Support Forums: Message List - Formatting

Re: Help!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:49:06 +0000

> > I agree--that's about what I charge to complete an > > ebook, giving the author/publisher both an epub and > a > > mobi, > > as I keep saying I am ONLY doing kindle right now, ie > NOT epub, so $20 on top of the covers is fine by me, > given that my day job is teaching the old and > disabled how to use computers, for which I get zip, > zilch, zap and nilch. So $20 will get me a 6 pack so > I'm sweet. DD: I wasn't arguing with you; simply making a statement. Most of my clients want to be able to distribute on Apple's iBooks (iPad and iPhones), Nook, Kobo, Sony, Libre and the myriad smartphones. I put them into distribution deals so that they can manage all those platforms with one interface, so they only have to go to one control console for their epub sales, and the DTP for Amazon. I have a Kindle and I love Kindle; but I also respect the power of Apple, and I would never overlook the fact that Apple users are arithmetically more likely to take marketing efforts viral than Kindle users. On an iPad or iPhone, you can stop reading, and "tweet" your followers about what a great book you're reading, or what a cool paragraph you've just read in so-and-so's book. Apple users are big on social networks, also, and can do the same things there; pause their book and FB or MS their thoughts about it to the entire social network space. IMHO, it's crazy to ignore Apple. EDIT: FYI, I just read a review on Amazon about someone's book, and they gave it a bad review JUST BECAUSE it didn't have an active TOC. FWIW. Hitch hitch@booknook.biz I Produce Ebooks. Edited to add info about TOC. Message was edited by: bkhitch

Re: Help!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:44:30 +0000

> Apple users are big on > social networks, also, and can do the same things > there; pause their book and FB or MS their thoughts > about it to the entire social network space. IMHO, > it's crazy to ignore Apple. > I totally agree that other retailers should not be overlooked. From what I've read many authors here actually do exponentially more sales from the iBookstore. It should be noted that Kindle users can also share paragraphs and passages to Twitter and Facebook right from their Kindle since the last software update.

Re: KindleGen still not recognizing cover

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:50:19 +0000

And you have a division identified as "cover"? [b]

[/b]

Re: KindleGen still not recognizing cover

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:16:06 +0000

Yes, I'm not referring to a book image. I'm talking about the 600 x 800 jpeg that a purchaser can see by selecting "go to cover" from the menu.

Re: Help!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:02:10 +0000

Just to clarify things a bit the DTP does 'require' a .ncx and a TOC. That is what they say "Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Version 1.3: Page 11 of 73 TOC Guidelines TOC guideline #1: the Logical TOC (NCX) is mandatory The Logical Table Of Contents is very important for our mutual customer’s reading experience as it allows them to easily navigate between chapters on Kindle 2. So all Kindle books should have both logical and HTML TOCs. Users expect to see an HTML TOC when paging through a book from the beginning, while the logical table of contents is an additional way for users to navigate books. Logical tables of contents are generated using a Navigational Control' in http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CEMQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fkindlegen%2FAmazonKindlePublishingGuidelinesV1.3.pdf&rct=j&q=amazon%20kindlegen%20guide&ei=paN_TObZA8T_lge0qpXQDw&usg=AFQjCNEMbXNzeG2YzD-e7uxxdWwrnTkRjQ&sig2=zmBdruQG_zdigDN9-gY1nQ&cad=rja however, having said that if you upload an html file for conversion then obviously you wont have a .ncx and you won't have "an additional way for users to navigate books"; it seems they are very flexible in the use of the word 'mandatory'. I suspect that for the individual author/publisher these requirements are waived as going the whole .ncx, opf, spine etc would be too much to ask the average author to learn and so they just let it slip for now.

Re: Help!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:31:28 +0000

> I agree--that's about what I charge to complete an > ebook, giving the author/publisher both an epub and a > mobi, as I keep saying I am ONLY doing kindle right now, ie NOT epub, so $20 on top of the covers is fine by me, given that my day job is teaching the old and disabled how to use computers, for which I get zip, zilch, zap and nilch. So $20 will get me a 6 pack so I'm sweet.

Re: KindleGen still not recognizing cover

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:08:38 +0000

When you say "cover image," you are speaking of the cover as it will be displayed on the Kindle reader itself? An easy solution would be to omit it. Most of my Kindle editions don't have a cover image included. For one thing, it takes up valuable space in the 10 percent sample download.

Re: Help!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:15:05 +0000

> Yes, DD. > > A Table of Contents, the Guide Items, and the NCX > file, all are part of the required Kindle format. > > The Kindle format is what I said I would do for $150 > to $200 for a 100,000 word book. > > CJ, at CJ's Easy as Pie Kindle Tutorials > http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/ Hi, CJ: I agree--that's about what I charge to complete an ebook, giving the author/publisher both an epub and a mobi, replete with active TOC, chapter breaks, an "about the author" page and "other books by this author" page if I'm getting a scan from an OCR-to-Word process like Abbe. There's so much crap html to clean up, it takes that kind of money. For "fancy" non-fiction epubs, like self-help books loaded with background images and pictures, obviously, the costs can run higher. For straight-up, clean Word files, assuming the client gives me all the other components (about the author blurb & pic; cover image; images of any other books s/he wants mentioned), I can usually bring it in under $100, but I do not do any proofing, other than what I catch as I go. I send the epub to the author in a "first draft;" they proof it in EpubReader (a Firefox addon), and then I make any changes they need--typos, etc. Sometimes I get authors who rewrite on the fly! LOL! For the record, I've done ebooks for Timothy Hallinan, L.J. Sellers, Sally Wright, Geraldine Evans and Carolyn Rose, amongst others. I've always found CJ's easy-as-pie directions solid for DIY'ers. I of course want them all to come to me!! Hitch hitch@booknook.biz I Produce Ebooks.

KindleGen still not recognizing cover

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:58:33 +0000

Hi, sorry for posting this when it was already posted, but the answers in the previous post haven't helped. I've added the html code to the top of the page for my cover image, made sure the image is in the containing folder with the rest of the images in the folder, and KindleGen is still giving me the "cover not specified" warning. The code I'm using is:

Does anyone have any helpful ideas? Thanks

Re: Creating a Table of Contents Using MS Word Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:26:20 +0000

Donna, THANK YOU!!!!!!! Best, Jason