Step 1
Setting Up Your Microsoft Word Application

Smashwords.com is an easy to use service that is a blessing for me as a self-publisher with online publishing on my own websites and through other internet book distributors. I sought to expande my book marketing to Barnes and Noble, and other reading device formats. I spent months studying the manuals and websites of amazon.com, and other referenced how-to publish websites and blogs for information on how to publish my novels, books, and student manuals in the Kindle .mobi format and the Barnes & Noble Nook epub format. iBooks and other outlets are also distributed by Smashwords.com so this one-stop distributor made my life simpler. They also publish in the palm, Sony, rtf, txt, and pdf formats.

I have been publishing my books as PDF downloads since 2005, but I only sell to my students and fans of my podasts, so sales have been small. By publishing at Smashwords.com I hope to have access to more readers and customers who otherwise would not have discovered my websites:
www.shaolinCOMMUNICATIONS.com
www.shaolinCOM.com
www.shaolinRECORDS.com
www.shaolinZEN.org

You can give me feedback and suggestions for updating this guide (see "CONTACT US" link below).

I am buiilding this "HOW TO Publish Guide" because I couldn't find anything like it when I was confused and frustrated figuring this out. Follow these instructions and you can accomplish what I did. In one month I uploaded 16 of my books. Only 3 had autovetter errors, one had a cover error, and another had a copyright page error. So I'll give you advice on correcting these errors and problems also.

I am a Macintosh user so you can make adjustments to these instuctions to suit whatever application you are using.

Setting Up OpenOffice.org

I only discovered OpenOffice.org application recently. I can't tell you much about it except that I really like it and it was FREE. Make a donation to them. They deserve it.

Keep the "HIDDEN CHARACTERS" showing at all times by clicking the "paragraph" symbol in the menu bar.

OpenOffice.org app defaults to certain attributes every time you start a new book. I appreciate most of them but there are a couple that will cause you problems. If you are using the "First Line Indent" attribute it will always include additional space at the end of each paragraph. Even if you change it, the next book you create will have it again.

So here's a checklist I made. I was using QuarkXPress and Deneba Canvas before this, so I had to figure this out the hard way. I hope my notes make your work easier and more efficient.

Because I didn't have a mentor (you have me), I couldn't find answers to many of my formatting questions. So, daringly, I formatted my books differently to test them. Throughout this "How To Publish Your Ebook Guide at Smashwords.com" I will point out some of my variations and you can decide which work best for you.

So open your application and start your book. Oh yeah. I give advice on how to do that in SECTION___

The order of this checklist can be varied, but eventually, you'll have to get all this done.

Well, here, I'll get you started MY WAY.

1. Open your application: (OpenOffice.org) for me.

2. Save your document. I know, there's nothing there. But let's do it anyway.

a. Since there's nothing here you need to use "SAVE AS"

b. File type: Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP(.doc)

c. CHECKMARK: Automatic file name extension

d. NAME YOUR DOCUMENT: "MyBook1a"
Don't use spaces in your book title. This will benefit you later.
You could name it with the .doc also, but it's automatic.

e. Create a folder for your book "My Book"
You can use spaces in your folder name, but keep it short.
I keep all my books in one folder and then within your book folder create subfolders:
a. Smash-MyBook - This is where I'll SAVE "MyBook1a"
I also create the following subfolders
b. Graphics-MyBook
c. Covers-MyBook
d. Promo-MyBook
e. Text-MyBook - I created my books in text files then pasted into OpenOffice app
f. __Final Formats - this one has subfolders for all the final release formats. I use the underscores so it sits at the top of my list. You don't have to use the underscores.

Okay, you've saved your Microsoft Word document. Now let's set up the application to typeset your book.

PAGE STYLE -
I click the ICON to open the little FORMATTING WINDOW
That helps me to see whether I'm editing the Page Style OR the Paragraph Style easier. (LEFT icon = Page Style / RIGHT icon = Paragraph Style)

I've got it set to "Applied Styles" so I don't have to scroll through all the presets.

UPPER MENU: VIEW
CHECKMARKS PRECEEDING: (allow you to see if they're there)
Text Boundaries
Field Shading
nonprinting characters
hidden paragraphs

CHARACTER STYLE

I have selected the "Default" in PAGE STYLE (see image)

UPPER MENU: FORMAT
CHARACTER

FONT:
Times New Roman, Regular, 12
Language: English (USA) (or whatever you require)

FONT EFFECTS:
Font Color: Automatic (blank)
Overlining: (Without)
Effects: (Without)
Strikthrough: (WIthout)
Relief: (WIthout)
Underlining: (Without)
nothing checked below

POSITION:
Position: Normal
Rotation / scaling: 0 degrees
Scale width 100%
Spacing: Default
CHECKMARK: Pair kerning

HYPERLINK:
I left everything blank

BACKGROUND:
"No Fill"
CLICK "OK" to CLose this window

UPPER MENU: PARAGRAPH

Indents & Spacing:

Indent:
Before text 0.00"
After text 0.00"
First line 0.00"
NO checkmark "Automatic"
Spacing
Above paragraph 0.00"
Below paragraph 0.00"
Line Spacing
"Single"
Register-true
NO checkmark "Activate"

Alignment:
Options:
Left (CHECKED)
Text-to-text
Alignment "Automatic"

Text Flow:
Hyphenation
NO check "Automatically"
Breaks
NO check "Insert"
Options
NO checkmarks

Outline & Numbering
Outline
Outline level "Body text"
Numbering
Numbering Style "None"
Line numbering
CHECKMARK: "Include this paragraph in line numbering"

Tabs:
Position:
0.00"
Type:
CHECKMARK "Left"
Fill character:
CHECKMARK "None"

Drop Caps:
Settings:
NO CHECKMARKS
CLICK "OK" to CLose this window

UPPER MENU: Format: Page:

Organizer:
Name: Default
Next Style: Default

Page:
Page Format
Format "Letter"
Width 8.50"
Height 11"
Orientation "Portrait"
Paper Tray: [From printer settings]
Margins:
Left 0.79"
Right 0.79"
Top 0.79"
Bottom 0.79"

Layout settings:
Page layout "right and left"
Format "1, 2, 3, ...
NO Checkmark "Register-true"

Background
As "Color"
Background color "No Fill"

Header
Header
NO Checkmark "Header on"

Footer
Footer
NO Checkmark "Footer on"

Borders
Line arrangement
Default
User-defined
Line
Style
0.05 pt
Color
Black
Spacing to contents
Left 0.00"
Right 0.00"
Top 0.00"
Bottom 0.00"
CHECKMARK: "Synchronize"
Shadow Position
Position
SELECT left box = Nothing

Columns
Settings
Columns 1
NOTHING ELSE SELECTED...
Footnote
Footnote area
CHECKMARK: "Not larger than page area
Space to text 0.04"
Separator line
Position Left
Weight -----0.50pt
Length 25%
Spacing to footnote contents 0.04"

UPPER MENU: Format; Auto Correct:

NOTHING CHECKMARKED

UPPER MENU: Alignment: LEFT

Sincerely,
Richard Del Connor
Webmaster of Shaolin Communications