ROBUST discussion

Highclass tutorials for other authors, all questions answered, readers also welcome to the ever-open peanut gallery.

What's the best way to format a book for e-readers? Professional service, dreamweaver, ???

The two major translators from text to ebook formats are Smashword's Meatgrinder and Amazon KDP's AZW translator. Both are set up to use Microsoft Word. Any instructions from Amazon you find to use HTML have been superseded.

I find that Microsoft Word files are so corrupt that the fast way to make books is to do it separately from my single MSW master file for:

1. Print: Reduce to plain text in TextEdit or Notepad, paste into QuarkXPress layout programme, format with styles.

2. Smashwords. Reduce to plain text in TextEdit or Notepad, paste into MS Word, format with styles, put through Meatgrinder.

3. Kindle. Finish all work in MS Word. Import to Pages (or another application that exports Word DOC files) to strip off frames, export to DOC format, don't open in MSW again, test in best AZW translator [yourname]@free.kindle.com, send up to KDP. If you don't strip off these frames somehow, they will cause random short paragraphs to display with all lines indented, as in a block quote. If your AZW test fails, start at Textedit or Notepad as for Smashwords. If you already have an MSW file prepared for Smashwords, use it for KDP too (certain typographic refinements may require changing the paragraph styles because defaults are differently implemented).

It takes about a day's work in each case. HTH.

That's very handy. It also explains the indention thing. I've read several indies lately that had that problem.

A day's work?!! Took me an hour! NOOOOOOO no Pages!!! ACK...

Here, do this...set up a blank document to match this format... save as format document.
http://valeriedouglasbooks.blogspot.c...

Copy and paste your test into it.

Turn on show/hide (backwards P under Home) In your new document, find a space - a dot and backwards P. Copy, paste into copy and replace. Copy backwards P. click replace all.

Now run it, it should work fine.

It's the typographic punctilio that takes a day, Valerie. For instance, do you have the opening paragraph of each chapter and each paragraph after a section break set flush left? Do all your chapters start on new pages? Etc. All of this has to be checked again in each of half a dozen formats, and at various sizes in each. If you don't care about that sort of thing, of course an hour or two should do it, especially if your chapters are not named.

My Word docs have come out fine so long as I do a few things.
-Eliminate all Hidden Bookmarks. I have no idea why MS Word would even put them in there, but they do. Check for them by clicking the box for Hidden Bookmarks upon inserting one, then delete them all.
-Using normal fonts and sizes like Times New Roman 12 or Courier, Ariel, Garamond.
-Obviously use global indents for new paragraphs, not tabs or spaces.
-End Chapters with a page break for Kindle, Section break for Nook, not a bunch of paragraph returns anywhere.
-Then just take your time going through the Preview after uploading and make corrections if needed.

One tip I've found useful - a Kindle auto-indents, so you don't need to set paragraph indents. But what if you want the first line not to be indented?

There's obviously fancy HTML ways. But you can also just use Word and indent the text by 0.01 or whatever. It's not noticeable on a Kindle (I checked until my eyes were blind).

If you have lots of text you want like that, learn the HTML. But I just wanted my copyright page etc. to look okay, so this was a quick & easy way to do so.

Gee, now you tell me, James, after I spent a fortnight finding out why it happens, devising some magic against it, and then writing and testing style sheets to make proper opening pars.

Thanks for all this. I'm going to release a book relatively soon, so this will save me a lot of time.

I never had a problem with indents, or not indenting. Hmmmm - wonder why not?

I've had trouble with everything else - floating cover image was the last one.

So can someone explain to me again in REALLY SIMPLE ENGLISH how to stop KDP putting in the indent to the first paragraphs? It didn't worry me for the first two books because I was ignorant and didn't know any better, but now that I DO know I want to get it right. But Mobipocket puts them back, and that's what I've been using. I've very carefully gone through and removed the indents in the word doc, but they've all come back again.

Just imagine you're explaining it to a two-year-old...

Katie, I can do better by you than an explanation. Send email to andrejute at coolmainpress with the commercial extension, and I'll send you the first page of a novel with the stylesheets attached to defeat KDP's indents only on chapter-opening pars and first pars after a break.

Basically, stylesheets have both implicit elements, according to progamme, generally called "defaults", and explicit elements under your control. Word has a default for flush left, KDP has a default to replace that with an indent. So you need to build your stylesheets so that KDP for opening pars doesn't see the Word default, which you do by a double default, which means setting up a false style to be *explicitly*reversed by another style, which KDP then reads as a positive instruction. See the copies of my books you have.

You can see why I would rather share my secret weapon with you to fix it for you than to attempt explaining why it went wrong. You're not the only one this business gives a migraine...

Will do, thanks, Andre. But if it's anything like your second paragraph, I can't promise to understand it! ;)

It really isn't all that difficult. It's just the jargon that makes it sound difficult.

I've sent a page to the address you sent. The styles are attached. Good luck.

Thanks, Andre. I'll take a look at it after work.

Okay, I just spent an embarrassingly long time frowning at what you sent, and trying to make sense of what you were telling me to do. Glad to say it finally twigged. So thank you. I'll use that (must remember to delete your bit before I publish...that would really make for an interesting beginning!) But I'd still love to know how you actually produced those styles of your own. I wouldn't understand if you told me, but I'd love to know anyway!

Styles are defined by exception or addition. Start with something already in the root level of the application, a normal style or a default style. Your new, named style has a different font, size, etc. The other styles are defined by exception to your own first style, as a cascade, so that they are all related. Once you understand how I put that package together, you can change the font or its size for instance throughout the book by just changing it in the ur-style, ditto with other elements. (I take it you know to keep a locked copy of the template I sent you, so you can start from scratch when your mess it up.) Except that in this case, where the entire style package is intended only to nail down KDP's wayward AZW translator by setting up a straw man to reverse, everybody but specialists in my class (a few dozen in all the world) should keep their sticky fingers off for fear of doing more harm than good. It's not quite as simple as I make it look. It took me two weeks to work it out and set it up.

Ears burning, face the colour of betroot, she has to ask - Andre, how do I lock it? I was just going to keep it on a thumb drive, but I'm still likely to write over it.

I don't see why not knowing how to lock a file is embarrassing.

First put the file I sent away somewhere on another hard drive or thumb drive or CD/DVD, anyway somewhere separate from your computer.

The fastest, most convenient and useful way to lock the working copy of the file is to make the document a template. See the Word help files. Word won't let you overwrite a template, so you just open the template, then save it under the name of your working document, and, hey, presto, you have a manuscript in the making with the styles attached. Or, if you're paranoid, first duplicate the file, rename the copy, then open the renamed copy as your working file.

Once upon a time the answer would have been yes, if the first part is long enough.

Now the answer is no, you want to space them much closer than a year apart or you'll lose all the readers you gathered the hard way for part one.

Patience is a huge virtue for a novelist.