Thinking about self-publishing an eBook? This guide answers the most common questions about eBook formatting, publishing costs, ISBNs, and how to prepare your file for platforms like Amazon Kindle and Apple Books.

Q: What is an eBook?
A: An eBook is a digital version of a book designed for devices like Amazon's Kindle, Apple’s iPad, and smartphones. Unlike printed books, eBooks are formatted to adjust to different screen sizes and may include navigation, internal links, and responsive layouts. Essential formatting includes page breaks, inline images, and chapter headings.

Q: What does eBook publishing cost?
A: Most eBooks can be converted and assigned an ISBN for a base price of $259.99. This includes formatting for Kindle and ePub platforms. Custom quotes are available for advanced formatting needs.

Q: What will my Royalties be?
A: InstantPublisher will offer two variations, the yearly listing plan or the per book listing plan.

Q: Do I need to include a Table of Contents for iTunes?
A: Yes. In Microsoft WORD, please include a Table of Contents for your book. If you want InstantPublisher to create it for you, it costs $5 per chapter.

Q: What is the payment plan for selling on iTunes?
A: InstantPublisher.com will make payments once a quarter when your account reaches $25.00.

Q: When will I receive my royalty check?
A: InstantPublisher.com will make payments at the end of each quarter via check. Payments will not be made until your account reaches $25.00.

Q: What is Delivery Cost for Amazon?
A: Amazon charges a $0.15/MB delivery cost based on the file size. For instance, if file is a plain text file at 0.4MB, the delivery cost will be 0.4MB x $0.15 = $0.06. The Amazon delivery cost can only be figured and added to your account when InstantPublisher has the eBook file ready.

Q: Do you offer Cover Design?
A: Yes, we have 4 cover options:

Q: How long does it take to prepare your eBook for iTunes and Amazon?
A: Most eBooks can be formatted in 7-10 business days. But, custom covers and eBooks requiring special formatting might take a little longer to complete. *NOTE, we are not responsible for the timeline of when iTUNES or Amazon accepts your eBook files, after we submit the eBook.

Q: What is an ISBN number and do you provide one?
A: ISBN numbers are simply a way to catalog books. Yes, you need an ISBN number and it must be specific to your eBook. You cannot use your ISBN number from your printed book. InstantPublisher can provide you with one of our ISBN numbers to use or you can supply your own ISBN number with your eBook publishing name if you plan on selling the eBook yourself.

Q: Will my eBook look exactly like my printed Book?
A: Currently, this is the most difficult part about eBook publishing. Being from a printing background, InstantPublisher prefers to set a book up to look correct and remain that way. Unfortunately, the only way to do this for eBook creation is to actually convert the pages to images.

PDF Method — This method has images only. The downside to this is for small readers, like the iPhone, an 8.5x11 book will appear tiny and cannot be read. This can even be a problem on the Kindle at times, if you take a large book and scale it down to this size. The other way is to import raw text. This is the default way we will create eBooks, simply because it is a more user-friendly platform for the reader, as they are able to blow the text up and manipulate it. Unfortunately, this can wreak havoc on your formatting.

Text Method — This method has text only. *Note, your eBook can include images on the pages, if they are formatted correctly. [Formatting images/charts for eBooks] This is why we offer both types of formatting and let you make the decision. If you have a lot of charts, pictures, etc., and if you don’t think your eBook will be that popular on the smaller screens like the iPhone, then the text conversion method is the way to go. We recommend the text conversion method.

Q: How do I Prepare my file for Submission?
A: InstantPublisher.com prefers a Word file for eBook publishing. You need to include [page break] before each chapter and anywhere you would like a new page that does not run together.

Document Size= in Microsoft Word (5.5" width x 8.5" height)

Download eBook WORD Template

Q: What eBook file Types do you provide?
A: InstantPublisher will provide both EPUB (native to Apple and most other devices such as kindle and android) .

How to Publish an eBook

eBook Formatting—

Follow these main formatting rules, before you publish your eBook. You must format your Word document correctly, before we publish it. The end result is a downloadable EPUB file for the iPad and Kindle devices.

1) Document Size and Layout = in Microsoft Word (5.5" width x 8.5" height). Your layout must be portrait or a vertical layout for your eBook. Landscape layout books are not accepted.

Download eBook WORD Template

2) Cover Size = in Photoshop size (650 x 870pixels) at 72 DPI (resolution). *NOTE: You may use 300 dpi for resolution.
Save File as .JPG. {*Note: For Saving JPG files= FILE>> SAVE FOR WEB>> JPG/High}

3) All Graphics on All Inside Pages (this is optional; and only if you have photos/graphics on the inside pages)= in Photoshop size (324 x 432pixels) at 72 DPI (resolution); Save File(s) as .JPG {*Note: For Saving JPG files= FILE>> SAVE FOR WEB>> JPG/High} All kindle software automatically resizes / recompresses image, including KindleGen from Amazon. The Kindle format 8.0 versions and earlier have the limit of image size 63KB (63x1024 bytes). Images above that size are resized or recompressed automatically. If you need to finely control the resizing / recompressing of any images, use an image editing software to bring the size of the image below 63K in GIF or JPEG format before using it in your publication. It will be stored in the book without any auto-compression. Please be aware that if your images are too big, usually for the ones that are over 500 pixel x 700 pixel in size, your eBook submission may possibly be rejected by iTunes or Amazon. InstantPublisher can help resize these images; however, a minimum $50 editing charge will be added to the base cost.

*Note, if you want your graphics/pictures to appear in your eBook, you must resize them in Photoshop or similar editor, then save them and reinsert into Word. Charts must be converted to images, as well, to retain their formatting. Also, in Word please do not wrap text around images. All images should be set "in-line" with text as seen below. Also, please do not put photos beside each other or include text under each photo or graphic. This type of layout does not work for eReaders like iPAD or Kindle. The text or paragraphs must be under the photo or graphic as a normally typed sentence as seen below.

*Note, be aware that special symbols may not convert properly to eBook format (EPUB), unless they are characters in a standard font set. For this reason, we ask that you choose a font like Times New Roman for all text and symbols.

4) Page Breaks= in Word, please include [page break] before each chapter.
In WORD, put your cursor at the end of the last paragraph (after the period), before the next chapter, then go to>> Insert >> Page Break.

5) Indenting= in Word, please indent your paragraphs correctly, and do not use TAB key on keyboard. Go to>>
Page Layout >> Paragraph and insert "First Line" measurement for indention.

6) Style Chapter Names for Indexing= in Word, highlight all the chapter names individually one by one. Style each chapter name with "Heading1" Style, as seen below. Save your document.
*This process will help us create a Table of Contents for your eBook.

7) Remove any blank pages. In your Word document, please remove all blank pages for your eBook.
*You may want to name this document as eBook.doc for your eBook. Keep your other document for printing purposes, and this new version for your eBook.