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Feedbooks is not just a neat place to download e-books: it is mostly a publishing service. Any book available on the website was uploaded by one of our users, and to constantly provide new and interesting books, we need your help.
To contribute, whether you decide to upload public domain books or your own creation, there's no need to be an expert: you'll just have to grasp a few basic concepts.
The Basics
Whenever we use a word processor or do any sort of text editing, we usually work on a single flow of text.
Rather than dividing the text into separate elements, we modify the style of the text to give a visual indication that there's a division: a slightly bolder font or a different alignment.
Feedbooks rely on a different paradigm: we consider that the structure of the text is very important.
Thanks to this structure we can automatically build a table of contents or divide the text into multiple text flows (which is necessary for advanced formats such as ePub).
Based on the output format we can also style things differently: while Mobipocket provides limited options for chapter headers, we can create good looking ones in PDF and ePub.
To create or modify the structure of a book, there's 2 basic actions: you can 
add content or you can 
remove content.
Whenever you start a new book, you'll notice a icon, otherwise these actions will show up while you're over an element.
Where you decide to add an element is also important: Feedbooks supports multi-level table of contents. If you add several chapters inside a part, that's where it'll show up in the table of contents, instead of the spine of your book.
You'll notice that each element has a light grey bar on its left. Thanks to this bar you can see the depth of an element. If you click on it, it'll show/hide the element.
The Structure of a Book
Whenever you click on add, the following dialog will pop-up:
You can add multiple elements at the same time, this way, if your book is 20 chapters long, you can add them all at once. Just enter 20 in the first field and click on Chapter.
Let's introduce all of these elements:
Text:
This is the most obvious element: you'll need one whenever you'd like to add text.
Each time that you add one it'll add a page break: let's say that at the beginning of your book you'd like to add a short dedication and on the next page a copyright notice.
Just add a text element for each one.
If you create a new chapter or a new section, you'll notice that you don't have to click on the icon and go through the dialog, a link will directly appear in your chapter/section.
Part:
Unlike a block of text, a part will create a new entry in the table of content.
Parts are automatically numbered, and are displayed in every format the same way: "Part (number): Title".
Use a part whenever you need to group chapters/sections together.
In a part you can add the following elements: Chapter, Section and Text.
Chapter:
Chapters are pretty much self-explanatory: they'll display a chapter header that is automatically numbered and the title of your chapter.
If you add a chapter in a part, it'll automatically reset the counter to 1 for all of the chapters included in this part.
Use chapters when you'd like to have our chapter headers. If you need something more generic, use sections instead.
In a chapter you can add the following elements: Section and Text.
Section:
Sections are the most generic elements, you can use them whenever you need an entry in the table of contents and a part/chapter won't fit for what you need.
Editing
You can edit any element inline: just click on a part/chapter/section name to edit it.
If you've removed the whole text, click on the element's type instead to switch to edit mode.
Text Editing
Editing a block of text works the same, but instead of a basic text field, you'll get a full WYSIWYG editor, where you can style the text the way you want and even paste something that you've copied from text editor or your browser.
Check out our page dedicated to formatting tips too.
For an optimal experience with the paste feature we recommend using a Webkit based browser (Chrome, Safari or Konqueror).
If you encounter any sort of warning message while using Firefox, just press continue.
Cover
Although Feedbooks always generate a generic cover for books, you can upload a different one if you'd like. Just click on the cover while editing and you'll get a dialog to do so.
Uploaded covers are also embedded in the e-book output.
Preview
At any point that you'd like, you can preview your book. Just click on the format that you'd like and we'll generate a preview on the fly.
Before publishing your book, we highly recommend to preview the output and make sure that everything looks fine.
An example
Let's say that I'm uploading the following book: on the first page there's a dedication, on the second one there's a quote, then a preface and finally 2 parts with several chapters in each part.
This is what the structure of the book will look like:
The best way to really understand in which situation you'd like to use a part/chapter/section is to play with the publishing feature a little: try creating a few structures and you'll quickly understand how to use them.
Best Practices
- Avoid at all cost the use of a single text flow for a whole book (aside from short stories of course).
The structure of your book is very important: you need a table of contents and for some formats, if the book is not properly divided, we'll have to automatically add page breaks for technical reasons. - Create the structure of your text first, then fill the structure with the content.
- Avoid blank lines: it might makes things easier to read on a computer screen, but books use indentation instead (we auto-indent paragraphs).
Use them if the action is switching to a different scene, not between paragraphs. - It's much easier to edit your book if you hide what you're done editing. Use the grey bar for this.
