- Xinxii Platform
- Tradebit Platform
- Smashwords Platform
- Selecting a Niche
- Pothi Platform
- Lulu Platform
- KDP Print and Kindle Platform
- General Info
- Files Used on Book Platforms
- Book Marketing
- Book Covers
- Author Website
- Ai Prompts
Types of Licenses For Stock Images
Not every stock photo license permits the same uses — and for a book cover specifically, the license type actually matters, since your cover is a commercial, resold product. Here’s what each license type means.
Print On Demand Book Sizing
Amazon KDP Print offers a fixed set of trim sizes for both paperback and hardcover. Picking the right one affects not just how your book looks on a shelf, but your printing cost and royalty margin.
Editing PDF Formats
Editing a small detail in a PDF is more annoying than it should be — PDFs aren’t built to be edited directly the way a Word document is. Here’s the fastest path, depending on what you have available.
Do’s and Don’t When Formatting Your eBook For Smashwords
Smashwords’ conversion system, known as the Meatgrinder, is stricter than most other platforms — small formatting choices that work fine elsewhere can trigger “autovetter” errors here. Here’s what to avoid.
What Is An ePub File?
EPUB is the standard file format for ebooks, used by nearly every major retailer and reading app — Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and (since 2025) Amazon KDP as well. The name comes from “electronic publication.”
How Do I Quickly Resize My Book Cover
Most ebook aggregators require a book cover of at least 1600 x 2400 pixels. If your cover file is a different size, here’s how to resize it using tools you likely already have — no downloads needed.
Useful Links For Advertising Your eBooks
Beyond the major retailers, there’s a whole ecosystem of ebook deal blogs and reader communities that will feature your book — some for free, some for a fee. Reaching out directly to the sites below is a low-cost way to get in front of readers actively looking for their next book.
The Mine Field Of ePub Errors
The error: Filename contains spaces. Consider changing filename such that URI escaping is not necessary.
Selling Your Book Directly Without Using An Aggregator
Aggregators like Draft2Digital or Smashwords distribute your book to multiple retailers automatically, but they take a cut and put a layer between you and your reader. Selling directly means more control and a bigger share of each sale — at the cost of having to drive your own traffic. Here are the two main ways to do it.
Selling Your eBook On Pothi
Pothi.com is a self-publishing platform focused on the Indian market, letting authors sell ebooks and print-on-demand books with no upfront cost. Setting up an account and publishing is straightforward, but there’s one formatting requirement that trips people up.
Selling Your Book On Lulu
Lulu is a self-publishing platform supporting both print-on-demand and ebooks. Opening an account and uploading a book is straightforward.
Selling Your eBooks on Tradebit
Tradebit is a digital marketplace where you can sell ebooks directly, with a tiered commission structure that improves as your sales volume grows.
How To Edit .MOBI Format Documents
Important update: Amazon officially stopped accepting MOBI files for new Kindle eBook uploads on March 18, 2025, completing a phase-out that began in 2021. If you’re formatting a new book for KDP, you don’t need a MOBI file at all — Amazon now requires EPUB, DOCX, or KPF, and converts it internally to their current KFX format.
What Is A Mobi File
MOBI is an ebook file format originally created by Mobipocket in the early 2000s and later adopted by Amazon as the native format for Kindle devices. For years, it was the standard format authors needed to publish on Kindle.
Aggregators Who Will Really Sell Your Books
An aggregator distributes your book to multiple retailers — Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and others — from a single upload, rather than you managing each retailer relationship separately.
Creating A Website For Your eBook
Once your book is published, a website gives readers one place to find everything about you and your work — something no retailer page can offer. You have two realistic paths to get there.
Pursue Paid Book Reviews
A professional, independent review can lend real credibility to an author without an existing track record — useful for pitching libraries, seeking press coverage, or entering literary award submissions. Paid reviews aren’t the right fit for every goal, though, so it’s worth understanding what each service actually offers.
The Future Of eBooks Versus Traditional Printing
Back in the early 2010s, a common prediction in publishing circles was that ebooks would rapidly overtake print, driven by falling reading costs, instant delivery, and the rise of self-publishing. More than a decade on, the data tells a more interesting story than a simple takeover.
Selecting The Correct Niche Topic For Your Book
Writing a book is a real investment of time — it’s worth spending an hour on research before you spend months on the manuscript. The good news is you don’t need to guess: Amazon itself gives you the data to check whether a niche can actually support a new book, before you write a single chapter. Here are the six numbers worth checking.
ePub Error – element “img” missing required attribute “alt”
The error: element “img” missing required attribute “alt”
Finding Free Fonts And Typography For Your Book Covers
The right typography can make or break a book cover — it’s often the first thing a reader registers before they even process the title. Here are trusted sources for free fonts, plus one thing worth checking before you use any of them commercially.
What Is A PDF File?
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that preserves a document’s exact layout — fonts, images, spacing, page breaks — so it looks identical no matter what device, operating system, or software opens it. That’s the entire point of the format: what you see is exactly what everyone else sees.
How To Convert Your Book Into An eBook
One of the most common questions authors ask is: how do I actually turn my manuscript into an ebook I can sell?
Creating A Book Cover For Your eBook
Your book cover carries more weight than almost anything else in your listing — it’s the first thing a reader sees, often reduced to a thumbnail the size of a postage stamp on a phone screen. Here’s how to approach it.
