When creating an ebook, thinking about its basic parts can be very useful. While some elements of an ebook are the same as that of a paper books, others do differ. Knowing those differences can save you time when creating an ebook and allows you to create a better book by utilizing the format’s advantages.
The cover is the first screen of an ebook, and usually a thumbnail of it is how readers will locate the book on their ereaders and tables. An ebook cover needs only to be what is the front cover of a paper book; no spine or back cover is necessary.
Next, ebooks contain the front matter. As with paper books, this generally consists of the half title page, title page, table of contents, acknowledgements and dedication. Each should start at the top of a new screen. The table of contents won’t contain page numbers but hyperlinks to where that chapter starts in the ebook.
The main text follows. This is the core and the bulk of the book, consisting of the foreword, preface, introduction, all chapters and the accompanying sidebars, photographs, breakout boxes, charts and tables that appear in those chapters. Generally, the foreword, preface, introduction and each chapter should start at the top of a new screen.
Back material rounds out the book. It includes the appendix, footnotes, bibliography, author’s bio, requests for reviews, and adverts for other books, products and services the author offers. Each of these should start at the top of a new screen. Ebooks rarely include indexes.
An element found only in ebooks are hyperlinks. Think of an ebook as a web page. You can send people to other spots in the books, to other web pages, to slide shows, to videos, and so on. Hyperlinks add a level of interactivity that paper books lack and are a chief reason readers select ebooks over their paper counterparts.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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