E-Book Creation Software? I need help!

09/25/2012 | Loud Mime

[Loud Mime]

My newest book is now on Amazon; it's a paperback. I need to convert it to ebook format but have been frustrated with the results produced by the automatic conversion systems.

The book has several graphics; they are causing the epub to separate the background from the text overlay.

Arrgh!

I produced the manuscript on InDesign CS4 and exported it to PDF and the Kindle export. I am dissatisfied with both.

Can anybody point me in the right direction.

the book's website is here.

Thanks for any help!

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I've used a utility some time in the past that might do what you need. It was called Calibre.

[Calvin Locke]

Off the top of my head, have you tried the Calibre conversion feature?

It's an ebook library manager, but does conversions for supporting epub, pdf, mobi, etc.

[commish]

Our own Jeff Head does a lot of e-publishing, he might be able to give some pointers.

[Eye of Unk]

Graphics don’t show up to well on the Kindles, maybe the new Kindle is better but on my Touch graphics are terrible, however I do have the Kindle app for my smartphone, that helps. My son is trying to e-publish a novel as well.

I’ll check out whats available as well, good luck.

[ShadowAce]

[ETL]

Clever promo. :)

[kingu]

Graphics are treated separately from the reflowable text. If you want text on a graphic (probably not the best idea for most e-readers), you need to create graphics files with the text already on the image. The biggest problem is ensuring that those graphic appear where you specifically want them in the text as it really is reflowable text.

The most frequent implementation is to use graphics with text at the start of a chapter, as an epub will automatically assign it to start on a new page.

[Loud Mime]

I took a look at Calibre, but did not realize it could do the job; I’ll take another look.

Sigil looked promising.

[Puddleglum]

you got Calibre?

[mmichaels1970]

I've used a utility some time in the past that might do what you need. It was called Calibre.

As a test, I just now converted a PDF to MOBI using Calibre. I didn't see a way to convert to EPUB, but I don't know much about how the whole eBook thing works.

[Loud Mime]

It’s a frustration thread with a promo tagline. Your comment does remind me of that scene in “Raising Arizona” where the father of the kidnapped baby puts in a tagline with the reporters.

;^)

[GeronL]

good question

[Mr. Silverback]

So, what you’re saying is you’re stuck in a box and can’t get out?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Bump!

[Wolverine]

I’ve used DeskTop Author. Very easy to use.

[Wolverine]

http://ebooks-software-review.toptenreviews.com/desktop-author-review.html

http://www.desktopauthor.com/cart_dnldrm.asp

[Loud Mime]

I’m checking that out now; it looks good.

Thank you!

[Wordkraft]

try Smashwords. That can format your mss into several formats.

[bcsco]

I have both Calibre and Sigil. Sigil does a better job of setting up chapters, tables of content, etc. It’s structure is better suited to such things than Calibre, which merely converts from one format to another. Once you have your book in a given format (epub), Calibre will then convert it to any other format.

What I don’t know, because I haven’t tried it, is how Sigil deals with images.