newbie question: book pdfs?

[TadVezner]

A lot of reviewer sites I've seen say they'll accept ebooks in PDF format. I've got mine published on Amazon, have it in Word and HTML format, and will soon have it on CreateSpace... but not sure how to save any of my copies in PDF format. Can anyone guide me on how I'd convert it into the format these reviewers are talking about?... and do you add the cover in there as well? A little lost, sorry.

[AnneMarie Novark]

The easiest way to make a PDF is to save it in Word as a PDF. Just as you save a doc or docx file in Word, so can you save to RTF and PDF. Hit SAVE AS and find the box where it says FORMAT; click on the little arrow and a box will drop down with different formats. Choose PDF.

FYI. I'm techno-challenged, and this is the way I do it. There may be a different way, too.

Good luck!!!

[TadVezner]

Thanks for the reply. Maybe my copy of Word is outdated(it's Word 2000), but I didn't see a PDF option in the SAVE AS formats -- but then I looked in the file menu and found Create PDF. Duh.
Other question: do book reviewers expect you to somehow include a PDF copy of your cover with the document?

[Feenix]

Hey there!

I use LibreOffice via Ubuntu 11.10 and it does a great job exporting .doc files into .pdfs.

And LibreOffice is free! 

Dave King

[Rykymus]

Word 2000 doesn't support saving as a pdf file. The easiest (and cheapest ) solution is to buy a pdf creation program. Then you can turn your word doc into a pdf by printing it, and choosing the pdf print object as the printer. (It will open up a save dialog box for you to enter a file name) Adobe acrobat is of course the king of pdfs, but they are not cheap. (Well over $100 for even the most basic version.) There are plenty of knock-offs out there for cheap. (less than $30)

[acellis]

This site lets you create a pdf online, and then email it to yourself.
http://www.primopdf.com/online.aspx

[SallyWGrotta]

While I'm a newbie in ePublishing, too, I know Acrobat & PDFs. PDFs are made to handle both print and pictures, so I would recommend including a cover as your first page.

[deana]

If you have Adobe Professional (lots of $$$$) then it will have an option to attach itself ot MSWord. That is what most people have when they mention it.

I would download this software: http://www.dopdf.com/

You can do a File > Print and select the dopdf as a printer. It can embeds fonts and it can also change the book size if you need that for later.

[Strayer]

I used a free PDF converter online. It worked and I had no problems. I have Word 2003 and can't save as PDF.

[wdeen]

Download Adobe Reader. It's free and it should take care of your pdf problems.

[jumbojohnny]

I have had this problem a few times in the past. I now have Word 10 which has the PDF option, even the option to save as needed for printing / embedded fonts etc. But I also have Open Office, and that also has these options now, but, and it's not advertised as I think it is a bug rather than a limitation, it is no use for creating sections which start much beyond a certain number, not done it in a while but I think it's over (page number) 100, and you find it actually numbers from page 1. But for less than 100 pages it's fine for starting on either odd or even page numbers. Libre office may have ironed that out though, but haven't got it yet.

[ShaunaG]

FYI: You'll have to submit your book as a PDF for Createspace too.

[EthanRussellErway]

If you publish your book on SmashWords, it will generate just about any kind of file you can think of, which all your customers can choose from (yourself included) once they have purchased the book.

Publishing here will also open up distribution to Apple, B&N, Sony, etc.

This is a great way to go unless you want to be Amazon exclusive.

[CK Kennedy]

Import the cover of your book into the Word file, then save as a PDF. Primopdf is also free as a download. I've used it frequently over the years and like it the best.

[EthanRussellErway]

ShaunaG, I am almost positive that Createspace accepts word files as well.

[ShaunaG]

ShaunaG, I am almost positive that Createspace accepts word files as well.

I've done both my books in paperback through Createspace and both times it has required me to do so in PDF. So I went to check and it looks like they've just recently changed this, but they'll do the converting for you, still requiring it to be a PDF. I dont think I'd trust them to do the converting for me in case anything went awry and that can happen when you create a PDF. Anyway, must be a new change that happened when they made all of those new changes last month.