MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How to create a professional up to standards Kindle eBook without the hassle

russ5260 · 07-14-2011, 06:09 PM

Greetings, I have been publishing eBooks in Kindle Direct Publishing for a couple of years. I have been very happy with the results. I have been using MobiPocket Creator with very good results. A couple of weeks ago that program stopped working. So I set out to find an alternative for producing my books. Well, I have worked out a procedure to create a professional looking eBook like the big boys. I have used it to update 3 of my previous books and they are under review in my bookshelf. Following are the steps I now use to produce my books:

1. I start out with an html file of my book. I know that you can use Word to write your book and then save as html but that does not do a good job of formatting. I always have to go in to that and massage it. In the html I put a 1 line piece of code that gives me the guide for the TOC, Cover, Beginning, etc That piece of code is
<guide> <reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc""/> </guide>
This is very important since later on down the process this will allow software to create the .OPF and .NCX files, not you. Also, you must have a fully functional TOC in your html book file, otherwise that line of code will not mean anything and Calibre cannot create a toc or if it does an incorrect one.

2. After the html is created there are a couple of ways to get a preliminary kindle file (.azw). Use the program kindlegen found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000234621 or if you have a Kindle 3 with WIFI just email the html file to your Kindle with "convert" in the subject line and attach the html file. If you have a Kindle 2 you can still email it but you will be charged for it.

3. Once you have the file in .azw format fire up the program Calibre found at http://calibre-ebook.com/ Once in Calibre add your .azw file to calibre.

4. Next edit the Metadata to your book: adding the title and author and at this time you add your cover to your book.(on a side note: If you need a great cover your your book, and for free go to http://www.wattpad.com/forums/discus...ee+book+covers she will create a free cover for you. She has already created 6 covers for me and they are really professional).

5 Once the metadata is done press "convert". One cavaet, make sure you are going from .azw to .mobi. You can set that up in Calibre in Preferences.

6. Once the convert is done you will have a fully functional .mobi book, a created .opf file, and a created .ncx file. The produced book will be up to standards of Kindle publishing and industry standards.

07-14-2011, 06:09 PM	#1
russ5260 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 76 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle	How to create a professional up to standards Kindle eBook without the hassle Greetings, I have been publishing eBooks in Kindle Direct Publishing for a couple of years. I have been very happy with the results. I have been using MobiPocket Creator with very good results. A couple of weeks ago that program stopped working. So I set out to find an alternative for producing my books. Well, I have worked out a procedure to create a professional looking eBook like the big boys. I have used it to update 3 of my previous books and they are under review in my bookshelf. Following are the steps I now use to produce my books: 1. I start out with an html file of my book. I know that you can use Word to write your book and then save as html but that does not do a good job of formatting. I always have to go in to that and massage it. In the html I put a 1 line piece of code that gives me the guide for the TOC, Cover, Beginning, etc That piece of code is <guide> <reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc""/> </guide> This is very important since later on down the process this will allow software to create the .OPF and .NCX files, not you. Also, you must have a fully functional TOC in your html book file, otherwise that line of code will not mean anything and Calibre cannot create a toc or if it does an incorrect one. 2. After the html is created there are a couple of ways to get a preliminary kindle file (.azw). Use the program kindlegen found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000234621 or if you have a Kindle 3 with WIFI just email the html file to your Kindle with "convert" in the subject line and attach the html file. If you have a Kindle 2 you can still email it but you will be charged for it. 3. Once you have the file in .azw format fire up the program Calibre found at http://calibre-ebook.com/ Once in Calibre add your .azw file to calibre. 4. Next edit the Metadata to your book: adding the title and author and at this time you add your cover to your book.(on a side note: If you need a great cover your your book, and for free go to http://www.wattpad.com/forums/discus...ee+book+covers she will create a free cover for you. She has already created 6 covers for me and they are really professional). 5 Once the metadata is done press "convert". One cavaet, make sure you are going from .azw to .mobi. You can set that up in Calibre in Preferences. 6. Once the convert is done you will have a fully functional .mobi book, a created .opf file, and a created .ncx file. The produced book will be up to standards of Kindle publishing and industry standards.