The Word Cloud

Hi folks! This topic didn't seem to fit neatly into any of the other threads, so I thought I'd create one to share some info I've found.

http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/

Tony thanks for this. MOST helpful

Been researching this like billio! I'm hazy re this metadata stuff. What EXACTLY is it and how do I compile it? I think I've read 'it' goes into a spreadsheet. Does that accompany the text in the uploads or will there be a box on the kindle, smashwords upload process to include it?

I am very hazy about it as you see...

The 'metadata' is just your cover art but can also include your isbn number, copyright and acknowledgements page. Amazon and Smashwords will give you various boxes to tick and you'll be given the option of uploading a cover, which must conform to the necessary dimensions for the image, the d.p.i etc. The criteria varies from site to site. Smashwords only wants word documents. Guido (if I remember correctly) recommends using calibre if you're uploading onto Amazon. It's a free piece of software - although donations are appreciated - which allows you to set up your entire document prior to uploading. He also recommends you convert your document to html manually beforehand, but Word gives you the option of saving any document in a html format and this is probably the easier option.

Re Metadata - this is indeed added by Smashwords and Amazon, but if you are self-publishing and distributing to sites such as Scribd and others, this doesn't happen. Instead you can add the metadata yourself in the document Properties in Open Office, I presume the same is true of Word