12-08-2008, 03:46 AM | #1 |
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Creation of eBook library from scratch
As I have detailed in other threads, HERE and HERE, I am in the process of putting together an eBook library of fiction from author submitted manuscripts.
As things stand I have three of them submitted as MS Word docs, formated and online on ISSUU as pdf's and Scribd (as private docs) and now I need to start converting them into eBooks. My first decision is: What formats should I choose to make the fiction available to the widest possible audience for the minimum amount of effort? I took the data from the two matrices, for eInk and LCD, in the MobileRead wiki and sorted them by the formats that they supported. A pdf generated from the spreasheet is on Scribd HERE My conclusion - and stop me if you disagree - is that Mobipocket and ePub seem to have the widest coverage of dedicated eBook readers. Why ePub? It only adds one more reader, albeit the Sony seems to be very popular, and LRF would achieve the same thing. For no other reason that I would like to support an open source platform. By my calculations it should work like this ... iRex iLiad PRC/MOBI & EPUB iRex Digital Reader PRC/MOBI Amazon Kindle D00111 PRC/MOBI Bookeen Cybook Gen3 PRC/MOBI Sony Portable Reader EPUB ... It should be pointed out that all of these also accept text files and all except the Kindle accept html and pdf. Including one of these would mean that we could include the Dr Yi Reader but text, although an easy option to convert doesn't give any of the options that make an eBook special. Html might be an option but, although we will have pdf files available, they will be formatted for the standard sized paperback and from what I've heard you need to format your pdf files for the hardware that is targetting since each has a different sized screen. I'm working on the idea of converting each book in Mobipocket and ePub so what would be the most efficient way of doing that? DOC - HTML - BookDesigner - Mobipocket? DOC - HTML - Calibre - Mobipocket & ePub? [DOC?] - Feedbooks - Mobipocket & ePub? (Thanks Zelda!) If I make the right decisions at this point it could save me days further down the line! ... and my deadline is looming! Cheers Kirok of L'Stok Last edited by Kirok; 12-08-2008 at 04:22 AM. Reason: Forgot Zelda's suggestion |
12-08-2008, 10:45 AM | #2 |
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Don't use Book Designer if you want an "automated" process - it's a tool for MANUAL book creation.
For creating MobiPocket books, just use MobiPocket Creator. It handles pretty much any input format - Word, HTML, etc. Can't help you with the ePub, I'm afraid. |
12-08-2008, 11:11 AM | #3 |
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BookCreator may be an option. I'm not sure how well it works when importing existing Word documents, but it is a Word to ebook tool and can output several (DRM-free) ebook formats. See also the link in the BookCreator thread to other conversion options (LIT in particular).
Otherwise, MobiPocket Creator will import directly from Word .DOC files (but you would probably need to learn how to use the TOC tool and other features) and Calibre can import RTF and produce an ePub (you may need to customize its chapter detection). In the future, it may be possible to only create an ePub and import this to MobiPocket Creator (or the command line program mobigen). But at present this "ePub to MOBI" approach does not convert the ePub's TOC to MOBI. |
12-08-2008, 07:07 PM | #4 | |
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K |
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12-10-2008, 10:15 AM | #5 | |
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Quote:
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12-10-2008, 07:19 PM | #6 |
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12-10-2008, 07:42 PM | #7 |
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12-11-2008, 01:58 AM | #8 |
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There lies, damn lies and ...
What would be really good would be some sort of comparative statistics on the popularity of readers. For example if there are three models of Sony reader and two can use ePub it looks like I would be satisfying 66% of the Sony users by using ePub but if there are millions of PRS500 readers compared to only thousands of the other two models. Or if there are more PRS500 Readers than all others combined then LRF should be a major priority.
Are there any such stats? Is there any statistical output from the "Device" field in the MobileRead User Control Panel? JSW, it's not my desire to "ignore" or "alienate" anyone, what I'm doing is to get the right information so that I can make the best decisions as regards to priorities ... ideally, every book should be available in every format! K |
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