Creating a ebook is easier than you think. You don’t need expensive software or a design degree — free tools like Calibre and Sigil handle everything from conversion to cover design and table of contents. Here’s the full workflow.
Method 1: Calibre (Best for Document Conversion)
Calibre is the fastest way to turn an existing document into an ebook. Write in Markdown, Word, or HTML, and Calibre converts it to EPUB in seconds. If you’re brand new to Calibre, start with our beginner’s guide — it covers installation, library setup, and the interface fundamentals that this workflow assumes you already know.
Workflow:
- Add your source file to Calibre via “Add Books”
- Edit metadata immediately: title, author, tags, description (this is the store blurb)
- Convert: set output to EPUB. Pay attention to Structure Detection — Calibre auto-detects chapters from H1/H2 headings, so your TOC builds itself.
- Enable both Level 1 and Level 2 TOC for navigation sidebar support on Kindle and Kobo.
What works best: Markdown converts cleanly without formatting artifacts. Word DOCX is fine but can carry over invisible formatting that produces odd spacing. Avoid PDF as source — PDF to EPUB conversion is lossy and will require manual cleanup.
Cover design: Calibre can generate covers from metadata, but for anything you plan to share, use Canva or a dedicated image editor. Covers should be 1600×2400 pixels minimum. Calibre embeds the cover automatically if you select it in metadata before conversion.
Metadata Best Practices
Good metadata is the difference between a professional ebook and something that looks self-published. Every store and device displays metadata differently, so getting it right up front saves hours of re-uploading later. If you want to go deep on this topic, we have a dedicated advanced metadata guide.
Title and author: These seem obvious, but there are pitfalls. Never put a series name in the title field — Calibre has a separate Series field, and most stores will read it properly if it’s tagged there. For author names, use consistent formatting across all books: “Ursula K. Le Guin” not “Le Guin, Ursula K.” for one book and “Ursula Le Guin” for another. Inconsistent author names create duplicate author entries in e-reader libraries, which is frustrating to fix later.
Description (the store blurb): This is the most underrated metadata field. It appears on the book details page on Kobo, Kindle, and PocketBook. Write it as if it’s going on a product page — because it is. A good description is 2-4 paragraphs: hook, premise, and a reason to read. Don’t just paste the first paragraph of your book; no one wants to read the blurb and realize they’ve already started the story.
Tags and categories: For personal use, tags help you filter your Calibre library (“to-read”, “nonfiction”, “2026”). For publishing, you’ll assign BISAC categories in the publisher’s dashboard separately, but Calibre’s tags can guide your choices. Keep tags lowercase and consistent — “science-fiction” and “Science Fiction” are two different tags to Calibre.
ISBN and identifiers: If you’re publishing through KDP or Kobo Writing Life, add the ISBN after you get it from the platform. For personal ebooks, the uuid: identifier Calibre auto-generates is sufficient.
Conversion Settings That Matter
Calibre’s conversion dialog is full of options, but most of them should be left at defaults. Here are the ones worth adjusting:
Structure Detection (under “Table of Contents”): This is where you tell Calibre how to build your table of contents. The default expression //*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2'))] works for most documents, but if you’re converting from Markdown where every chapter is ##, set the Level 1 TOC expression to //h:h2 and leave Level 2 as //h:h3 for sub-sections. If your document uses custom class names, you can target them: //h:h2[contains(@class,'chapter')].
Look & Feel: The “Filter Style Information” tab lets you strip font-family declarations, margins, and colors. I always check “Fonts” — embedded publisher fonts in the source document will conflict with e-reader font settings, so stripping them gives readers full control. Leave “Margins” unchecked unless the source document has huge margins (common with Word exports).
Page Setup: For EPUB, leave the output profile as “Default Output Profile” — device-specific profiles add CSS that may not work on all readers. The exception is if you’re targeting Kindle exclusively and converting to AZW3, in which case the “Kindle” profile optimizes image sizing correctly.
EPUB Output: Under “EPUB Output” options, enable “Do not split on page breaks” unless you intentionally want each page-break to create a new internal file. With it enabled, Calibre respects your document’s natural chapter structure. Disable “Flatten EPUB file structure” — a flat structure works fine on most devices but fails validation on some platforms.
Cover Design Tips from Experience
After making covers for dozens of personal ebooks and a handful of published ones, here’s what I’ve learned:
Size matters more than you think. A 1600×2400 pixel cover at 300 DPI looks crisp on every e-reader and storefront. Amazon recommends 2560 pixels on the longest side, but 1600×2400 is universally compatible. Anything smaller than 1000 pixels will look pixelated on newer high-resolution e-readers like the Kobo Libra Colour.
Test at thumbnail size. Most people will see your cover as a thumbnail — in a store listing, in their library grid, or on a lock screen. If the title is unreadable at 150 pixels wide, redesign the cover. Bold sans-serif fonts (like Montserrat or Inter) and high-contrast color schemes survive thumbnail scaling better than ornate serif designs.
Avoid pure white backgrounds. E Ink screens render pure white as light gray, and a cover that looks crisp on a backlit phone screen can look muddy on a Kindle or Kobo. Use off-white (#F5F5F5 minimum, #FAFAFA ideally) for backgrounds, and boost contrast 10-15% beyond what looks right on your monitor.
Calibre’s cover generator is for drafts only. It produces geometrically centered text on a solid background. It’s fine for identifying books in your own library, but never use it for anything you plan to distribute. Even a 10-minute Canva design with a stock photo and your title will look infinitely more professional.
Embed correctly. In Calibre, right-click the book → Edit metadata → Change cover → Browse. The cover embeds as the first page of the EPUB. Some e-readers (notably older Kindles) will also pick up the cover from the cover.jpg file inside the EPUB, but the embedded metadata method is more reliable. After embedding, use Calibre’s built-in EPUB editor or Sigil to verify the cover appears as the first item in the spine.
Format-Specific Settings Cheat Sheet
| Setting | EPUB (General) | AZW3 (Kindle) | KEPUB (Kobo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output profile | Default | Kindle | Default (convert to EPUB first, then kepubify) |
| Split files | At chapter boundaries | At chapter boundaries | At chapter boundaries |
| Cover size (min) | 1600×2400 | 2560×1600 | 1600×2400 |
| Font stripping | Recommended | Required (Kindle overrides anyway) | Optional (Kobo respects embedded fonts) |
| CSS margin cleanup | Yes if from Word | Yes | Leave if publisher-styled |
| TOC depth | 2 levels | 2 levels | 2 levels |
Method 2: Sigil (Best for Hand-Crafted EPUBs)
Sigil is a WYSIWYG EPUB editor — think of it as a word processor for ebooks. Unlike Calibre’s hands-off approach, Sigil gives you complete control over the EPUB’s internal structure.
What Sigil can do:
- Edit HTML/CSS directly inside the EPUB
- Build a table of contents with drag-and-drop
- Validate EPUB structure with built-in EPUBCheck
- Add metadata (title, author, language, cover)
- Export finished EPUB ready for any store or device
When to use Sigil: When you need fine typography control, when Calibre’s conversion introduces formatting issues that need manual fixes, or when you’re building an EPUB from scratch rather than converting an existing document.
The companion tool PageEdit handles WYSIWYG editing within Sigil’s workflow. For step-by-step setup, see the Sigil guide.
Fixed-Layout EPUBs (Children’s Books, Cookbooks)
Fixed-layout preserves exact page positions — images and text stay locked in place regardless of screen size. Essential for children’s picture books, cookbooks, and photo books.
Setup in Sigil:
- Create new blank EPUB
- Add these meta tags in
content.opf:
<meta property="rendition:layout">pre-paginated</meta>
<meta property="rendition:orientation">auto</meta>Image dimensions: Use 1224×1632 pixels (3:4 ratio) for 7-inch e-readers. For Apple Books, use 1536×2048. JPEG at 85% quality balances visual fidelity and file size — a 32-page book at 1224×1632 lands around 15-25 MB.
Each page’s XHTML needs a viewport in <head>:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=1224, height=1632"/>Reflowable EPUBs (Novels, Most Books)
Reflowable EPUBs adapt text to any screen size. This is the standard format for novels, non-fiction, and most published ebooks.
Starting from scratch in Sigil, create a chapter-by-chapter structure. Each chapter is its own XHTML file. The table of contents (NCX) is generated automatically from headings, but you can also build it manually.
Avoid these common mistakes:
- Using
<br>for spacing (use CSSmargin-bottominstead) - Leaving empty paragraphs (they create awkward gaps)
- Using absolute font sizes (use relative sizing like
eminstead) - Embedding low-resolution images (1600×2400 minimum for covers)
Publishing Options
For personal use: Drop the finished EPUB on a Kobo, Boox, or PocketBook via USB. For Kindle, use Send to Kindle or convert to AZW3 in Calibre first.
For distribution: Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) accepts EPUB uploads and converts them for the Kindle store. Kobo Writing Life accepts EPUB directly. Draft2Digital distributes to multiple stores from a single EPUB upload.
Always validate with EPUBCheck before publishing — Calibre has it built in, or use the online validator. A failed validation means your book gets rejected from stores or displays incorrectly on devices.