How to create an Ebook

If you want to create an Ebook, there are many programs out there that will give you the opportunity to write your own. Most of these programs are shareware and their trails won't let you make more then a few pages.

Although there are great programs out there, that will let you create real page turning ebooks, most of these programs will cost you money and they will only export your ebook in their own native format or into an EXE. 

The EXE format can't be opened by Macintosh, Unix or Portable computers, so getting the "real page turning ebooks" will bypass a whole market of potential readers. 

Each ebook creator uses it's own format to create an ebook, that is viewable with their own reader. There are a lot of people who don't want to install the extra reader, because they don't know what it is.

PDF is the way to go

This format is viewable and printable on any platform, giving you a maximal exposure to your readers. People trust the reader software and most of the time, Adobe's reader is pre installed on their computers.

PDF doesn't let you create an ebook with simulated page turning, but although this does simulate a real book, I discovered that after a while you just want to read on and you don't need the extra page turning.

This is especially the case in long ebooks, it gets annoying.

Why pay for it?

There are many free programs out there that support PDF format.

Personally I would use OpenOffice.org, the free office suit that will give you full Word, Excel and Powerpoint import functionality and you can export your files in the PDF format.

Another possibility is to print to a virtual printer that will let you print anything to PDF. There are many great free virtual PDF printers out there. Search Google for free PDF printer.