As you may know from reading my other blog or my Twitter feed or from bumping into me any time in the past six months, I’m writing an ebook on the Washington Spirit.

I’ve just about finished the editing phase, so now I’m looking into ebook formatting and distribution. It all seems so easy, and everyone recommends two major services: Smashwords and calibre (yes, it follows e.e. cummings lowercase style).

Smashwords referred me to a 90-page style guide. Page 12 offers two examples of perfectly formatted files. The first veers wildly between regular text and allcaps. Then if you happen to read a bit of it, you’ll be surprised to learn you’re reading an erotic novel.

calibre’s site has ads that look like part of the site. They’re offering … downloads of calibre! Which, unfortunately, come with all sorts of malware.

Maybe I’ll just email this thing to people who pay me through Paypal.

(UPDATE: calibre’s users guide says you can’t use it for editing, and you should use either Sigil or Book Designer. I followed the link to the Book Designer site. It’s in Russian.)