First attempt to write a book

BooksPlayer · 12-05-2024, 12:49 PM

Hi there,

I am a newcomer of this forum... I am trying to write a simple book made up of a few short stories. I found Sigil as a good tool to make this first attempt without buying commercial software.

In making this epub book, I started to write some files, one by one with Page Edit, and then tried to assemble them into a whole publication. Everything worked fine up until today I made some corrections both in the text and in the stylesheet to some files..

Now when I save the epub file and try to view it with the Calibre epub viewer, I see that one of the files is not shown into the ebook.. (It goes from chapter 2 to chapter 4, missing the 3rd). I noted also a weird fact: editing with Page Edit the TOC file, the missing file/chapter is shown in a green color, differently from the other.

Any suggestion on how to get the missing chapter back into the epub final file?

Thanks a lot anticipatedly for your help!

Turtle91 · 12-05-2024, 02:10 PM

First off - Welcome to MR!

This post should probably go in the Sigil forum since it is asking about Sigil issues. Also, if you could provide a sample of the coding/error it may be easier to figure out what's wrong.

In the meantime here is some basic advice:

1) use Sigil's auto ToC generator (in the Tools menu). Sigil does a great job with all the nit-noid background requirements in creating all those pages and putting them together into an ePub properly.

2) Page Edit is a basic WYSIWYG editor that is best used to correct typos and other minor mistakes rather than creating the book files in the first place. I would recommend using a good word processor that has all kinds of built-in features to make an author's life easier. There are a few free ones that do a great job like LibreOffice, GoogleDocs, etc.

Create your books there then save them as HTML. Then it is really easy to 'Add existing' files to Sigil and let Sigil do all the background magic.

There have been a few discussions here about best practices when using these word processors. Some even have links to tutorial vids. Just search the threads, you should quickly find ones from Tex2002ans. The biggest thing to do is to get comfortable with using styles, and then consistently use styles!! Set the chapter/title/part headers AS headers <h1-6>...Sigil uses those headers to automagically create/maintain your ToC.

BooksPlayer · 12-09-2024, 12:13 PM

Thank you,

I spotted the problem: in the chapter not shown in the epub file, in the HTML I had two <title> </title> rows in two points inside it.. There was no error message, but the result was that the reader was simply "jumping" to the next chapter..

Happy readings, and regards!

Quoth · 12-09-2024, 05:47 PM

Creating an epub is a post writing activity.

Use LibreOffice Writer and Styles to write, (free on Mac, Linux, Windows), or even any free text editor on anything to write fragments and assemble and style in LO Writer.

There is only really need to edit in Sigil or Calibre if you are creating a complex text book.

12-05-2024, 12:49 PM	#1
BooksPlayer Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2024 Device: none	First attempt to write a book Hi there, I am a newcomer of this forum... I am trying to write a simple book made up of a few short stories. I found Sigil as a good tool to make this first attempt without buying commercial software. In making this epub book, I started to write some files, one by one with Page Edit, and then tried to assemble them into a whole publication. Everything worked fine up until today I made some corrections both in the text and in the stylesheet to some files.. Now when I save the epub file and try to view it with the Calibre epub viewer, I see that one of the files is not shown into the ebook.. (It goes from chapter 2 to chapter 4, missing the 3rd). I noted also a weird fact: editing with Page Edit the TOC file, the missing file/chapter is shown in a green color, differently from the other. Any suggestion on how to get the missing chapter back into the epub final file? Thanks a lot anticipatedly for your help!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
I would like to write a book	lene1949	Writers' Corner	35	01-07-2011 09:50 AM
Write and edit your own book now	frostine	Lounge	15	05-24-2009 10:54 PM
How many people want to write a book?	Bob Russell	Lounge	60	09-05-2008 01:20 PM
80% of Americans want to write a book	Bob Russell	Lounge	10	02-09-2007 07:06 AM

12-05-2024, 02:10 PM	#2
Turtle91 A Hairy Wizard Posts: 3,348 Karma: 20171571 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Charleston, SC today Device: iPhone 15/11/X/6/iPad 1,2,Air & Air Pro/Surface Pro/Kindle PW & Fire	First off - Welcome to MR! This post should probably go in the Sigil forum since it is asking about Sigil issues. Also, if you could provide a sample of the coding/error it may be easier to figure out what's wrong. In the meantime here is some basic advice: 1) use Sigil's auto ToC generator (in the Tools menu). Sigil does a great job with all the nit-noid background requirements in creating all those pages and putting them together into an ePub properly. 2) Page Edit is a basic WYSIWYG editor that is best used to correct typos and other minor mistakes rather than creating the book files in the first place. I would recommend using a good word processor that has all kinds of built-in features to make an author's life easier. There are a few free ones that do a great job like LibreOffice, GoogleDocs, etc. Create your books there then save them as HTML. Then it is really easy to 'Add existing' files to Sigil and let Sigil do all the background magic. There have been a few discussions here about best practices when using these word processors. Some even have links to tutorial vids. Just search the threads, you should quickly find ones from Tex2002ans. The biggest thing to do is to get comfortable with using styles, and then consistently use styles!! Set the chapter/title/part headers AS headers <h1-6>...Sigil uses those headers to automagically create/maintain your ToC.

12-09-2024, 12:13 PM	#3
BooksPlayer Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2024 Device: none	Thank you, I spotted the problem: in the chapter not shown in the epub file, in the HTML I had two <title> </title> rows in two points inside it.. There was no error message, but the result was that the reader was simply "jumping" to the next chapter.. Happy readings, and regards!

12-09-2024, 05:47 PM	#4
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,025 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Creating an epub is a post writing activity. Use LibreOffice Writer and Styles to write, (free on Mac, Linux, Windows), or even any free text editor on anything to write fragments and assemble and style in LO Writer. There is only really need to edit in Sigil or Calibre if you are creating a complex text book.

Advert