Hi. I just spent the weekend going through the process of creating my own epub file from my MS Word document. I have created a set of templates to help me do it much quicker and easier in the future (I have three more books ready to publish after I get the first one out the door) and made a bunch of notes for myself. As I was going over them and cleaning them up, I wondered if there might be others out there that would like to give it a try and use my template and instructions?
While it was relatively easy, if you find the idea of turning on extensions in your Windows Explorer daunting (or even are wondering what extensions are) this might not be the thing for you, but, having said that, I can add some detail on the steps to do certain things making it easier in case you are a computerphobe.
It might be a little time consuming the first time through, but once you get through the process once, I imagine things will be a lot quicker the next time.
When I was finished I ended up with an .epub and a .mobi file of my book. The .epub passed three different validators so I'm assuming it is good to go. Previews of the epub and .mobi also look good. I haven't actually tried to upload to KDP or any other platform at this time though so I can't guarantee anything.
Anyway, if you want a copy of my template and the instructions, let me know and I will pull them together to email out.
While it was relatively easy, if you find the idea of turning on extensions in your Windows Explorer daunting (or even are wondering what extensions are) this might not be the thing for you, but, having said that, I can add some detail on the steps to do certain things making it easier in case you are a computerphobe.
It might be a little time consuming the first time through, but once you get through the process once, I imagine things will be a lot quicker the next time.
When I was finished I ended up with an .epub and a .mobi file of my book. The .epub passed three different validators so I'm assuming it is good to go. Previews of the epub and .mobi also look good. I haven't actually tried to upload to KDP or any other platform at this time though so I can't guarantee anything.
Anyway, if you want a copy of my template and the instructions, let me know and I will pull them together to email out.