A Gearhead's Guide to E-book Publishing

Al Stevens · Mar 20, 2013

Following is a link to a multi-article tutorial on building e-book files starting with word processor files.

This is not the usual Word->Mobipocket->Calibre approach. The Introduction explains why.

Comments welcome. It's not for everyone, so anything you can suggest to make it more useful to the SP community is needed.

A Gearhead's Guide to E-book Publishing

[link removed by mod]

merrihiatt · Mar 20, 2013

Al, I'm by no means a gearhead, so got lost about halfway through your first post on your blog, but for those who understand html and CSS, I'm sure it will be helpful and much appreciated.

Old Hack · Mar 27, 2013

Al, I suggest you stop bumping this thread because it's beginning to look more like self-promotion than anything else.

Instead you could edit your first post to contain direct links to each blog post. As it stands, it's very difficult for anyone to find the posts you're referring to.

Thanks.

Obiwanbeeohbee · Apr 7, 2013

Love the lessons. Got me up and running in no time. I was using the Mobipocket method and found that when I updated from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Win7, MPC stopped working. There is apparently a Java error that authors have been complaining about but isn't being fixed.

Long story short, I needed a way to put in a ToC without using the Mobipocket guide feature and this was it.

I just have one question. I used Calibre to convert the ePub into both .mobi and .azw files. Can I use either format in place of the .prc from MPC that I was using to publish to KDP?

Thanks again for the tutorial and thanks in advance for your answer.

Al Stevens · Apr 7, 2013

Obiwanbeeohbee said:
I just have one question. I used Calibre to convert the ePub into both .mobi and .azw files. Can I use either format in place of the .prc from MPC that I was using to publish to KDP?

You can use the .mobi file to publish to KDP. I haven't tried the .azw format, but according to the KDP site, that format is okay too.

I'm not sure, but I think .mobi and .prc are the same format but with different filename extensions. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can jump in and clear this up.

Al Stevens · Apr 12, 2013

The tutorial is tentatively completed pending comments. The link is in Post #1.

So far I've announced it here only and kept it that way until I was finished. Now that it's ready, I'll post links to other sites that discuss and encourage self-e-publishing.

I have other tutorials planned to help self-publishers. They will all be free, of course. Suggestions welcome.

Old Hack · Apr 12, 2013

Al, perhaps you didn't hear me the first time round. I'll repeat.

Old Hack said:
Al, I suggest you stop bumping this thread because it's beginning to look more like self-promotion than anything else.

Locking this now.

A Gearhead's Guide to E-book Publishing

Al Stevens

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Obiwanbeeohbee

figuring it all out

Al Stevens

Al Stevens

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman