Adding Your E-Book to Smashwords
Before you publish your e-book at Smashwords, youâll likely need to make changes to your Word manuscript. Smashwords works by running your manuscript through its proprietary (and unpleasant-sounding) Meatgrinder feature. It creates published versions of your e-book in multiple formats, to give readers as much choice as possible â without creating extra work for you.
The following sections explain how to fine-tune your manuscript formatting and then upload the final version to Smashwords.
Following the Smashwords guidelines
You can download the Smashwords Style Guide for free at www.smashwords.com/books/view/52
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The Smashwords Style Guide has quite a bit of information to review, but Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, wrote the guide in a beginner-friendly way â you definitely donât need to be a technical expert to use it. Read the guide before starting to format your e-book.
If you follow the instructions in Chapter 4 for formatting a Word manuscript, you shouldnât have much work to do. Follow this crucial advice:
The manuscript must contain no more than four consecutive line breaks anywhere. If you insert lots of line breaks in the front matter of your e-book or between sections or to end chapters, for example, you have to take them out.
Your e-book must have a copyright page. It likely already has one, but at Smashwords, the page ...
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