From Writing to Publishing...the DIY Process
For those of you who don't do your own publishing, be that ebook or print, you may return to your regularly scheduled activity.
For those writers who, like myself, do it all--write the book, design the cover, and format it for all the various publication outlets--let's all share a drink and commiserate each other on the often frustrating and always time-consuming process of getting your manuscript from that lone file on your computer to the masses who (you hope) will buy it.
For my first ebook, Being John Bland, I went the totally manual route. I converted the entire manuscript to html and inserted all the formatting tags to make it play nice with Kindle (I didn't bother with ePub for that one). Then I let Amazon do its thing with the file. The Kindle version of that book is, to this day, kind of a hit or miss affair. I know I should go in and fix it, but to be honest, I just don't have the energy. Plus, I can't for the life of me find the original html file (that was two computers ago) and I have no desire to re-convert it again. Maybe someday...
For Lucid, I still hand-coded the manuscript to html manually, but I pulled it into Calibre for conversion to ePub and Kindle. While easier, there is still a learning curve involved, and getting everything to look just the way you want is a sometimes hair-pulling endeavor. Either way, it took me a good two weeks to get everything set up for publication, including the wait times while your files are being approved after upload.
And that's not even taking into account the print version. Yes, I know the paperback will never sell. For one thing, I use CreateSpace and their pricing structure is such that I have to charge $12.00 for a book just to meet their costs. The only reason I do it is for myself--I want to have a print version of my book on my shelf, as well as a few extra copies to give to friends and family.
Fast forward to now. For Return of the Light, I decided to get cute and use InDesign for formatting both the print and ePub versions. Now, let me just stop here and inform you that I still write in WordPerfect. While I recognize that the world-wide standard for wordprocessing is Word, I personally hate it and only voluntarily use it for business and work-related documents. However, since the rest of the world has been bought off by Bill Gates & Co., Word is a necessary evil, so when the book is done, the WordPerfect files get converted to Word, and, in this case, those files are converted to .rtf so I can use them in InDesign. Blah...what a process, and we haven't even really started yet.
I've had three versions of InDesign (my current is CS6, which came bundled in my Adobe Web and Design Professional Suite, which I use in my web design business), but I haven't used it since it was Pagemaker back in the day. Which meant that while some things were familiar, most were not. However, I had heard rumors that InDesign converts to ePub seamlessly (hahahaha!!), so I gave it a go.
I spent more time reading tutorials and Googling answers than actually working on files, but the process has so far taken me two weeks. First, in order to get ePub files that correctly started chapters on a new page, I had to break each chapter of the book into separate files. That meant first converting all special characters (em dashes, ellipses, quotation marks and apostrophes) in my manuscript to the correct symbol, then breaking out each chapter into a separate .rtf file (InDesign imports directly from .rtf.). Then through trial and error, I hit upon the correct format for setting up those files in InDesign. I created a book, then created documents for each chapter, all the front matter, the TOC, the title page, etc.,and added all of them to the book. Styles had to be synchronized across all chapters so the ePub book's CSS file could be compiled. Then, after much searching for the correct way to do it, all that was bundled and wrapped into a single ePub file, which I then pulled into Sigil.
Phew! If you think I was done, you're wrong. I did learn something, however. An ePub file is just a zip file. If you change the extension of an ePub file from .epub to .zip, you can then unzip it and access all the files inside. (Mac users have a few more hoops to jump through since IOS doesn't like the zip format.) Once unzipped, you can edit all the html files for the separate chapters and front matter, as well as the styles (CSS), the opf file, and the meta files. When you're done, just change the extension of the unzipped folder back to epub and it zips it all back together again.
Or, you can just open the file in Sigil and do all your editing there. So, two weeks and I finally had an ePub file I was satisfied with (with the exception of that damned "start" reference line in the Guides section of the opf file, which by the way, DOES NOT WORK). Now comes the fun part--converting the ePub to mobi for Kindle.
Because Sigil doesn't do that, I pulled the ePub into Calibre and did my conversion there. And for those of you counting, I've now used five different software applications to get this book written and published. Fun.
Now, let me just say, if you are converting a Word file to ePub, Calibre is great. Lots of helpful options to get you where you're going. Sort of like the GPS function on my phone that NEVER SHUTS UP when I'm trying to navigate. But when you start out with an ePub file, there should be an option that tells Calibre, "Hey, been there, done all of this, just make with the conversion already!"
There isn't. Anyway, that was a waste of an entire morning, and I never did figure out the difference between old Kindle, new Kindle, both (and don't even get me started on .azw3), and why it matters because Amazon is going to reconvert your files anyway for all their devices. So word of advice--just select "old" and let Amazon do the work.
So...Kindle version uploaded. I need a breather before attacking B&N, and the jury is still out on whether or not I'm attempting Apple. From what I hear, like everything else Apple-related, that's an exclusive, members-only, good ol' boy network that's almost impossible to crack. Not sure I care that much yet. We'll see.
The print version took three days to format using InDesign to get the layout just right (all the styles, margins, headers, page numbers, blank pages backing up standalone pages, etc.), then another afternoon of farting around how to convert an .indd file to .pdf for print that isn't "export to interactive digital" (the only export option it insisted on giving me despite all of Adobe's so-called Help). Turns out, you have to select Print to PDF. Then lo and behold, Acrobat takes all the blank pages out. Grr!!! And it doesn't offer a way to insert blank pages either. You can only insert pages from a file, so I had to create a new page in Word, put a couple of letters on it, make the font white (so it doesn't show) then save it as a .pdf so I could insert the blank pages back into the master .pdf file. Listen up, Adobe--user-friendly isn't just a catch phrase. Do you people actually USE the stuff you make?
With the content all wrapped up in a .pdf, I now had to get my cover ready. I had the separate parts--front, back, spine--but I couldn't do the final layout until I knew how wide the spine was going to be, and I didn't know that until I got the book converted to .pdf and uploaded to CreateSpace. Once that was done, I was able to download a cover template from CreateSpace, drop all my files onto it, then save it as a new .pdf for my cover.
So, anyway, all files are now with their respective publishers awaiting approval. I seriously believe writing the book was easier than getting it published. I'm thinking that publishing is a lot like giving birth--painful and time-consuming, but hopefully we forget all that with time, because otherwise I would never attempt to publish again.
For those writers who, like myself, do it all--write the book, design the cover, and format it for all the various publication outlets--let's all share a drink and commiserate each other on the often frustrating and always time-consuming process of getting your manuscript from that lone file on your computer to the masses who (you hope) will buy it.
For my first ebook, Being John Bland, I went the totally manual route. I converted the entire manuscript to html and inserted all the formatting tags to make it play nice with Kindle (I didn't bother with ePub for that one). Then I let Amazon do its thing with the file. The Kindle version of that book is, to this day, kind of a hit or miss affair. I know I should go in and fix it, but to be honest, I just don't have the energy. Plus, I can't for the life of me find the original html file (that was two computers ago) and I have no desire to re-convert it again. Maybe someday...
For Lucid, I still hand-coded the manuscript to html manually, but I pulled it into Calibre for conversion to ePub and Kindle. While easier, there is still a learning curve involved, and getting everything to look just the way you want is a sometimes hair-pulling endeavor. Either way, it took me a good two weeks to get everything set up for publication, including the wait times while your files are being approved after upload.
And that's not even taking into account the print version. Yes, I know the paperback will never sell. For one thing, I use CreateSpace and their pricing structure is such that I have to charge $12.00 for a book just to meet their costs. The only reason I do it is for myself--I want to have a print version of my book on my shelf, as well as a few extra copies to give to friends and family.
Fast forward to now. For Return of the Light, I decided to get cute and use InDesign for formatting both the print and ePub versions. Now, let me just stop here and inform you that I still write in WordPerfect. While I recognize that the world-wide standard for wordprocessing is Word, I personally hate it and only voluntarily use it for business and work-related documents. However, since the rest of the world has been bought off by Bill Gates & Co., Word is a necessary evil, so when the book is done, the WordPerfect files get converted to Word, and, in this case, those files are converted to .rtf so I can use them in InDesign. Blah...what a process, and we haven't even really started yet.
I've had three versions of InDesign (my current is CS6, which came bundled in my Adobe Web and Design Professional Suite, which I use in my web design business), but I haven't used it since it was Pagemaker back in the day. Which meant that while some things were familiar, most were not. However, I had heard rumors that InDesign converts to ePub seamlessly (hahahaha!!), so I gave it a go.
I spent more time reading tutorials and Googling answers than actually working on files, but the process has so far taken me two weeks. First, in order to get ePub files that correctly started chapters on a new page, I had to break each chapter of the book into separate files. That meant first converting all special characters (em dashes, ellipses, quotation marks and apostrophes) in my manuscript to the correct symbol, then breaking out each chapter into a separate .rtf file (InDesign imports directly from .rtf.). Then through trial and error, I hit upon the correct format for setting up those files in InDesign. I created a book, then created documents for each chapter, all the front matter, the TOC, the title page, etc.,and added all of them to the book. Styles had to be synchronized across all chapters so the ePub book's CSS file could be compiled. Then, after much searching for the correct way to do it, all that was bundled and wrapped into a single ePub file, which I then pulled into Sigil.
Phew! If you think I was done, you're wrong. I did learn something, however. An ePub file is just a zip file. If you change the extension of an ePub file from .epub to .zip, you can then unzip it and access all the files inside. (Mac users have a few more hoops to jump through since IOS doesn't like the zip format.) Once unzipped, you can edit all the html files for the separate chapters and front matter, as well as the styles (CSS), the opf file, and the meta files. When you're done, just change the extension of the unzipped folder back to epub and it zips it all back together again.
Or, you can just open the file in Sigil and do all your editing there. So, two weeks and I finally had an ePub file I was satisfied with (with the exception of that damned "start" reference line in the Guides section of the opf file, which by the way, DOES NOT WORK). Now comes the fun part--converting the ePub to mobi for Kindle.
Because Sigil doesn't do that, I pulled the ePub into Calibre and did my conversion there. And for those of you counting, I've now used five different software applications to get this book written and published. Fun.
Now, let me just say, if you are converting a Word file to ePub, Calibre is great. Lots of helpful options to get you where you're going. Sort of like the GPS function on my phone that NEVER SHUTS UP when I'm trying to navigate. But when you start out with an ePub file, there should be an option that tells Calibre, "Hey, been there, done all of this, just make with the conversion already!"
There isn't. Anyway, that was a waste of an entire morning, and I never did figure out the difference between old Kindle, new Kindle, both (and don't even get me started on .azw3), and why it matters because Amazon is going to reconvert your files anyway for all their devices. So word of advice--just select "old" and let Amazon do the work.
So...Kindle version uploaded. I need a breather before attacking B&N, and the jury is still out on whether or not I'm attempting Apple. From what I hear, like everything else Apple-related, that's an exclusive, members-only, good ol' boy network that's almost impossible to crack. Not sure I care that much yet. We'll see.
The print version took three days to format using InDesign to get the layout just right (all the styles, margins, headers, page numbers, blank pages backing up standalone pages, etc.), then another afternoon of farting around how to convert an .indd file to .pdf for print that isn't "export to interactive digital" (the only export option it insisted on giving me despite all of Adobe's so-called Help). Turns out, you have to select Print to PDF. Then lo and behold, Acrobat takes all the blank pages out. Grr!!! And it doesn't offer a way to insert blank pages either. You can only insert pages from a file, so I had to create a new page in Word, put a couple of letters on it, make the font white (so it doesn't show) then save it as a .pdf so I could insert the blank pages back into the master .pdf file. Listen up, Adobe--user-friendly isn't just a catch phrase. Do you people actually USE the stuff you make?
With the content all wrapped up in a .pdf, I now had to get my cover ready. I had the separate parts--front, back, spine--but I couldn't do the final layout until I knew how wide the spine was going to be, and I didn't know that until I got the book converted to .pdf and uploaded to CreateSpace. Once that was done, I was able to download a cover template from CreateSpace, drop all my files onto it, then save it as a new .pdf for my cover.
So, anyway, all files are now with their respective publishers awaiting approval. I seriously believe writing the book was easier than getting it published. I'm thinking that publishing is a lot like giving birth--painful and time-consuming, but hopefully we forget all that with time, because otherwise I would never attempt to publish again.
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