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Post by davidgaughran on Jun 9, 2011 12:29:25 GMT -5
If you want your books to look as good or better than the ones coming from New York, if you want them to look perfect on every single e-reader, then you should check out Guido Henkel's Guide to Formatting on his website. guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/He talks you through every step, and after I followed it, I got rave reviews on my formatting. It's a bit more work than just exporting a HTML file from word, or using a file converter like Mobipocket Creator, but as Guido explains, but those approaches can cause serious formatting problems that you might not even be aware of. There are a couple of things I do differently to Guido (I don't indent first lines of new chapters), but there are easy workarounds for that, and I can tell you what to do. |
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Post by martinv on Jun 9, 2011 13:07:56 GMT -5
I have read Guido's guide before and concluded that I can do what he says. I know enough about HTML coding that it wouldn't be a problem. However, some distributors such as Smashwords offer to transform manuscripts from MS Word documents into e-book formats. There really isn't any need to write the HTML code if it's done for you. Unless there's something I didn't think about.
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Post by Mark Neumayer on Jun 9, 2011 14:53:37 GMT -5
Guido's guide is very good. I learned a lot from it. The Kindle version of my book was built using an HTML editor and hints from his guide.
While Smashwords Meatgrinder will convert a Word doc into an ebook they own the conversion file. It is not like you can have them do the work and then upload the final product to Amazon as well. (Which makes sense from their financial point of view.) Meatgrinder also has quirks to it right now that can make it frustratiing to work with. It is young software however and could easily evolve past these problems.
I wrote a note to customer support expressing my frustration at not being able to upload my working HTML or EPUB and got a nice note back from Mark Coker himself.
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Post by jeanfrese on Jun 9, 2011 16:42:01 GMT -5
Of course, if you're uplading to smashwords, Guido's aesthetic principles will work, but his process just won't. Smashwords only lets you upload in doc format and for best results it should apparently be the official MS Word version. They've released their own style guide and if you're publishing on smashwords you should probably follow it religiously. www.smashwords.com/books/view/52Yes, this means you're maintaining two different versions of the same book, depending on the distributor, but that's really the way it works in these kinds of industries. I know it would be ideal to only have to maintain one document... but if you really care about your final product on every platform that's probably really not going to cut it. |
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Post by ajabbiati on Jun 9, 2011 18:14:27 GMT -5
Guido's guide is excellent. I had to make a couple mods to it (can't remember exactly where), as my Chapter/Title headings weren't centering, but beyond that, I use it for all my formatting except Smashwords. Right now we're stuck with the meatgrinder, which sucks, but from a coding, Q&A, and business perspective, I can see why Mark is sticking with it...at least for now.
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Post by mtwriter on Jun 9, 2011 19:39:08 GMT -5
I've always made two versions of my books anyway. If you put links to already published works in the back, Kindle doesn't appreciate Smashwords links. B & N, Kobo and others don't like Kindle links. (They don't mind smashwords links.) I followed Smashwords formatting guide for both versions and I haven't had any trouble uploading so far. I follow the guide step by step and it works.
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Post by martinv on Jun 10, 2011 15:55:57 GMT -5
More often than HTML I use Miktex to create pdf files. It's basically the same as writing a HTML code, only the tags are different. Then I compile the tex file and I get the pdf.
Is pdf a viable format for ebooks?
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Post by lvcabbie on Jun 10, 2011 18:59:13 GMT -5
I think two of the best tools I found for e-book formatting are MobiPocket Reader and Creator. They're designed for Kindle but, once you've got it right, it allows you to create a html file for Nook and a pdf for CreateSpace and AuthorStand.
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Post by lvcabbie on Jun 10, 2011 19:00:21 GMT -5
Another great file for creating pdf files is CutePDF a free download.
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Post by veronicatorres on Jun 14, 2011 15:32:45 GMT -5
Guido's guide is very good. I learned a lot from it. The Kindle version of my book was built using an HTML editor and hints from his guide. While Smashwords Meatgrinder will convert a Word doc into an ebook they own the conversion file. It is not like you can have them do the work and then upload the final product to Amazon as well. (Which makes sense from their financial point of view.) Meatgrinder also has quirks to it right now that can make it frustratiing to work with. It is young software however and could easily evolve past these problems. I wrote a note to customer support expressing my frustration at not being able to upload my working HTML or EPUB and got a nice note back from Mark Coker himself. I would love to know what Mark replied. My heavily formatted books pass SW premium distribution check, but still don't work right. I wish I could just send in my ePub rather than have him convert my Word doc to ePub. I have asked twice, but not received a reply. I went ahead and set up my books directly with iBooks and I am on the verge of closing my SW account. |
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Post by jamarlow on Aug 3, 2011 21:35:01 GMT -5
I used Guido's guide, altering it to my own wants and needs. It's been working great. As I have an older Mac with few choices in programs, I needed a good way to make Calibre (an older version) convert cleanly. The HTML files have worked very nicely.
As for Smashwords, I put different links in it plus the front verbiage, so I format it by itself. It's a pain in the neck, but usually doesn't take very long. Just open the HTML file in a browser, copy and paste into a new Word document. The plus side is that I go into the Word document with nuked text, allowing me to start out without any hidden formatting (I write in Scrivener, not Word).
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