How To Write And Format An Ebook With Google Docs
Digital products are an easy way to capitalize on your knowledge. If you have knowledge and want to share that knowledge with someone who wants to know what you know, you can create an e-book, sell it online and make residual evergreen income.
Some examples of turning your knowledge into an e-book are if you have grown your locs to waist length you can write an ebook detailing how you started and grew your locs to waist length. If you know how to weave baskets you can create a picture book demonstrating how its done. If you have a kitchen garden you can write a book detailing how to start and maintain a kitchen garden. You get it, you can turn any information and knowledge you have into a digital book that you can sell online.
Google docs is a free web based word processor offered to anyone with a gmail account (gmail is also free) its an effective tool for creating ebooks, and offers features that make it easy to create, format, edit, share, and download the book on most devices.If you have google docs I will highlite useful features you can use to write an e-book on Google docs.
The Cover Page
You can create a cover page on google docs by removing all margins on the first page and setting margins to 0 by selecting file, page setups, then margins. This can be done by putting your cursor at the top left of the first page and pressing CMD + Enter, if you have any content typed up already it will be moved to the next page. This will give you a blank page that you can use to create a cover page for your book. Pick an image and font you want to use for the design, you can also create the cover design on canva and upload it on the blank page with 0 margins. The cover image will be displayed on the entire page.
Word Count Feature
A nice feature on google docs is word count. When tying up each chapter you might have a goal of words that you want to exceed before moving on to the next chapter. To get the word count you can select (ctrl+shift+c) or go to tools and select word count. It will show total pages, words, and characters and you can select the option to display word count while typing. You can also select text that you want to count on a section of your document.
Formatting
Google docs has a number of templates that makes it easier to create written documents that you can add to your ebook for example a template for recipes, privacy policy templates, terms of use templates, book report templates and so much more.
You can also create an automatic outline in Google docs so that you can jump between sections when reading back or editing your work.
Images can be added and edited on google docs. Images being uploaded can be cropped, recolored on Google docs but for ease I like uploading fully designed images. Flow charts and diagrams can be created on google drawings and then uploaded to your Google docs ebook. Charts can help your readers visualize data more accurately.
Information in your ebook can also be translated to another language on Google docs by selecting tools, then traslate. A translated copy will open in a new window. These are some of the amazing formatting features available on Google docs when writting your ebook.
Page Setup
This is where settings like page size, margins and orientation are set up. You can access it by clicking on file then page setup on the top left on your document on google docs. Here you can set up the orientation, paper size, margins, and page color. You can also inlcude mix page orientations in a single Google doc. This will help you fit wider tables, charts, and graphics. You also have the option of adding pages or going pageless for your e-book.
Adding Page Numbers Or Going Pageless
Adding pages is the usual layout with page breaks and makes it easy to print your document. You can add numbers on the header or footer centering the nuumber on the page or aligning it left or right side of the page. You can add numbers to the whole document or to specific sections from a certain page.
When formatting your ebook, the first page will be the cover page, the second page might have the book name and author. The third page may have a foward and disclaimer. The fourth page might have the table of contents with chapters and headings for each chapter. Page five might be a blank page separating the book from the cover material and then the contents of the book might start on page 6. You can setup the page numbers to start after a section break between page 1 to 5 and then start numbering the book from page 6 which will show up on the book as page 1, leaving the cover page, book heading and any other introductory write ups without page numbers.
You can also choose to setup your entire book to be pageless. This setup allows the reader to continously scroll without page breaks. This will cause images to adjust to the screen size and it will allow you to create wide tables that can be viewed by scrolling left and right. Line breaks for text will also adjust to the screen size as you zoom in and out.
PDF Editor
You can edit your PDF in Google docs by uploading the file to Google drive, right click on it, and select open with Google docs. This converts the PDF into an editable document allowing changes to the text. After editing you can save the file as PDF by choosing file, then download, then select PDF.
You can use this feature to take information gathered for your book like statistical data, reports or tables that may be in a PDF, upload them into your Google docs ebook as reference material.
Download And Share Ebook
Once you complete your ebook document it is important that you can download it or share it across devices using links, or directly to email. This is how buyers of your book will be able to receive it and download or view it on their devices. The file options available on Google Docs for download are:
(.docx) Microsoft Word. This is the default file format for Microsoft Word 2007 and later.
(.pdf) PDF file. Portable document format is the Adobe-developed, ISO standardized file used to present documents with text, images, vector graphics, forms, links, and multi media. It is often used for ebooks because it can be widely shared, printed, and archived.
(.odt) OpenDocument Format. This is the OpenDocument text file which is a word processing format used in LibreOffice and OpenOffice another free alternative to Microsoft Word. It can be opened on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
(.txt) Plain Text. This is a text file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. It is a basic text file format used for generating plain text files with little to no formatting or styling.
(.rtf) Rich Text Format. This is a Microsoft document file format that supports text, images, font styles, varying colors, and alignment. It allows easy exchange between operating systems and word processors. You can open .rtf files on Wordpad, Microsoft Word, on a Windows device, Apple pages, or Apple text.
(.html, zipped) Web Page. This is a HyperText Markup language used to create and structure web pages, defining content, layout, and functionality through tags, and attributes. This file is used in webpages.
(.epub) EPUB Publication. This is an electronic publication file format. These files are intended as digital alternatives to printed media like books and magazines.
(.md) Markdown is a plain-text file formatted for easy reading, writting, and conversion to HTML. This file format is great for documents, and README files and content due to its simplicity.
I hope these tips will help you create and format a book on Google docs. Once this is done you will need to market and sell your ebook. I will create an additional article to help you market and sell your ebook online even with no audience.
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