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Arranging the Pages in an Ebook - Opening Page

The opening page of your ebook should be the cover which we have already discussed. Many authors use the cover as a sales pitch and incorporate a catchy headline along with the title, picture, logo and update patches such as "New Updated Edition". Getting this step correct is extremely important. Remember, first impression matters most.

Foreword and small print

Since copyrights, liabilities, disclaimers are all part of publishing you should include this information in the foreword. You may need to seek professional assistance from a copyrights lawyer to check on your country's copyright laws. To get an idea just get hold of an ebook and check out the fine print section.

User Help and Navigation

Ebooks are interactive and many publishers include their own systems of navigation. Therefore its essential to tell the reader as to what type of navigation that you have embeded. These could be help links, internal links, Internet links, update links, text tips, jump menus ect. Its better to provide examples of navigation to make things easier for the reader.

Contents

Always include a Table of Contents. Ideally hyper link them to pages of your ebook with back links to the Table of Contents. Why? because people are used to flipping pages in a book and want to go back and forth from the Table of Contents. Since you cannot place your finger as a point of reference in an ebook you should provide it with back links. Ideally the Table of Contents should be made accessible from any page of your ebook with one click.

Headings and Footers

Pages in a book must look uniform - unless you are designing a totally outrageous art book. But in most cases having a uniform layout makes it look more professional. The best way to apply uniformity is to have have similar headers and footers. Applications such as InDesign, PageMaker and MSWord enable you to make templates which can be applied to the entire book or on a selective basis. Furthermore these applications will enable you to insert automatic page numbers regardless of where you insert and delete pages. For example, if page 47 is deleted or inserted the software will re-number them accordingly from page 1.

Managing Text Headings

Programs such as InDesign make formatting text headings a breeze through CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. That way if you want a particular style applied to a heading it can be done without formatting every heading in your book. The software knows where you have applied a particular style and will update or change it at the click of a button. For instance 300 headings can be changed instantly by making one adjustment in the CSS Panel.

Images

In this age of digital photography everyone seems to be a photographer. But if you really want to get professional results its best that you choose a professional. If the image you use is below par that will hurt your image. Don't give the impression that you have tried to cut corners to save a few Dollars. Most ebook publishers make this mistake and end up with average results. Always use the best resources you can afford.

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