Inspect every finished format
Audit ebook front matter, links, navigation, and sample
Before the ebook goes on sale, open it on real devices and check the front matter, every link, the table of contents, and what a reader sees in the free sample.
Authors often hire help with this: design or production.
Why it matters
Ebook readers judge quickly and leave reviews about formatting. A broken table of contents or a sample that never reaches chapter one loses readers who would have bought the book. These problems are cheap to find before release and expensive in reviews afterward.
Your part
- What you do
- Verify. Someone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher. Publisher or self-publisher produces; author audits on real devices
- When
- Before the ebook is released, once the final file exists, typically two to four weeks before the ebook publication date (Inspect every finished format: as soon as finished copies and final files exist, before launch week)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
An ebook is a piece of software as much as a book, and it can be broken in ways a print book cannot: a table of contents that does not navigate, a link that points to a dead page, a cover missing from the file, or a free sample that ends before the story begins because the front matter is forty pages long. This audit catches those before readers do.
Whoever converted the file, you are the person who knows what the book should contain, so do the check yourself. Get the final ebook file or a preview, asking the production contact if you do not have it, and open it on at least two devices or apps. Check that the cover is embedded, the table of contents navigates, every internal and external link resolves, the copyright page and front matter are correct, and the sample (usually the first 10 percent) reaches actual content. If long front matter such as dedications, praise pages, and extended acknowledgments is eating the sample, move it to the back. Report anything wrong to whoever controls the file, which is the production contact at a publisher and your own platform if you published the book yourself.
Repeat the audit after any file update.
Common mistakes
- Checking only in the platform previewer and never on a real device.
- Leaving the print ISBN on the ebook copyright page.
- Putting a print-style table of contents with page numbers in the ebook.
- Front-loading praise pages and acknowledgments so the sample never reaches chapter one.
- Linking to a retailer page for the next book that does not exist yet.
What done looks like
- Cover embedded and displayed in the library view of at least two apps or devices.
- Table of contents complete and every entry navigating to the right place.
- Every link (internal cross-references, footnotes, external web links) tested.
- Front matter correct: title page, copyright page with the ebook ISBN, and any required notices.
- The free sample reaching real content within a few screens.
- Any back matter links (author site, newsletter, next book) working and pointing where intended.
Ask your publisher
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Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified