Authors need both Kindle and ePub versions

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If you’re an indie or self-published author, a Kindle version of your book is a top priority because Amazon sells a ginormous volume of books and nearly everybody you know has a Kindle or will get one for Christmas. An ePub version is important, too! Why is that?

The ePub file format has become the de facto standard for electronic books. Most other eReader devices now support ePub, which has rapidly supplanted a variety of proprietary formats that don’t play well together. The Kindle is the glaring exception. If you’re not convinced, see the growing list of ePub devices at Wikipedia and Adobe.

I have a Kindle New Generation, and after I saw the Color Nook, I bought one immediately. I do like the Kindle’s light weight, navigation buttons, and battery life, but I prefer the Nook for its backlit touchscreen, brilliant and clear color display, and support for ePubs that I buy from a variety of sources. If I can get a Nook book for a reasonable price, I get it at Barnes and Noble. When I do eBook conversions, I consider both formats equally important.

If you think I’m standing out in left field by myself, please read this article from a kindred spirit at ZdNet: EPUB: The Final Barrier For Kindle Adoption.

I think authors currently prefer to deal with Amazon because of the favorable royalty structure and customer service, but if they want to reach out to more readers, ePub is a must-have no-brainer, not a frivolous extra. That’s just my opinion, but as a fellow traveler with those who enjoy reading and are picky about how they do so, I think Amazon will have to support ePub in the future to keep its remarkable Kindle user base.

Word to ePub: 1 – Introduction

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Make your self-published books available to a wide audience by publishing to both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, and to Apple’s iBookstore if you can. Most popular eReaders support the ePub format. Amazon is the exception, but perhaps, not for long.

Note that iPad users can read Nook books from B&N and Kindle books from Amazon by installing their eReader applications.

Simply-formatted books may not need conversion

Before stepping into the abyss, be aware that authors are not required to convert their submissions from Word to ePub by Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! service. Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) system also accepts uploads of Word .doc (not .docx) files. Both B&N and Amazon accept Word, HTML, or text files. Authors who want more control over the results are free to upload an ePub file to B&N or a Mobi/PRC file to Amazon.

A glimmer of hope for ePub with Kindle: Kindlegen, Amazon’s dedicated ePub builder program, will take an ePub file as input and return a .mobi file. Since Kindlegen 1.1, source files are included in the .mobi package. Many of those source files are ePubs. Perhaps they are being archived for reuse as ePubs?

With consistent usage of Word’s default styles, results of a direct upload may be quite good. If the after-upload preview is horrifying, better results can be obtained by taking the time and care to produce an ePub file, or in Amazon’s case, a .mobi file produced from the ePub files, to kill two birds with one stone.

The best submission format

People who know HTML and CSS will get the nicest-looking results with fewest problems by building Kindle and ePub versions from a clean XHTML file based on Word’s Save As Filtered HTML output. More about that later.

The same clean XHTML file is the starting point for an ePub book and a .mobi file. It’s even possible to handcraft an ePub from scratch without using anything but a text editor, but I’ve grown to appreciate the simplicity and power of Sigil, a free ePub editor with time-saving features.

Calibre is a great conversion tool, not an editor, favored by many for creating Kindle and ePub files. I prefer Sigil for building ePubs or .mobi files because it’s a dedicated ePub editor with a transparent user interface and the results are excellent. I’ve also read that DRM-ed Kindle books that were originally created with Calibre may not work in Amazon’s eReader apps, but do not know if that is still true, since Calibre is updated frequently.

My procedure will not work for everyone. It’s merely what I have worked out for myself. In a nutshell, the steps to be covered are as follows:

  • Set Word options that will make the exported HTML file more easy to work with.
  • Export as Filtered HTML and clean up the file.
  • Review for problems and save an XTHML copy, along with a CSS stylesheet.
  • Edit the file in Sigil, an ePub editor that helps you add a cover, create metadata and a Table of Contents, and check your file for errors.
  • Save the file as an ePub and preview it on your Nook, Nook for PC, and/or Adobe Digital Editions.
  • Open the ePub file in Sigil and correct any spacing issues or other problems. Resave and preview again until you’re happy with the look and flow of the book.

Some book files will be a breeze to format, while others will be fussy and harder to style. In the series of posts to follow, we’ll take each step and explore the most common procedures for getting the book from Word to ePub.