Step-By-Step Guide to ePub creation

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Moonbase59

The really easiest way to start

Nothing against the "higher-level tools" (Calibre, Sigil, InDesign, …), but the real best way if you’re a newbie or a novelist is to use Markdown & Pandoc and go from there.

No, that is absolutely not true. I'm a programmer and I've used markdown. I've also done HTML in a text editor before WYSIWYG tools arrived.

Anyone doing non-trivial amount of writing needs to understand styles (no direct formatting) and use LO Writer (or MS Word if they insist). Not Pages or Indesign. You can use a plain text editor and some markdown, maybe a file per scene.

In LO Writer, only edit ODT.

Insert an auto TOC edited to have no page numbers.

No headers or footers. Footnotes need a separate explanation. Even epub3 is poor for scholarly works and textbooks. The ebook systems are really for novels, but textbooks with formulas and scholarly works with marginalia, footnotes and endnotes can be done.

Save a docx and simply convert to epub in Calibre and only images are potentially an issue (but you don't have images embedded in a text file using markdown). Styles convert 1:1 to CSS.
As long as there are no tables, frames, and lists (tricky, better simulate by style margins and type in the i, ii, iii etc as auto numbering can fail in ebooks) it will be perfect.

I've been editing on PC for 45+ years, taught Web design, wordprocessing & programming. DTP since 1987. The ebooks for over 10 years.


Typists used a form of markdown in the 19th C. to tell typesetters what to do*. Modern markdown is derived from that and was great on CP/M, DOS, small PDAs, portable Epson micro-computers and phones etc. It's obsolete and is not simple or user friendly for a beginner. Nor is MediaWiki normal formatting. Though MS Word, LO Writer and Calibre can to lesser or greater extent parse some markdown from imported or even cop/paste text.

[* Some text chat programs will still respond to a subset of markdown]

EDIT

Indesign and similar are GARBAGE for ebooks because they are designed for DTP, via PDF to paper. Fudged for ebooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Indesign and similar are GARBAGE for ebooks because they are designed for DTP, via PDF to paper. Fudged for ebooks.

I've edited a number of InDesign made eBooks and they really are not difficult to fix, So if you use InDesign to make the pBook, it's not hard to edit the ePub so it looks good. The problem is that most who do use InDesign just export to ePub and done even though it's not good.

[Moonbase59]

@Quoth: Good to meet someone who’s also in the business for a while. I am since 1979, an in IT since 1973 or so. And you wouldn’t believe how many authors can’t use LO Writer or Word, will never learn styles, just get distracted by the zillion functions these have, and just mess everything up.

In book production (novel mostly, agreed), we usually had to strip these "documents" down to plain text, and manually redo whatever was intended (it isn’t that much).

You have some valid points though, like using styles (!) and probably LO for a little more elaborate documents. Then again EPUB are a reflowing format (usually), with many user overrides, so many of the things people try to do are pointless anyway. Non-fiction is something else, of course. And academic writing.

The advent of self-publishing brought some few interesting products, but much much more junk. Sadly, not many want to learn anymore, just build self-esteem or piles of money. Let them click along…

Novelists? Please use Markdown or even plain text. Believe me. The beauty is in content, not in fancy presentation. We can do that, too, of course.

[Quoth]

I show how to setup templates and remove all formatting bars etc and have a style window and navigation outline window set up in LO Writer. Also Notepad++ or KATE (depending OS) for tabbed text edit and show how to customise it for text editing rather than programming.

There is no substitute for training and unfortunately many courses / schools have content driven by marketing and concentrate on features rather than how to do stuff for different jobs. Sadly even many resources of "writing" or built in Grammar checkers are for secretarial work, report writing, journalism, academic thesis etc, not writing a novel.

We explain:
Do formatting for Paper/PDF after (opposite approach is taken by big publishers).
Use a small paper size so a page fits on screen and it's more like the view of 6" to 8" ereader or app on a tablet.
No tabs, never more than one space, no blank lines, no direct formatting.

I've given special lessons on setting up and using styles for poetry/lyrics and scripts (plays or video or audio drama).

I understand where you are coming from on Markdown, but the writers are better off using plain text (not just a file per "chapter" but per scene). More files the better and use a subdirectory for each novel / work / project. Then learning styles when they assemble the 1st Draft.

At business college (1991 to 1993) it was easier to teach those that had not used a computer in school!

The default settings in almost every OS and application are unsuitable for most people.

Want distraction free? Turn off notifications, maybe disable Internet connection. Don't use any tools that need the Internet.

It's so cheap now too compared to the 1980s, in real terms. My main workstation is an upgraded secondhand €130 Dell 7050 with a 23" 4K matt no-shine, no-glare screen under €300. My last laptop was under €300 new and I added a cheap 1T HDD to the SSD. I converted a €160 Chromebook/ChromeOS to run Linux Mint natively. I checked out what a Pi4B was like with a 16" QHD portable screen (I think a cheap laptop would be better and cheaper for most writers).

I've wiped old Windows laptops and set them up with Mint & Mate desktop for people and showed them how to use it for writing etc. And Calibre, plus their eink ereader to proof on. Copy back annotations to KATE or Notepad++

There is no substitute for training and being organised!


Content Content Content. Worry about appearance when the content is proofed.