EPUB Creators

[woody649]

R.R. Bowker, the U.S. vendor of ISBN numbers, is offering three levels of a software package for generating reflowable EPUB files.

https://mailchi.mp/bowker.com/ebook_...7?e=40027f664f

Has anyone used it, or does anyone know someone who uses it? I'm curious, because I haven't found a way to reliably create professional-quality EPUBS from Word documents. I'm still looking for something that works.

Unfortunately, Bowker's prices seem to me to be rather out of line. I don't think they are aiming this software at self-publishers. At those prices, I think it's aimed at professional publishers.

[Steve Rindsberg]

"If you have a book in Word format, 500 pages or less in reflowable text fomat, with 10 or fewer images, up to 10 hyperlinks, and in a basic novel form, ..."

But spell-check is on you; we don't do that. We don't know how.

[woody649]

I guess editing is on you, too.

As it should be. What they are selling is a program (pardon me -- "app") that converts a Word file into an EPUB file. I get that. And, having bought a few self-published e-books on the topic of self-publishing, I can only hope that the authors didn't sell many copies and that they never publish another book, because EVERYTHING about those books fairly screams "THIS BOOK WAS CREATED ENTIRELY BY AN AMATEUR WHO DOESN'T SPEAK OR WRITE ENGLISH!"

In fact, I just finished formatting the interior of a book (in Word) for a guy who has previously had books published by reputable publishing houses. He couldn't find anyone to publish this one so he decided to dip his toe into the self-publishing waters, and I foolishly volunteered to format the file for printing on Amazon KDP.

Remind me NEVER to volunteer again! It's no wonder he couldn't find a publisher. The book was -- and is -- a mess. I won't get into the reason, but each chapter had to be formatted differently where they reproduced historical (public domain) documents. The parts he wrote as editor are almost all grammatically incorrect, and some are virtually incomprehensible. His other books must have had very good editors.

But I didn't volunteer to do editing or proofreading, and I didn't have time to undertake that task -- especially since every change would probably have involved an argument with the author. So it is what it is, and I won't do it again.

The book is only about 275 pages, but it has more than ten (probably more than twenty) illustrations -- so the first two levels of Bowker's software wouldn't be suitable for converting it to an EPUB. Even for novels -- one of the suggested ways to get fancy-looking chapter heads is to insert them as graphics. If you have more than ten (or twenty) chapters, Bowker's software is useless unless you pony up for the full professional version.

[Steve Rindsberg]

I was poking fun at the fact that, while they tell you they'll help you publish your e-book, their own web page hasn't been proofed, and in fact contains a word that any spell-checker would flag: fomat.

By the way, is Bowker actually selling you the software, or is it some kind of app/web service that you're buying access to? That'd be the generic "you" ... the specific "you" is obviously not in the market for their product. ;-)

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

By the way, is Bowker actually selling you the software, or is it some kind of app/web service that you're buying access to? That'd be the generic "you" ... the specific "you" is obviously not in the market for their product. ;-)

That's a fair question, to which I do not know the answer. Everything about their presentation of it suggests that you're buying a perpetual license (especially at those prices!), but these days it's difficult to know. The fact that they won't even tell you how much the top tier version costs is enough to send me running in the opposite direction.