Ebook conversion guide

Hello. I thought people might be interested in this excellent guide to converting your books to ebook format (from InDesign magazine):

Part 1

Part 2

It's not easy to do, rather tedious, but this talks you through the process clearly. The key is setting up the file neatly and efficiently the first time through in InDesign.

Dan Kohan
Sensical Design

Tags: InDesign, book, ebook, production

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Permalink Reply by JustYourType.biz Book Designer on February 4, 2010 at 9:52am

Hi Dan,
This is quite a tedious process and it drops Master Page items completely and "rearranges" side bars and other non-running text.
Have you had much success in using this process and if so, for which types of readers?

Thanks very much for posting this.
Sue Balcer
JustYourType.biz Book Design

Permalink Reply by Dan Kohan on February 4, 2010 at 10:02am

Yes, it's certainly not easy. The article has some really useful tips, like anchoring the sidebars into the text so they show up in the right place. And you definitely still need to go into the XML and clean it up. This gets you to epub format, which can then be converted to Kindle, and which the iPad will use.

Have you found any tools that make this easier?

Permalink Reply by JustYourType.biz Book Designer on February 4, 2010 at 11:15am

I have not and will probably continue to do as I do now, creating the low res pdf version that I currently use for my clients.

I would like to branch out into ebooks more, though, so this article will be of great help for when I do.

Right now my focus is on design and typesetting but ebooks are all the rave now so I need to go another round of updating my skills(!)

Personally, I don't like reading books on a screen - I like the book-in-hand myself - and a well-stock bookshelf or two, or three.... but as a professional book designer I have to cater to my clients.

Again, thanks for posting all that great info - it's the most comprehensive I have seen.

Sue

Permalink Reply by Dan Kohan on February 4, 2010 at 11:53am

Always something new to learn.

Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Moore on April 16, 2010 at 3:48pm

It sounds no more tedious than rendering DOC files for Smashwords consumption, which is extremely low res and archaic in light of the formatting needed for iPad and other full color readers. I'll study these. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Nina Amir on December 1, 2010 at 9:35am

I haven't yet tried formatting for Smashwords or any ereader. I understood Smashwords to just need a Word doc. So the other readers need an InDesign doc?

Permalink Reply by Dan Kohan on December 1, 2010 at 9:45am

Smashwords requires a Word doc. Nobody requires an InDesign doc, but a lot of the time, that's what you're starting with, because that's what the print version was built in.

Permalink Reply by JustYourType.biz Book Designer on December 1, 2010 at 9:53am

Theresa, have you found the easiest and least tedious way to convert your files?
I am still working on it and would love to know if anyone's come up with the "least tedious" way!
Dan: Either starting with an inDesign doc or a PDF. Which do you feel converts "better"?
Thanks!

Sue
www.JustYourType.biz

Permalink Reply by Dan Kohan on December 1, 2010 at 9:58am

Oh, I would definitely rather start with InDesign than PDF. But maybe there's some easy way to do it from PDF that I don't know.

Permalink Reply by JustYourType.biz Book Designer on December 1, 2010 at 10:40am

Ok, just curious, 'cuz I can convert final PDF to RTF as well as inDesign - wondering which is "cleaner?"
Thanks,
Sue
www.JustYourType.biz