Some Good Software To Write E-Books.

[Emma Evan]

Hello dear all,

I'm new at mobileread.com and posting my first thread and also very exciting to find this website.

I would like to ask that what type of software you guys use to write e-books.

I used MS word but now sick with it. After every new page I have to adjust lines, header, footer, page number and pictures.

Kindly informed me with your valuable experience.

Waiting for your replies.

Regards,

[AlexBell]

Welcome to the forum, Emma.

I think there are almost as many methods of designing ebooks as there are designers, and a lot depends on what format you want your ebooks to be in.

One common method for ePub ebooks is to use Sigil - there is a forum on MobileRead. There is also an ePub forum, and there are many tutorials including one by Pablo. I dabbled in website design in the past, and use an HTML editor.

Another very valuable forum is the Calibre forum, which will help you convert from one format to another.

But I've only touched the very tip of the iceberg; you will get more detailed advice from the many helpful people who post here if you are more specific about what kind of ebooks you want to write, and where you want to start from.

There is also a Writers forum if your main interest is in writing as such.

I hope this helps.

[Dr. Drib]

You may get more (and better informed) advice in the Writers' Forum.

Your thread has now been moved there.




Don
(Moderator)

[Dr. Drib]

I use Scrivener now. It will also produce ebooks.

With Scrivener, I can see a list of my characters, scenes, chapters, locations, etc., in a very easily locatable format.



Don

[gmw]

If I was starting out knowing what I know now, there is a good chance I would pick Scrivener - what playing with it I've done shows it to be an excellent product that is steadily getting better. That's not to say it's perfect, I haven't seen perfect yet. Whatever method you choose you will have to bend it to your will and find ways of achieving the things you want. One of the big bonuses with Scrivener is an excellent introductory tutorial, it's a great way to try it out.

But I didn't. I started with OpenOffice and moved to LibreOffice a while ago (and that's what I am still using), these are enough like Word that many of the same cautions apply. To produce good results when converting to e-book you must learn how to use styles effectively. If you are constantly adjusting headers and footers and page numbers then you are definitely not creating a document appropriate for e-books. Once you start to get it right, they are all very effective for writing e-books. It just takes time and practice.

Sigil is already mentioned, and since you speak of adjusting images it may prove to be a good choice - since there you are creating the epub directly and can see better exactly how things are coming out.

Some people write in plain text, some in html, and there are many other products mentioned in other threads on this forum. Each option has something to recommend it, and something against it.

You may get more specific help if you can be more specific about the type of book you are trying to create.

[BeccaPrice]

I've downloaded Scrivener - it sounds very, very useful - but haven't installed it yet. That's on my to-do list for Real Soon Now.

[VydorScope]

I would toss my recommendation in for Scrivener also. It does an excellent job of producing not only EPUB, but also MOBI, PDF, DOC, and etc. It also has an active support community and responsive techs.

[aecardenas]

I LOVE Scrivener. I used to use Word exclusively for writing, but found it too "linear" and restrictive in terms of how I write or compose. And that's the key in terms of writing novels---at least for me. When i write books or plays or screenplays, i rarely work from beginning to end, or if I do, then I need some allowance to swap scenes or insert scenes into the first part to resolve something that I've conceived in the latter half, etc. etc. Basically, writing is a non-linear exercise, as your characters and their personalities tend to influence how your story resolves itself, or might even open up plotlines that you hadn't thought of before. Also, you might want to write a chapter or scene, and keep it on the side...but don't' want to get it lost in a folder somewhere, so it's nice to have all documents accessible in one place.

One of the first software applications that actually gave me a good way of handling my material was a product called Z-Write, which allowed you to work independently on a number of chapters/scenes, outlines, reference material, etc, and then merge them later into one cohesive output file that you can then reformat and make publishing ready. Unfortunately, they stopped developing it.

But fortunately a new product came along that did everything Z-write did and a lot more...and that's Scrivener.

What I like about Scrivener is that it allows me to be a writer with it, meaning it gives me plenty of space within the program to do my notes, outlines, have my research files (images, videos, text, html, etc.) in one place, the ability to compose scenes, have various VERSIONS of those scenes, select and choose which part of the scenes I want to keep in the final version, and be able to compose all of these elements into a particular form, such as a Novel, a screenplay, a stage play, a comic book script, etc.

And the best part is that you can do it all in one program, that way you're not searching around a folder for a ton of different word documents or excel sheets.

You can go to Scrivener's website and see for yourself the variety of different features it has. For me, its the best bang for your book. It's a program that was designed with "Writers" in mind, rather than have the writer forced to use a specific application or format.

Word is great for finalizing your finished document, by the way. And that's ultimately what I use Word for. Once I've "written" the book, then I compile it into RTF (you can actually, by the way, compile your work into a variety of different formats, such as PDF, HTML, .epub, etc. etc.) and then use Word to "finish" the book, creating table of contents and then make it ready for publication.

[Marseille]

Welcome to mobileread =)

I love OneNote for much the same reason aecardenas loves scrivener -- it helps me write the way I think. Structurally it lets me set up and shape any project just like I want it, and it's fairly platform portable (windows, ios, android plus a webapp hooked to skydrive for any other platform). But it isn't a word processor, so once I've completed a work, I export to Word and format there.

[teh603]

I write in Notepad (or a similar programmer's word processor)- one chapter per text file- and then compile the document using either LibreOffice for Smashwords' meatgrinder, or Sigil for everything else. Sure its a little primitive, but it gets the job done and I don't have a lot of typing lag or worries if a given piece of formatting works or not.

[Lemurion]

I use yWriter on Windows, Scrivener on Mac.

[crich70]

Scrivener, Ywriter and Liquid Story Binder are all good programs.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Emma Evan

Hello dear all,

I'm new at mobileread.com and posting my first thread and also very exciting to find this website.

I would like to ask that what type of software you guys use to write e-books.

I used MS word but now sick with it. After every new page I have to adjust lines, header, footer, page number and pictures.

Kindly informed me with your valuable experience.

Waiting for your replies.

Regards,

Well, I think that Word gets a very bad rap; I generally find that people who struggle with it have never bothered to take any of MS's online tutorials or free mini-classes, and learned to use it; once you have, it's as useful for outlining, note-taking, complex plot creation, etc., as any other program out there (I have LSBXE, YWriter, Open Office and have used Scrivener, as well as being quite experienced in Wordperfect, so I think I can speak somewhat intelligently about it). However, each author seems to feel the need to have a program suited to their individual style, so...good luck with that. Some people like to have a "writing program" that has images in it, for inspiration; some want one to play specific music for the same reason, etc. I was once in a spirited debate about the merits, or lack thereof, of Liquid Story Binder (LSBXE), so I'll stay off that particular topic. On to the ebooking side...

On a bright note, ebooks do not have pages, much less lines, header, footer, page numbers, so, that's fewer things for you to worry about. You may wish to familiarize yourself with how eBooks work--there's a massive library here at MobileRead--before you design yourself into a corner. I'm not sure what type of book you'd be writing (a kids' book, perhaps?) that would need lines, headers, footers and page numbers adjusted after "every new page," (cookbook? Even then, why page numbers, or headers and footers?), but you can nuke all that for an ebook, and just work on the content.

Hope that helps.

Hitch

[Dr. Drib]

As you can see, certain authors have specific needs that mandate the use (and preference) of specific types of software.

One must experiment and decide which one does the job that is needed - for your use and preference.

Some will choose Word, while other writers may choose Scrivener.

Perhaps other writers only wish an organizing tool to get things done and will lean toward using some of the excellent outlining software available.

Perhaps other members have no desire to pay the (relatively) steep price for Word. Or, how about this: Perhaps Word is not a steep price for you. Wonderful!

Perhaps other writers might prefer WriteWay Pro, or Storybook (the non-pro version is free). Or, how about this: Maybe you DO prefer and need the extra features that Storybook offers. I say to you, again: Wonderful!

Other writers may prefer the free yWriter5; while still other writers may choose to use a variety of programs, to include these:

New Novelist
Writers' Cafe
StoryBox
WriteNow4
Power Structure (which has been renamed, I think)
Power Writer
Writers Blocks
MasterWriter 2

and etc.

Lest we forget:
You may, indeed, not need (or prefer) the things that Word does.
Or how about this:
You may, indeed, need (or prefer) the things that Word does.

It's really your choice. What is my choice? Well, it may not be your choice, but I own these three:


Microsoft Word
WriteWay Pro
Scrivener


My order of use is the actual reverse of the above.

Have fun, be merry, and write often - and keep an open mind.

Remember: It's your wife you're married to. Not your software.



Don

[VydorScope]

Yea I use Word, Scrivener, and Sigil. All great programs, IMO.