E-books: Applications and Services

Final E-book quality can depend on:

Below is a draft, incomplete, alphabetical table of selected E-book authoring & conversion applications, and web services.
If you have experience with, or review articles for these or others, let me know.


Name Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
application or publishing site web-based
Win: Windows
Mac: Macintosh
Lnx: Linux
license, royalties, fees web: HTML, blog
.doc: Word
.odt: Open Office
.pdf: Acrobat
.epub: ePub
Mobi: Kindle
A Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Adobe: see inDesign
Amazon: see Kindle Direct Publishing, KindleGen
Anthologize WordPress free blog ePub, PDF
Apple: see iBooks Author, iTunes, Pages
Atavist ? free, pro ? ePub, Mobi, web
B Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Barnes & Noble: see PubIt!
BlogBooker web donation WordPress, LiveJournal, Blogger (.xml) .pdf
Blurb Bookify &
BookSmart
web
Win,Mac
? ? .epub
BookBaby web $99+ Word, HTML ePub, Mobi
  • publishing service
Bookmasters
  • service provider
Book Studio web free(eval); $ .doc, .html .epub
C Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Calibre Win,Mac,Lnx free .doc, .html .epub, Mobi
Convert a Book web .pdf,.doc .epub, Mobi
  • publisher?
E Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
eBook Architects
  • conversion, consulting
EpubCheck web free .epub
  • format validator
ePub Bud web free ? ?
ePubConverter web free .doc, .pdf .epub
  • converter
F Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Fast Pencil web
  • publisher
Folium: see BookStudio
G Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Google
H Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
HyperInk web ? blog ?
I Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
iBooks Author Mac free ? ".epub"
inDesign Win,Mac $ .epub
iTunes .epub Apple iTunes Store
K Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
KindleConverter web free .doc,.pdf Mobi
  • converter
Kindle Direct Publishing Win,Mac .doc, .pdf, ... Mobi
KindleGen Win,Mac,Lnx free .html,.epub Mobi
  • Amazon: converter
Kobo web
L Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
LibreOffice Win,Mac,Lnx free
  • desktop office suite; see also OpenOffice
  • use Writer2ePub extension to convert to ePub
Lulu
M Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Microsoft Office Win,Mac $ .doc
  • desktop office suite; does not create .epub directly --
  • use a converter app (.doc input) or online publisher.
  • you might also consider using a more "author friendly" writing app, e.g., Scrivener
  • -- or a free office suite, e.g., LibreOffice, OpenOffice -- with ePub export
O Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
online Kindle Converter web free epub, pdf, html, docx Mobi
OpenOffice Win,Mac,Lnx free
  • desktop office suite; see also LibreOffice, NeoOffice (Mac-optimized version)
  • use Writer2ePub extension to convert to ePub
P Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Pages
Mac, iPad $$ .epub
Pandamian web free? ? ? beta
PdfMasher Win,Mac,Lnx free? .pdf .epub, Mobi
PubIt web free Word,PDF,HTML .epub*
Publish Green web $399+ Word,.pdf,inDesign .epub, Mobi
  • publisher
R Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
ReadList web free? web site ePub, Mobi
S Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Scrivener Win,Mac
  • authoring application; workspace for chapters, maps; templates for character sketches
  • review 2/4/2011
Sigil Win,Mac,Lnx free .epub, .html .epub
SmashWords web % Word ePub, Mobi
Storyist Mac,iPad $ .epub
  • desktop application
W Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
Writer2ePub Win,Mac,Linx free .odt .epub
  • extension to convert LibreOffice & OpenOffice documents to ePub
  • discussion
Z Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
ZinePal web free, pro blog, feed, web .pdf, ePub, Mobi
1-9 Platform(s) Costs Source Formats Dest. Formats Features
2EPUB web free .doc,.html,.odt .epub, mobi
  • converter