Hello, New person to the forums.

[oldvaxguy2]

Where would you go to download an Unpopulated (template) HTML file for creating a book for the Kindle?
I would like to have a cover, Table of contents and chapters. Thank-you in advance.

the OLD vax guy

[carpetmojo]

Welcome, oldvaxguy - from another grumpy old git !
(Who hasn't a clue what you're talking about , but I'm sure one of our vastly knowledgable members will, and can help you .)

Does your moniker mean you have a romantic attraction for a certain make of household electical appliances ?

This is - to a certain, fairly elastic and broadminded extent - a family show, after all .....

Enjoy yerself

[AlexGrama]

That's great. I was about to ask the same question. :d Please help us.

[elcreative]

Too young really... being of a clean and open mind (and a tad older), I think he means the VAX computer family originally developed in 1977 by DEC

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by oldvaxguy2

Where would you go to download an Unpopulated (template) HTML file for creating a book for the Kindle?
I would like to have a cover, Table of contents and chapters. Thank-you in advance.

the OLD vax guy

I think Sigil will do what you want, you can make a table of content and many other things (I don't know much, I've only used it once).

[William F]

Welcome new guy.
I'm no expert on these things but I don't think that such a template exists. Fortunately for the kindle you don't really need to mess around with HTML. Get the Smashwords style guide, format your .doc following the guidlines and when you upload it to Amazon you should get a pretty good result after the conversion.
Alternatively you can get the Mobipocket Creator and it will take your .doc, turn it into an HTML document and allow you to edit it that way.
Unfortunately there is no simple plug and play "here's my words, make them a book," program but adding internal links for your .toc and inserting your cover art is easy and well explained in the style guide I alluded to earlier.
Unless of course I'm wrong, it's been a while since I published anything and someone may have streamlined things since then.
Either way, good luck to you!

[oldvaxguy2]

First Thank-you William F I will follow you recommendations. As for the other youngsters on here I was alluding to the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) family of computers know as VAX's. A fairly robust computer that would run forever with out crashing.

[FatDog]

Hi Old Vax Guy! I have fond memories of playing 'rogue' on a Vax.

My best advice is to go to the "Epub" forum and you will find a bunch of advice on making books in the epub format. There is a good editor called "Sigil" and a good tool that will manage these books called "Calibre".

HOWEVER: the kindle will not read .epub files. So Calibre (I believe) will convert them to .mobi which is what the Kindle likes.

With the competing reader formats - there is no 1 software solution to do what you want. So many people have standardized on the .epub format for editing/creating documents, then converting them to PDF, MOBI, etc. for their particular reader.

It IS a bit chaotic - but it is better than having 1 company dominate the industry with it's DRM infested concept of what is 'better' for us.

EDIT:

Below is a interesting article on ebook formatting you might like.

http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-...ok-formatting/

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Too young really... being of a clean and open mind (and a tad older), I think he means the VAX computer family originally developed in 1977 by DEC

Young ?

That's the funniest thing said to me this week........

As for this computer thing, well, there's no fun in that

I prefer the vacuum cleaner arrangement.

Although if it's a lasting personal relationship you're after, I think the Henry (or Henrietta, naturally) is the better bet ...............

Err....Not that I would know with absolute certainty, of course......