Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

EBook Conversion

Ebook Formatting Options for Indie Authors

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For indie authors, one great way to save money when it comes to publishing your books is to learn how to make your own ebooks. Personally, when it comes to creating ebooks, I recommend using Sigil, and I teach an online course on Udemy on how to use Sigil and other free tools to create your own beautiful ebooks. But there are a myriad of other options. Below are some … [Read more...] about Ebook Formatting Options for Indie Authors

Guest Post: One Author’s Experience Creating Children’s Read Aloud Ebooks

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By David Hoobler David Hoobler is both the author and illustrator of the Zonk the Dreaming Tortoise series. In the post below he shares his experience creating read aloud ebook versions of his children's books. Recording studios and mixing boards meant nothing to me a year ago. To me these are the realm of Rock and Rollers and Super Stars. That was then, before I decided to … [Read more...] about Guest Post: One Author’s Experience Creating Children’s Read Aloud Ebooks

Tools and Resources for Creating Ebooks

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Ebooks are great. You can carry around as many with you as you'd like at one time, and you can easily share what you're reading with friends. Ebooks are also the easiest way for indie authors to sell their work. For authors who are interested in making their own books, here's a list of resources: Ebook Creation Tools "Book Creator now lets you create your own ebooks from … [Read more...] about Tools and Resources for Creating Ebooks

Ebook Creation: Fixed Format vs. Reflowable Ebooks

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I've been working on the second book in my How to Create Ebooks series, which will be focused on making fixed format ebooks. Fixed format ebooks work particularly well for children's picture books, though there are number of other useful ways to use the format. I came across a video on Lynda.com (full disclosure, I am an affiliate) recently that does a great job showing the … [Read more...] about Ebook Creation: Fixed Format vs. Reflowable Ebooks

A Look at Interactive Ebooks

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Interactive, multimedia ebooks are starting to gain some traction. In addition to embedding audio and video, some ebook creators are experimenting with game elements, using GPS, and adding activities. A year ago, Digital Book World discussed why enhanced ebooks were not taking off yet. According to Peter Costanzo, "The main problem is that the market as it currently exists … [Read more...] about A Look at Interactive Ebooks

How to Create a Basic Ebook in 10 Steps

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After my short series on how to create a fixed format ebook, I thought I'd revisit the basic steps on how to create a regular ebook. This is for novels, or books with mostly text. There are 10 steps to creating an ebook, and if you find this useful, you might like to try out my online course, which has a number of videos that demonstrate the steps. 1. Download and install … [Read more...] about How to Create a Basic Ebook in 10 Steps

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 6): KF8 Magnify Text

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In this series, I have covered how to setup a fixed format ebook, how to add images, how to place text, how to embed fonts, and how to implement the read aloud function. In this post I'll go over how code for KF8, so that hot spots (where you touch the page) can magnify text. This only works for Kindle ebooks, so you will have to create/copy your current epub file and make a … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 6): KF8 Magnify Text

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 5): Read Aloud Code

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In this series, I have covered how to setup a fixed format ebook, how to add images, how to place text, and how to embed fonts. In this post I'll go over how add read aloud functionality to your children's story. I recommend this only for fixed format children's ebooks, because it can be tedious adding all the extra code (and children's books are nice and short). Instead of … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 5): Read Aloud Code

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 4): Embedding Fonts

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So far in this series, I have covered how to setup a fixed format ebook, how to add images, and how to place text. In this post I'll go over how to embed fonts, to make your ebook even more unique. You can use this trick for both fixed format ebooks and reflowable ebooks. The first thing I want to mention is that you can embed any font you like in your book, so long as you … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 4): Embedding Fonts

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 3): Placing Text

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In the last two posts of this series, I covered how to set up a fixed format ebook and how to add images to a fixed format ebook. In this post I'll cover how to place text on specific parts of a fixed format ebook's "page," which includes placing text on top of the image. First, you'll want to open up your stylesheet (CSS) in Sigil, and add code for each page of your book. … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 3): Placing Text

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 2): Adding Images

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In my last post on creating fixed format ebooks, I covered how to set up your files in Sigil so that ereaders and tablets know to treat your ebook like a fixed format ebook. This post I'll talk about how to treat images in picture ebooks. First, you'll want to make sure that your images are each 800 x 800 px wide. If you have a spread, make sure the width is 1600 px, and … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 2): Adding Images

How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 1): Setting Up Your Ebook

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I'm finally working on the second book in my "How to Ebook" series, and I've decided that this time around, before I ask for beta readers, I'm going to blog the book. So for the next few weeks, I'll be posting articles that detail how to create fixed format ebooks, which are most commonly used for children's picture books. These weekly articles will assume that you know the … [Read more...] about How to Create a Fixed Format Ebook (Part 1): Setting Up Your Ebook

iBooks Author Templates

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Ebooks come in a few different formats. I write a lot about EPUB and MOBI/KF8 on this site, which are the formats used by pretty much everyone (Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google, Sony, etc.). But there is another format: iBooks (iba). Apple sells EPUB, but the company also developed their own proprietary format in early 2012. If you have a Mac, you can download the iBooks … [Read more...] about iBooks Author Templates

New Year = New Websites

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It seems like at the beginning of every new year (at least for the past three years), I suddenly get sick of the way my websites look and spend a week or two obsessively redesigning. Well, it's that time again, and I'm proud to say I have a few new websites in addition to some prettier websites--hopefully these will help out anyone interested in my work! So here's a little … [Read more...] about New Year = New Websites