Blog
Best Practices for Ebook Formatting: A Publisher's Guide
A great book can be instantly ruined by poor formatting. In the digital world, how your ebook looks and functions is just as important as the words on the page. Bad formatting doesn’t just look unprofessional; it creates a frustrating reading experience, leads to negative reviews, and ultimately hurts sales. As a publisher that has prepared countless books for digital shelves, we know that proper formatting is a non-negotiable step. It ensures your book is readable, navigable, and compatible across the wide array of e-readers, tablets, and phones your audience uses. This guide covers the essential, industry-standard best practices to produce a flawlessly formatted ebook.
Key Takeaways & Summary
Embrace Reflowable Text: Unlike a fixed PDF, a professionally formatted ebook must be “reflowable.” This means the text automatically adjusts to fit the reader’s screen size and font preferences.
Use the Right File Format: EPUB is the universal industry standard, accepted by nearly all retailers, including Amazon KDP. It is the format you should focus on creating.
Prioritize Clean Navigation: A clickable Table of Contents (TOC) is essential. Readers expect to be able to jump to any chapter easily.
Keep it Simple and Consistent: Avoid print-based elements like page numbers, headers, and footers. Use standard, readable fonts and consistent styling for headings and body text.
Optimize Images: Images must be in RGB color mode, high enough resolution to look crisp (at least 300 DPI), but compressed to keep the final ebook file size manageable.
The Foundation: Reflowable Layout and the EPUB Format
The single biggest mistake authors make is trying to make an ebook look like a print book. Ebooks are not static. The core principle of good formatting is creating a reflowable document.
A reflowable ebook allows the reader to control their own experience—they can change the font size, margins, and even the font itself. Your formatting must be flexible enough to adapt to these changes seamlessly on any device, from a small smartphone to a large tablet. This is why fixed layouts, like those in a PDF, are unsuitable for standard ebooks.
To achieve this, you need to use the right file format. The industry standard for reflowable ebooks is EPUB (Electronic Publication). It is an open-standard format based on web technologies like HTML and CSS, making it versatile and universally accepted by retailers like Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and now even Amazon’s KDP.
Essential Formatting Practices for a Professional Ebook
To create a clean, professional ebook, focus on these critical elements.
Structure Your Manuscript with Styles
Do not format your book using manual tabs, spaces, or font changes. The correct way is to use paragraph and heading styles in your writing software (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs).
Body Text: Set a standard “Normal” or “Body” style with a first-line indent (typically 0.2″ to 0.25″) and single line spacing. Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs.
Chapter Titles: Use a “Heading 1” style for all chapter titles. This is crucial for building your automated Table of Contents.
Subheadings: Use “Heading 2,” “Heading 3,” etc., for any subheadings within chapters to create a clear visual hierarchy.
Create a Clickable Table of Contents (TOC)
Every ebook needs a linked, clickable TOC that allows readers to navigate the book effortlessly. If you’ve properly used Heading 1 styles for your chapters, most formatting software and tools can generate this automatically. This is a basic requirement for a good user experience and is expected by all major retailers.
Choose Reader-Friendly Fonts
While it’s tempting to use decorative fonts, readability is paramount. Stick to classic, web-safe serif fonts like Georgia or Times New Roman for body text. These are optimized for screen reading. You can use a clean sans-serif font like Arial or Helvetica for headings to create contrast. Do not embed fonts for your main body text, as this can interfere with the reader’s own device settings.
Optimize Your Images Correctly
Images require careful handling to balance quality and file size.
Color Mode: All images must be in RGB color mode, not CMYK (which is for print).
Resolution: Images should have a minimum resolution of 300 DPI to avoid looking blurry.
File Type: Use JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with sharp lines or text.
Placement: Do not wrap text around images. All images should be set “in-line” with the text, with paragraphs appearing above and below them.
File Size: Large image files can bloat your ebook’s final size, leading to long download times and potentially higher delivery fees on platforms like Amazon KDP. Compress images to keep them under a reasonable size (e.g., aiming for under 150KB per image where possible).
Common Formatting Mistakes to Avoid
In our experience, these simple errors are the most common culprits of a poorly formatted ebook:
Using Tabs or the Spacebar for Indents: This will create inconsistent and messy formatting on e-readers. Always use the paragraph style settings for first-line indents.
Including Print-Only Elements: Do not add page numbers, headers, or footers to your manuscript file. These are irrelevant in a reflowable ebook and will cause display errors.
Using Multiple Hard Returns for Spacing: Never press “Enter” multiple times to create space between sections. Use proper scene break formatting or style separators.
Formatting is a technical skill, but it’s one that can be mastered. For authors who prefer to focus on writing, professional formatting services and specialized software like Vellum or Atticus can streamline the process significantly.
Short FAQ
Q: Should I format my ebook in Microsoft Word?
A: You can prepare your manuscript in Word by using styles correctly, but Word is not an ebook formatting tool. You will need to use a dedicated tool like Kindle Create or Calibre, or hire a service, to convert your Word document into a properly coded EPUB file.
Q: What’s the difference between a reflowable and a fixed-layout ebook?
A: A reflowable ebook allows text to adapt to the screen size, which is standard for most novels and non-fiction. A fixed-layout ebook is like a digital image of a print page and is only used for image-heavy books like children’s picture books or complex textbooks.
Q: Do I need a different file for Amazon KDP and other stores?
A: Not anymore. Previously, Amazon used a proprietary MOBI format. Now, KDP accepts EPUB files directly, which they then convert on their end. A single, well-formatted EPUB file can be used for all major retailers.
