Writing an ebook is a significant amount of work. Individuals spend weeks or months putting together eBooks. It’s no wonder that writers want their creations to do well after investing so much time creating them. Unfortunately, many writers format their finished ebooks on their own and end up with a product that doesn’t sell well. Even the best-written book can get denied from programs such as the Kindle Book program if your book isn’t formatted properly. Not only that, but a well-formatted book is more pleasant to read and will get reviewed more highly by readers. That’s why so many people opt for professional formatting services rather than doing the work themselves.
Can You Format Your Book Yourself?
Many people that are self-publishing books want to know if they can format their first eBook themselves. The answer to this question is yes, but it’s not necessarily as simple as it seems. While there is no shortage of tools available for publishing your first book, many of the tools don’t leave you with the high-quality finished product you want to give to your readers. When you rely on something like Kindle Direct Publishing or Calibre, you’re going to have to put in some work to complete the formatting task, and you won’t end up with the most impressive results either. You must consider how to outline a nonfiction book because if you start writing without a good outline, this will take more time and your book will be incomplete.
To speed up this process, you can invest in paid tools to help you with many common formatting tasks, but you’ll spend a significant amount on most of these programs. If you plan on formatting many different books yourself, it makes sense to invest in tools to do the work yourself. Most people don’t plan on writing dozens of books, though, which means that expensive tools aren’t usually worth the cost.
While you can go through the process of formatting your book for Kindle and for other publishing networks, you’ll likely spend more time than you expect on the task and aren’t likely to be blown away by the finished results either. You’ll have a usable book, but some of your readers will be uninspired by its appearance and may even give lower book reviews than it deserves because of any formatting issues it has.
If you’re looking to save as much money on your book initially as possible, formatting it yourself can make sense. For most people, it’s not the best way to go through, and other options are still cost-effective enough for you to consider.
Should You Work with a Formatting Company?
If you’re looking for the very best final results for your eBook, or you don’t want to spend the hours it will take you to complete all the formatting for your own book, it often makes sense to work with eBook formatters to complete the final formatting for your new book.
The right service providers are affordable to work with, and they can give you professional results that you’ll be proud of. Of course, you’ll have to work the cost of the formatting into your production costs. Still, most self-publishers find that their books perform better when they’re professionally formatted and that they make more money by working with pros for this process. Not only that, but it takes significantly less time to format an eBook with professional help. With all the time saved, you can focus on your next big book or look into marketing your first creation. The best companies will take a finished Microsoft Word document from you and transform it into an eBook in many different formats. Whether you just want to sell your book as part of the Kindle program, or you want to list it with several online sellers, you can do that with access to different eBook formats.
It’s a good idea to look at the services offered by different formatting companies and to compare their costs to see which provider is a good option for you. The best companies offer a blend of quality and value to give writers access to nicely-formatted books without being too expensive.
While it’s possible to format an eBook yourself and handle all the steps involved with publishing it online, it’s not the most efficient way to get the task done for most people. Working with a professional service will give you better results in less time and increase your production cost that much either. For most people, it’s worth the investment unless you’re determined to save as much as possible or you want to experience the formatting process for yourself.