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Converting Your eBook Into a PDF Product

Before you actually convert your eBook into a finished PDF (or other format) document, it is always a good idea to have these things done:

Have you proofread your guide several times & used spell check?
Have you let a friend or professional edit or proofread your guide for errors?
Have you inserted all links, disclosures, images, and references?
Have you inserted your cover graphic on the very first page (optional)?
Are you comfortable with distributing as is at this point?

If you answered “yes” to all of those questions, then you should be ready to finish your eBook guide and convert it into a finished product.

Which File Format Is Best for eBooks? PDF? Mobipocket Format? Website?

The type of file format you want to use depends exlusively on your personal preference, and where (or how) you plan on distributing your work. If you plan to market and sell this eBook from your own website, then you definitely want to use PDF format. The same applies to any eBooks you want to publish via sales channels such as Clickbank.net, eBay.com, Craigslist.org, CreateSpace.com, Lulu.com, and others.

Also, I should briefly mention that you always have the option to publish your eBook via a website. To do this, you would generally want to just write the entire thing using the website/blog software you use. You can use a spreadsheet for spell check, grammar, and so forth. But eventually you will want to copy that into the site. This would be considered in “HTML” format. This is only recommended for those who want to publish for free on their sites (like this guide you are reading now).

Anyway, back to the topic. PDF format is the preferred format in almost all situations. Why? Almost every computer comes with a PDF reader, and if not, they are freely available. This ensures that this standard format will be able to be viewed by almost any computer. That is a huge issue. You don’t want to write it in .Doc format because not everyone has Microsoft Word (or Open Office).

The other notable file format would be the Mobipocket format I mentioned above. This is only recommended if you plan to sell via the Mobipocket site. The good news is that they even allow you to convert your PDF to mobipocket format. So again, I would recommend PDF in almost every situation (unless you want it free on your site as content). For information on how to convert PDF to mobipocket, click here.

How to Convert an eBook to PDF Format for Free

If you are using Open Office to write your eBook (recommended if you do not have Microsoft Word), then you can easily convert your document as soon as you are done. Here are the brief steps to convert your document into a finished PDF version:

Click on the “FILE” button in the upper left-hand corner of the Open Office Writer Document.
Select the “EXPORT AS PDF” option.
This will cause a small window to pop up. You can then select the security settings, any possible encryptions, and also make any last minute formatting adjustments.
When you are done making your final adjustments, encryptions, and settings, select the “EXPORT” button on the bottom of the small window pane.
You will then be asked where you want to save your PDF, and also you will need to name it. I suggest you save it to your desktop (or a special folder) so you can easily find it. Make sure to name it something appropriate. Remember, your readers will see the name you saved it under (so you may not want to use, “cool-guy-99.”

Yes, it is literally that easy! Once you click the “save” button, Open Office will then convert your document to a finished PDF guide. You can keep this on your computer, and then it will be ready to upload and sell when you get to that point.

If you use another program (such as Microsoft Word), the process should be very similar. Newer versions of Microsoft Word (2007 and beyond) also have a built in PDF converting feature. So the entire process should be almost identical.

If you are using an older program that doesn’t have a built in PDF convert feature, you can always import it into the free Open Office program. Or you could download one of the various free PDF converters available online. Adobe.com also even allows a limited number of free online PDF conversions.

Final Thoughts on Converting Your PDF eBook

I would also like to stress a few things you want to be sure to do at this point. First, you absolutely want to ensure you backup your work. Burn the disk to a CD, jump drive, or backup hard drive. You don’t want to lose your work. I would also recommend you make a backup periodically as you are writing your eBook as well. Can you imagine your hard drive dying while writing a book, and losing everything? Yikes!

You also want to make sure that you take advantage of the encryption/password/security features that are available when you go to convert your finished work. This ensures that people will not be able to easily copy or edit your guide. Of course, if they do this it would be an infringement of your copyright and would be illegal, but you shouldn’t make it easy for them to do so. You wouldn’t leave your car doors unlocked in a bad neighborhood would you? I hope not. So don’t leave your PDF open for thieves to copy.

Also, at this point your PDF is technically “finished.” However, you can always add any new edits or information to the original document, and then convert it again to PDF instantly if the need or desire arises. So I would highly recommend you keep the original for editing purposes (and back it up too). Especially if you ever wanted to go back and add your ISBN or other information you may later want to share.

People often add revisions as information, dates, references, or hyperlinks become outdated. This is a good idea if you write on a topic that will change over time.

Chapter 7: How to Copyright Your eBook Work

How to Write & Sell an eBook Free- Introduction

All About eBooks-Why Write an eBook?

How to Prepare Writing an eBook-Chapter 2

Using a Wordprocessor to Write Your eBook

Adding Images, Pictures, and Screenshots in Your eBook

Tips on Writing Your eBook: Grammar, Spelling, and More

Putting the Final Touches on Your eBook

How to Create an eBook Cover Graphic Boxshot Free Tutorial

Creating a Free eBook Cover Graphic Using Gimp: Part 2

Adding Links, References, Footnotes to Your eBook

Converting Your eBook Into a PDF Product

How to Copyright Your eBook or Self Published Book

How to Get an ISBN for Your eBook or Self Published Book

Where’s the Best Place to Sell an eBook or Self Published Book?

How to Market and Sell Your eBook Online

Perfecting Your eBook Sales Page (Copyrighting)

How to Setup Digital Delivery Instant Download Free

Adding Images, Pictures, and Screenshots in Your eBook

Images are also something you may want to add in your e-Book. Adding an image (or creating an image) is really simple & only takes a few seconds. First, I will tell you how to easily insert an image that you already have saved into your document. Then, I will show you an easy way to take images & screenshots from your computer.

To add an image that you already have saved on your computer, simply click in Insert–> Graphics (also may be called pictures or images)–> From File. You will then select the picture you want to insert by locating it on your computer. Then click insert. This will insert the picture into your document. You can then change the size, adjust the location (left, center, or right), or write a caption about the image.

To change the size of a picture, you can click the picture with your mouse. This will select the picture. You can then drag the picture to the size you want by clicking on the corner & dragging the picture with your cursor until it is the desired size.

Another way you can resize the picture is by placing your cursor over the picture & right clicking the mouse. Then select “image tools” (may also be called picture properties in other word processors). You can then change the pictures size. Depending on the word processor you are using, you can also usually adjust the alignment, add a border, and other things.

How to Capture & Insert Screenshots for Your eBook

It can be helpful to include screenshots when you are writing your e-Book. A screenshot is simply a picture of something that is on your computer screen. The pictures you see below are screenshots of how to do certain things on your computer (such as insert a picture, etc).

I see people using screenshots on their blogs, eBooks, and so forth all the time. Even large websites such as eBay.com, CNN, Google, and others utilize screenshots for tutorials and so forth.

Using screenshots is extremely simple. I will walk you through the steps of how to quickly & easily capture & edit screenshots using Microsoft Paint.

Microsoft Paint is a free graphics program that comes with Microsoft operating systems. If you do not have Microsoft Paint, you can use just about any kind of photo editing or drawing/graphics software. You can download OpenOffice.org’s Draw software for free. There are also other free applications you can find online just by searching on Google.

To take a screenshot, make sure you have your computer screen on the page, file, folder, software, or whatever–that you plan on using in your screenshot.

Next, find the button on your computer keyboard labeled “Print Screen.” It may also be abbreviated as Prt Scr. It is usually located towards the top right section of your keyboard.

When you are ready to take a snapshot of your computer screen, simply hit that button. When you hit the button, it copies the screen (although it may appear as if nothing happened).

Next, you will want to open up the Microsoft Paint program (or any program you are using). To find paint, you usually select the following sequence of keys on your computer: Start–> All Programs–> Accessories–> Paint.

After you open up the Paint program, select the edit box, right click on the white blank Paint window, and select “Paste” as pictured below. This will then paste the entire screenshot into Paint. (NOTE: If it the screenshot is not copied into Paint, you may want try again by pressing either the ALT key or the CTRL key while you press the Print Screen button. However, usually this is not required and pressing the Prt Scr button is all you need to do)

paint

After you have copied your screenshot into Paint, you can save the entire screenshot, edit the screenshot, or do anything you would like to do with it.
Many times, I do not use the entire screenshot. Instead, I will cut out a portion of the screenshot & save it (just like the picture above of Paint). Here is how I do this:

First, I copy the entire screenshot into Paint as I described above by clicking “paste.” This will paste the entire screenshot into paint. Most people don’t usually post entire shot of the whole screen. Instead, they like to zoom into the important part (such as a button, file, image, etc.).

Since I didn’t need the entire Microsoft Paint screenshot for the example, I cut out the portion I needed. I did this by selecting the edit box. I then pressed the right mouse key, and drew the edit box around the portion I wanted to save.

After I used the edit box to draw a box around the portion I wanted to use for my screenshot (as shown above by the small blue dotted line), I right clicked & selected copy. When I did that, it copied that small box. I then went up to the menus at the top & selected File–>New.

It asked if I wanted to save the changes to “untitled document.” I selected no, and then it brought up a new white blank screen in Paint. Then, I selected the edit box again, right clicked on the screen, and selected “paste.” After I did this, it pasted only the small box I needed to use as shown in the picture below.

paint

After I copied this box into paint as shown above, I then drew lines with arrows and wrote the text. You can also add or draw anything you want. You can make a large arrow, write something, copy another picture, or anything.

When you are finished editing your picture, point your cursor to the lower right hand section of the white background. Here you will see a small blue box on the edge that you can select with your cursor & drag it until it only included the portion of the picture you want is visible.

Remember to select the blue box above with your cursor & drag the window until there is no white background. If you leave excess white area in the background, it will also be shown when you save the picture. So to save only the part of the picture you want, make sure to drag the plain white background up to the point to where you want the picture to be saved.

When you are ready to save the picture, simply click File–> Save As. You will then be able to select a location, file name, & file type format option. It is important to save you image in a location where you can easily find it. I usually save it to my desktop. Then I usually name the image something like “image 1.” After that, you simply select the file format & click the “save” button as pictured below:

paint

When you select a file type, you should choose a type that will offer good quality at the lowest possible file size. I usually save all of my pictures as either a GIF or PNG format. JPEG & Bitmap usually offer great quality, but the file size is very large. PNG usually offers great quality at a reduced file size. GIF can distort images if they contain a lot of colors, but this is also a good format for a low file size. The images were saved in PNG format.

Choosing a correct format is VERY important whether you are using screenshots or pictures from your camera. Again, you want you pictures to look great, but at the same time you must try to keep your file sizes low. You can try saving your picture in each format to see how it looks each time. Start with the best formats (JPEG, BMP) and then save in the other formats (PNG & GIF). Then compare each picture’s quality & file size. You can see the file size by selecting the file, right clicking, and select “properties.” Choose the picture format that has a great appearance, but lowest file size. By keeping your file sizes low, it will reduce the overall size of your e-Book. You need to minimize the e-Book size because you want to offer fast downloads, and save on your website bandwidth.

After you save the image & choose the file type, you can insert the image into the e-Book by following the same steps outlined at the beginning of this section. Images & screenshots are an easy way to add quality to your e-Book & help explain your material. It may seem complicated at first, but once you do it a couple of times it is as simple as tying your shoes!

Tips on Writing Your eBook-Chapter 4

How to Write & Sell an eBook Free- Introduction

All About eBooks-Why Write an eBook?

How to Prepare Writing an eBook-Chapter 2

Using a Wordprocessor to Write Your eBook

Adding Images, Pictures, and Screenshots in Your eBook

Tips on Writing Your eBook: Grammar, Spelling, and More

Putting the Final Touches on Your eBook

How to Create an eBook Cover Graphic Boxshot Free Tutorial

Creating a Free eBook Cover Graphic Using Gimp: Part 2

Adding Links, References, Footnotes to Your eBook

Converting Your eBook Into a PDF Product