E-books: Authors

E-books: Authors

Introduction

  • "E-books are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded e-books and it?s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium." ~J. K. Rowling, 2011
  • writing: different genres/content/length, e.g., republished blogs; essays, "spam" (duplicate); expectations (media), reader interaction
  • (self-) publishing: faster process; role of publishers, agents, editors
  • selling: lower cost; royalties; excerpts vs. browsing; copyright; piracy
Questions
  • see earlier Features caveats
  • amount of your effort; easier than a few years ago
  • DIY or use an aggregator
  • amount of your $ to invest
  • which source editor, e.g., Word, Scrivener, Pages, etc.: ease of editing, conversion, final layout control
  • cost for software, conversion, other services (editing,...)
  • price of your eBook, discounts, Amazon Select, give-aways?
  • intellectual property rights
  • royalties
  • quality, control of layout, design
  • file formats and eReaders
  • POD (print on demand) instead of paper inventory?
  • which eBookstore(s)
  • buy an ISBN?
  • marketing, publicity: DIY, word-of-mouth, blogs, book clubs, ...
  • book as "product": monitor sales, revise title/cover?
  • ...
  • vellamunn.com (she spoke to class on 11/5/2012)
  • novelists, inc.; see: Guide to the New World of Publishing, The Future of Publishing

E-books: Writing

E-books: Writing

E-books: Self-Publishing

E-books: Self-Publishing

E-books: Royalties, Selling

E-books: Royalties, Selling

E-books: Applications and Services

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

E-books: Gallery. Creating E-Books

E-books: Gallery. Creating E-Books

Since creating an ePub file is an important step in ePublishing, I explored how to convert two of my existing "eBooks about eBooks" to ePub format as a demonstration. Since both books existed and were already in HTML format, I didn't need an authoring tool such as Word, Pages or Adobe inDesign. Since I had no plans to actually publish the books to stores, I tried the desktop tools: Sigil and Calibre, rather than other ePub export, conversion tools or services -- your needs, skills and budget may be different. The iPad and various desktop eReader apps displayed the resulting ePubs. Three examples:

  • {EB} this E-book course: I entered content in forms using Drupal book module; Drupal server software (a Content Management System (CMS)) generated HTML for pages automatically. Pages were designed with a wide 'slide' presentation style. Although the layout is flexible (e.g., resize browser window), graphics may not fit well on narrow screens. Screenshots were not updated after Sept. 2012 site redesign. Steps I followed (on Mac):
    • browser (e.g., Safari): main E-books course page
    • browser: Printer-friendly version (command at lower right) concatenates all sections; omits page header, footer, menus; slideshows become lists of photos
    • browser: File: Save as HTML (text only)
    • browser: File: Print; Open PDF in Preview (Safari browser includes links)
    • PDF viewer/tool (e.g., Preview): Save as .pdf -- with Reduced File Size for galleries (otherwise, resulting .pdf too large)
    • text editor (e.g., TextWrangler): open HTML file
    • text editor: remove most HEAD tags, e.g., META, BASE
    • text editor: assuming "images" folder contains graphics files, fix IMG attribute SRC="images/..."
    • text editor: replace 4 gallery image sequences with links to gallery pages (otherwise, resulting E-book too large)
    • text editor: Save HTML to same folder containing images/
    • Sigil: open HTML file; Save as ePub (note: Calibre could have been used to create ePub, but I think Sigil is faster and has a cleaner user interface)
    • Calibre: open HTML file; Convert to Mobi; Save
  • {NC} Newt's Cape documentation: I created HTML pages manually (this was in 1990s); each file a chapter, with few, small embedded graphics. Newt's Cape is a web browser for the Newton PDA; Newt's Cape displays web pages (including its own documentation) via the built-in Newton book reader, and could save the book as an application directly on the Newton.
  • {CO} Cocoa Fundamentals: free existing ePub. Opening E-books from iTunes
  • In the descriptions below , a 4-part label, e.g., {NC; ePub; iBooks; iPad} summarizes:
    • 1) the source example (EB, NC, CO)
    • 2) the source format (HTML, ePub, ...)
    • 3) the application (Firefox, iBooks, ...)
    • 4) the device (Mac, iPad).
{EB; HTML; Firefox; Mac}
  1. course as a web 'book'
    eb
  2. eBook course in narrower window
    eb
  3. ...too narrow(?) layout, scrolling issues
    eb
  4. bottom navigation: TOC; and prev/next sections in hierarchy; cmd: Printer-friendly version
    eb
  5. printer-friendly version displayed: sections merged, with no TOC (left or bottom), page header or footer
    eb
  6. Save As local HTML file
    eb
{EB; ePub; Bookle; Mac}
  1. Bookle manual
    eb
  2. EB in Bookle
    eb
{EB; HTML-to-ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil converted HTML file to ePub; left: files; middle: eBook; right: TOC (derived from headings)
    eb
  2. good page layout, images, links
    eb
  3. HTML code view below eBook; possible fixes: TOC nesting, slideshows, page footer? (not now)
    eb
{HTML-to-ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Calibre can import a single HTML file (I had problems w/ multiple files for NC)
    eb
{EB; ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Converted ePub in built-in eReader
    eb
{EB; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePub in ePubReader addon
    eb
{EB; ePub; iBooks; iPad}
  1. ePub on iPad; missing images due to import/export error
    eb
{EB; iBA:iBooks Author; iBA; Mac}
  1. iBooks Author textbook templates
    eb
  2. cover page
    eb
  3. chapter
    eb
  4. section
    eb
  5. subsection
    eb
{NC; HTML; Firefox; Mac}
  1. Newt's Cape documentation
    eb
{NC; HTML; Newt's Cape; Newton MessagePad 2000}
  1. docs(About) in NC browser (c.1996) on Newton MP2K
    eb
{NC; HTML; Safari; iPad}
  1. docs in iPad's Safari browser
    eb
{NC; ePub; Bookle; Mac}
  1. ePub in Bookle
    eb
{NC; HTML-to-ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil converted NC HTML files to an ePub-format eBook
    eb
{NC; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePubReader addon
    eb
{NC; ePub; iBooks; iPad}
  1. ePub on iPad
    eb
  2. TOC
    eb
  3. another eBook page
    eb
{CO; ePub; iTunes; Mac}
  1. iTunes Books folder
    eb
  2. ctrl-click, Show in Finder; note: no built-in iTunes reader!
    eb
{CO; ePub; Finder; Mac}
  1. Finder: within Music/iTunes, author folders for ePub files
    eb
  2. ctrl-click, Open with... an ePub-compatible application
    eb
{CO; ePub; Adobe Digital Editions; Mac}
  1. Adobe Digital Editions
    eb
{CO; ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Calibre
    eb
{CO; ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil
    eb
{CO; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePubReader: Firefox addon
    eb