Let's Get E-Published

How to use Calibre

Ian S. Rutter — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:30:05 +0000

Calibre – How to Install and use it.

- How to use Calibre –

Calibre turns your manuscript into an ebook. One of the best free ebook management software you can use.

Calibre – What is Calibre? And how to install it?
You may or may not of come across this amazing piece of ebook management software. It can seem completely bewildering to the novice but it is a very powerful tool in helping you make an ebook. It helps you publish your ebook and helps you convert an ebook to Kindle or to any other ebook format of your choice simply from a drop down menu.

I believe Calibre is going to become more important now more than ever as Kobo is going to allow writers to upload their own ebooks to their platform rather than submit a Doc file that Smashwords demands.

Let me explain first what Calibre is and does.

Calibre will take your manuscript either as a Doc file or as a HTML prepared manuscript. If you want to know more about that, then please look at my other tutorials on how to add HTML and what HTML code you need to add to your manuscript to make it work on every ereader without any errors.

I also provide a free HTML Template for you, in-case you don’t want to add the code yourself. All you do with the template is add your manuscript.

Calibre – What is it?

Calibre was written by Kovid Goyal and he has very kindly given it out to the community. I don’t know him personally but I want to thank him for an amazing piece of software.

The software not only helps you create your final product, but also helps you to organise your ebooks. It has a built in ebook reader to so you can preview your finished product. It will read directly from your Kindle or other ereader. You can add or delete ebooks from your ereader using Calibre.

The creator of Calibre has created a video demo of the product and is worth watching to get an impression of what it can do.

So, Calibre can sink to your ereading device. It can organise and be your library manager. It is a conversion tool. It has a built in ereader. It has a built in webserver so you can email books or access your collection from any computer in the world. It can also fetch news feeds and articles from your favourite websites and convert them an ebook and upload them to your ereading device.

The articles will be full versions and not summaries.

It is a very powerful ebook management software.

Calibre – How to install it?

I am going to show you how to download, install and help you convert your manuscript using only Calibre.

Let’s get started.

First you need the software. Go to this link. Calibre. And click on the blue button – Download Calibre.

Fig1. Calibre Website

Fig 1. Shows you the Home Page.

You could also click the image on the website and it will take you through calibre’s demo video with vocal instructions by the creator.

When you click on the blue link you will be taken to a screen that gives you the options to choose what operating system you use.

Fig 2. The operating system screen

Fig 2. OS Download Screen

After clicking on the OS of your choice, I am choosing Windows, it takes you to another screen just to confirm your selection.

You can see this in Fig 3.

Fig 3. Download file name

If you are happy then just click on Download Calibre.

Fig 4. Shows you the pop up download box. The image you see here may be different from what you usually see. I was using Firefox at the time.

Fig 4. Pop up Box

Whatever browser you are using please remember where you download the software.

Fig 5. Shows you that I downloaded Calibre to my Desktop.

Fig 5. Destination

It’s an easy place to find my downloads and allows me to later on save the software to another location. But for convenience the Desktop is a good place to save Calibre.

Just to make a note. Depending on the time and date of when you read this article, when you come to download the software the version number will probably be different as the creator keeps improving on the previous version.

Once the software has been downloaded, Firefox will display the downloaded box as you can see on Fig 6.

Fig 6. Firefox Download box

You can open the software from the download box or close it and open the software from where you downloaded it to.

If you want install the software from the download box then right click the software as shown in Fig 7.

Fig 7. Right Click and Open

Choose Open. You can also choose Open Containing Folder which in this case would open up a folder showing the contents of my Desktop. If you click remove from list, that would only delete the file name from the download box, it would not delete the actual file on the Desktop.

I am going to presume you chose Open.

Fig 8. Security Warning

Fig 8. Shows a Security Warning box. Don’t worry about this as this is normal. The software is safe so just click on Run. If you want me to explain what a Digital Signature is send me a comment.

Fig 9. Simply shows an install box.

Fig 9. Prepare to Install

After that Fig 10. Displays the Caliibre Welcome Screen.

Fig 10. Install Screen

You haven’t installed it yet. From here you will be guided so you make a clean install, but I will throw my pennies worth in just to make sure.

If the Next button is not highlighted, then click somewhere on the screen or wait a minute or two. When you see the Next button, click it.

This next page is important.

Fig 11. Is the Public License that the software is covered under. Be my guest and reading. As the software is Open Source you the user have permission to distribute the software but you cannot change the software.

Fig 11. License Screen

Pretty good of the creator.

What is important is the next thing you HAVE to do.

Fig 12. Shows you a small box. You have to check it if you want to carry on.

Fig 12. License Agreement

In simple terms, if you check it you agree with the license and you can then carry on with the install.

Notice after checking the box, the Install and Advanced buttons become active. That’s what we need.

If you choose Install, then you will see Fig 13.

Fig 13. Installation of files

A direct install of the software. It takes a few moments and is completely automated. This will install Calibre in the Default Windows Location, something like c:\Windows\programs\Calibre\

If you choose Advance you will see Fig 14.

Fig 14. New install location

Here it allows you to choose where you want to install.

I always do this as I always install on a different partition or on a separate hard disk.

You can choose the Change button and choose your location or just change the Default C:\ to what I have which is D:\Calibre2\

If you do this you will notice a few more steps to be taken.

Fig 15. Displays Product Features which allows you to install or not install certain features.

Fig 15. Advanced menu

I would just leave everything as is and click Install.

If you want to play around then you can click on any of the drop down menus.

Fig 16. Shows you what you will see.

Fig 16. Drop down menu on advanced installation

The drop down menu gives you a clear choice of what you may want to do.

Fig 17. Shows you what you will see when you are happy with you install choices or when you have clicked Install.

Fig 17. Installation of files

This takes a few minutes and is just validating your choices so you can have a working installation.

Fig 18. Will start to copy new files to your installation location.

Fig 18. New files

This will take a few moments and the status bar will show you your progress.

Sometimes it won’t move then suddenly jump. The whole process should not take more than 5 minutes.

Fig 19. Is very similar as Fig 18, but it will remove some backup files that it does not need.

Fig 19. Removing backup files

This will not affect your installation. My recommendation is to just go away and make a cup of tea.

Computers don’t like being watched!

Fig 20. Is success!

Fig 23. Successful Installation

See the tick in the Launch Calibre. That is automatic so if you click on Next, Calibre will then load up.

Fig 21. Calibre Home Page

Fig 21. Calibre Home screen

This is the Home Screen and it already has a document installed and ready to read.

It is Calibre’s Start Guide. It’s worth reading.

That’s it for installing Calibre. It really is a breeze to install.

My next tutorial is how to use the Calibre. For now, install the software and read the guide.

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Article by Ian S. Rutter

Ian S. Rutter is an indie publisher of a children’s book called ‘The Faeries of Birchover Wood’ He is writing the sequel, a short story and a horror novel. For fun he spends time with his three children and his wife. He loves reading, drawing, walking and daydreaming.

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How to publish an ebook on Amazon

Ian S. Rutter — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 06:25:39 +0000

How to publish your manuscript on Amazon is very easy and quick.

This is a tutorial on uploading your manuscript to Amazon.

I know this is jumping the queue a little as I haven’t post the Calibre tutorial yet! But as my friend L. Lee Scott was ready to upload her new ebook Storm Borne, I asked her if I could do it for her and record the images as I went along. She happily agreed and so here is the result of that upload.

NOTE:

This tutorial will be using a finished manuscript that has been converted from HTML to MOBI, which is Amazon’s Kindle format. If you want to see how to add HTML to your manuscript, then head over to my How To Make An Ebook series.

Let’s get started. First you need to create an account with Amazon to upload your ebook. Click this link Amazon KDP Select to create an account. It will open a new window.

There are really good links on the page to take you to the community and the FAQ page. Go through them, they are very good. When you have done that you will receive and email with a number of links that will explain what you have and what you can do. One link with take you to your Amazon Author Central.

Fig 1 – Amazon Author Central

Here is your hub to help you tell future readers who you are.

Another link on your email ( so don’t lose it. Make multiple copies of it! ) will take you to your Bookshelf. This is where we can add our books and see sales. There’s a link to Community and the KDP Select programme. If you can clicked on any, you will see the links at the top on every page you click on, click back to Bookshelf.

fig 2 – Bookshelf

You can see my first book is already in the bookshelf. You see this when you have successfully uploaded your book. From here you can always make changes to the settings you chose when you first uploaded your ebook. Everything is changeable. Price, distribution, copyright etc.

Let’s upload an ebook.

Now that you are on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing screen ( above ) You can click on Add new title. You may not see the above and go straight to adding a title. It doesn’t matter.

When you are on the screen to add a title, you will see that it is set in two parts. Let’s deal with part 1 first.

Fig 3 – Introduction

As you can see from the Fig 3, You have the choice to enroll in Amazon’s exclusive KDP select. Here Amazon has total exclusivity of your ebook and you cannot sell it with any other digital retailer. It’s a good idea and a bad idea. If you want my thoughts then you can click this link for an update of what I thought after using KDP select.

If you do click it then Amazon does give you three days to change your mind. After that you have to stay with it for 90 days. If you change you mind during the 90 days you can unselect the option and after 90 days it will NOT automatically enroll you on it again.

You can enrol on the programme any time after your ebook is live and selling like hotcakes!

I encourage you to read everything on the page. It’s not much but is precise and to the point.

Now, I am presuming you do not click the ‘Enroll this book on KDP select‘ so scroll down and look at what we need to do next.

Fig 4 – Book details

Okay on Fig 4 Book Details we enter the details of your ebook. On this example I have entered:

1 – Name of book – Storm Borne

2 – I have not clicked the box for part of a series. For my Faeries book I did as it is part 1 of a series. You choose this.

3 – Edition number – It has 2 as this is edition 2. The original one was ready to go up, but there were some last minute changes to the manuscript and so the author declared that the one to be uploaded would be the 2nd edition. You can do this at anytime.

If you have an ebook for sale and you make changes, add some extra text etc, then when you come to upload the new version you would add the number to represent the edition number.

4 – Description – Easy enough. As you can see there is some descriptive text added. I just cut and paste it in from the original manuscript.

5 – Add contributors. This is where you will select from a menu people who have helped you with the story such as a co-author. You will add yourself here as Author.

Fig 5 – Book Contributor

The boxes ask you to add the name of the contributor then you select from a drop down menu the Title. You can add as many as you want and if you change your mind you can remove the person.

So far so good. Let’s move on.

Sections 2 to 4 are important to get right and some time may be needed to think them through. Let’s see what I mean

Fig 6 – Rights – Keywords – Image

Section 2 – Verifying Your Publishing Rights. You do own your story, don’t you? I hope so. ( Actually there’s a film coming out about this called Words. Publishing someone else’s work and taking the credit. Sorry transgressing. )

Public Domain which means that no-one owns it so it can be published by anyone and take credit for it. many classic books come under this and you may see some popular and well know titles but have another authors name on the cover. They have taken the time and trouble to convert the book into an ebook and sell it. They have the right under Public Domain. It’s not a subject to copyright.

I expect you don’t want that and so you better tick the other option.

Section 3 is Target Your Book To Customers. This can be tricky as you need to think of the categories that he book will come under and found. Click on the button Add Categories.

Fig 7 – Add categories

The above box will pop up. After scrolling the categories and sub-categories you can see I selected Fiction>Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology and Fiction>Short Stories.

You can only choose two categories and what ever sub-categories they have. Again, it needs careful thinking for this. You can change later on even after publication.

After you are happy just click Save.

The next part of the section is just as important and probably get you scratching your head. Keywords.

Fig 8 – Keywords

These are words that people will use to search for your book. It may seem easy at first but think of all the words that people may use and also, think of how people spell words. You can actually get great results with misspelt words.

Amazon allows you up to seven keywords or phrases. What it does not mean is one word only. It means a word or a series or words separated by a comma. Once it has been separated by a comma it is then classed as a keyword, even if you have eight or ten words it’s still classed as a keyword. Between two and four words make a good keyword. One word can be too generic. Try and be precise. Be the reader searching your book.

The above keywords are the ones that I used for the ebook.

Section 4 is the window of your book, your image. Have you made a good image that is 800 x 600 is size? That is the image size for the front cover of a Kindle ebook. If not, then go away and get that done now.

Click the button Browse for Image.

Fig 9 has the button Upload image. Click that.

You can see the path where I had stored the image. If you create an image with the dimensions 800 x 600 then the thumb nail image that Amazon will display will be the correct size and not look distorted.

There is one annoying trait that I have found when I have uploaded images. The box stays displayed and you get the very small message Uploaded successfully! I would like the box to automatically close then the image displayed with the same message.

When I first did this I presumed this, went off to make a cup of tea and when I came back my heart sank as the box was still on the screen. Looking and not focusing I saw after a minute or so the message.

You have to click the small Close box on the top right hand corner.

After you have successfully uploaded the image you now need to upload your book.

Fig 10 – Upload ebook

Section 5 is where you can either upload your .DOC file and let Amazon sort out the formatting, or you can upload your HTML prepared .MOBI. Here I have uploaded a HTML prepared .MOBI file. The HTML file is converted to .MOBI using Calibre.

First, you can select ‘Enable digital rights management‘ or ‘Do not enable digital rights management‘

I never choose it. My book and this one is DRM free. Personally, I think DRM undermines the intelligence of the reader. DRM is suppose to be a copy protection system but it has long been broken and can be taken off very easily. I don’t like it and won’t have it.

Hats off to Amazon who give you the choice.

Click on Browse for book and go to where your ebook .DOC for MOBI file is located.

Fig 11 – Upload Mobi file

If you have a .MOBI then look for the .MOBI extension on your book.

It’s funny, if you use Smashwords which is a DRM free company they do not add it. When it comes to distributing through Apple, Apple automatically adds DRM and you have no choice on the matter.

Once you have done that and Amazon processes it you will see the lovely message.

Fig 12 – Upload successful

Now that’s what I call good news. It does not mean the book is live. That takes a few hours.

After you see the above message you have the option to ‘Preview your book‘

Fig 13 – Preview Book

This is always a good idea, especially if you have not used the really good Amazon Kindle Previewer software, which I fully recommend. You can find the download link here.

On Fig 13, click on Preview book.

It will always open your Table of Contents if you have one. It really bugs me when an ebook that I have bought has no table of contents. I do expect it. You have one in a physical book!

Fig 14 – Table of Contents

You do have options to look at other parts of the book.

On the drop down menu button. Fig 15.

Fig 15 – Drop down menu

You can go to any part of your ebook. You can see Table of Contents – Go to Beginning – Go to Cover and Close.

I have chosen Go to Cover.

Fig 16 – Ebook cover

On fig 16, you will see black and white or a grey image. Kindle is an grey only ebook reader. Always make your images full colour for future colour readers to diplay.

The previewer is really good and gives you a very good representation of how your ebook will look on a Kindle. Always use it. When you have finished with the preview click the close button – Top right corner.

Now we have come to the end of the first part of uploading your ebook to Amazon.

Fig 17 – Save

We need to save everything. We have two options.

On Fig 17, you see ‘Save and Continue‘ which takes you to the next and final parts of getting your ebook live. Pricing section. Or you can click on ‘Save as draft‘ and come back later. I think that’s really good.

When you click Save, it will then take you to a new page. Part 2

Fig 18 – Distribution rights

Here you first need to select your Distribution Rights. Fig 18 shows you that you have two options. Worldwide rights ( I presume you want that ) just click it, or you can select individual territories.

Next we come to pricing.

Fig 19 – Worldwide Prices

You can add one price then select Amazon to work out the other prices for the other countries. Again, everything is optional.

Fig 19 shows that I added $2.99 then I selected the box ‘Set _ automatically‘ It clearly shows you the royalty rate for each country.

You can change this any time you want.

Fig 20 – Lending

Next, fig 20 shows you the last section. Lending. This lets Libraries borrow books and you can get paid.

After that click on the box, ‘By clicking …‘ Then click Save and Publish!

It takes you away from here and Amazon now gets on with checking your manuscript ready for sale.

Fig 21 – Status

Fig 21 is your Bookshelf where you can see the status of your book and where you go if you want to change any of the above details As you can see the books status is ‘In Review‘

6 hours later it went live and was for sale.

That’s it. All done you have now successfully uploaded your ebook onto Amazon.

Congratulations! You deserve all the credit and success.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial please pass it along, facebook it, twitter it or copy it. I hope it has helped you out.

Kind regards

Ian

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Inspiring Blog Award

Ian S. Rutter — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:35:50 +0000

Inspiration

Hello. Another surprise and a welcome one. Someone nominated and awarded me the Inspiring Blog Award, which gives me a pretty good feeling to know that there is at least someone that likes what I do.

I want to thanks the person who nominated me, Allan Krummenacker. Thanks so much for this. I’ve never had much luck with competitions but my luck seems to be changing with my blog.

I need to write seven thing about myself.

1. I have a PADI license to dive

2. After being taught as a First Aid by St. Johns Ambulance, I had to use the knowledge for real on an individual who was losing a lot of blood. After the ambulance turned up they congratulated me on performing first aid and saving the man’s life. I have to personally thank St. John’s Ambulance for what they taught me.

3. At 14 I would sell football brochures for Blackpool FC so I could get in and watch them for free. It was a riot. Especially if they lost!

4. I was born in March so I am Pisces.

5. I was 26 when I spent a year in Australia back packing.

6. I love listening to Brian Tracy and read anything about the sub-conscious mind.

7. I’m a big Def Leppard fan!

Okay, sites that I like and have inspired me.

1. Allan Krummenacker.

2. Kobo Writing life. It’s still in beta but I think this is going to be good for all writers.

3. Kindle Reader Blog Spot. Why? I started with the Kindle and so I am interested in all things Kindle. I am not a die hard fan of Kindle or of Amazon, but I do respect what Amazon and the Kindle has done.

4. Manybooks.net. It is what the title says. Loads of good books to download and read.

5. Munseys.com technosnarl. Opinionated reviews of e-reader technologies and books. I like this a lot.

6. Planet Ebook. Love the name and the site. Loads of books to download.

7. Napoleon Hill. Anything to do with this guy I like. I love his works and his teachings. Yes I know, it’s nothing to do with ebooks but he has inspired me.

8. Teleread. A great place to find out about the latest news on technology.

9. Kindleboards. Everything you have heard about this site relating to Kindle and Kindle help is true. I don’t use enough. It is great and probably the very first and best place for help on Kindle related information.

10. Blogging with Amy. If you click the link it will take you to a series of blogs/articles that she has written on how to get started with ebooks. They are very good. A great place to start.

11. Visit Buxton. Another site that has nothing to do with writing, but the town gave me the best childhood I could ever wish for.

12. The Ebook Reader. Similar to Teleread. Very informative on technology issues.

I think that’s it.

Thanks again.

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Kobo Writing Life nearly here

Ian S. Rutter — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:39:27 +0000

Kobo gives more options to e-publishers

Hello and what a sunny day it is, well soon will be for all indie publishers as there is going to be a new kid on the block.

Kobo who has been making inroads within the ebook industry is rolling out their own self publishing system and should be fully operational by the end of June 2012.

Here is what Kobo say on their website.

Kobo Writing Life is where it all begins

Do you have a story to tell? Are you an author with a bestseller just waiting to be discovered? Want to reach out to millions of readers in over 170 countries? Do you own the digital rights to your work?

Then have we got the tool for you. Kobo Writing Life is the one-stop, do-it-yourself publishing portal.

How’s it work?

Bring us your Word documents, your Mobi files, your Text files! We’ll run your manuscript through our advanced open-source conversion process, transforming it into an ePub in a snap so it’s ready for instant publication to hoards of Kobo readers.

Read Freely? Write freely, too!

Unlike some self-publishing portals we could mention, Kobo doesn’t bind you to us. Publish to Kobo and take your ePub to your adoring fans, no matter where they might be. You’re free to sell your eBook the way you want.

From your computer to the world

Set up your free Kobo Writing Life account and start publishing right away. You won’t have to wait long for the accolades (and royalties) to start pouring in! Kobo Writing Life is launching soon. If you sign up now, you’ll be the first to know and get your eBooks out!

Isn’t that lovely! In my book and if they are truly open, transparent and really keen for success, then I am really excited about this. As a new writer and indie publisher the more publishing systems that make it easier for us to publish the better.

I have gripes about Smashwords. I have finished with Amazon KDP programme and like it, don’t like it. (Will tell you why on an update from the Amazon articles)

Kobo has had 1,600 beta testers using the system to get it working first time before the official rollout and from what the testers had been reporting, things look good. If they do allow all manner or formats to be uploaded (Take note Smashwords) then converted to ePub, then that will take a lot of work of one’s hands.

Here is their site for the above. If you need any more information, sign up and they will send you news of when things are happening. You could also download their desktop app which is a good idea and use it for testing your ebooks before publishing.

Here is the download link.

I really do hope this works out and they become a new player in the publishing world of e-books. A little competition is great and if they are fair with publishers/writers then why can it not be a success. They have the hardware, they have the shop now they will have the publishing platform. Interesting all round system heading out way soon.

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Nominated and awarded Versatile Blogger Award

Ian S. Rutter — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 05:48:39 +0000

Hello everyone.

I just want to say how very happy I am that I have been awarded the Versatile Blogger award. Nominated by Diane Mae Robinson, author of the brilliant children’s book ‘Sir Princess Petra‘

If you ever want a great story for your children then go and get this. The images are wonderful. The story is wonderfully written, innocent, charming has some great lessons that children can learn and best of all even adults will love this.

A book length of about 70 pages there is no-way you can say ‘Oh, I’m too busy!‘ This is awesome story telling and you will do yourself an injustice not to get it.

So thank Diane for this. I thought I was alone in the world of blogging but this proves there are some who do read my stuff!

As a way of passing it forward (is that correct?) I will mention some blogs that I do feel are really good and I number them but not in number of importance.

1. Again, Diane Mae Robinson. Why? Because she is taking time to review other people’s books and that’s no easy thing to do as we are all busy. Her writing is truthful and there is always something to learn. I like that a lot.

2. Alison Pensy. One of the very first ebooks I decided to download when I first decided to publish mine. Her Custodian Novels are brilliant if you feel you want to get away from our world and read something about the world of fae. She must be doing something right as her first book, which is a free download has 57 positive Amazon reviews. You should see what they say also on Barnes & Noble.

3. David Gaughran. The ebook I paid for and downloaded was at Taipei International Airport flying to Manchester International Airport. As I was waiting to board I opened my Kindle, I saw on Amazon an ebook called ‘Let’s Get Digital‘ I bought it and 60 seconds later was reading it. Before I landed in Manchester I had finished the whole book and was ready with my new knowledge to make my own. This a great book and everything in it can and will help you out. I like what he posts on his blog. The latest news and how he is doing personally with indie publishing.

4. Paul Salvette. I bought his book on ebook formatting called ‘How To Format Your Ebook For Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, And Eeverything Else‘ after reading a section of it from an article that he wrote. This has been the bible at the side of my laptop when ever I get into any difficulties. One word to describe this book. Brilliant! It does everything the title says and more with some great explanations. It could of just been a small book on formatting only one format, but no. He gives you everything.

5. D.D. Scott of The Writers Guide to E-Publishing one the first blog I signed up for. Regular updates and news it’s a great resource for writers. D.D. Scott is a regular writer with a myriad of books under her belt. Well worth checking.

6. R. S. Charles blog is nice, bright and about mystery. I like a good mystery and the author is very good at writing mystery that take you into a situation that keeps you reading. Good stuff!

7. Kenn Crawford. Genius! There you go, enough said. Well, let me write some more. I came across this writer and podcaster around 2010. I first wanted to release my book as a podcast and he had kindly given me some tips through the brilliant podcast website Podiobooks.com Kenn really knows his stuff as he’s a sound engineer. His books are brilliant. I read a short story he wrote called ‘I, Daddy’ Thought is was great. His website is full of information and he is now recording podcasts for the very beginner of this amazing medium. You can find the new podcasts at ‘Podiorookie‘

8. Morgen Bailey. Kindly interviewed me and what an interview. Great questions that really got me to think about why I am writing and why I enjoy doing it. The interview is scheduled to be released on July 10th. She is a credit to all things writing and she has one heck of a interview list. Have a look. She’s always looking out more interviews. Contact her she will be happy to answer.

9. Derek J. Canyon. Another one of those blogs that I like to go to when I am doing some ebook formatting. He has a great blog about his Adventures in self publishing. Really great stuff and very easy reading. some real nuggets. He has a great list of books that he has published. (jealous!)

10. Joe Konrath. A ‘you see what you get’ blog and blogger. A newbie’s guide to self publishing is a straight down the middle blog that tells you how it is. He knows his stuff and some great articles and expressive thoughts on what he has written. Highly recommended.

11. Children’s Books and Reviews. It’s what it says on the tin. Great site. Let me quote from their site. “1. Books must have subjective appeal for a child, i.e., they must be enjoyable for the child to read. Factors that might make up the subjective appeal of a book include interesting themes, excellent illustrations, a compelling story, or humor. 2. Books must have developmental value for a child, i.e., they must support the healthy development of the child. Factors that might contribute to the developmental value of a book include creativity, educational merit (e.g., engagement of themes we want a child to learn about), edifying language, and the exemplification of excellent moral and aesthetic values.” What more can I say.

12. Dark Faerie Tales. Great image on the site. There’s interviews, reviews and events. A great site with plenty of stuff to keep you going. Check out the review section. Tons of stuff.

13. Ebook Reader. Great site for all new on hardware and software for ebooks. Reviews, some great How To guides, sales and links for free ebooks. It’s a great site to get the latest information on anything ebooks.

14. Free Book Spot. This is one of two that I love to visit for some free books. I love astronomy and this site a has a good selection for free books on that site.

15. The second of my free ebook sites. Project Gutenberg. Brilliant as they have been pioneers in the development of ebooks since the idea was first though of.

I’m suppose to write 7 things about myself according to the rules.

1. Don’t watch much television. No real chance with three kids. I read a lot. I mean a lot from different genres.

2. I’m from England. I live in Taiwan. I have a brother and sister. My sister lives in Australia.

3. I also write horror. The horror book I am working on now is a semi-biographical account of my time living in a haunted house with three ghosts. That was fun! really, it was.

4. When I was about 9 I would always daydream and that got me into some serious trouble at school. I would think about fantasy all the time. “Get your head out of the clouds, Rutter!” was the favourite phrase from my teacher, then “get your backside to the front of the class” was another!

5. I’ve met and had a chat with the President of Taiwan, Mr Ma. He has great English skills. And Alex Do, he’s a Taiwanese singer. Nice guy.

6. I am a ‘learn how to do it and do it all yourself’ kind of freak. When it comes to everything. I just love to know how things happen and learn how to do it.

7. I love this one. When I was 24 I applied for The Princess Youth Trust for a business loan. My idea and business plan was to start up an Internet company helping business get online. This is when Kodak brought out the DC-120. The first 1 megapixel cameras the were about £1000 each. My application was rejected on the grounds that “the Internet is a fad and won’t last more than 5 years” I guess they got that right.

Hope that helps

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How to make an ebook CSS shortcut

Ian S. Rutter — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:09:38 +0000

How to make an ebook – shortcut codes

Hello and I do hope you have enjoyed the 5 part series How to make an ebook. I certainly have enjoyed making it.

In part 5, I promised some short cuts in the CSS code. I’m going to show you one short. (Just one!) This short cut will prove invaluable as it will save you a lot of time and effort when adding your code. I don’t want to bog you down with too much code, as this is probably the first time you have really used code on anything computer related.

With this short cut save you time and effort, but also will add less code to your manuscript. In the end, you will have a much cleaner code based manuscript.

Why am I giving you the short cut now? I believe that to fully appreciate and understand how the short cut works, you first needed to know the long drawn out way of coding. Line by line. In essence, a proven way that worked.

Now you will have a new way that is just as good and easy, and importantly, works!

Let’s get coding.

I am presuming now that you have example-code-v5.html and it’s open in your HTML editor of choice. If you want, you can download example-code-v6.html It has the new code added.

For this short cut example, I am going to use Coffeecup. Why? Because you should be competent enough to use any light weight HTML editor that you open, recognise the CSS code that’s been added to your manuscript and be able to add this short cut to it. Also, as I show this on the video, Coffeecup has the live preview, so what changes I make on the code, you will see on the preview window at the same time.

If you want me to show you using KompoZer, then I’ll be happy to, but for now, I will use Coffeecup.

Look at the code below – Remember it?

p.indent
{
text-indent: 1.25em;
line-height:130%;
margin-bottom: 0.2em;
}

This is part of the list of CSS p.classes you created. We are going to change the p.indent class. I want you to delete p and replace with div (Div again?)

Is should look like this:

div.indent
{
text-indent: 1.25em;
line-height:130%;
margin-bottom: 0.2em;
}

Nothing else, just that.

When you do that all your indents will disappear. (Are you MAD!) I hear you say. All that coding screwed up! That’s why you have only done five short chapters.

Then, everywhere you have placed

Delete it and only keep

. Nothing else. At the moment you will have no indents.

This short code change is pretty powerful when used on a large scale project. Let me explain what we are doing.

By using another

tag, it allows us to encompass a whole section of text until we close it with

. Can you see what it will do. By enclosing everything with one line of code, all new lines are then indented. ( Hang on, where do we put the code? ) Excellent question!

We put at the beginning of the chapter section.

Example:

– ( Chapter Section )

- ( New Div Class )

The age of magic and mysticism was believable at one time. Humans and Faeries were friends, and England was in a time when folklore, myths and legends were born from great acts of chivalry. Knights were abundant and the King was respected by both his subordinates and the animals of the land.

At that time, certain myths were true such as faeries, and they had been around longer than anyone could remember. Humans and myths lived together side by side in harmony. As both groups lived off the land, both helped each other.

The faeries protected the domestic animals and the harvest, and humans were very careful as to what was cut down from the woodlands. For England, it was a very prosperous period in time, until something started to stir.

– ( End with Closed Div Tag )

– ( Page Break )

- ( End of Section )

We have deleted all

and just kept

Again, by opening with

anything before

is acted upon. It gives any enclosed text a style that you want, in this case, an indent on every paragraph.

We used this same principle when we changed the poem text to italics.

That’s it.

You will see a difference in how much less code you will need and how much cleaner it looks.

This has been a very short tutorial. I wish you all the best.

Enjoy.

Download HD version of the video ( right click, save as… )

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How to make an ebook pt 5

Ian S. Rutter — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:36:01 +0000

How to make an ebook pt 5

How to make an ebook pt 5 – Clickable Table of Contents – Navigation within an ebook – A map of your ebook at your fingertips.

If you need to recap, then click on the links to go back Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4.

Part 5 has to be the most exciting part of all the tutorials for me personally. (I do get excited over silly things!)

Holding back my language, it really gets up my nose when I find out after purchasing an ebook, that it has no clickable Table of Contents. Does not even have a TOC, to me that’s a cardinal sin.

We all like to know how many chapters, how far we are in a book, how much more to go. We all do it. The TOC helps us, it relaxes us, it answers questions for us. Not to have one, well it would never sell in a traditional book shop.

Let’s not waste time, let’s get on.

TOC, here we come!!!

Before we dive right in, I want us to think about adding a proper Copyright Notice. Remember, at the beginning of How to make an ebook pt 2, we added a very short version of our copyright notice.

Fig 14. KompoZer Copyright Notice – short version

Now, we are going to add the longer version. The proper one that you have for your ebook. I will show you mine (If you show me yours – sorry just had to write that in)

Here it is:

Fig 37. Copyright Notice Full Version

Click on the image to make it bigger

My Website

My email

The Faeries of Birchover Wood Book 1 The Bad

These stories are works of fiction.

Names, characters and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. The places mentioned are entirely real and have been used with great respect.

Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

IMPORTANT: You have my permission to reproduce and/or transmit in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical.

Cover art by Ian S. Rutter

Images on chapters: 2, 6, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 and on the Extra section, created by Ian S. Rutter.

The rest are clipart.

Cover art by Ian S. Rutter

Edited by Ian S. Rutter with contributions from Hilary Johnson Author’s Advisory service

That’s my Copyright notice. Simple, gives a lot a way, but I am happy with that. You must alter it according to what you want.

After that, we can now concentrate on the Table of Contents!!

NOTE: After this tutorial, I will have a couple of short cut codes that will help you massively, in both time and in the finger ache department! More later on (You will probably kill me after you find out)

Clickable Table of Contents – in my book (No pun intended) very important for any ebook. It only takes a little planning, a little work but will produce a great feature in your ebook that will satisfy your reader.

This is my Table of Contents.

Fig 38. Table of Contents

Click on the image to make it bigger

(I know, it’s a monster!) Yours does not have to be that big. I just wanted to give a lot away in my first ebook ‘The Faeries of Birchover Wood’

I have added some information such as the history of the area that my book is based in. Some photographs. A preview of book 2. Author’s notes. Dedication page and my Copyright Notice at the end.

You can add anything into your ebook, as much or as little as you want. The rules that you have learn’t from these tutorials all apply.

Let me show you how it’s done.

Remember the

tag? This is what helps create the above table, but we need a little more coding before we get the results.

Let’s say that you have finished the five chapters from example-code-v4.html. And you are at the end of the last line of code and the your cursor is flashing, waiting to do something. We need to add this.

At the very of your last line of code -

Fig 39. Ch 5 Text

I want you to add this:

Table of Contents

The Faeries of Birchover Wood

Ch 5 – Myths, Legends and Folklore’s Celebration

Below the code is:

Fig 40. Table of Contents code

THE END!!

That’s it. No fireworks! No ‘going out all guns blazing! (A bit of an anti-climax.)

Let me explain what is happening.

Again, you have created a Section

Then we have added Table of Contents within a p class heading. So this will be a standard heading, centred.

Table of Contents

is centred

Here comes the really clever part.

Remember when I told you to remember the exact spelling of your id chapter names, eg. title-page, poem-the-magic-never-dies.

I said that they link to the TOC. This is where we link them.

So to link the title-page we need to create a clickable link or hyper-link.

< a href=” ( This tells the browser that it needs to be a clickable link. ) # ( This helps to link your chapters ) title-page ( div id ) “>The Faeries of Birhcover Wood ( The actual text that will be clickable ) ( Close the string of code )

( Close the p tag )

That has created a clickable link. On the Table of Contents you will see The Faeries of Birchover Wood. You move your cursor to it, click, and you will be taken to the Page-Title.

Fig 15. Book Title

Can you see how it works? It’s simple, sweet and very powerful. It creates Navigation within your ebook. Awesome!

Kindle Table of Contents & Progress Bar

There is very little coding. The reason is that you have been building it up, by adding chapters and giving them names using

. You really have saved yourself a huge job and taken the hassle of going through your chapters later on.

I had example-code-v5.html checked by http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_upload and the result came back as error free.

HTML Validated – W3C Standard

Click on image to make it bigger

Also, the CSS code has been validated.

CSS Validated

Click on image to make it bigger

This first video is adding your Copyright Notice. How to make an ebook part 5a – I had to split the video in two parts.

This second video shows you how to add the clickable Table of Contents. Then we test it in the KomoZer’s Preview window, and then in Google Chrome Web Browser.

If you want to read any of the other parts then click the respective link. Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Here is Example-code-v5.html. ( Right click… ) It has all the code from V1 plus the Full Version of my copyright notice, and the clickable content code.

Links to download the HD versions of the videos – Part 5a and Part 5b.

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How to make an ebook pt 4

Ian S. Rutter — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:53:54 +0000

How to make an ebook pt 4

How to make an ebook pt 4 – Chapter 1 The Beginning (Well, not really but it is Chapter Time!!)

I can’t believe how far we have gotten through these tutorials. (My fingers are bleeding!) I hope you have been seeing the results from following the ‘How to make an ebook’ tutorials.

If you need to recap, then click on the links to go back Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3. Or you can go to Part 5.

You are now creating an ebook. It will soon be time to add the important clickable Table of Contents. It will help all readers get to each chapter from a click of a link in your TOC.

Today, we are going to start adding in your ‘Chapters‘. Yesterday, we covered how we can add indents to every paragraph. I showed you how with the p.indent class, a very simple and very effective way of adding any size indent to every paragraph. Yes, you could leave it to the ‘Automated Formatting’ systems that Amazon and Smashwords use. No-matter how good they are, they are still prone to formatting errors.

I was reading an ebook last week (Author name and name of the book is kept secret to protect the person’s identity) and good as the story was, every few pages in, you would see ugly, and I mean UGLY! Indents. They were all over the place. Some would be the lovely 1.5em from left to right, then you would get a whole block of text 10em across. Not good.

I sent the author a message via Facebook. He kindly told me that he used the Amazon automated formatting system and just couldn’t solve that issue. Personally, I think it was hidden formatting within the .doc that hadn’t been cleaned out. When he submitted it to Amazon, he got ugly formatting.

I sent him a written guide, just as I am doing for you, I hope he sorts the issues out.

Lets get ‘Chaptering!’

We have added: In example-code-v3.html ( right click, save as… )

Book Title and Author (Author Section)

Poem Image (If you wanted to – an option – Poem Image Section )

Poem (Option Poem Section)

Excellent! That is a lot, especially if you have never done this before, or have thought about it but the coding has scared you off! Not any more.

Now, we are going to add the Chapter code. – Remember, to change my chapter names or headings to the names that correspond to your book. I’ll show you in the video.

Fig 22. Ch1 Section

Fig 22. Shows you the code that I have used to add the chapter heading, image and a sub-heading.

For my book, I wanted something that looked a little different and like a physical book. (If you can do that in the digital world)

I chose for the chapter heading ‘ 1 ‘ below that is the image, then below the image is the name of the chapter ‘ - Hungry - ‘

It’s the same as when we did the Poem Section, except we have added an extra line, the name of the chapter.

Here is the code:

- HUNGRY -

Look at the code. Again, we start off with and end with Do you see the

That chapter01 links to the TOC.

We have different p.class called chapter. What does it do? Look on the CSS coding.

p.chapter ( class name )
{
text-indent: 0em; ( no indent )
font-weight: normal; ( standard font )
font-size: 1.2em; ( slightly bigger font, but only by .2em )
margin-top:1em;
margin-bottom:2em;
text-align: center; ( centered )
}

So, from adding just that short piece of code, a lot happens to the chapter number ‘ 1 ‘

We have added an image, just the same way we did yesterday. The only thing different is the name of the image.

The name of the chapter ‘ Hungry ‘ We use another class called p.heading.

p.heading
{
text-indent: 0em;
font-weight: normal;
font-size: 1.5em;
margin-top:1em;
margin-bottom:2em;
text-align: center;
}

This is the same as p.chapter, but for the font-size. It’s bigger. That’s why I created this new class.

I called it p.heading, because when I use it, I know it is for the chapter name. If I wanted to, I could of called it p.chapterheading. As long as you know what they do, you can call the classes anything you want.

The result is this:

Fig 23. Chapter 1 – Hungry – image

Don’t be scared!

So that is the first image for Chapter 1 – Hungry - You don’t have to have the image. You just delete that line of code. It’s then gone.

Now for the story section.

Story Section Ch 1

The sky was covered in a carpet of brilliant blue stretching as far as the eye could see, not even a cloud to break the perfect covering. All was peaceful in the sky but on the ground, it was a different story.

The land was covered in lush sweet, green grass, and soft to the touch. Each blade of grass gently swayed as the invisible stroking hand of a breeze tickled it.

Cows were grazing, chewing the grass like it was the best thing they had ever eaten. The sound of ripping, and then the crunching of grass between teeth was being carried by the wind. All the cows were content with their free meal unaware that something was lurking close by.

We start off with the name of the section then

(We know what that does)

Have you noticed anything? I added the

on top of the paragraph and the

at the end. Now, I fully recommend that if you add the indent class at the beginning of the paragraph, you keep doing that all the way through your manuscript.

If you add it like I have shown you, you keep doing that. We are not just practising coding, but clean coding.

I just wanted to show you that it doesn’t matter if it’s at the side or on top. As long as you close with

That also, can be at the end or underneath the paragraph.

My recommendation is;

at the beginning.

at the end.

on top.

underneath.

Start with one and stick to that style of coding. It just keeps the code looking neat and tidy.

I end the chapter with a

and

Here is the result.

Fig 24. Chapter 1 text

You can click the image to make it bigger.

Now, my own chapter is a lot longer than that, but as long as you remember at the end of your last paragraph of the chapter, you end it with

then pagebreak and

We continue.

Chapter 2 Section

Fig 25. Chapter 2 Section

- SIGHTINGS -

The result is this:

Fig 26. Chapter 2 – Sightings – image

Story Section Ch 2

Fig 27. Chapter 2 text

Click on the image to see it bigger.

Chapter 3 Section

Fig 28. Ch 3 Section

- THE MEETING -

The result is:

Fig 29. Chapter 3 – The Meeting – image

Story Section Ch 3

Something had to be done, and it was apparent that the normal tactics for battle would be useless, especially when one of the King’s knights came back, looking like a skeleton still attached to his horse. That was a sign that the Bad was indeed powerful, for if it could defeat a knight blessed by God, then the King needed God like powers to defeat the Bad.

The King knew about the mythical beasts that dwelt upon the land. He knew that the beast that was causing havoc was no ordinary beast, and to face it, the King would need special knowledge on how to defeat it. He called upon the enchanted beasts of the land and all answered his cry for help.

Faeries, Boggarts, shape shifting goblins called Brags. Derricks the size of dwarfs. Knockers, mine spirits from Cornwall. Swamp dragons called Knuckers, and many others that had to be seen to be believed. The King was moved and humbled by what had gathered outside his court yard.

Fig 30. Chapter 3 Section

Click on the image to make it bigger.

Chapter 4 Section

Fig 31. Ch 4 Section

- THE BATTLE -

Fig 32. Chapter 4 – The Battle – image

Story Section Ch 4

For a few days the vast army of men and myths walked on. Everyone and everything had one thing on their mind, the survival of its kind against an enemy that had proved to be very elusive. Every so often, scouts would be sent out and ordered to be back by a certain time, to report on any unusual activities or sightings.

Four groups of men were selected. Each group having four men. Each of the groups were sent in a Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern direction. They had the fastest horses, and to not slow the horses down, they rode with very little protection, only carrying a sword and the emblem of the King on the chest plate of their uniform. Each group also had a Peregrine Falcon flying with them. Every rider knew what to do if he spotted the beast.

The group was to make a positive sighting, then tag the falcon with a message stipulating the exact location of the beast at that time. Then two men would trail the beast, while the other two of the group, would gallop as fast as they could back to the King, making sure the message was delivered. Once they had met up with the King’s army, they would direct the army to the last known location of the beast.

Fig 33. Chapter 4 Section

Click on the image to make it bigger.

Chapter 5 Section

Fig 34. Chapter 5 Section

- MYTHS, LEGENDS & FOLKLORE’S CELEBRATION -

Fig 35. Chapter 5 – Myths, Legends & Folklore’s Celebration – image

Story Section Ch 5

After the victory, all the King’s soldiers and the mythical creatures celebrated the victory with a banquet that lasted three days. Everything was back to normal, with the Bad vanquished.

The King stood up, and spoke to the victorious.

”My friends,” everyone went quiet, “we have stood on the verge of defeat. Faced a terrible enemy that seemed to be invincible. In the end, all things that are good prevailed. It is the goodness that should be honoured here today.”

Fig 36. Chapter 5 section

Click on the image to make it bigger.

This will complete a five chapter article, That should give you a good visual example of how the code works.

Continue this until you have completed adding the code to all your manuscript.

At the end of you last chapter, remember to finish of with:

The next article will deal with the

and creating that all important clickable Table of Contents.

All images are for you to download – Click on the links to download each one separately, or click the zip link for all of them.

Right Click, Save As…

Image – 1.the-bad.jpg

Image – 2.catapult.jpg

Image – 3.castle.jpg

Image – 4.knight.jpg

Image – 5.tankard.jpg

Images in Zip File.

If you need to recap, then click on the links to go back Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3. Or jump to Part 5.

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How to make an ebook pt 3

Ian S. Rutter — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:27:35 +0000

How to make an ebook pt 3

How to make an ebook pt 3 – Now we are going to get our hands dirty cracking our fingers on the code.

Click any of these links to go back to How to make an ebook part 1 and part 2. Both have videos of the articles at the end of each page. Or you can watch part 4 and part 5.

By now, you will have KompoZer downloaded and installed on to your desktop, and example-code-v2.html (Right click and save) We are going to build up on the free ebook template, so that at the end of these tutorials you have a fully formatted manuscript ready to convert to ebook.

Like before, I will provide all the code that we are dealing with on a new file called (Wait for it!) example-code-v3.html (My naming skill is so professional and original!) That will be provided later.

Now, let’s start coding.

I just want to point one thing out. As I am using my own manuscript as an example you will see everything relating to how I formatted my manuscript. At the beginning I have a poem, then after that I start off with Chapter One – Hungry.

With the poem there is nothing different from the other chapters, only that it has no ’Chapter Class’. You will see what I mean.

Open up your example-code-v2.html in KompoZer. Click on the Source tab of KompoZer and scroll down to the bottom of the code.

Fig 16. Copyright Section in KompoZer HTML editor

On Fig 16. You can see at the end of Line code 79 we drop down a line to line code 81.

On line 81, put your cursor there so it’s flashing. We are doing this so we can see clearly where the code will be added.

Unfortunately, when it comes to saving, KompoZer has a terrible habbit of deleting all the spaces we will put in. So when you go back, the spaces between Line code 80 and 81 will probably disappear. This also happens when you use Preview.

Coffeecup keeps everything very neat. If you had a space between Line codes, it keeps the space. (Show you Coffeecup later on – Let’s just keep to KompoZer)

New Section

Fig 17. New Section – Poem

Add this code.

- THE MAGIC NEVER ENDS -

Most of the mistakes are made when one has forgotten to close the code. Don’t forget to add at the end.

Either cut and paste the code, or be a dare devil and type it in. That way you will understand the structure more.

After Line 81, I ended up adding a space, just wanted to break the code so you can see more clearly, you can keep it in if you want.

Line 84 we have the

tag we have the id to tell us what the id TOC clickable link is called – Again, it can be called anything you want, but it MUST match exactly the same name when we come to creating the TOC file.

Notice the id name has the dash - replacing spaces. If you want a space, you have to use the dash sign -

Line 85 is the class heading> If you scroll to the CSS code and look for p.heading you will see what is going to happen.

p.heading
{
text-indent: 0em; ( no indent )
font-weight: normal; ( normal standard font )
font-size: 1.5em; ( font size slightly larger than standard font size )
margin-top:1em;
margin-bottom:2em;
text-align: center; ( centered )
}

Again, you only have to add p.heading. The eReader will do the hard work and make sure the heading is size 1.5 and centered. (Easy!)

As I am not adding multiple classes, just encase the heading in speech marks ‘ “ ’ on its own. If I wanted to add another class on the same line, I would have separated the classes by using a space. Before the > ( greater than ) bracket.

I have added the name of my poem – THE MAGIC NEVER ENDS – Closed with
Very Important

Line 86. Close using

tag. Very important.

Line 88 has the p.center class, then a greater than bracket. I then use a greater than bracket > To close the class, and add code to indicate an image.

This is very important when adding images.

All my images are in the same folder as my html document. When it comes to previewing, the browser or HTML editor will look within the folder where example-code-v3.html is saved. If you have the name of the image ‘poem-tree.jpg’ in the same folder as example-code-v3.html, then the browser will display that image. If you have the images in a different location, you will have to type in exactly that location, so the browser or HTML editor can search for it.

Example.

Folder name TEST. Inside this folder is example-code-v3.html. Also, there is another folder (sub-folder) called images. This is where you store all the images. You will have to change the code to tell the HTML editor to look in the folder images. How do we do this, this is what you will have to type.

image/poem-tree.jpg” alt=”poem tree” />

You just add the name of the folder ‘images‘ separated with a forward slash ‘/‘ then the name of the image, in my case, ’poem-tree.jpg‘

Notice, that at the end of the /> there is no

Also, you have the alt= this helps with searches and SEO. If you have a name that corrosponds with the image you use, then that can help with people searching for your information.

We then finish the section with of with Preview in it in the Preview Tab.

Fig 18. Poem image in Preview Mode

The code above will tell KompoZer Editor in Preview mode, to look inside images folder for the image poem-tree.jpg

Fig 19. Folder – File Structure

A visual way to look at this is shown in Fig 19. You have TEST ( Main Folder ) example-code-v3.html ( file ) images ( sub-folder )

We are now going to create a New Section for the Poem text. This section could also be for your first chapter.

I am going to show you a small portion of the poem text here, but I will provide it all on the example-code-v3.html.

First, the new code.

As I sat amongst the trees one day, my eyes were drawn to things that swayed amongst the boughs and leaves. I saw flitting from tree to tree, little bodies with wings that moved so fast the human eyes could not catch.

As I looked a ball of mist appeared as if a meeting had occurred. And in a flash it flew away to hide behind the boughs and leaves that kept all of them safe.

I stared, three little beings came floating down to search me out upon the ground. I felt no fear just a calmness all around, and then a canopy of light covered the ground.

Fig 20. Poem text code

Click on the image to see a bigger image.

I know what you are thinking, it looks scary, but take a close look at it and you will see that one line of code has been repeated over and over again.

Let me tell you what is going on.

You understand now the Section It keeps things in order. Instead of one great big file of continuous line of code, this breaks the manuscript into easy readable sections. Great!

This tells everything below it that I want all the text in italics. Everything in-between

and

. Yes, well spotted! It is a

tag, but because it doesn’t have id associated with it, it won’t be attached to the TOC.

The

tag in this case helps us define a section of text, so that it will group ( the poem text ) to format it with the italic style. (Awesome!)

< class=”indent”> This is probably going to be the most repeated line of code in the whole of your manuscript. What does it do?

It simply makes a nice indent on the first line of your paragraph. Look at the CSS code and see how far out the indent goes. 1.25em. Usually, indents in ebooks are between 1.25 and 1.50. Change the numbers and you will see a difference.

Also, I have made the gaps between each line slightly wider. Line-Height. I just didn’t like the standard gaps.

Look at the CSS code.

p.indent
{
text-indent: 1.25em; ( how far from the left margin )
line-height:130%; ( how much gap between each line )
margin-bottom: 0.2em;
}

Always finishe each paragraph with

I then finished the Poem text with

That tells the document that you have finished with italics.

Add

For a new page on the ebook.

And So we know that we have finished with the Poem section of the book.

Fig 21. Poem in KompoZer Preview window

Click on image for a larger image.

It looks difficult when you just look at the code. But once the explanation is added, you can see how each small bit of code adds to the overall formatting and look of your manuscript.

I hope you have enjoyed how to make an ebook part 3. In part 4, I will show you how to create the Chapter sections, and more links that will help you create a clickable Table of Contents.

If you would like, click on these links for the other parts of the tutorials. As promised, here is example-code-v3.html. (right click mouse, and save as ) This has all the code and text including the whole poem. Download the Poem-image. ( right click, Save As… )

Save it to a place you can easily find, and remeber to change the location of the image in image/poem-tree.jpg” alt=”poem tree” />

How to make an ebook part 1 – part 2

This next video was actually on the end of part 3. Due to Youtube having a 15min limit, it had to be cut. (now I feel like a directorr!)

It’s a quick Coffeecup Review.

Return from How to make and ebook part 3 to Let’s Get E-Publish

Download Part 3 HD and Coffeecup HD ( right click, Save As… )

Article by Ian S. Rutter

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How to make an ebook pt 2

Ian S. Rutter — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:21:13 +0000

eBook Reader Code

How to make an ebook pt 2 – The fun part begins – formatting the way you want it to look.

A continuation from part 1 How to make an ebook. As with that, this will have images and a video to show you what you need to do, to get the look you want for your formatted manuscript. If you want here are the links for part 3, part 4 and part 5.

To convert to ebook takes certain repeated steps throughout your manuscript. Each step is small and quick to do. They will have a major impact on the look and style of your manuscript.

After adding your manuscript and then repeating certain pieces of code, the next step will be to convert books to kindle (MOBI) or ePub or any other format you want it to be. The great thing about converting your manuscript to ebook, is once you have the code in place, you can convert your book to as many formats as your want, as many times as you want. I will show you how to do that in a later tutorial.

First, we need to start adding code to the example-code.html file. If you haven’t already got the code, please right click on the link example-code.html and save it to a location you can find it when you need it. Also, if you haven’t done so, please download either KompoZer free HTML editor or Coffecup HTML editor, it’s $49, but you can first download a 30 day trial version. I will show you the difference between the two later on.

Let’s get cracking and coding!

I presume that you have now downloaded KompoZer or Coffeecup and you have them open with the example-code.html file, open. (If not, then go and watch the video on pt1 How to make an ebook – It’s important!) Great!

Now, I am going to use my ebook – The Faeries of Birchover Wood, as the example manuscript. You will just replace my example manuscript with your own. Everything I do is what you will do on your manuscript, if you want. The only real difference is the manuscript. Remember, you might not want to use all the code that I use, but it’s there if you want it.

I’m going to first talk to you about the different parts of the CSS code.

You will see that there are sections that look like this: p.center p.chapter p.copyright. each one is called a ‘Class selector’. For this tutorial, we can call them Class Headings or Class Titles for code. Each ‘Title’ has some code underneath. { that means Open and } means Close. Anything inbetween will only be associated with that ‘Class Title’

So when you use that section of code, an eReader will know what to display and how to display your section of text.

Let me show you.

When you have added chapter of your manuscript to the HTML editor, you will want it to look a certain away. The chapter will have a Chapter Heading or Chapter Title.

To have that chapter heading centered, you will add this: p.center

Following that would be the name of your chapter example Chapter 1 – The beginning. When viewing it, on either the preview of the HTML editor or on an eReader, you will see ‘Chapter 1 – The Beginning‘ centered.

Why? Because adding p.center (title code) tells the eReader to look at the CSS code p.center and it sees that within { and } center means the text is aligned – center, and it is not to be indented

p.center (title code)
{ (open)
text-indent: 0em; (no indent)
text-align: center; (center alignment)
} (close)

Fig 11. KompoZer Author Code

Fig 11. Question – Where do we put the Class Title? (I beat you to it)

Just before your write ‘Chapter 1 – The Beginning’ or whatever the name of your chapter will be.

Let us do this now.

Because I have an ‘Author section’ After my Table of Contents (That starts to get built automatically as you add more code – I’ll explain as I go along) That come first. It doesn’t have to, but it helps if you are giving a sample of your story away for free.

You see firts:

The tells the eReader to ignore it. They are comments for the programmer or person who is coding used as reminders. I use it to tell me what section I am coding. This is the Author section. Remember to close it –>

Drops down or breaks the line or text. New line.

This is very cool. This is the start of your properly formatted Table of Contents. It’s very important. Please, on a piece of paper write down title-page as you will need this later and it changes on every section we do. On an eReader, if you have a clickable TOC, then if you click on Author (title-page) it will take you to the Author section of my book.

You don’t have to call it title-page. You can call it whatever you like, but you must remember what it is and what it is associated with, as later on, you will need to duplicate it for the clickable section of the TOC. Also, don’t have gaps or space, use - if you want a gap or space between words. No numbers, either.

Next,
There are actually two Class headings. Center and Title. (Yes, you can add multiple Class headings together – separate them by using a space.)

Can you see, by only adding
The browser or e-Reader goes to the Class Heading and knows how to display the text (Brilliant!!)

In this case, I have ‘The Faeries of Birchover Wood’ centered and ‘title‘ makes it a slightly bigger font ‘1.5em‘ We use ‘em‘ for font size in CSS. You can change the number to any number you wish. The bigger the number, the bigger size font you will get. Experiment.

Next we have
That means to close that code off. At the beginning we use now we use
the / closes it.

Underneath, we have
Again, we are closing the
tag as ‘The Faeries of Birchover Wood‘ is what will be seen on the Table of Contents. You will click it and it will take you to the Authors page.

After that, we repeat the
code. We then finish off by adding Now you have completed your first section of your eBook. Congratulations! Even better, we can preview this as well.

Fig 12. Kompozer-Preview-Tab

Fig 12. On KompoZer, you are on the Source tab, next to it you have the Preview Tab, click it and you will see the Title of your Book proudly displayed in an extra large font and centered and spaced evenly. (Beautiful!)

Fig 13. KompoZer-Preview Book Title

Fig 13. Shows you the end result. Again, if you have changed the text to what the name of your book is, then you will see it with your book details, not mine.

Now we will deal with some more code.

Fig 14. KompoZer Copyright Code

Fig 14. Same again, repeating the same code, but we are going to add the short version of our copyright notice. The long one will go at the end of your book. Why? Again, if you are giving a sample on Amazon, and I’m only talking from experience with Amazon, they allow readers to download 10% of your story.

I would want the reader to have a good 10% filled with story, not fluff. The full Copyright Notice can go at the end of the eBook. There has been too many times I have downloaded a sample, only to find a lot of fluff, yes important fluff, but still fluff that can go to back of the eBook, that has taken up a lot of that precious 10%.

Again, multiple Class Headings. Center and Copyright. Copyright is a smaller font than your book title.

Something slightly different. we have the Page Break. Goes without saying. The equivalent of coming to then of a page and turning it over.

This short version will go onto the Book Title Page. In effect you are using as much space on a digital eBook page to get what would normally be two pages of information on a physical book. (Remember that 10%) Anything before a Page Break will be together.

Now, again Preview what you have done. You should see something like this:

Fig 14. KompoZer Copyright Code

Hope you have liked it so far. Here is the link example-code-v2.html Right Click and Save as. This has what we have complete so far. I am going to finish now, as I think it may be a lot to take in. I will add a video to this as well.

Download Part 2 HD Version

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Article by Ian S. Rutter

Ian S. Rutter is an indie publisher of a children’s book called ‘The Faeries of Birchover Wood’ He is writing the sequel, a short story and a horror novel. For fun he spends time with his three children and his wife. He loves reading, drawing, walking and daydreaming.

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