Ebook Conversion

EBooks by Design offers a full eBook conversion service to our clients. We can convert from any to any format. Many authors and publishers do not have the time or expertise it requires to produce a well formatted eBook. Converting a book into any eBook format can be complicated and, to get the best results, really requires a professional conversion company such as ourselves.

The standard way to create ebooks is by formatting them as reflowable text. This is means that the text flows to fit the available screen. You have to think about each chapter as one big page and what you see on the screen is just part of that page. What you will see and where it appears on the screen will depend on several factors – firstly it will depend on the size of the screen on the device/app that the reader is using to view the book.

The second most important factor is what size font the reader selects to read the book with. (All eReading devices and apps let the reader change the font size. This is so the reader can choose a size they can comfortably view the book with) This obviously can mean that there will be differing amounts of words on the “screen page” depending on these first two factors alone.

There are also other factors (though these are not always used) – with many devices you can select different fonts, width of the text layout and line height between the lines of text.

We provide two reflowable formats as standard – mobi (Kindle) format (this is Amazon’s own format so when the book is uploaded the results will be the same as the proofs we will send. The other format is the ePub format (Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and Kobo eReader etc – basically every other device apart from the Kindle) which is the industry standard ebook format. Both formats are based on html. These two formats between them cover 99% of devices and apps that are currently available.

With EBooks by Design you get two formats for the price of one – we charge the same price for the standard reflowable text option whether we provide one or both formats because 95% of the work is done as html before splitting the file into the respective formats.

Once we receive your files we will manually convert your file/document/book. We will then check that the eBook is well designed by thoroughly testing such things as the internal links and checking that any images display and work correctly. We will also make sure that the overall layout of the eBook is compatible with the major eReaders and applications.

We will then send you proofs which you can check over and if you need any changes/corrections we will do them until you are happy with the book and then send the final files. The end result is a well designed and formatted eBook.

If you want us to upload the book for you to the various retailers we can do that for you as well it is included in the price.

We can, of course, provide you with finished books in any other format you require such as Fixed Layout for devices like the iPad and the Kindle Fire or iBook Author format for the iPad.

You will also need to decide whether you want an ISBN. Every version of your book has to have a different ISBN – so the Hardback’s has to be different from the Paperback’s which has to be different from the epub version which has to be different from the Kindle’s etc. etc.

Although you do not need an ISBN to sell an eBook on Amazon (though many authors do have them for the Kindle), the ePub version will need one if you wish to sell via most of the major retailers (some retailers will provide a free ISBN). We can supply you with ISBN’s for £15 each if you wish, though this means that we become the “official” publishers. This is largely a paperwork exercise but it does mean that we will register the book with the British Library.

In practical terms this will make no difference to you as you will still retain all the rights etc and can sell it where and how you like. If you want to purchase your own you can buy them from your country’s ISBN Agency (in some countries, New Zealand for example, they are free).

The price of your eBook will depend upon whether your book is a straight text eBook (most fiction books tend to be straight text books), these are the cheapest and form the basis of our pricing structure, or whether your book needs more complex formatting such as images, tables, indexes, (many non-fiction books will be like this).

Our standard package is based on a straight text digital format (no tables, charts, etc or other complex formatting) – Word, PDF and Html – of 285 pages or less and 100,000 words or less being converted to Kindle & ePub. It includes the first 10 images free, not including the book cover. (We automatically include the fully completed cover as part of the book.) It does not include ISBNs. Please contact us for a quote.

If you have any questions please visit our FAQ page or contact us.