The Reedsy Book Editor is a free and easy-to-use online tool for formatting and creating high-quality ePub, mobi and print-ready files.
You want a professional quality eBook or print file (PDF) but you don’t want to:
a) Spend a bunch of money on layout design and professional typesetting services.
OR
b) Spend countless hours learning Adobe InDesign.
If that describes you, give the Reedsy Book Editor a try. You can read about their export options and view a demo here: How Does Reedsy’s Book Writing Software work? To get started, go to https://reedsy.com/write-a-book to set up your account.
By default, you’ll be sent to the Reedsy Marketplace. From the menu on the left, select My Books.
Enter a new book title and then select Create. Alternatively you can import an existing file. (Accepted files are .docx, .doc and .odt, as far as I know).
From the menu on the left, you’ll see Copyright, Table of Contents and Body. You can edit all of these sections. Select the blue plus button to add a new chapter.
Once you’ve written something, you’ll note there are a number of formatting options.
Likewise, you can drag and drop chapters.
On the right, you’ll notice a menu filled with formatting options, including inserting an image, inserting an endnote and exporting your book when you’re ready.
From the export options, you can configure several formatting options. You can also choose to export an .epub and .mobi or a print on demand (POD) pdf. Before exporting, under Front matter and book cover, click book settings.
You can edit your title and description, along with uploading your book cover. A typicaly cover size is 2,560px x 1,600px for eBooks, but for a POD PDF the size will vary. Reedsy recommends that the cover have a ratio of 1:1.6 and that it measures at least 2500px on the longest side.
Back to the export options, you can configure the end note positioning and the typesetting.
In addition, you can also back up your book by exporting it as a .docx file.
For POD PDFs, you’ll select a trim size before export.
On a side note, you can use your Reedsy PDF to print and distribute your book with Blurb.
Anyway, once you’ve exported your book, you’ll receive an email with a link to download it.
Once downloaded, extract the zip file(s). Your book is ready to print and distribute.