How to Convert E-Books to Kindle Format

Contributor

By Nancy Hendrickson
eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating:

(9 Ratings)

If you're an author who owns the digital rights to his novel, non-fiction book, how-to manual or e-book, you still may be missing the opportunity to sell to a new and growing audience: Amazon Kindle users. Kindle, Amazon's wireless device, can access and download more than 150,000 digital products via Amazon's Whispernet wireless network. Industry analysts predict that Amazon will sell from 500,000 to 750,000 Kindles in the next year. Learn how to convert your e-book or digital product to Kindle format and reach a whole new reading audience.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Amazon account

Better than the Bookstore? Format Your E-Book for Kindle Readers

Step 1

Prepare your digital document for Kindle conversion. To make it easy for readers to find you online and learn about your other books, be certain to include in your document links to your website, blog or author pages. Create a title page, a copyright page and a page with your full name and any other pertinent information, such as your email address and publisher. It is recommended that you include "First Kindle Original Edition, xxxx (year)" on your title page.
Step 2

Save your manuscript in one of these Amazon-acceptable file formats: Microsoft Word (.doc), HTML, Adobe PDF (.pdf) , plain text (.txt) or Mobi (.mobi or .prc). Mobipocket Creator is a free software program that converts documents to several formats that can be read by the Amazon Digital Text Platform.
Step 3

Go to Amazon's Digital Text Platform site and open an account, or log in if you already have an Amazon account. Because Amazon will be paying you a percentage of your document's sales, you'll need to provide information so they know where to send your share of the proceeds. Information requested will include your name or business name, as well as electronic payment information.
Step 4

Use the navigation tabs to click "My Shelf," then "Add New Item." You'll be asked to provide details about your book, including keywords, ISBN (if you have one), title, subtitle, description, publication date and content category. Be sure to select the correct content category, as this will help readers find your book. You'll also need to upload a cover image. When finished, click the "Save" button.
Step 5

Once you're satisfied with all of the information you've given about your book, click the "Upload" button. Uploading generally takes only a few minutes. Once it has been uploaded, preview the book once again for any formatting errors. During this process, Amazon will work with any of the allowable formats (above) and convert them to a format that can be read on the Kindle.
Step 6

Set the price for your book. Typically, a Kindle book sells for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of a hard copy. The price is entirely up to you. Other Kindle documents range from 99 cents up to more than $100. Your profit will be 35 percent of the list price you set. Once you click the "Publish" button, your book will be live within 12 to 72 hours.