E-books are a little different to traditional printed books as they are read on digital reading devices or on a computer. Therefore, they will follow a slightly different format. The following tips can apply to all e-books in general but you should bear in mind that your e-book publishing platform of choice will also have their own requirements regarding formatting:
 1)   Begin with a catchy title. The use of various techniques can make a title effective, such as an interesting and intriguing fact, a question that is to be addressed, use of alliteration or a play on words.
 2)   Next is the introduction. This sets out the subject that the e-book will address and describes how you will approach this. Your introduction will give you a point of reference as well as informing the reader.
 3)   You should include a contents page so the reader can tell how the book is laid out and can skip to appropriate sections.
 4)   Think about your target readership and write in a style and language level that suits them.
 5)   PDF documents work best for e-books that are downloaded from websites; they make it easier to format the document in the style of a book, and make it more difficult for people to make changes to your finished document. However, if you are publishing an e-book to be read on a digital reading device, you will have to follow the guidelines supplied by the publishing platform. For example, Amazon have a set of guidelines relating to formatting an e-book to be read on the Kindle.
 6)   E-books need to be easy on the eye, because they will be read electronically. Therefore, it is best to use a font size of at least 12 and a font that is non-serif, as serif fonts can lose their definition on screen and become difficult to read. You should use 1.15 spacing as a minimum, and use large margins to provide lots of white space. The use of bulleted and numbered lists also creates white space and breaks up the copy, but they can be difficult to convert for some e-book formats.
 7)   To make the copy more interesting and compelling, it is useful to use pictures, graphs, anecdotes, tips, boxes and sidebars. Be careful when using graphics, however, as many of the images on the internet are copyrighted. As with bullets and numbered lists you may also find that pictures and graphics become distorted during conversion so you should check that these are showing correctly.
 8)   When writing e-books for computers it is easy to make use of colour to help headings, boxes and sidebars stand out. It is best to check how the document looks on other computers, though, as different computers have different colour palettes.
 9)   Don't forget to spell-check and proofread the document thoroughly.
 10) You could include a bibliography, but, if you are writing for a client, it is to best to check whether he wants this at the end of the document, or whether he wants a separate list.
Whether you're converting an existing printed book, or writing an e-book from scratch, these pointers should help you to create a professional finished document.
 1)   Begin with a catchy title. The use of various techniques can make a title effective, such as an interesting and intriguing fact, a question that is to be addressed, use of alliteration or a play on words.
 2)   Next is the introduction. This sets out the subject that the e-book will address and describes how you will approach this. Your introduction will give you a point of reference as well as informing the reader.
 3)   You should include a contents page so the reader can tell how the book is laid out and can skip to appropriate sections.
 4)   Think about your target readership and write in a style and language level that suits them.
 5)   PDF documents work best for e-books that are downloaded from websites; they make it easier to format the document in the style of a book, and make it more difficult for people to make changes to your finished document. However, if you are publishing an e-book to be read on a digital reading device, you will have to follow the guidelines supplied by the publishing platform. For example, Amazon have a set of guidelines relating to formatting an e-book to be read on the Kindle.
 6)   E-books need to be easy on the eye, because they will be read electronically. Therefore, it is best to use a font size of at least 12 and a font that is non-serif, as serif fonts can lose their definition on screen and become difficult to read. You should use 1.15 spacing as a minimum, and use large margins to provide lots of white space. The use of bulleted and numbered lists also creates white space and breaks up the copy, but they can be difficult to convert for some e-book formats.
 7)   To make the copy more interesting and compelling, it is useful to use pictures, graphs, anecdotes, tips, boxes and sidebars. Be careful when using graphics, however, as many of the images on the internet are copyrighted. As with bullets and numbered lists you may also find that pictures and graphics become distorted during conversion so you should check that these are showing correctly.
 8)   When writing e-books for computers it is easy to make use of colour to help headings, boxes and sidebars stand out. It is best to check how the document looks on other computers, though, as different computers have different colour palettes.
 9)   Don't forget to spell-check and proofread the document thoroughly.
 10) You could include a bibliography, but, if you are writing for a client, it is to best to check whether he wants this at the end of the document, or whether he wants a separate list.
Whether you're converting an existing printed book, or writing an e-book from scratch, these pointers should help you to create a professional finished document.
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