Tips for writing an eBook – What program should I use?

Website design By BotEap.comWhen you’re just starting to write eBooks, you’re going to ask the occasional question that doesn’t really have an answer. Often this is because your question is not specific enough. Or it may be because different phases have different responses. But it may just be because it doesn’t matter.

Website design By BotEap.comAnd yet all new eBook writers are asking the same questions.

Website design By BotEap.comA good example of this type of question is “What program should I use?”

Website design By BotEap.comFirst, there are two basic sets of programs you’ll need, plus one you may want but think is counterproductive. The first is for the actual writing. And the answer is… it doesn’t really matter.

Website design By BotEap.comThe standard, however, is Microsoft’s Word. It has a number of tools, such as spell checkers, grammar checkers, and readability checkers, plus a thesaurus and dictionary, all built-in. But above all, it has the support of most of the world’s corporations. But almost any good, fully featured word processing package will do. Corel Wordperfect is an excellent option. So is OpenOffice Writer, which has the advantage of being free and the disadvantage of not having as many built-in tools.

Website design By BotEap.comThe key is to save your file in the format that the next person in line demands. Almost all the main packages can be saved in the format of the others. So it doesn’t really matter. If you’re writing eBooks for a client, your best bet is to choose the same package they use.

Website design By BotEap.comThe next program you need to worry about is formatting your eBook. And there the answer depends on the method you are going to use to market your ebook.

Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re going to sell your eBook through Amazon, Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble, or any of the myriad other eBook retailers, the answer is somewhat confusing. You’ll have to read their FAQ page. They will tell you in what format to send them. Sometimes this is the standard ePub format, but not always. In any case, you need to read those pages. They will also tell you what the details behind the format are, including in some cases that the book must be raw!

Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re going to sell your eBook directly, the primary format is almost always PDF (Portable Document Format). This is a format developed by Adobe Systems and is generally read with the free Adobe Reader program. However, that is not the only possible format.

Website design By BotEap.comThe first thing to do is check if the word processor you have chosen supports the desired format. PDF, HTML and XML are supported by most word processors, for example.

Website design By BotEap.comAlthough Adobe has a package for creating PDF files called Acrobat, there are also several open source programs available. PDFCreator, for example, is handled as if it were a printer. However, it generates PDF files instead of paper. There are also a number of open source and proprietary ePub file creation programs available. Many of these, like 2EPUB, are web services. Even Lulu provides a converter.

Website design By BotEap.comThe third program you might consider is a mind mapping tool. However, mind maps are best done by hand. So if you are going to use software, you must first determine why.