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Shyam Mael · 10-04-2010, 08:48 AM

MrPLD, I hear what you're saying about Smashwords' insistence on Word doc format. Similar thoughts have been going through my head recently, as I have also taken that route, for the reason stated by HistoryWes, the access to their distribution channels.

I got on alright with Word and could roll with its foibles until I came to preparing a print-ready source file and a source file for eformatting. Kludgey is a good description, and many a frustrating hour has been wasted wrestling with what I came to consider a beast. I did find, however, that Mark Coker's Style Guide was a big help in both understanding the beast and actually getting it to do what I wanted, or more to the point, to stop doing what I didn't want it to do. My difficulties with Word didn't end with the reading of the Style Guide though, which eventually forced me back into the open arms of Open Office.

Rather than wax on about Open Office I'll just recommend that folk reading this give it a try. We all have different needs and preferences, which in themselves can shift according to circumstance. Ethics and economics aside, Open Office is another spanner in the toolbox. We indies should be packing a range of tools and strategies. From a practical Smashwords point of view, .doc files can be made in Open Office, and in my recent experience are as acceptable to Smashwords as files made in Word.

I agree with Kacir that the .doc file is a reasonable choice given 'most' peoples access and understanding of Word. Nomesque has a good point, although if Smashwords were to accept already generated eformats, wouldn't that render those titles not Smashwords editions?

My personal moan, or call it frustrated observation, is that the Smashwords converte4r produces inconsistent results across the range of formats, producing for example a sound epub file, a mobi file peppered with random font gibberish, a pdb with different random font gibberish, and a pdf with no cover. Still working through the latest results, and will have some questions which I'll post later, possibly elsewhere.

10-04-2010, 08:48 AM	#17
Shyam Mael Ché Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	MrPLD, I hear what you're saying about Smashwords' insistence on Word doc format. Similar thoughts have been going through my head recently, as I have also taken that route, for the reason stated by HistoryWes, the access to their distribution channels. I got on alright with Word and could roll with its foibles until I came to preparing a print-ready source file and a source file for eformatting. Kludgey is a good description, and many a frustrating hour has been wasted wrestling with what I came to consider a beast. I did find, however, that Mark Coker's Style Guide was a big help in both understanding the beast and actually getting it to do what I wanted, or more to the point, to stop doing what I didn't want it to do. My difficulties with Word didn't end with the reading of the Style Guide though, which eventually forced me back into the open arms of Open Office. Rather than wax on about Open Office I'll just recommend that folk reading this give it a try. We all have different needs and preferences, which in themselves can shift according to circumstance. Ethics and economics aside, Open Office is another spanner in the toolbox. We indies should be packing a range of tools and strategies. From a practical Smashwords point of view, .doc files can be made in Open Office, and in my recent experience are as acceptable to Smashwords as files made in Word. I agree with Kacir that the .doc file is a reasonable choice given 'most' peoples access and understanding of Word. Nomesque has a good point, although if Smashwords were to accept already generated eformats, wouldn't that render those titles not Smashwords editions? My personal moan, or call it frustrated observation, is that the Smashwords converte4r produces inconsistent results across the range of formats, producing for example a sound epub file, a mobi file peppered with random font gibberish, a pdb with different random font gibberish, and a pdf with no cover. Still working through the latest results, and will have some questions which I'll post later, possibly elsewhere.