How To Add Extra Paragraph Returns To An Epub

turn Microsoft Word document into ebook EPUB

Annotation from Jane:This post has been updated to reverberate changes in tools bachelor on the market place.

And then your volume is sitting in Microsoft Give-and-take, and you'd like to become that cloth converted into an ebook format y'all tin sell through ebook retailers such equally Amazon.

If you're patient and willing to format your Discussion document carefully, you can use the automated conversion processes of Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, or like ebook retailer and distribution services. They desire to make it piece of cake for you to go published, and so they'll convert your Word document into an ebook file instantly, equally soon as you lot upload information technology.

Only the results may look subpar if yous don't gear up your document showtime. I'm grateful to Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur for sharing the following information on how to prep your Microsoft Word file to convert cleanly into an ebook file. Although it won't have all the bells and whistles y'all'd get with professional person book formatting software (eastward.g., Vellum or InDesign), it is cost-effective and used past many novelists. (This method will not work well if your work is highly illustrated or has many different styles, charts, etc.)

Side annotation: It'due south possible you've also heard of MOBI files. These used to be the preferred ebook file format for Amazon. However, in 2021, Amazon announced that they would terminate accepting MOBI files and adopt EPUB.

Before your outset formatting your Microsoft Word file

Before you begin, brand sure you lot include all the different parts of a book. For example, most books have front affair and back matter.

The front affair consists of things like a Title Folio, Copyright Folio, and Dedication Page.
The back matter could include an Author Biography, Acknowledgments, a Notation from the Writer, and sometimes a CTA (call-to-action).

For your font, start with a black, 12-point standard font similar Times New Roman.

Update your Microsoft Word paragraph settings and margins

After the font is set up and you're ready, change the indentation in the Paragraph settings. When writing a book in Give-and-take that you intend to export equally an ebook, you need to refrain from using the Tab central and implementing hard indentations for every paragraph because this results in an indentation that is much also big for a book.

Instead, click into the Paragraph settings and change the indentation to First Line, so 0.2" or 0.3." You can effort a few different indentation sizes and run into which one looks better. The line spacing should be changed to Single and the alignment should exist fix to Left for the body text.

The margins should be changed to 0.5". Since ebooks are read on various types of tablets and digital devices and accept reflowable text, the page size doesn't matter and y'all can exit it at the default, which is 8.five" x 11" letter in the United states of america.

Make your chapter headings consistent

It's best to go along all the Chapter Headings the same throughout the book. To brand sure Chapter Headings are uniform for all chapters, select the Affiliate Heading in the certificate, then navigate to the Styles tab.

There are several options provided by Microsoft Word, such as Heading 1, Heading two, Title, etc. You can alter the font type and size if you would like it to be unlike from the ones provided past Microsoft Word.

Then, select the Chapter Heading you lot're modifying and utilise the Chapter Heading way you created to every affiliate in your book. Customizing the headings allows you to easily change all Affiliate Headings or other types of headings in your volume without having to modify them manually.

Later on the affiliate headings have been standardized, y'all tin get to the View tab and check the box by Navigation Pane. This will allow the Navigation Pane to popular upwards on the side of the document. It shows all the chapter headings, making it easy to click to the kickoff of each chapter without scrolling through the document.

Upload your Microsoft Discussion file to KDP

So you lot've successfully formatted your volume in Word. Now what? Can you but upload it to Kindle Straight Publishing (KDP) or another book service as is? Or do you have to practice more than?

Technically, you lot don't have to do whatever conversions. However, pay special attention when previewing your file. Circuitous formats such as tables, images, and so on may not convert well. Verify everything looks good before publishing. You may also want to employ one of the tools mentioned below to convert your Word file into EPUB outside of KDP and make direct changes to the EPUB file (which you can so upload to KDP).

There are more advanced aspects of volume formatting, such as adding driblet caps to the beginning of each chapter, creating fancier chapter headings, etc. As you get more than comfortable with book formatting, you tin experiment with more advanced way choices.

If you would like further information about book formatting check out Dave Chesson's full guide on all things volume formatting.

If you don't want to mess around in Give-and-take

Here are workable options that don't involve ownership software, with one exception. Once again, these methods will merely be appropriate if your volume is predominantly text, with few images and specific formatting requirements.

Use Calibre

Calibre is a gratuitous software that tin can convert your Word file into whatsoever ebook format. You tin can download Calibre hither. Converting your book is painless, but preview your file extensively to brand sure all your formatting translated well. Yous'll likely demand to make boosted changes.

Start with Draft2Digital's free conversion tool

Authors frequently report the Draft2Digital conversion from Word to EPUB to be the smoothest and easiest they've used. Fortunately, y'all don't have to distribute through Draft2Digital in order to take advantage of their conversion; their terms of service allow you to set up an account, upload your Word medico, export the EPUB file, then take it elsewhere, to another retailer or distributor. (Not all ebook distributors are so kind in their terms.)

Once you've downloaded the EPUB file from the automatic conversion process, you may exist happy with it exactly as is, or y'all may want to open it up in Calibre to make adjustments.

Use Amazon'southward free Kindle Create software

Amazon offers Kindle Create to help you design and format ebook files using Word, but there'due south one huge caveat: They volition create ebook files that work on Kindle,but they will not be EPUB files. That ways that the files y'all set using Amazon's tools volition not work at other retailer or distribution sites.

Use Reedsy'south complimentary cloud-based editing tools

Reedsy is all-time known every bit a freelance market where you can find editors and other publishing professionals to help you edit, publish, and promote your work. They also offer a suite of editing and collaboration tools that can aid you lot format and export EPUB (and print book) files out of their cloud-based system. Then you tin can load upwards your EPUB in another software, such as Calibre or Sigil, to make further adjustments if you don't want to keep working in Reedsy.

For Mac users: Vellum ($)

One of the nearly dear tools of indie authors, Vellum is an intuitive software that helps you lot design, format, and export great-looking ebooks, in EPUB format. It allows y'all to start by uploading Word documents (among others). However, information technology volition cost you. While the software is free to download, being able to export ebook files volition cost you lot a i-time fee of $199. This option makes the virtually sense for authors who look to be producing multiple ebook files over many months or years.

Dump your Word doc into some other word processor that tin consign EPUB files

If y'all own or use any of the following tools:

Apple Pages
Scrivener
Google Docs

… then you can consign your document equally an EPUB file. Sometimes information technology's not a bad thought to accept your Microsoft Word document, import information technology into or open it inside another 1 of these systems, so run across how well information technology exports equally EPUB.

For the unafraid and adventurous: Sigil

Sigil is a complimentary, open-source editor for EPUB (ebook) files. Probably the nigh hard part of using Sigil is identifying how to download and install information technology, since it's on Github and isn't exactly marketed to the boilerplate non-tech consumer.

All the same, one time you lot take the application installed, information technology's not difficult to piece of work with if yous know a niggling HTML. If y'all tin use WordPress—or fifty-fifty if you lot're comfy with Microsoft Give-and-take's quirks—you tin can probably handle Sigil once your content is imported properly. It'due south a very lightweight software.

Your turn: What tricks or tips do y'all have to share near creating and editing EPUB files? Permit me know in the comments.

Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. She is the publisher of The Hot Sheet, the essential newsletter on the publishing industry for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Yr past Digital Book Earth in 2019.

In addition to being a columnist forPublishers Weekly, Jane is a professor with The Great Courses, which released her 24-lecture series, How to Publish Your Book. Her book for creative writers, The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Printing), received a starred review from Library Journal.

Jane speaks regularly at conferences and industry events such as BookExpo America, Digital Book World, and the AWP Briefing, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Find out more.