The technical stuff

[J.A.]

Please use this folder for technical discussions. Got a question on formatting? Having trouble with create space or Audacity? Start a thread asking your questions here.
Likewise if you discover a new way of doing something that you think is better or more straight forward, tell us about it on a new thread in this folder.
Any questions about marketing? Or need suggestions/ people to look over your website? Here is also where you start your thread.

[A.K.]

Great! Wow! U've unleashed the beast - or my ineptitude lol. I can foresee me being here too in the weeks to come.

[J.A.]

Me too, Ava. I am but a green beginner at the self-pub aspect, only having a grasp of the theory at present. This was a good idea of yours.

[A.K.]

Well we can learn together. I've just had a look at your blog and the NFA one - would you like me to use it as a guest post on my site? Might get it out to some others? Possibly, maybe lol.

[J.A.]

That's really nice of you. Thanks, Ava - that would be much appreciated. It's a good cause and the book is a great collection of short stories. Even just a few more readers make a difference!

[A.K.]

Ok I'll post on Friday - if that's ok

[J.A.]

That's great. Thanks. Send me a link and I'll pass it on to the SfH FB page - the others will want to know.

[A.K.]

Ok will do

[A.K.]

Hi Jules, I've done a quickie post today mentioning I will be putting yours up on Friday, I added your blog link in case some want to look before. Here's the link to my site so you can pass on to who you need to.
http://akmichaels.com/blog/

[J.A.]

Thanks, Av, You're a star :)

[A.K.]

happy to help

[[deleted user]]

Help! This is a question for authors who use Calibre to convert their books to EPUB docs for uploading, mainly to Amazon. In an attempt to change the front matter of my books I recently started updating my ebook files on Amazon, and I uploaded the changes for two books. Both books checked fine on my Kindle, the Kindle previewer, and the online previewer. However, the Look Inside feature on Amazon shows random paragraphs changed to italic.
I checked my original doc with HTML and the coding was clean, but the Calibre EPUB docs showed code for italics that matched what I had seen on the Look Inside feature.
I've been using Calibre for several months with no problems. My remaining book, which I haven't yet updated still looks fine on the Look Inside feature; therefore, it was working correctly when I last updated, and I don't think it affects books that are downloaded. I think only the Look Inside feature is affected because it doesn't make corrections. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, have you found a way to fix it?

EDIT: Someone suggested that I upload the HTML doc directly and bypass Calibre. I did and it worked; Amazon problem solved. However, next month I'll be branching out the Smashwords, and they accept only Word docs or EPUB. I'll have to solve the problem then.

[[deleted user]]

Update on the Calibre problem, and it might be of help to writers who use it, or want to use it. Uploading HTML docs to Amazon for ebooks is inadequate because it generates no goto menu, and Amazon prefers that your book have one of those. Uploading the original word doc is no good either, unless you use Microsoft Word, which I don't, and I'm not sure that generates a goto menu, either, unless you're an expert. So you need an EPUB, and Calibre is effective for this. However, because of some recent changes, Caliber was altering my original manuscript docs, spuriously generating random italic fonts over entire paragraphs where they shouldn't have been. But I found a fix: Simply convert the manuscript doc to HTML, and input the HTML doc to Calibre. The program generates a code for HTML that differs from the codes it generates for word docs, and these different codes produce a clean document with the proper format.

It fixed my books, and I'm so confident in the system that I updated my novel to correct some VERY minor typos but mainly to change the front matter and add a bio at the end. I also raised the price by 4 cents so it would end in .99, which Smashwords requires. I'm hoping to submit my work to Smashwords next month.

Hope this helps.

[Richard]

I suspect you're being hung up by your principles, Ken. I know Word is from the evil empire of Redmond, but it's what everyone uses, because everyone uses it. We do get a slightly easier life, we who go with the flow.

[[deleted user]]

Richard 2060 wrote: "I suspect you're being hung up by your principles, Ken. I know Word is from the evil empire of Redmond, but it's what everyone uses, because everyone uses it. We do get a slightly easier life, we w..."

No I'm hung up on price. I'd have to buy Word; LibreOffice is free, and works better--according to the complaints I've heard about Word. And LibreOffice is easily convertible to Word for uploading to Smashwords.

[P.E.]

I'm pretty sure this is not the correct thread for my question, but it's as close as I can figure. I'm afraid I'm terribly ignorant of how GR works and I would like to post a review of a member's book I just finished reading (Earl of Brass). Do I do so as a reply to a thread, post a new one, or should I set up a slick review on a separate page like I have seen others do? Help please!

[Jamie]

Eric wrote: "I'm pretty sure this is not the correct thread for my question, but it's as close as I can figure. I'm afraid I'm terribly ignorant of how GR works and I would like to post a review of a member's b..."

First, click on the book's page,
Click on "Read" under the Cover Image
Put your stars and lower down you can edit your review.
Then copy the link to that page and add just the link to the thread for The Earl of Brass.

And finally, repeat the process for all of my books, and the rest of the books by authors in the group. ;)

[Amanda]

Have you tried Sigil Ken? I've never used Calibre. I heard horror stories about it which is why I went with Sigil.

[[deleted user]]

I downloaded Sigil but found that it wasn't user friendly (for me) and rather than learn a whole new program I stayed with Calibre. Calibre works perfectly for me.

[P.E.]

Thank you Jamie. I would love to repeat the process with all of your books. I'll put it on my list. I actually have four or five other member's books I am trying to squeeze in amongst all the other stuff I have going on, but I'll do my best.

[K.P.]

i use both sigil and calibre. its easier to make epubs in sigil then convert to other formats in calibre.
when reformatting your word document, convert your font to times new roman 12. put your chapters header 1 and take out your tabs (make them hard indents). save as a web filtered html file. use sigil to convert to epub.