How to Format an eBook

How to Format an eBook

You've spent who knows how long writing your masterpiece. Don't ruin it all by giving your readers a bad experience with poorly

formatted

work

.

But good formatters are difficult

to

find

.

Tell me about it. My first book cost me $300 for formatting just the eBook. The work was done well, but it took forever (or seemed like it) and the company was inflexible on timing. It took more than three weeks to format the book and, let me tell you, those three weeks seemed like three years. The company also charged heavily to fix mistakes.

Later, I found another formatter who did the work much less expensively (and faster), but I ended up with other problems. And most of the time, the problems weren’t his fault.

Sometimes timing was an issue. Because he was good and inexpensive, he was busy, so he often wouldn't have the time to format a manuscript when I was ready. And, as you all know, after spending so much time getting that far (to the formatting stage), you want it done

right

then

.

I would also forget things—like the ISBN or the cover image or the acknowledgments. When this happened, I would have to send the missing materials to him, and wait for him to add that material to the book. Even though it didn't cost me nearly as much money as before, the waiting time killed me. Sometimes, the guy didn’t even charge me for the service, but I still had

to

wait

.

Then I found Vellum.

What is Vellum?

Vellum is the reason I'm writing this book. Because once I got accustomed to using it, there was no going back. Vellum makes it so easy to professionally format your book that I'm amazed it has taken somebody as long as it did to come up with such an app. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many contenders for the app, but Vellum takes

the

cake

.

With regard to cost, it's a bargain. And timewise, it's more of a bargain. I can format a book (start to finish) in one night, after dinner, and still have time to watch a show on TV—if I can find one worth watching. If I can’t, I can format a second book. When I'm finished, I'll have files for Kindle, Apple, Nook, Google, and Kobo. I'll have saved almost a hundred bucks, and most importantly, I'll have saved a minimum of a week of waiting.

An author friend of mine first told me about Vellum. I was skeptical at first. I'd tried other so-called easy-to-use apps, but they were not so easy

to

use

.

Nonetheless, I was growing frustrated with waiting on eBook production, so I gave it

a

try

.

Cost

Let's get this part out of the way first. Vellum has several options for purchase.

The cost for producing one book

is

$

29

.

The cost for ten

is

$

99

The cost for unlimited books

is

$

199

The $199 seems like a lot—until you do the math. Let's look

at

it

.

Let's assume for a minute that formatting an eBook costs about $100. Some of you may get it done for less and some more, but $100 is a reasonable amount for a professionally

formatted

book

.

Based on that number, the cost for doing one book would save you

about

$

70

.

Ten books would cost you $9.99 each (based on the $99 plan), so if you did all ten using Vellum, it would save

you

$

900

.

From that point on, the savings only get greater. I've got about sixteen books now. If I had used Vellum for all of them (based on $100 per book for normal formatting) and using the unlimited program for accounting, I