Category Archives: Smashwords Formatting

By Colin Dunbar

Special thanks to Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords for his permission to use the material in this post.

Front Matter and Back Matter

The front matter for your Smashwords ebook is simpler than the front matter for hard copy books, but is nevertheless important.

The following from the Smashwords Style Guide: “Try to keep your front matter brief. Most retailers only make the first 5-10% of your book available as a free sample, so if your front matter is long, it might prevent readers from getting a free sample.”
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By Colin Dunbar

Special thanks to Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords for his permission to use material in this post.

Table of Contents (ToC) and Navigation

Smashwords offers three primary navigation elements for your ebook. In this post I discuss the linked Table of Contents, as this is the most common method of navigation (and it’s the easiest).

Also included in this post is the Non-ToC intra-book links.

A linked ToC will benefit your readers (making it easy for them to navigate your book), and I highly recommend including one in your book.
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