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Well Splitter just named dropped everyone I know that is good! LOL! Thanks Splitter. I can also attest to Dafeenah, Amy and Tricia. Haven't worked with Katy but she is High in Demand so that should speak for itself. :)Splitter - Your first gf turned lesbian... I have heard this before... it amuses me still. That might be a good plot for Tom.... lol
Lee wrote: "Cambria wrote: "Have you read Splitters book?Its a fabulous read...this is the cover to the sequel of his first book.
I couldn't find "The..."
Yes, i searched for it too.... don't know why it isn't at the top. Belongs there. lol.
And no problem! Feel free to share the links to your book!
Lee wrote: "Cambria wrote: "Great!!!In that case Splitter is good at converting (and I wasn't talking about Lesbians .... but with him you never know! ) HA! he he he."
I hope he also has a sense of humor!"
Splitter is wicked funny, you'll like him!
Lee, if you're fairly comfortable with detail you can do the formatting yourself. April Hamilton has a fairly excellent guide which works by small enough steps that I managed it!! http://www.aprillhamilton.com/resourc...
More complex for Mac I guess but I have heard people recommend Open Office which I think has the right sort of functionality (and is free).
Worth reading around the kdp forums when you've made your account to upload it as there are a lot of experienced and helpful people on there too.
JAC
Cambria wrote: "Lee - can you share the links to your writings?"Two war-on-terror thrillers:
The Abomination Assignment: a Bowin novel
The Honeymoon Assignment
One literary fiction (coming of age in Switzerland):
Impediments
J.A. wrote: "Lee, if you're fairly comfortable with detail you can do the formatting yourself. April Hamilton has a fairly excellent guide which works by small enough steps that I managed it!! http://www.ap..."
Thanks for the info J.A. Unfortunately, Hamilton's guide, like most info out there on conversion of MS Word to KDP is based on use of MobiPocket which runs only on PCs. I'm running a Mac as you noted. I've heard of Open Office (not in this context) and I'll check it out. Thanks again.
Oh no, really? BUMMER! I've heard good things about Calibre though, which I think Splitter uses - can't say whether that's MAC friendly though.JAC
J.A. wrote: "Oh no, really? BUMMER! I've heard good things about Calibre though, which I think Splitter uses - can't say whether that's MAC friendly though.JAC"
I have too, and it does run on Mac. The problem is that KDP is not one of the outputs Calibre converts to. Actually, KDP will accept and convert ePub to KDP. My problem is that I need to edit the ePub. I'm hoping Sigil will be the answer. I will make a test when I can find time and let you know how it goes.
If Sigil works out as an ePub editor, it should be useful for you too. I've been looking over the online instruction manual. It looks like there's no need to write HTML, that's what Sigil does for you. One open question I have is how to import an ePub document into Sigil for editing. There's nothing in the instruction manual about that. I suppose it may be a simple and obvious as copying and pasting. That's how I get MS Word documents into Pages.
I looked at Open Office but it doesn't do conversion to ePub or KDP. You can go to HTML but then you're left with the problem of editing the HTML.
What about Kindlegen itself? It's a bit clunky though. For editing html I am a complete newbie and can only do tweakage but someone suggested to me a program called Arachnophilia - not the new java update but the old variant (I think version4?). Again, dunno if you can get it for mac but it basically colourcodes the bits of html so you know which bits pertain to which and can preview it. I'm explaining badly but worth a Google if you're interested.
The other thing you could do (but it would be a bodge) would be to save it into a Word file and upload to Smashwords and use their epub file. Their output used to be a bit unreliable but does seem to be getting better and at least they put in the active TOC for you. As I say, a bodge but potentially not a lost cause-type bodge...though you'd still have to go into the html file and change the ISBN and any refs to Smashwords to your Kindle ones, obv! But hopefully minimal tweaks?
Dunno...have you checked out Aaron Shepherd's stuff? I think he uses Mac but again, may be wrong - or failing that the kdp boards themselves are full of people with much more experience than I have.
JAC
J.A. wrote: "What about Kindlegen itself? It's a bit clunky though. For editing html I am a complete newbie and can only do tweakage but someone suggested to me a program called Arachnophilia - not the new ja..."
I tried Kindlegen, but you really have to know HTML to use it. I couldn't read it when I opened it!
With Pages I can convert directly to ePub and I can put in a TOC. I think the problem with anything that doesn't also include an ePub editor is that you need one. That's why Sigil was created.
Let me display my ignorance some more - who's Aaron Shepherd and where can I find his stuff?
Yeah, I've checked out the KDP boards pretty thoroughly (although not in the last couple of months). Problem is that most of the folks are true geeks into HTML and using KindleGen or they're even more lost than I am.
JA, thanks so much for keeping up on this thread cause I have no idea about this stuff.
Lee,Help me out here because I don't think I am thinking of this properly, but I am trying to help.
To my knowledge, there is no KDP format. The format for Kindle is .MOBI.
A WORD doc (remember, not a docx!) is the preferred original document type for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP, which is a service, not a format) and Smashwords.
If you have a WORD doc, you should be able to upload that to Smashwords and Amazon's KDP service. Smashwords will spit out all formats. Amazon will spit out .MOBI only.
I use Smashwords to get me books into ePub.
Prior to publishing them, I use Calibre. Calibre likes PDF for the original document to convert. I use a free online service to convert my WORD docs into PDF and use that PDF file for Calibre.
Calibre is NOT actually that good at conversions, as I have found out lol. It does some funky things. I tried to use the term ".308 calibre" and it always read the period as the end of a sentence.
My understand is that MAC WOED docs are universally interchangeable with PC WORD documents. Am I wrong in that?
If you have an original WORD document, you should be able to easily upload them to Amazon and Smashwords. Their conversion services WANT WORD documents.
Why not edit the WORD documents and then upload them? That way, you get MOBI and ePub formats back. Why try to edit the ePub document when you can just edit the word doc and create a new ePub?
Open Office: I am a BIG believer in Open Office, but not for writing eBooks. I have yet to have an upload to Amazon or Smashwords go as well when the document was last saved in Open Office. Things get slightly skewed. I do, however, put my work through both MS WORD and Open Office for spelling and grammar errors. They each pick up different things.
So, Lee, what am I missing in what you are trying to do? How can we help?
Splitter
Basically if you can get your book in online format( Kindle, EBook, PDF File) then your good to go. If your like me and your Publishing Company keeps dropping the ball and has nothing to give you to do it then chances are you gotta have the energy to type it up yourself one day and change it all into the formats.
C.S. Splitter wrote: "Lee,Help me out here because I don't think I am thinking of this properly, but I am trying to help.
To my knowledge, there is no KDP format. The format for Kindle is .MOBI.
A WORD doc (remembe..."
Sorry, KDP is definitely a format like ePub is a format. KDP/amazon will not accept a Word doc directly. It has to go through HTML from Word. You can do this on the version of MS Word that runs on Windows. A Mac Word doc. is the same as a Windows Word doc., but the conversion software in the MS Word for Mac is different from the conversion software in the latest Word for Windows in that you can't convert to "unfiltered" HTML from the Mac. I think this has to do with the Mac Word being a 2008 release and the Windows Word being 2010.
Anyway, the problem really isn't conversion. It's editing the ePub after conversion. I'm betting that if I can get the ePub properly edited after conversion (I haven't found anything or anyone who can convert so it doesn't need editing), then the edit will hold when it's uploaded to Amazon as ePub and converted to KDP by them.
As far as I know, MOBI is software that runs on Windows.
I think Justin is missing what you and I are struggling about. We can certainly produce ebooks that will run on ePub and KDP. We are just not satisfied with how they look in those formats.
Please keep the suggestions coming. I will report on Sigil when I can.
Lee,I can't find anything on KDP as a format. MOBI is the format that Kindles can read...and Amazon makes you go around the barn to get them to read ePub which is annoying.
But it sounds like once a conversion is done, you do not like the ePub results. Is it a problem with the text? Like spacing or orphaned lines or indents?
Or is it a graphics problem?
Have you looked at these sites?
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishin...
I am guessing you have lol. I KNOW how frustrating conversions can be when the result does not look like it should. It's enough to make you bang your head into a wall.
If you get to the point where you can't take it anymore, there are people who specialize in this sort of thing and they are not that expensive. But if you are like me, the do-it-yourself quest for knowledge takes precedent lol.
Splitter
I think Amazon's own files have the extension .azw or something but they are basically .mobi with some fancy bits and optional DRM.Lee, are you editing the text or the formatting?
Splitter, unless they've changed it I didn't think you could upload a straight Word doc to KDP? Can't remember though so could be wrong.
Lee, Kindlegen is a bit arcane but you don't have to know what you're doing to use it! Once you've got as far as a Mobi file you just upload it and it does its funky stuff - but then as I understand it, the problem is getting that far?
BTW, Mobipocket Creator is a form of Windows software, true, but what it spits out is .mobi files and they can be read by e-readers including Kindle (I've just uploaded a mobi file of the anthology from Smashwords the other day).
That said, I know that because of the conversion process there are distinct limitations to what you can do with the formatting. Poetry is difficult unless you want it left-justified, and pictures can be an issue.
What is it about the formatting that is wrong?
And I know Splitter just said this, but are you saving it as a word 97-2003 document (a .doc file) rather than a more recent one ( a .docx file)?
If you tell us a bit about the problems you're having and the edits you need to make, it will give us a bit more of an idea of how they got in, as if your Word doc is formatted properly the .epub shouldn't change it too much, which is what is puzzling us you see.
I suspect I'm asking the wrong questions here but if you don't mind, take us through what you already have done and how far you've got as I thought the question was how to convert it but it sounds as if you already have converted to epub but it went awry?
So please feel free to talk as if I am stupid and tell me what programme you used, what file extension it came out with and what the formatting did at all stages along the line as then it might be that we can work out where the problem is and how to avoid it.
Thanks Lee.... sorry if I'm sounding dumb but it's quite early in the morning here and I haven't had my coffee yet!
JAC
JAC,Yes, you can upload .doc files directly on Amazon now. I just did it with The Willing.
And it was awful lol.
The spacing was wrong and some of the formatting rules I set up got ignored. I had to do the export to HTML unfiltered trick, which Lee says his software won't do (and it might not be the answer anyway).
Uploading books and making them look right can make you bang your head against the wall. I think I said it before in this thread, but when I was re-uploading The Reluctant, I had to enlist Amy's help to clean up my WORD doc. Once she got hold of it, the upload and conversion directly from the WORD doc went beautifully.
Amazon and Smashwords need to one day implement some sort of what-you-see-is-what-you-get conversion process. They also need to make templates more available so people can type directly into those templates as they write to make the conversion easier.
We feel your pain, Lee! Welcome to the wonderful world of self-publishing! We have support group meetings every Tuesday and Thursday but those meetings are BYOM (Bring You Own Medications) lol.
Splitter
I will try to answer both Splitter and JA - but, guys, we're pushing the limits of my geek knowledge.First, because I don't know how to write HTML and don't have a direct HTML editor I need a text/editor converter like MobiPocket or Pages that writes to HTML for me on the way to ePub and KDP. Unhappily, I have not been able to find an editor/converter that runs on Mac. MobiPocket does not.
My problem is not with the pure text in ePub (or KDP). The problem is with page breaks and centering of chapter headings and the like. I can solve the page breaks by putting in a hidden TOC in Pages via Styles. However, doing so is cumbersome and time consuming (has to be done for each chapter). This also fixes the centering of chapter headings and the like in ePub, but the fix does not carry over when Amazon takes the ePub upload and converts it to KDP. I have no problem with paragraph indentations or right justifying in either ePub or KDP results.
I do start with an MS Word.doc text, not docx. But remember I'm going through Pages because it's the only text to ePub converter I've been able to find that runs on Mac OSX. If I could find a direct Word,doc to ePub (and KDP would be nice) converter for Mac OSX that didn't need further editing in ePub (or KDP), I'd jump on it. However, I've looked and I can't find one (There are so pricey ones who make claims, but I've seen no reviews of them that give me any comfort that I'd be getting my money's worth). Got to go - more later.
I'm back.Pages wasn't cheap - $99. That's an Apple product and like most it works and works well. As I say I'm reluctant to take a flyer on new expensive software unless it's very highly recommended. You wouldn't believe the steps I go through to make covers for my Createspace POD versions (covers for the ebooks are relatively easy). The cover making is all supported by software that came with my Mac. :)
Anyway, I'm going to investigate the free Sigil some more. A stupid question one of you may be able to answer. Sigil is an ePub text editor, but the instructions don't say how to open or close an ePub document into and out of it. When I open an ePub document on my Mac now it opens in Adobe Digital Editions, which is reader only software. Any thoughts?
I'd be happy to bring liquid medications to the next meeting. LOL.
L
Lee,Might you have a friend who's PC you can borrow so you can work with some of the software you might need?
Just a thought. I know MAC users are loathe to touch Windoze lol
Splitter
C.S. Splitter wrote: "Lee,Might you have a friend who's PC you can borrow so you can work with some of the software you might need?
Just a thought. I know MAC users are loathe to touch Windoze lol
Splitter"
Too right about avoiding anything MS. I suffered with Windows from the time it came out decades ago until about a year ago when the DVD drive on my HP PC died. My wife talked me into dumping the PC and getting a Mac Mini because she was tired of listening to me cursed every time the PC froze, crashed or whatever. Best move I ever made!
Sorry, don't know anything about Sigil, Lee. On the other hand, I have been considering the pros and cons of moving to Mac but now am thinking I need to keep at least the netbook on MS till they sort that out!! Apple does look rather lovely though....
J.A., it turns out Sigil is also an Epub converter from a variety of formats. You might want to check it out at sigil.com. I'm currently configuring an Epub version of my latest book to try out in sigil. If it works well, I'll put out a second edition for Nook and Kindle.
Cool!You'll have to ket us know how it turns out!JAC
Great threat! Thanks for all the ideas. I too am a (very recent) Mac convert. And I truly adore, worship and love my MacAir. *sighs*. But I'm not loathe to borrow a PC for the sake of an easy formating system!
This is for Splitter, J.A. and Vered.I decided that before taking on Sigil I should go back and revisit Pages (Vered, Pages is the word processing/publishing part of IWork for Mac). You'll remember I complained that for my first two books I used the hidden TOC (accessible through Styles in Pages, Vered) to make chapter breaks, center headings, etc., that doing so was very cumbersome and that the result in ePub and KDP was clunky at best.
A short side rant: there's no such thing as a decent user manual for any software anymore. You have to wander around looking at this and that until you find what you need.
Well, I found what I needed in Pages: a feature called Section Breaks. I used this to create title, publishers, dedication and chapter page breaks instead of the hidden TOC. It worked like a charm! Converted to ePub by Pages, the result was perfect! The Nook version looks great: the page breaks for chapters, etc. are there and the headings are centered.
On uploading to amazon the ePub version converted to KDP perfectly except that the chapter headings were indented instead of centered. Nevertheless, the result looks better than good.
I've declared victory, folded my tents and retired to base to prepare for the next round of the ebook self-publishing wars. Splitter and J.A., thanks for your help.
Vered, let me know if I can help with you with using Pages for either ebook or print-on-demand book preparation. The tricky thing for POD is getting the book size right.
Yay, go Lee! Sounds like you've got it sussed!JAC
Lee, you are now a veteran! The next one will be easier. Splitter
LOL! Well done, General Lee! Thanks for all the great info - I don't even know what Pages is, but I will look into it as I get closer to the publishing date of #2 and yes, I may have to take up that kind offer for assistance.
Looking for reviewers for my new release Whispering.Email me at gerrieferris@yahoo.com
Thanks
P.S. will trade
Vered wrote: "LOL! Well done, General Lee! Thanks for all the great info - I don't even know what Pages is, but I will look into it as I get closer to the publishing date of #2 and yes, I may have to take up tha..."Pages is part of the IWork suite, not very expensive. Check it out at the Apple Apps store. Pages is a good word processing program as well as helpful in publishing.
I seem to have fallen into a technical discussion:-D
Yeah, Gerrie, it's very technical - so much so that half of us are scratching our heads and trying to figure it out ourselves!!!Thanks, Lee - will check it out for sure
Now if someone will help me post to Smashwords, I'd be a happy person. ;-D
It's possible, Gerry, we promise! Their "Style Guide" helps.Splitter
Question from the IT challenged (yes, I am referring to myself here - I'm a Civil, not a Software, Engineer!): Does Smashwords help to set up a book in the format that Createspace requires? I would like to avoid all fees for the second book (for the first one, I used some of Createspace's paid for services, so I got all the formatting done easily, but did not learn anything...)
Hi Vered,I am going to do a blog post on this later today so check out http://splittersworld.blogspot.com late this afternoon.
NO. CreateSpace is print, Smashwords is eBook. That is the bad news.
The GOOD NEWS is that CreateSpace has downloadable templates for using their print services. If your book is "nothing fancy" as in text with few fonts and fewer illustrations, the templates work GREAT.
IT IS NOT HARD to get a book into print. I have a couple ready to go except for the text which has changed since I first set them up on CreateSpace.
The challenge is finding the right information and I will post that later today.
Splitter
Vered wrote: "Question from the IT challenged (yes, I am referring to myself here - I'm a Civil, not a Software, Engineer!): Does Smashwords help to set up a book in the format that Createspace requires? I would..."As I recall, Vered, you're running a Mac laptop. What word processing program are you running? I think I can guide you through setting up your text for Createspace. You can convert to PDF from most word processing. It's not difficult once you set your book size and work your text within that going back and forth between wp and Adobe Reader to make sure your format is what you want. The conversion is possible from either MS Word or Pages, but I need to know which you're using.
Covers for Createspace are easy if you use their Cover Builder program. Custom covers are more difficult but definitely doable on a Mac using Preview, word processing and conversion to PDF.
Let's take text first.
Vered wrote: "Question from the IT challenged (yes, I am referring to myself here - I'm a Civil, not a Software, Engineer!): Does Smashwords help to set up a book in the format that Createspace requires? I would..."Lulu also wants PDFs for POD. So I'm doing one .doc for Smashwords (I have Open Office by Oracle), one Word.doc saved as html (with the above) for Kindle and one PDF with the Lulu template of the format I want for print... yep, 3 files for each book - unless it's a short story, so it doesn't have a print version! ;-)
Who said being indie was easy? :-D
Barbara wrote: "Vered wrote: "Question from the IT challenged (yes, I am referring to myself here - I'm a Civil, not a Software, Engineer!): Does Smashwords help to set up a book in the format that Createspace req..."I too make three versions: one POD in pdf for Createspace, one ePub for NOOK and one ePub (that gets converted to KDP) for Kindle. Lots of fun! NOT!
All this tech talk is giving me a rash... LOL
Cambria wrote: "All this tech talk is giving me a rash... LOL"I'm really sorry about that, Cambria. I'm always ready to talk about something else.
Wow, that took longer than I thought.Self Publishing in 13 Not-So-Easy Steps: http://splittersworld.blogspot.com
(comments and additional info welcome!)
Splitter
LOL - Yes, this thread could give us all rashes and a heat stroke, Cambria!Thanks Lee - I have Microsoft Office for Mac.
Splitter - I'll check your blog out later.
Good to know that at least there is an option of doing it myself! My novel is pretty basic in terms of format - one font, no illustrations - I'm not that sophisticated to even attempt! So I will be getting back to Lee and Splitter later on when I actually finish editing, re-editing, re-reading, making my husband read it...
:-)
Vered, for ebooks that's probably best. Illustrations and fancy formatting don't tend to translate to Smashwords very well by all accounts....JAC
I have uploaded a couple of comics on Smashwords, but most of my graphic novels are on Lulu, in print...
Vered wrote: "LOL - Yes, this thread could give us all rashes and a heat stroke, Cambria!Thanks Lee - I have Microsoft Office for Mac.
Splitter - I'll check your blog out later.
Good to know that at le..."
I'll be standing by. :)
Lee, I have just started doing this too. I use a free converter called Calibre. I too use Mac 10.5.8 and Word. I save .doc copies as for Web. It's not filtered but on Calibre I can then convert the resulting html file to Mobi for Amazon or almost anything else. It took a while to figure it all out but I've produce a file that works perfectly on the Kindle reader on my Mac. I will be uploading to Amazon soon.
You can get it here: http://calibre-ebook.com/
There is lots of help available. If this suits you and you need help with stuff I've already done just ask.
Regards davidrory.
You can get it here: http://calibre-ebook.com/
There is lots of help available. If this suits you and you need help with stuff I've already done just ask.
Regards davidrory.
Creative Reviews
Books mentioned in this topic
The Macabre Masterpiece (other topics)Fiji (other topics)
Fiji (other topics)
The Abomination Assignment (other topics)
Impediments (other topics)
More...
There ya go! Did anyone think I wouldn't take that golden opportunity to post my link? Free on GoodReads and Smashwords at the moment. Amazon is a $.99 other story...
My editor is Tricia Kristufek and I love her most days (other days she breaks out the whip). Amy is also fabulous and I have seen her in action. Katy does editing if you can find her but I know she is backlogged.
I have not converted any lesbians. BUT! And this is my George Costanza moment for the day: my first girlfriend turned lesbian after me. Joke as you will :).
Another note on Amy: she formatted The Reluctant and from everything I have seen, it came out FABULOUSLY. I formatted The Willing and do not like it as well.
Be aware that you will need two versions of your file: One for Amazon where you do the TOC and one for Smashwords where it does the TOC. I prefer letting Smashwords do the TOC when I have the option, it always seems to work better.
I guess you do not NEED two files, but I have found having them to be much easier to manage. You need two different copyright pages and such.
Smashwords WILL screw up some formats, but MOBI and ePub are the most important. Smashword's Meat Grinder will do conversions into just about every format, some better than others.
Oh, and I know Dafeenah does formatting too. She also does covers and other artwork. Extremely talented.
Splitter