DevCSI 14-16th Feb 2012

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eBooks: Making Content for Kindle and EPUB

Event Type: Core Skills.

Thursday 16th  from 10:00  to 12:00 . Location:  .

Speaker

Attendee

This is a list of known attendees, who gave persmission to be listed, not all attendees.

Description

The session will start with an overview of the technologies available for the creation of eBooks in EPUB and Kindle formats. These technologies range from the all-in-one creation and distribution tool created by Smashwords called the "meat grinder" through to the entirely bespoke possibilities afforded by a simple text editor. Between them exist software plug-ins for programs from OpenOffice to InDesign, as well as standalone software like Sigil and Calibre. Each mode of development will be taken in turn and considered for its pros and cons.

Following the overview of the ways in which eBooks can be created, the differences between the terms reflowable, fixed-layout, and textbook will be looked at more closely. The session will also consider in this preliminary stage the way in which EPUB subformats and Digital Rights Management (DRM) can limit the range of devices and applications upon which certain books can be read.

Progress to in depth topics will be then determined by those in attendance taking into consideration their interests, specialisms and needs. No prior knowledge is required but the long session will enable us to reach deeply into the formats and anatomies of eBooks and their creation.


Contents

Some topic areas

• creation and distribution of eBooks across formats (and resellers - including Amazon's Kindle Store, Apple's iBookstore and the Kobo Store)

• EPUB sub-formats and DRM - including consideration of the recent release of iBooks Author (enhanced textbook format)

• Footnotes, endnotes and indexes (displaying and hyperlinking)

• repurposing content across the web and in mobile apps (e.g. iOS, Android and Windows 8), as well as readying it for future eBook formats

• use of regular expressions, wildcards and regex in eBook production

• JavaScript in eBooks

• images and video content

• importance of metadata

• cross-platform CSS and media queries

• validation using epubcheck and kindlegen

• testing books and avoiding caching errors


Software to be discussed

• Writer2Epub plug-in (OpenOffice/LibreOffice/NeoOffice) - [1]

• Apple Pages (OS X only) - [2]

• oXygen - [3]

• Atlantis (Windows only) - [4]

• InDesign - [5]

• Sigil - [6]

• Calibre - [7]

• iBooks Author (OS X only) - [8]

• iTunes Producer, Book Proofer (OS X only; membership to iTunesConnect required)

• KindleGen 2, KindlePreviewer 2, Kindle Plug-in for InDesign - [9]

• iBooks (iOS only) - [10]

• epubcheck - [11]

• Adobe Digital Editions - [12]


Useful websites

• International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) - [13]

• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative - [14]

• Kindle Publishing Programs - [15]

• Kindle Direct Publishing - [16]

• Smashwords - [17]

• Kobo - [18]

• Threepress Consulting Blog - [19]

• Pigs, Gourds and Wikis (Liz Castro) - [20]

• Kindle formatting - [21]

• MobileRead Forums - [22]

• Workflow ePUB - [23]

Social Media Groups

• #eprdctn on Twitter - [24]

• #eprdctn on LinkedIn - [25]

• Tools of Change (ToC) on LinkedIn - [26]

Publications

• EPUB Straight to the Point (Elizabeth Castro) - [27] (author has also published a series of electronic miniguides: Read aloud EPUB for iBooks, From InDesign CS5.5 to EPUB and Kindle, Audio and Video in EPUB, Fixed Layout EPUBS for iPad and iPhone)

• Kindle Formatting (Joshua Tallent) - [28]

• What is EPUB3? (Matt Garrish) - [29] (free to download)


Your Tutor

Anthony Levings has worked in academic publishing since 1992, in editorial production departments at Taylor & Francis and SAGE, and as a freelance copy-editor and proofreader. He has taught on a sessional basis at the University of Kent and holds a PhD in English Literature. Currently managing director and editor at Gylphi Limited in Canterbury [30], his company creates print and electronic books and journals for the academic market focusing primarily on the arts and humanities of the twentieth century and beyond.

He can be found on twitter in the guises of @anthonylevings [31] and @sketchytech [32] and also blogs a bit here [33].

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