One of the new changes to InDesign CC is an innocuous checkbox at the bottom of the Table of Contents dialog box for: Make text anchor in source paragraph. What this does is make sure that any TOC has functional links in the exported ePUB. As Ron Bilodeau commented, “You can now have multiple ID-generated TOCs within your document(s) and they will all exist with correct links within your exported ePub file.” Now you can have custom … Continue reading →
It’s just a small opening, and it’s in California, but the news is good from DBW this morning. Some California library systems buying from Smashwords Coker seems to have the knack of being in the right place. That’s the main thing that keeps me in his world of restricted design capabilities. Getting two library systems to spring for $30,000 to buy Smashwords 10,000 best sellers looks really good. It remains to be seen if this builds into a … Continue reading →
Now I admit, I’m going on the words of others. I personally bailed on the Nook app and B&N a while ago. I am saddened by the troubles of the local B&N—it’s the only bookstore in town. I was hoping for viable competition to Amazon, but it is just not there. As they are stuck in a supposedly poor version of proprietary DRM, the smelly ears syndrome has got them in its clutches. I’m slightly hopeful that Riggio … Continue reading →
Most of you have probably read one of my rants about the difficulty and absurdity of producing finished books in Word. Except for Smashwords, where this is required, you should never use Word for final output. So, what are your options? Do it yourself or pay someone else There are several factors involved here. You need to carefully look at your needs and choose what works best for you. But the bottomline is certain. Sooner or later, … Continue reading →
No! You can’t do it in BBEdit or Word It all comes back to the print/ebook divide. That divide is only apparent to the book designers. For the readers, a book is a book. Ebooks are cheaper (or should be). Normal printed books are high resolution, typographic marvels. But to the reader, a book is a book. For authors, publishing only a print version or only an ebook version is worse than silly—it’s foolish. If you want … Continue reading →
Before I get started with the basics of formatting I need remind you about the goal: a beautiful book which is comfortable to read. You need a customized set of styles to enable you to keep your book consistent and give you global control over the entire book as you format. This is only possible if you first understand how to design paragraphs. I will help you through the basic set up of styles (to implement your … Continue reading →
This is the dialog box which opens when you choose New from the file menu or type Command+N. Many of the choices found in this dialog box are based on your experience. I’ll use my current choices, just so we can talk about the issues involved. The first choice is that I always start with print chosen as my intent. There are many reasons for this. But I can state it simply as I start out. Print … Continue reading →
The concept of on-demand publishing is simple The printer or distributor stores the book on their hard drive (server farm). It is printed or downloaded only after it is ordered and paid for. So, unless there is a demand, it is not printed or downloaded. Much like just-in-time manufacturing, your book is delivered upon demand. You upload the digital files: They are stored on the servers of the on-demand printer or ebook distributor. They print the document … Continue reading →
Producing a KF8 Kindle book Until very recently, I gave some very explicit instructions for the construction of the HTML and CSS needed to step back in time to Amazon’s MOBI format. It was extremely limited in what was allowed. Designers are rarely good coders, and writers even less so. InDesign is the best tool we have at present, but there’s still a long way to go until some of the typographic niceties we rely on in print … Continue reading →
There are many exciting things to be found in the new version of InDesign. But if you read carefully, most of them are focused on an unspecified future where ePUB3 and HTML5 /CSS3 are the normal standards of ebook publishing. They are not now. In fact, there is no ePUB3 reader in common use at this time. In fact, there is really nothing out there for readers of ePUB books. I love CS6. It makes excellent ePUBs. … Continue reading →