Building you own e-book

M T McGuire · 03-08-2011, 04:21 AM

Hello

does anyone know of a non-techie tutorial that would show me how to build my own e-book. I've found a couple, followed the intstructions, built the files and then... they send me to the command prompt. After which point I get a selection of interesting errors which mean nothing to me, give up and try a different one.

Is there a way of creating a .mobi or .epub book from scratch that doesn't involve having to know how to use the command prompt or well... presumably it's whatever dos is called now.

I'm reasonably savvy - I can code a basic website and I understand how the file directories work, I just don't seem to be able to find instructions for a non-techie as to how to go about zipping them all together.

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this I just thought there might be someone like me knocking round here whose worked it out and would be able to explain it in the language of the techincal dunderhead.

Cheers

MTM

GeoffC · 03-08-2011, 04:42 AM

Sigil .....

mr ploppy · 03-08-2011, 05:51 AM

For mobi, design it in your favourite html editor and convert it with Mobicreator. Epub and mobi are both based around html, they just use different compression and wrappers. Once you have one of them, Calibre will convert to the other without any major loss of formatting.

M T McGuire · 03-08-2011, 10:48 AM

As the late great Elvis would say "thankyouverymuch"

Cheers

MTM

spaze · 03-09-2011, 03:14 AM

Another vote for Sigil.

GeoffC · 03-09-2011, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M T McGuire

As the late great Elvis would say "thankyouverymuch"

Cheers

MTM

late !

Shock horror ....

jhone · 03-09-2011, 06:18 AM

Hi to all! I found this forum today. To build your own ebook, you need to learn the Kindle/ mobipocket format, if you want to upload it there. Otherwise, simply do a book in adobe format; there are plenty of software out there, and get a photo editing software to design the cover page.

James_Wilde · 03-09-2011, 05:22 PM

Calibre will do the basics and is probably easier for a beginner than Sigil, which also gets my vote when you want to do difficult things like embedding fonts (which you won't want to do for mobi - it doesn't support them).

One thing, be very careful with your formatting. It's a good idea to nuke your text before throwing it at any program, and especially calibre, to be sure that you've got consistent formatting. Nuking means to convert it to plain text - thus killing all formatting - and then placing it into a new document with the style that you want. A good tip here is to mark special text, such as bold, italic, large font, etc. with symbols like $$, %%, ## so that you can easily find it later to change it back to bold, italic or whatever it was.

M T McGuire · 03-10-2011, 12:49 PM

Thanks, James, that's an excellent hint. I regularly nuke things so that will save masses of phaff!

The files I'm using are all built from scratch in html using dreamweaver. My main problem, though, is that the first tutorial I used to build them was from 1999 and hadn't been updated. I tried a more modern one but got loads of errors. Tried it doing asci text and discovered I needed to save it in a different type of coding. I think I'll probably need to re-nuke and start again!

Cheers

MTM

mentored1 · 04-08-2011, 04:11 PM

Hello MT,

I picked it up pretty quick and found a solution that seems to work great... for me, anyways.

If you're writing in MS Word, save the work as a "Filtered Web Page". Open that saved page in Mobipocket Creator (a free program), type in the stuff like title and what-not (it's self-explanatory in there), and then click "Build". The .prc file created by Mobipocket uploads for Kindle well.

The basic .doc file, as long as it's formatted properly, can be sent directly to Smashwords. For the Smashwords .doc file, I use a Normal template (no special styles or anything like that): 12 pt Times New Roman, .5 first line indents, 1.5 line spacing, and all auto-correct/auto-format options turned OFF. The easiest way to set that up is to go into the Format>Styles (or style gallery, wherever it is in your version) and setup a "Normal" style with these options--or create a blank document with these parameters and save it as a template. Using that, I've had no issues with Smashwords.

Best of luck, amigo!

PS: I just noted this is a month old... duh.

1611mac · 04-08-2011, 07:58 PM

Are you on Mac or Windows? If you are on a Mac, "Pages" (Mac) is Apple's word processor. It contains ebook "styles" so basically you type or import your text into "Pages," set "styles" (Title, Author, Chapter Head, Body, Caption) and then export an ePub file. It will automatically produce the interactive TOC using the "chapter" style. A fast and easy way to create a great looking eBook (epub file). Works best when viewed with iBooks but also works good when viewing with Stanza and other Readers.

crich70 · 04-08-2011, 10:13 PM

For the books I've posted here I imported the files to Sigil (for the epub) then ran the epub through Calibre (to create the mobi). It's very easy to do overall. For fanfictions that I've downloaded (I'm a Harry Potter fan) I just imported the HTML files to Mobipocket creator, built the TOC and imported a jpeg (for the cover picture) and built the book normally. Both approaches work well depending on what you want to do. This evening I saved a doc (from my 2009 NaNoWriMo project) as a HTML page, imported it to Sigil and converted to Mobi in Calibre so I can refer to my 1st draft of the book while making notes for future work. What approach you use is just dependant on what you want to do and what you have as raw files.

HarryT · 04-10-2011, 07:41 AM

Purely as a matter of interest, what's the problem with using the command prompt?

spaze · 04-10-2011, 11:08 AM

Command prompt is for nerds

I kno since I am one and my wife is not. Try to explain her how to make an epub file in command prompt

Seriously, command prompt is not very easy for regular people to use.

HarryT · 04-10-2011, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaze

Command prompt is for nerds

I kno since I am one and my wife is not. Try to explain her how to make an epub file in command prompt

Seriously, command prompt is not very easy for regular people to use.

"Regular people" managed just fine with MS-DOS in pre-Windows days.

03-08-2011, 04:21 AM	#1
M T McGuire Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 1006970 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England Device: kindle	Building you own e-book Hello does anyone know of a non-techie tutorial that would show me how to build my own e-book. I've found a couple, followed the intstructions, built the files and then... they send me to the command prompt. After which point I get a selection of interesting errors which mean nothing to me, give up and try a different one. Is there a way of creating a .mobi or .epub book from scratch that doesn't involve having to know how to use the command prompt or well... presumably it's whatever dos is called now. I'm reasonably savvy - I can code a basic website and I understand how the file directories work, I just don't seem to be able to find instructions for a non-techie as to how to go about zipping them all together. Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this I just thought there might be someone like me knocking round here whose worked it out and would be able to explain it in the language of the techincal dunderhead. Cheers MTM Last edited by M T McGuire; 03-08-2011 at 04:23 AM. Reason: Clarity

03-10-2011, 12:49 PM	#9
M T McGuire Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 1006970 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England Device: kindle	Thanks, James, that's an excellent hint. I regularly nuke things so that will save masses of phaff! The files I'm using are all built from scratch in html using dreamweaver. My main problem, though, is that the first tutorial I used to build them was from 1999 and hadn't been updated. I tried a more modern one but got loads of errors. Tried it doing asci text and discovered I needed to save it in a different type of coding. I think I'll probably need to re-nuke and start again! Cheers MTM Last edited by M T McGuire; 03-10-2011 at 12:53 PM. Reason: missed a bit

04-08-2011, 07:58 PM	#11
1611mac eWanderer Posts: 523 Karma: 1441998 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: NC, USA Device: iMac,iPad3,iPhone5-Kindle Fire,Touch,PaperWhite	Are you on Mac or Windows? If you are on a Mac, "Pages" (Mac) is Apple's word processor. It contains ebook "styles" so basically you type or import your text into "Pages," set "styles" (Title, Author, Chapter Head, Body, Caption) and then export an ePub file. It will automatically produce the interactive TOC using the "chapter" style. A fast and easy way to create a great looking eBook (epub file). Works best when viewed with iBooks but also works good when viewing with Stanza and other Readers. Last edited by 1611mac; 04-08-2011 at 08:00 PM.

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03-08-2011, 04:42 AM	#2
GeoffC Chocolate Grasshopper ... Posts: 27,600 Karma: 20821184 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW	Sigil .....

03-08-2011, 05:51 AM	#3
mr ploppy Feral Underclass Posts: 3,622 Karma: 26821535 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Yorkshire, tha noz Device: 2nd hand paperback	For mobi, design it in your favourite html editor and convert it with Mobicreator. Epub and mobi are both based around html, they just use different compression and wrappers. Once you have one of them, Calibre will convert to the other without any major loss of formatting.

03-08-2011, 10:48 AM	#4
M T McGuire Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 1006970 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England Device: kindle	As the late great Elvis would say "thankyouverymuch" Cheers MTM

03-09-2011, 03:14 AM	#5
spaze Addict Posts: 265 Karma: 512072 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Helsinki, Finland Device: Writing my first short story: Guardian Angel	Another vote for Sigil.

03-09-2011, 06:18 AM	#7
jhone Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: kindle	Hi to all! I found this forum today. To build your own ebook, you need to learn the Kindle/ mobipocket format, if you want to upload it there. Otherwise, simply do a book in adobe format; there are plenty of software out there, and get a photo editing software to design the cover page.

03-09-2011, 05:22 PM	#8
James_Wilde Guru Posts: 802 Karma: 4727110 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Iriver Story	Calibre will do the basics and is probably easier for a beginner than Sigil, which also gets my vote when you want to do difficult things like embedding fonts (which you won't want to do for mobi - it doesn't support them). One thing, be very careful with your formatting. It's a good idea to nuke your text before throwing it at any program, and especially calibre, to be sure that you've got consistent formatting. Nuking means to convert it to plain text - thus killing all formatting - and then placing it into a new document with the style that you want. A good tip here is to mark special text, such as bold, italic, large font, etc. with symbols like $$, %%, ## so that you can easily find it later to change it back to bold, italic or whatever it was.

04-08-2011, 04:11 PM	#10
mentored1 Smart Monkey Posts: 39 Karma: 16924 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Rhode Island Device: Kindle	Hello MT, I picked it up pretty quick and found a solution that seems to work great... for me, anyways. If you're writing in MS Word, save the work as a "Filtered Web Page". Open that saved page in Mobipocket Creator (a free program), type in the stuff like title and what-not (it's self-explanatory in there), and then click "Build". The .prc file created by Mobipocket uploads for Kindle well. The basic .doc file, as long as it's formatted properly, can be sent directly to Smashwords. For the Smashwords .doc file, I use a Normal template (no special styles or anything like that): 12 pt Times New Roman, .5 first line indents, 1.5 line spacing, and all auto-correct/auto-format options turned OFF. The easiest way to set that up is to go into the Format>Styles (or style gallery, wherever it is in your version) and setup a "Normal" style with these options--or create a blank document with these parameters and save it as a template. Using that, I've had no issues with Smashwords. Best of luck, amigo! PS: I just noted this is a month old... duh.

04-08-2011, 10:13 PM	#12
crich70 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,305 Karma: 43993832 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Monroe Wisconsin Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)	For the books I've posted here I imported the files to Sigil (for the epub) then ran the epub through Calibre (to create the mobi). It's very easy to do overall. For fanfictions that I've downloaded (I'm a Harry Potter fan) I just imported the HTML files to Mobipocket creator, built the TOC and imported a jpeg (for the cover picture) and built the book normally. Both approaches work well depending on what you want to do. This evening I saved a doc (from my 2009 NaNoWriMo project) as a HTML page, imported it to Sigil and converted to Mobi in Calibre so I can refer to my 1st draft of the book while making notes for future work. What approach you use is just dependant on what you want to do and what you have as raw files.

04-10-2011, 07:41 AM	#13
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Purely as a matter of interest, what's the problem with using the command prompt?

04-10-2011, 11:08 AM	#14
spaze Addict Posts: 265 Karma: 512072 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Helsinki, Finland Device: Writing my first short story: Guardian Angel	Command prompt is for nerds I kno since I am one and my wife is not. Try to explain her how to make an epub file in command prompt Seriously, command prompt is not very easy for regular people to use.

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