Converting to Ebook format

[henry_krinkle]

Hi all,

Question for you:

When you upload your book to KDP, does it need to be in ebook format (.MOBI)? I downloaded Mobipocket Creator for this purpose, and it does not appear to be user-friendly.

On their site:

http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/article.asp?basefolder=prcgen&file=building.htm

They list "Source format of the book from most recommended to least recommended" as:

1. source format is IDPF 1.0 or 2.0 (OPF + HTML)
2. source format is HTML
3. source format is XML
4. source format is Microsoft Word
5. source format is RTF

LOL is this some kind of sick joke? I would think most authors write their books in a word processing program such as MS Word, yet this ranks 4th. Who in the right mind writes their book in HTML format?

I uploaded my MS Word document into the program, which then converted it to an HTML file. But the HTML file differed significantly from my original Word document, in that there were numerous formatting problems that weren't there originally (improper spacing, bullet points were different symbols, etc.).

I clicked to edit it, in hopes I could get it back to normal, but it's all edited in HTML, which is completely foreign to me. Do the creators of this program honestly expect people to know how to edit HTML in order to convert their files? Or am I just using it wrong?

It's one thing if the program converts the Word document to .MOBI automatically, but quite another if they expect me to learn HTML to achieve this!

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[merrihiatt]

I write in MS Word and save the document. Then I use the "save as" feature and save as web page, filtered. This creates a html document. I open MobiPocket and choose the html document to convert. Then I add the cover. Hit "build" and MP builds your converted file. It is saved as a .prc file. You upload the .prc file to Amazon Kindle. It sounds like a lot of steps, but once you've done it a few times, it becomes a breeze.

You can upload directly from an MS Word document (don't use MS Word 2010, it seems that MS Word 1997-2003 works better). If all you have is MS Word 2010, use the "save as" feature and save as a MS Word 1997-2003 document.

Always keep your original MS Word document separate and use the "save as" feature. That way, if something goes wrong, you still have your original clean document to go back to.

There's a learning curve. Patience is your friend.

 

[henry_krinkle]

I write in MS Word and save the document. Then I use the "save as" feature and save as web page, filtered. This creates a html document. I open MobiPocket and choose the html document to convert. Then I add the cover. Hit "build" and MP builds your converted file. It is saved as a .prc file. You upload the .prc file to Amazon Kindle. It sounds like a lot of steps, but once you've done it a few times, it becomes a breeze.

You can upload directly from an MS Word document (don't use MS Word 2010, it seems that MS Word 1997-2003 works better). If all you have is MS Word 2010, use the "save as" feature and save as a MS Word 1997-2003 document.

Always keep your original MS Word document separate and use the "save as" feature. That way, if something goes wrong, you still have your original clean document to go back to.

There's a learning curve. Patience is your friend.

Thanks Merri, I will try this out and let you know how it went!

 

[merrihiatt]

Good luck. I've found the easiest formatting book to be Smashwords' FREE Style Guide. You can download it from Smashwords' site.

 

[henry_krinkle]

Good luck. I've found the easiest formatting book to be Smashwords' FREE Style Guide. You can download it from Smashwords' site.

Does the Smashwords Style Guide require you to upload the ebook to Smashwords?

 

[merrihiatt]

No. I used it to create my Kindle, PubIt! and Smashwords e-books. There was minor tweaking for each sales channel (Smashwords likes specific wording on their copyright page and PubIt! likes section breaks rather than page breaks), but nothing major.

 

[henry_krinkle]

I write in MS Word and save the document. Then I use the "save as" feature and save as web page, filtered. This creates a html document. I open MobiPocket and choose the html document to convert. Then I add the cover.

I've followed these instructions and they worked like a charm! Thank you so much!

 

[merrihiatt]

You're certainly welcome. Can't really take any credit as I followed Smashwords' Style Guide and Amazon KDP's directions.

 

[oldhousejunkie]

Thanks for explaining Mobipocket! I downloaded it yesterday and couldn't make heads or tails of it. I'll go home tonight and follow your instructions!

 

[merrihiatt]

Good luck!

 

[brianjanuary]

The Mobipocket Creator is very user-friendly and works very well if you have a simple Word document.

You do, however, have to have your text properly formatted for the Kindle upload (no use of tabs for paragraphs or blank spaces [set up a Style in the Format>Paragraph menu]; Insert>Page Break at the end of chapters, etc.).

Next, turn on the pilcrow (the backward paragraph symbol on the tool bar at the top of the Word page) to make sure you don't have any stray paragraph symbols (paragraph symbols should only be at the ends of paragraphs, chapter titles, etc. and nowhere else). if you find some, delete them. You can use Edit>Find to look for double spaces between words (type two space bar hits into the "Find" box and click on "Find Next" to go through your manuscript.

As Merrihiatt said, save as "filtered html" to get rid of some of the extra junk code that Word leaves in your file, then upload to the MC.

Then download the free Kindle Previewer ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765261 ) and preview your book on all devices to look for errors. If there are errors, go back to your original manuscript and correct them, then re-preview.