Help needed to creating E-Book

Problem is I don't know how to get started. I finished writing the book, but I don't know the first thing on how to covert it into an E-book. Is there anyplace on the web that will teach me step-by-step what to do after the book is written? I tried reading "Writing E-Books for Dummies". But it wasn't laid out sequentially. It was broken down in sections, and it just confused me even more. Can anyone help?

• There is editor software out there (even a couple of freeware versions) that may be suitable for your needs. The link is just a suggestion and may not have what you need, but it might be a start to look for more suitable software.

  http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/01/featured/free-ebook-creators-to-create-ebooks-free.html

• I think the best thing to do would be to search online. Use keywords such as, "print to e-book conversion", "print to e-book conversion tools", "e-book creation software", etc. Also, check on Amazon. They allow people to self-publish on Kindle. They may have recommendations/referrals. Also, check for "open source print-to-e-book conversion software" or "e-book digitization basics". The "open-source" keywords mean that the software is free. However, really read reviews of any tools you many find, open source or otherwise. I hope this helps.

• Google "print to e-book conversion" (between quotation marks, just as I wrote it. I forgot to include that one in my former post. The first hit you may get is to wikipedia. Their page should list some tools/softwares/services.

  R2

• OP here, thanks guys. Like I said I wish there was someplace that just said step by step what needs to be done. Do this 1, this 2nd, etc. But what you suggested is a good start.

• If you're just looking for conversion software to convert your document into one or more of the e-book formats, you can download Calibre for free. Calibre is a program for managing e-books, and it will convert many different input formats into many other output formats, for instance; PDF, RTF or TXT into MOBI (the format used by Kindle). I've only used it to convert a few public-domain books I acquired in TXT and PDF into MOBI, and it worked just fine.

  http://calibre-ebook.com

• OP - The internet contains a lot of information about electronic publishing. As a starting point, you need to be clear about what you mean by an e-book and what you are going to do with your e-book. There are professionally published e-books - like the ones you buy and download to your Kindle. There are self-published e-books that involve you sending away some text/illustrations to a company that sets up the book. There are self-published e-books that are produced on your own computer using one of the (many) e-book software packages. And there are documents produced at home that are basically booklets (that everyone can read and are produced with common software products, such as Word). The purpose and proposed readership of your e-book will help determine whether you need the text edited, professional illustrations, etc.

• I use Calibre.

• [quote]I tried reading "Writing E-Books for Dummies". But it wasn't laid out sequentially. When you're too dumb for a "for dummies" book, you have reached a new level of stupid. Congrats OP!

• Thirding Calibre. I haven't written an E-Book and never will, but I use Calibre to convert books/texts to many formats.