How to create a "taster compilation" epub?

[jkeinonen]

Hi guys,

I will donate USD 20 to the wonderful cause of Calibre if I get a simple, good solution to my question.

Background: I use Calibre to create epubs from docx files. I only know the "easy tricks", because I'm not tech-savvy and am quite scared of code and breaking everything.

Now, I have produced about 10 epub ebooks with Calibre which are on sale in my country. I would like to make a "free taster compilation" of these ebooks, i.e. combine the first chapters (or other chosen length of text) into a new ebook. Preferably, I would also like to add a link at the end of each taster to an ebookstore.

I am aware of the EpubMerge plugin, but have not used it yet. Would it be the best tool for me? Other suggestions?

If EpubMerge is the way forward, how should I "take out" the rest of the text of ebooks that I don't want to include in the compilation? Would it be better for a simpleton like me to take away the text before I do the merge, or afterwards?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Pablo]

Since you use MS Word, why don't to make a new docx file copying and pasting from your original docx books and then convert?

[jkeinonen]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Since you use MS Word, why don't to make a new docx file copying and pasting from your original docx books and then convert?

Thanks, Pablo, a good question. For a few books, I don't have the original docx or they have been edited after the convertion.

Also, I'd like to learn how to do this with epub files. For example, I get warnings on FlightCrew* about language issues each time I use Calibre in docx -> epub that I have to fix manually.

*) To pass FlightCrew validation seems to be a minimum requirement in my country's major e-bookstore and iBooks.

[kovidgoyal]

Use the editor to delete the text you want to take out then merge. Deleteing the text should be as simple as choosing the files in the left panel and pressing the delete key.

[jkeinonen]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the editor to delete the text you want to take out then merge. Deleteing the text should be as simple as choosing the files in the left panel and pressing the delete key.

Wow, the maestro himself, thank you.

This is the solution I have thought is the most likely, and what I had hoped I would get confirmation to.

The only cause of concern to me with this is, and this is probably another silly question: when I delete previous text AND images or tables, do references to them get "removed" from the content.opf as well? I remember sometimes getting warning messages in the content.opf related to images "not being found".

If they do, I consider this solved.

[kovidgoyal]

WHen you delete a file it is automatically removed from the OPF. After you are done deleting you can click the check book button and it will warn of any problems in the books structure.

[jkeinonen]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

WHen you delete a file it is automatically removed from the OPF. After you are done deleting you can click the check book button and it will warn of any problems in the books structure.

Thanks again. I will try that when I get the time, and certainly make the donation.

[jkeinonen]

Thank you Kovid, I finally got into this yesterday, learned the basics and everything went fine. I just donated 20 USD.

SOLUTION: If anyone else is reading this, just one more thing for success: When using EpubMerge, I had to tick off the Keep UnMerge Metadata (in Configure PlugIn). Otherwise I got an error in validation for too many TOC's... however, I could keep all the TOC's.