What you need: Sigil; PageEdit
Time required: 2-3 hours
These days you don’t need a publishing deal to distribute a book you’ve written, nor commit to the upfront cost of printing copies without any guaranteed sales in place. Thanks to the continuing popularity of ebook readers like the Kobo and Kindle, you can publish digitally for zero cost and then look to promote your work online.
The hardest part of the job is taking your finished draft – typically in a Microsoft Word document – and converting it into a format that flows on any screen, whether PC, phone, tablet or ebook reader. The solution lies in an open-source program called Sigil, which takes your text (and any images you may have included) and transforms it into a standard EPUB file, which is compatible with a variety of mobile devices, from Kobo e-readers to tablets and even phones. You can also export your book in a format you can convert to the AZW3 format used by Amazon Kindles.
1 Set up Sigil
Visit , where you’ll find download links for Windows (64bit only, requires Windows 10 version 1809 or later), Mac and Linux. Microsoft Defender might warn you about Sigil, but it’s safe
