Giveaway Formatting

Hi.

In about a week signup for my first early review / member giveaway (ebook) will be complete. This will be my first time doing something like this with LibraryThing.

I’ve always published my work through some application (Amazon or Draft2Digital) that handles some formatting for me. What are the expectations for formatting? Should front-cover be attached to the first page of a PDF? Should back-cover be attached at all? Should it be PDF for ebook, or are there better preferred formats? Anything else that I should be asking, but haven’t?

Thank you!

The most important thing is to mention what format(s) are available. Many readers can't or won't read PDFs. There is no point in having people ask for your book if they won't be able to read it.

If the formatting makes the book hard to read you will get bad ratings and bad or few reviews.

>1 jamesmclellan:

In addition to what MarthaJeanne has said, do not host your ebook on a site that requires the recipient of the Giveaway to register/join.

I'd forgotten that one. Yes, that will greatly reduce the number of winners who actually get the book.

I was thinking of emailing copies. Is that not how delivery is done?

I'm annoyed whenever someone sends an ebook without the front cover on the first page (which means they completely leave it off), so, yes, please include the front cover. The back cover is optional, in my opinion. Few ebooks provide it.

As far as I'm aware, EPUB is usually preferable to PDF for ebook, though it can be nice to offer a choice. You can also find Kindle format converters for readers who prefer MOBI; with Amazon holding the majority of ebook distribution, MOBI is a popular choice.

>5 jamesmclellan: Emailing copies is a good way of distributing.

Thanks!