The Publishers asked me to write an article for them on conversion, since I was not happy with the outcome when it was done for me. I started looking into doing the conversions myself, so that I could have total control over the quality of the endproduct. Here is the article I wrote on request.
How to convert your Word manuscript into an ebook
Gerda Du Plessis, one of our popular authors, decided to take the big step of converting her own Kindle ebooks and has kindly written an article to assist other authors with the process.
Anthony Powel, the well-known English novelist, wrote a book with the title “Books do furnish a room” (1971). I agree.
About two months ago, however, my viewpoint on this changed drastically. My husband gave me a rather peculiar gift – at least, that is what I thought at the time. A Kindle. I carefully tucked it away on my desk and ignored it. For a month. Late one night I realized I would need something to read, and remembered my gift. I opened it – and my whole world changed.
Here, in the palm of my hand, I held millions of books. No need to navigate my way, with my adorable two year old on my hip, through a busy bookstore and just pick anything before she destroys the shop. Here, in the comfort of my warm bed I could leisurely browse, buy and read a book – within a few minutes!
By this time my sister, however, was already a huge Kindle fan, with many books in her Kindle library. She told me about www.kindlebooks.co.za. After I browsed this website I realized that maybe, just maybe the editor would be interested in publishing some of the work I have done over many years. Great was my excitement when Ms. Volek informed me that they would indeed be interested in publishing some of my work – and then dread overcame me. The website clearly states seven items that should accompany a manuscript – all of which I already had ready, with the exception of one.
The dreaded conversion of a Word document to a .mobi file
To pay R 3000.00 (more or less) to a company to do the conversion simply was not an option for me. Luckily, however, my sister is an IT specialist, as is the wonderful Ms. Volek.
So I listened carefully to their advice, and here is what I did in the end (Taking into consideration that I work on an Apple MacBook Pro, not that I am sure that it makes a difference on what type of computer you work).
Build your book for Kindle conversion
Most importantly, build your book for Kindle. This is also the title of a free book on offer at Amazon in the Kindle store. It is worth a read. Building your book for Kindle simply means, in my humble opinion, that conversion actually start at the beginning – when you write the novel.
The most important step to take, I have found, on advice from Ms. Volek, is to select the option in Word under Format/Document/Page Setup/Paper Size – A5. And write your novel in this format. Whenever you need a section to start on a fresh page, use the page break option (not a whole lot of returns).
Since Kindle (or any .mobi file) does not have set pages, everything will run together, unless you tell it to start on a fresh page. Also only use the keys on your keypad as far as possible. Do not use the option “insert symbol”; rather use the so-called ASCII characters.
Other formatting
Use centering, not spaces. Do not indent the first line of your paragraphs - Calibre will handle all that. Set your paragraphs to Widow and Orphan control, and "Keep paragraphs together" - this will prevent messy half paragraphs. It will also make it very clear when you have very long paragraphs!
Use a standard font - Times, Georgia, Calibri, Helvetica or Arial are good choices. Unusual Typefaces will not carry through the conversion process.
Use Word's headings (H1, H2 etc) - these will not only carry through to Calibre, but will allow you to create an automatic table of contents should you want one.
Add an extra "return" at the end of paragraphs - Calibre can either remove double paragraphs if you choose to indent text, or add them if you use the "line spacing" options in Word to create extra paragraph spacing.
Remove all headers, footers and page numbers. These just create strange numbers and words scattered all over your file!
Since my manuscripts were already typed in the format required by all publishers, I merely changed the page size to A5 and inserted page breaks were needed and formatted the rest of the document to look perfect in A5 size. A Kindle page is more or less an A5 – therefore you will get a good idea what your novel will look like on a Kindle.
Beginning conversion
Many of the articles on the Internet refer to the fact that before you convert your document you must save it as a webpage (HTML). That did not work for me. When I started working on my Apple MacBook Pro, Calibre ( Calibre is the program you need to convert the HTML / RTF document to an AZW or .mobi file.) refused to convert anything saved in the HTM format. That is when I tried the rich text format. I thus saved my Word document as a rich text format (RTF).
(Editor's Note: if you save your Word document with images to Filtered HTM, it usually keeps the images. However make sure your images are small - not more than 9cm wide or it won't fit on the screen of the Kindle)
Using Calibre
The next step is to convert this RTF document with Calibre to a .mobi file.
Calibre can be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge. The new version provides you with more than one conversion option namely AZW, .mobi etc. We have however found that it is best to always convert to .mobi, since that format is compatible to all Kindles, whereas the new AZW3 is not compatible to the older Kindles.
In Calibre, under “look and feel” it is of paramount importance that you select the option “remove spacing between paragraphs”. This ensures that your text looks like it should, without ugly spaces between all your paragraphs. Do not change any of the other settings.
It is also important to save the book under the correct title with the correct author name, under author, because this is how it will appear on a Kindle.
To my relief it worked. I must say this only worked after I received many helpful hints from Ms. Volek and after I tried many different selections. Now it barely takes 5 minutes to convert a document, I can smugly declare. Though I suspect it has nothing to do with my computer skills, but as I said in the beginning, it has everything to do about how you build your book from the start.
Always Test!
It is also really important to drag the converted .mobi file to your Kindle and open it. Many times I find errors that I have overlooked on the computer when reading the manuscript on my Kindle. It is also advisable to open the manuscript on your Kindle in order to ensure that a little electronic devil did not get in the works and confused your formatting.
I can assure you that there is no greater feeling of relief and pride when the document appears as perfect on your Kindle as it does on your computer.
Since electronics are slowly but surely changing the scope of the publishing industry, keep in mind, whenever you buy or write a novel, the words of the English lawyer, courtier, philosopher and essayist, Francis Bacon. He wrote (in 1625) that: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Happy writing and converting, fellow authors!
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