Hi @JasonWiser,

I’m in the throes of doing so right now for a client being featured on CBS This Morning this coming Thursday, so I will let you know what I learn along the way. I do know that an author friend of ours, F. Paul Wilson, is happy with SmashWords.com, which reformats your book to ALL platforms, but takes a nice chunk of the sale as well. Kindle and iOS seem to use the same format – .epub. There are many sites out that that will migrate your book for free to the correct platform. I think it’s one of the great opportunities for authors to make $$, especially if eBooks aren’t specifically part of their publishing contracts (from here on out, they will be). For self-published authors, it’s a no-brainer.

Denise McDonald Dorman@writebrainmediaFacebook.com/writebrainmedia

What I learned from creating a eBook for Amazon and B&N is first don’t use word. I used OpenOffice which is free and I converted the document into an otf file in OpenOffice. I then downloaded a program titled Jutoh at http://www.jutoh.com/ and was able to convert the book into both formats that was true to the original layout and was accepted in both stores.  Jutoh cost me $40.00 was well worth it.

I am impressed with the Jutoh program and how well it works even with the clickable table of contents and illustrations.

When I create another eBook for either platform I will follow the same development cycle.

@jasonwiser I’ve done several ebooks for Kindle. I’ve taken the route from Word to HTML output to hand cleaning up the code. Because I know HTML and Kindle uses simple HTML, it’s easy for me.

I teach a course to help people write the ebook and publish it first as a PDF on their site. I’m getting ready to take the course to the next level and teach them how to convert the content for Kindle. Obviously, I’m not going to advise people to do what I do! I’m out searching ebook conversion tools now.

@charlene-kingston where is your course hosted? please post link. Thanks.

Smashwords is great. They convert your word file into most formats and they distribute to all the major online stores (except Amazon, but they do convert to kindle format). I love them.

@deairby Normally, this is a class I do live (3 sessions over 3 weeks for $60) because so many people said that they liked the structure and accountability of that. I can offer it as a self-study course if you are interested. Send me an email at my contact form if you would like a self-study version of the course. You would get all of the other benefits (unlimited enrollment in future classes, bonus classes for free, etc.) (http://socialmediadiyworkshop.com/contact/)

@jasonwiser Personally, formatting for ALL the different e-readers (Kindle, Apple, Nook, Sony E-reader, etc) on your own would be extremely time consuming. Plus, if you want to be listed for the Sony E-reader I think you have to use Smashwords. Smashwords is their only distributor (that might have changed in the past couple years).

Anyway, you asked about Kindle. Smashwords formats for Kindle but they don’t distribute to Amazon. So sign up for a Kindle Direct Publishing account and simply upload your word doc. (Amazon does offer formatting tips.) But my word doc looked terrible in the test Amazon offers, so I downloaded the Smashwords version and uploaded it to Amazon. Looks great now.

I understand that you want the DIY experience. But to me it’s just not worth it.