’t ask me Mac questions. (PC has worked fine for all my stuff. It’s other people getting into my stuff that causes problems.)  I have little experience with adding images, so if your manuscript has photos, tables, graphs, or other things that aren’t words, get April’s book.  (See next post – Get her book anyway. It contains a plethora of information you won’t find here.)

Sharing an experience

As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve recently converted three of my novels from their pdf paperback format  to Kindle ebooks.  Didn’t cost me a dime, and they look as good
as other Kindle books I’ve read. If you are considering publishing a DIY Kindle
ebook, I can give you a few free tips to get you started and maybe save you some
time on the learning curve. These posts focus on basics, but some are on topics
I spent hours trying to figure out, so the following hints might be useful to beginners.

The Kindle version of the Translight Trilogy is now available.  For details, click on the
cover images found on the “Books” page of this site.

I had three options for the cover images of the Kindle edition: ( 1) use the Amazon generic
“placeholder” image (a book, top half light and bottom half dark, with appropriate title and author added), (2) create a new image to upload, or (3) use the same images found on the paperback edition.

Since the information said Kindle does not yet display images in color (but they’re working on it), I was reluctant to use the paperback images. I don’t know how those photos would look in black and white.  Yet I wanted something more unique than a
generic placeholder, so I used Word to put together minimalist black-and-white cover
images.  These images by themselves may not inspire people to flock to Amazon to order the ebooks, but they are displayed on the same page as the more colorful, polished images of the paperback covers. These black-and-white images should help make the distinction
between the paperback and the Kindle editions, preventing confusion.  Also, I’m betting that where Kindle is concerned, people don’t spend much time looking at the cover image after they’ve purchased the download.  Kindle books aren’t likely to be displayed on coffee tables.