PDFs and eBooks — Create Stunning Digital Publications.

eBooks have fast become the first choice for publishing content in today's digital world. They offer a great way to reach your audience, can be designed to be visually stunning, they’re effective at conveying information, and they’re accessible and portable.

So, how do you create an eBook, and what if you have you have existing content in different file formats that you want to put in an eBook? Read on, we’ll help you get your word and content out there in an eBook format.

What you’ll learn

• What an eBook is and the types of content they can be used for.
• The benefits of eBooks for you and your readers.
• The different types of eBook formats and file types.
• Why presentation matters in eBooks.
• How to create an eBook.
• About eBook conversion and compression.
• The finishing touches to do with an eBook before release.
• Tips for distributing and promoting eBooks.

What is an eBook?

An eBook is simply a copy of a book or publication in digital form. Designed to be read on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and e-readers they offer the ultimate in portability and accessibility for readers.

The content of an eBook can be anything you might find in a traditional printed book or publication. Fiction or non-fiction —

• novels
• textbooks
• short stories
• comics
• manuals
• magazines
• family history and genealogy,
• cookbooks
• children’s books,
• annual reports
• white papers
• reports.

You name it — if you can read it, you can put it into an eBook, whether it’s 10 pages or 200.

eBook Benefits.

There are numerous benefits to creating and publishing eBooks. These include —

eBooks are accessible.

eBooks can be read on multiple devices such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. This makes it easier to distribute content and reach a wide audience. So, whether your intended audience and readers are corporate, curled up on the couch, on the beach with a coolie bin, or relaxing in the garden, they’ll access and read your content.

eBooks are affordable.

eBooks are environmentally friendly and cost-effective compared to traditional print publications. Using eBook formats can be an affordable option for authors to self-publish and get their books on the market, for businesses to promote their brand, products and/or services by providing content as a marketing tool, and for companies to distribute formal results and reports.

eBooks are interactive but unalterable.

Like a traditional book format, the text and content in an eBook are static and fixed in that they can’t be changed by anyone else. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a flat and boring format. eBooks offer a lot of options for interactive elements to engage your readers such as including multimedia such as graphics, video, and audio, hyperlinks to navigate to your website, and search and navigation features within your eBook to help readers find specific terms, chapters, and content within your publication.

eBook file formats.

When publishing and presenting content in an eBook, it's important to choose the right format for your audience and their preferred reading devices, and where and how you’re going to distribute your content. You want to make it easy as possible for your readers to download and open your eBook and get straight to the content.

Three of the most used eBook file formats are PDF, EPUB, and MOBI/AZW3.

PDF eBooks

A Portable Document Format (PDF) eBook preserves the original design of your book or document and is designed to be accessible from any device with just a free PDF Reader. They are easily shareable, printable, and viewed on computers and laptops.

EPUB eBooks

Electronic Publication (EPUB) eBooks are a widely used format and compatible with most eBook readers, and both Android and Apple smartphone devices.

MOBI/AZW3 eBooks

MOBI (now AZW3) is the eBook file format used by Amazon’s Kindle e-Readers.

Presentation matters in eBooks.

How you present your content in eBooks matters — inside and out. The layout and design should complement the tone and style of your content and/or your brand or the topic.

First impressions count, even with eBook covers.

An eye-catching cover and a clear layout are crucial elements to grab your potential reader's attention. The cover is the first thing that a potential reader sees, so it's important to make it reflective of the content and visually appealing. Consider using high-quality images or illustrations that relate to your topic or theme and use bold fonts and contrasting colours to make the title and author name stand out.

The essentials inside an eBook.

Make the contents appealing to the reader. Choose fonts, formatting and layouts that look like what someone might read if they were looking at a paper version of your content. This not only gives your work a professional and credible appearance — the familiarity of the appearance and format of a traditional book or publication helps your readers trust and engage with your content.

Adding images and graphics can help make an eBook more engaging and visually appealing. It's important to use high-quality images that are relevant to the content of your eBook to keep readers interested. Infographics can also be a great way to convey complex information in a more digestible format.

How to create an eBook.

Creating an eBook takes a bit of planning, creativity, and the right tools. Along with writing and compiling your actual content, you’ll need to identify your target audience, think about layouts and design, and what software you’ll use to convert files.

Write engaging content for eBooks.

Writing is a process. It’s very seldom the first draft of any written work is the final version that gets published. When you’re writing content for an eBook create an outline first. Think about who you want to read it and why, the type of language you’ll use, how you’ll break it up into paragraphs, chapters, or sections and, obviously, your topic — knowing it well and researching it will help you write like a pro.

Once you have written your eBook, the next crucial step is editing, proofreading, and finalizing it. Review your content for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Editing is an essential part of creating a professional and polished publication. It’s important to make sure that your writing flows well and is easy to read.

Make use of editing features within word processing applications and get a fresh set of eyes to read your work. Word, Google Docs, and many other online editors can be used and tweaked to get a perspective on different writing styles, such as formal versus casual, and pick up things you may not have thought of. Consider hiring a professional editor or a freelancer, or asking someone else you know, to review your work. This can provide valuable feedback on areas for improvement and help catch anything you may have missed.

Design and format eBooks like a pro.

eBooks should be prepared, designed, and presented in a format that looks just like it would as a printed version and more. Along with your text, consider including visual and interactive elements such as hyperlinks, images, video, and audio. Include elements such as a cover page, table of contents, and index. Break up content into appropriate sections and/or chapters and use bullet points and tables to present summarized information that is easy for readers to quickly scan through. Format headings and subheadings with header tags for easy navigation.

Check out the power of apps to help with eBook creation.

If you’re new to creative design, start with a template to get things going. There are some simply stunning eBook templates in software such as InDesign and Illustrator. You can easily preview a few templates to get inspiration via Adobe Stock Images — just filter and search for eBook templates. eBook templates are a great way to get a feel for how your work will look presented with different font schemes and colour layouts.

To get the most out of creative apps that can be used to create eBook content, check out the different packages and products available individually or together in Adobe Creative Cloud. You’ll find customisable packages and options for businesses, individuals, students, and teachers.

eBook conversion and compression.

Ideally, start your eBook in an application that can publish directly to the eBook format you choose. For example, in Adobe InDesign you can export your finished work directly into eBook formats, including PDF and EPUB. Or create all your content and settings from the get-go with the vast number of design and optimization features in Adobe Acrobat.

However, often people have content in a range of different file formats that they already have and intend to ultimately convert, combine, and integrate into an eBook. Many conversion tools can help you to do this.

Convert content for eBook PDFs.

Choosing the appropriate software to create content and/or online converters that can efficiently convert your work into a PDF eBook format is important. It can make a difference to the quality and experience readers will have with your final product.

You want the efforts you’ve put into your eBook writing and design to be converted as seamlessly as possible and retain high-quality resolution and layouts that are captivating and enjoyable for your readers to view.

It’s easy to convert files within Acrobat products to and from a range of formats. Or simply drag and drop them online. You can convert to PDF and back again from Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint and image files. It’s also easy to merge PDFs, add pages to a PDF, rearrange PDF pages, and more.

Compress PDF eBook files.

To make sure your eBook file size is easily shareable and downloadable always compress your PDF eBook before its final release.

eBook finishing touches.

When you've finished your overall content and layout, in addition to reviewing the text, it's important to ensure that your formatting is consistent throughout an eBook. This includes headings, font styles, and any other design elements you may have included. Make sure that all images and multimedia are high quality and enhance the reader's experience. Check that any links are functional and take the reader where you want them to go.

Optimize your PDF eBook content.

To ensure fast load times, it's important to properly format and optimize all images inserted into your documents. Again, ensure you keep your original image quality, if you’re converting components and elements, use the tools that are designed for the job, such as the easy online tool to convert from jpg to PDF.

If you want to ensure your eBook is picked up by online search engines and listed in web search results, be sure to SEO optimize it. There are a few ways to go about search engine optimization in PDFs.

• Blend and use keywords naturally in your titles, headings, and content.
• Add and update the metadata in your document property settings to include keywords and phrases, a summary of your content or topic, and your company or name as the author of the document.
• Add alt text or alt tags to all graphics and images in your eBook — these too are read by search engines.

Test and evaluate your eBook before release.

Before releasing and publishing your eBook, it’s essential to test and evaluate it thoroughly on different devices, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones, to check if it displays as you want it to. This will help ensure your readers get the eBook experience you want them to and avoid any potential issues after the eBook is released. After testing your eBook, make any remaining necessary adjustments, then finalize and publish your digital publication.

Promotion and distribution of eBooks.

How and where you distribute your eBook will depend on your intended audience, the eBook format you have chosen, and the nature of your content. There are numerous platforms with a range of marketing and promotion options and opportunities with a range of fees and royalty rates.

Get the word out.

Make the most of social media and professional networking sites to promote your eBook and link back to your distribution platforms. Talk about your eBook, word of mouth is still a very powerful tool.

Business eBooks

An obvious location for business eBooks, whether part of a marketing strategy or to public release information such as annual reports is your company website. Make use of your website to distribute easily downloaded and digestible information in eBook format whether it’s your marketing materials or your proudly presented year-end results.

Creative eBooks

Start with links from your website, if you have one, to your distribution platforms. Maybe extract a portion of your PDF eBook to give readers a taster of your work, and leave them wanting more. To incentivize readers, consider offering discounts or other incentives for early adopters or those who leave reviews.

Consider reaching out to podcasters, book bloggers, book reviewers, and influencers to get your work out there. Collaborating with other authors or industry professionals can also be an effective way to cross-promote each other's work and expand your reach.

PDF eBooks make an impression.

Creating an eBook is an excellent way to not only put out new and original content but also repurpose content and reach a wider audience. Whether you’re an aspiring author wanting to self-publish a novel, a cookbook, or a biography on someone else, or a business with a savvy marketing strategy or reports and results to publish and distribute, eBooks have many benefits. Well-designed eBooks create a great experience for readers, ultimately leaving them wanting more of what you do.

Frequently asked questions.

Are there any design considerations to keep in mind when creating an eBook?

Yes, there are several design considerations to keep in mind when creating an eBook. It's important to keep the design simple and easy to read, using a consistent layout throughout the eBook. Choosing appropriate fonts and font sizes can also contribute to readability.

To enhance the reading experience, consider adding images, graphics, and other multimedia elements where relevant. However, it's important not to overload the eBook with too many visuals that may distract from the content. Overall, the design should be visually appealing while keeping reader engagement in mind.

What file formats are compatible with different eReader devices?

There are quite a few file formats compatible with e-Readers. The most common file formats used for eBooks are PDFs and EPUB files. Most e-Readers can read these two formats. eBooks in MOBI and AZW3 formats are specific to Amazon Kindles.