Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnP
After doing about 25 E-Book conversions to the SONY Reader lrf format, I have found that there are some REALLY BAD conversions out there! Here are things that I expect in a decent conversion:
1. The title should be the last name, first name dash and then the title.
2. Example: Verne, Jules – From the Earth to the Moon.lrf
3. Try to find the BEST copy of the book for conversion. A really good LIT or PDF file can make the conversion happen in less than 10 minutes. A really bad copy can take 4-5 hours.
4. All empty paragraphs (blank lines) that are not needed may be removed (my personal preference is not to have them there). This is easily done in BD by the element browser under blank paragraphs ( group delete). Nice to have a blank line under titles tho.
5. The table of contents should WORK in the finished book. There should also be no erroneous titles due to something being in all caps. Those “bonus” titles should be selected at then Alt-P to make them into a paragraph. The same with sub title. Element tab is your friend! Use it!
6. Italics should be done as there are in the book! BD sometimes will convert the italics into regular print. The worse case is to have to pull up the original copy of the book and FIND the italics and convert them over in the BD file. Can be very time consuming but once it’s done, it’s done!
7. Authors usually include a space between scenes in the book. These should be included in the book! BD can end up removing them. Sometimes Capital letters give them away. Otherwise, you again need to go to the original text and see if you can find them. The edit-find/replace can get you there pretty quickly. Elements show broken sentences which can also point them out.
8. There can be a LOT of garbage at the beginning of the book. Either delete it or put it at the end of the book. I don’t think the entire Gutenberg spiel needs to be in the front.
9. The absolutely hardest part of finishing a book is when there is spelling and grammatical errors in the book. Copying the text to MS Word and doing a spell check can be the easiest way to eliminate most of the obvious ones, but BD can really put in some zingers. The only true way is to proof read the entire book. The absolute WORST part of finishing a book. A GOOD copy of a .lit file or PDF file will eliminate almost all of these errors.
10. Pictures are optional! Only there for a second. If it works, then fine, otherwise don’t sweat it. Plenty of info on the web if you are thinking of reading the book.
11. The last step is page through the book in the SONY e-book library. Look at the table of contents. Page through the book to see if there are any obvoius errors. Fix them up and try again.
When all done, your book will be worthy of publication and a source of pride. My biggest concerns: How well will the SONY reader sell? Will it ever have a .lit option? and how do I get my masterpieces into others hands? (like with AndyAfro’s torrent for example).
Totally my two cents worth! I just hate to struggle through a slap dash conversion on such a terrific reader. I simply cannot read the small print in a paperback or hold a hard cover book any more.
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My question is - what do you use for your conversion - BD? I need help. My understanding is that BD is to convert books from HTML. How do I get pdf files to HTML? Do I use a converter to do that and then convert again using BD. I fear a big mess.