What Every Author Should Know about ePub
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| 1What Every Author Should Know about ePub
Presenter: Carolyn Jewel Bio: Carolyn Jewel was born on a moonless night. That darkness was seared into her soul and she became an award-winning author of historical and paranormal romance. She has a very dusty car and a Master’s degree in English that proves useful at the oddest times. An avid fan of fine chocolate, finer heroines, Bollywood films, and heroism in all forms, she has three cats and a dog. Also a son. One of the cats is his. She has written for publishers such as St. Martin’s Press, Harper-Collins, Berkley Books, and Grand Central Forever. She has been a RITA finalist in the Historical and Paranormal categories. In a past day job, she was a web developer. She is currently a Microsoft SQL Server DBA and Data Architect. She leads a team of offshore DBAs for a company with a presence in North America, Europe, and now expanding into Asia. She has written 25 novels, novellas, and short stories, and has self-published backlist as well as front list. Contact Carolyn: carolyn@carolynjewel.com Slides will be uploaded at my site, as will updates to the handouts. Go to this URL for the links to these documents:
Apple
Google Play Vendors that allow upload of an epub All Romance Amazon Kobo
Nook Smashwords XinXii
An epub is a zipped up file of many parts and is basically a tiny website unto itself. A working knowledge of html, css, and how to construct links between files (as you would on your own website) is essential. The Reality The reality is that every device or application that can read an ePub does so using a slightly different set of rules. This will drive you crazy. The Guts of an ePub It contains xml files that control how your book is navigated and understood by devices that can read an epub. It contains directories that may or may not contain files It contains the text of your book The html and references are case sensitive. The files are of these types (among others):
cover.jpg stylesheet (css) stylesheet.css hmtl chapter1.html xml content.opf Structure Top Level META-INF (folder) OEBPS (folder) mimetype (file) META-INF container.xml which contains among other things this line:
OEBPS
content.opf (xml file) lists the contents of your epub Text (folder) contains the text of your book, hopefully in more than one file. There is a limit to the size a file can be. (roughly 350K) Images (folder) Contains the images used Styles (folder) Contains your stylesheet toc.ncx (xml file) The epub reader needs to know what files are where and what they are named. Additional folders are/may be: Fonts
Audio Video
Misc Example: Suppose your book has 10 chapters and each chapter is a file Suppose Chapter 1 is named chapter1.html Then the path to that file is:
aka
../Text/chapter1.html ERROR:
../text/chapter1.html <– Note the lower case “t” in “text” The parts of your book need to reference each other. Every file with an image must reference the location and file name of the image. If you have a picture of a cupcake at the beginning of every chapter, then you must have an anchor link like this in every chapter: The actual image will be in the image folder. Resources Dublin Core and IDPF : IDPF: http://idpf.org/ The standards body that defines the elements, requirements, and usages for ePub. Although this is under revision, since these links are specifically for ePub2 they are exactly what you need at this point. However, if you are preparing ePub3, you should also consult those recommendations. ePub2, at the moment, is more than sufficient for just about all fiction. Dublin Core: http://www.dublincore.org Dubin Core specification: http://dublincore.org/specifications/ Dubin Core - The elements – This is where you will see the metadata definitions and how they are expected to be used, with examples. http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/elements.shtml Epub validators: Pagina – Mac and PC. Download and use on your desktop. A very nice tool. On line: This tool is nice. But if you are checking a lot (or often) you are better served with a downloadable tool. http://www.epubconversion.com/ePub-validator-iBook.jsp References: Hxa.name: ePub Format Construction Guide This is not necessarily comprehensive but it is meticulous and it gives good descriptions of the guts of ePub that most resources leave out. It also assumes a lot of knowledge. This workshop should help with that. http://www.hxa.name/articles/content/epub-guide_hxa7241_2007.html Kobo ePub documentation What Kobo support and what it does not. Crucial for DIYers. https://github.com/kobolabs/epub-spec Apple ePub documentation https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/9.0.0.13.7.2.7.9.3.1.2.3.3.1.5.4.1
All of them require an understanding of html and css Adobe Indesign with ePub plugin Pros: Can go from print layout to ePub, theoretically in one-click Cons: Not cheap. I have not seen clean output from InDesign.
Pros: Produces the best, cleanest output I’ve seen. Has an ePub addon. Cons: Windows only.
Pros: This is an excellent, valuable tool for checking your files for errors. Near Real time display of your ePub as you edit. Cons: Apple only. No point to it if you don’t also have a Mac and an iPad and/or iPhone.
Pros: Free. Still actively developed. Cons: This is NOT an ePub creation tool. I put it here because everyone uses it that way. But it’s not, and you are unlikely to get the result you need. If you use this tool, you should send a donation to the developer. Jutoh Pros: Inexpensive. Will convert Word Cons: Significant clean up required.
Pros: Inexpensive. Will convert Word Cons: Significant clean up required.
Pros: Comprehensive, flexible tool. Buy once, install wherever you need. Cons: Not cheap: $400 US with support. As with all flexible, fully featured tools, there is a steep learning curve.
Pros: Makes an Apple compatible ePub. Can use on iOS devices! Cons: Mac or iOS only. Sigil
Pros: Free. Does the job. Handles regular expressions. Pretty decent interface. Cons: No longer under development (still available and still one of the best tools out there). Internal validation should not be trusted. It will pass files that are not valid. A clean check means you can move on to external validation, though. Tip: If you have errors, NEVER allow Sigil to automatically fix. You will have to find and fix on your own. Scrivener: Pros: Easy if you work in Scrivener Cons: This is not an ePub editor. It will create one. It won’t be clean under the hood.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.
X6 and x7 - Excellent XML output. Requires minimal tweaking to get to html. Miscellaneous Tips
Some webservers are case sensitive so a file named : BestBookEver.epub Is NOT the same as bestbooKever.epub
MyFantasticBook.epub - original version You find a typo the next day. A. Make a copy of the original version and put it in a folder called Archive B. Rename the copy in the archive folder to MyFantasticBook_20140101.epub C. Make your corrections in MyFantasticBook.epub On February 15 you update your backmatter, fix another typo and address a problem in your css A. Make a copy of the original version and put it in a folder called Archive B. Rename the copy in the archive folder to MyFantasticBook_20140215.epub C. Make your corrections in MyFantasticBook.epub Why do I put the date like that? So it will sort correctly. But you can do whatever works for you. 3. If you customize your files by vendor, then your naming convention should address that as well. Example: BestBookEverAmz.epub BestBookEverNook.epub BestBookEverApple.epub BestBookEverKobk.epub BestBookEverGeneric.epub Etc. This will prevent you from uploading the Apple version to Amazon, for example Other tips: After the dot: epub should be all lower case. There are some tools out there that will throw an error with anything but lower case. RIGHT: mybook.epub WRONG: mybook.ePub
NOT GOOD: My Fantastic Book ~ 11.epub Camel Case helps with readability. Camel Case: ThisIsTheBestBookEver.epub Not Camel Case: thisisthegestbookever.epub 3. All caps is still shouting. Don’t do this. Directory: references references -> Version: 17 October 2016 references -> A mathematical theory of communication references -> Cu-In-Ga-Se (cigs) Outdoor Degradation Rate Study references -> References Abe, M., A. Kitoh and T. Yasunari, 2003: An evolution of the Asian summer monsoon associated with mountain uplift —Simulation with the mri atmosphere-ocean coupled gcm. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 81 references -> References Agusti-Panareda, A., C. D. Thorncroft, G. C. Craig, and S. L. Gray, 2003: The extratropi-cal transition of hurricane Irene (1999): a potential vorticity perspective. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 128 references -> Standard Specifications For Structural Supports for Highway Signs references -> Alexander, C. J., 2000. On Back-Testing "Zero-Investment" Strategies references -> References List (Updated: 8 January 2015) Bosart, L. F., and J. A. Bartlo, 1991: Tropical storm formation in a baroclinic environment. Mon. Wea. Rev., 191 references -> J. P. Morgan Securities European Equity Derivatives Research Investment Strategies n references -> 1/c submarine community professional knowledge learning Objectives Download 35.71 Kb. Share with your friends:
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