Last week, I knew I would need to find more outlets for my eBook. I knew this would mean reformatting to meet the various requirements of the proprietary eBook vendors (Kindle, Sony, PDF, and etc.).
When I found Smashwords it seemed like a quick fix for all of that. I've hit some snags, but they are not the fault of Smashwords. In fact, I'm working with the CEO and CTO, who have been more than willing to help me figure out my technical issues, and I give them big kudos for that!
For one thing, my eBook (The Jefferson Bible for the 21st Century) has the unfortunate dilemma of smaller, superscripted numbers every few words to show verses (to stay in keeping with Jefferson's original verse numbering system). This is something that does not translate well in eBook formats.
Part of this is also due to my choice of software tools. I did the original source document in Mac's iWork Pages, which does not offer an HTML output. Thanks for nothing, Apple. I'm really shocked that Apple didn't consider this, and I was sure it would be an option when I purchased the software.
So I exported as a .doc, and opened it in OpenOffice, which displays differently. Even if I fix the display in OpenOffice, it does not export correctly. Thanks for trying, OpenOffice folks, but I really need it to work better.
So very reluctantly I've returned to Microsoft Windows so that I can open my document from Office, and export the HTML, and then proceed to tweak that result to taste. I would almost rather gnaw off my leg to get out of this trap, but that's not an option. The Microsoft Office spam that goes into an HTML export is mind numbing. I have seen files where more than half the file size is unnecessary code. So today I'm straightening this stuff out. I have a tool for the Mac side of the house that should help – PageSpinner.
I'm really surprised that Apple does not offer an inexpensive HTML editor to compete with Adobe on some level. It does not help that their built-in text/edit application defaults to RTF. Ya, really. But this is the first hiccup I've found with Apple, and while significant it isn't a show stopper.
So I'm blogging. It's a form of procrastination. I really dislike heavy reformatting, but here I go. With a little luck I'll be back into the audio book side of the project soon, and the Jefferson Bible for the 21st Century will be available on Smashwords for all your eBook formats. (It is available on Scribd for the low download price of $1.00 – or you can read it online for free). The paper version is coming soon to Lulu.com, as soon as I finish proofing the first copy, which should arrive one day very soon.
