This past weekend I was building a new ebook of Starstrikers to release with my next novel, Starforgers in October. I’m using the stylesheet that I created for Tyrmia, my last novel. If you intend to self-publish your ebook, you basically have two options, make it yourself or hire a professional. For the vast majority of authors, hiring a professional is the way to go. Just do it. Don’t go with the automated methods offered by many publishers.
I tend to do things like this myself, because I can. I have built web pages and ebooks many times before. So I know enough to attempt something like this myself. I don’t claim to be a professional ebook designer by any means. I don’t completely do things from scratch in Vi either. No need. Time is something I don’t have much of these days. I use Sigil and I have my own style sheets as I mentioned above. For most ebook authors, that is usually enough.
My next novel will be written in Scrivener and when I finish it, I may use that program to create my ebook ARC. But when it comes to making a final ebook product, I’ll be doing it by hand again. Because I know that I can have complete control over the final product and any mistakes are all my own.