Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know a reputable, inexpensive reliable service (or method) which converts Word documents to epub format?

Hey, WM! Nice to meet ya!!

I personally write manuscripts in Word and convert to epub, mobi, and pdf with Calibre. You can download it for free.

Hope that helps some!

Hugs,
Ann

I second Annie's recommendation. Calibre is free and easy to use.
Good luck!

Moved to the appropriate folder. Do take a minute to read the pinned posts at the top of each folder. Thanks.

I vote for Calibre as well.

I also use Calibre, both to convert my work-in-progress and download to my Kindle for editing, and to convert my final .odt file to Mobi for uploading to Amazon. Works perfectly, and it's free.

Going against the grain, but I recommend Sigil rather than Calibre. I use it because I "roll my own" HTML and CSS, but you can use it even if you don't know HTML.

Calibre can produce some odd artifacts, compared to Sigil. Also, Sigil includes an ePub validator and produces files that comply with current ePub standards (including both HTML and a logical table of contents, for example).

I downloaded Sigil once to give it a try, but looking at the guide for it, I decided that it had a huge learning curve just to get started. Or maybe it's me. Calibre seems more user-friendly.

OK, so I write in Word, and have my document formatted so it just goes into the magickal epub converter in Amazon KDP with no hiccups.

I found this free guide very helpful;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

(no special software required)

Fiverr.com has people you can hire to do this sort of thing.

Annie wrote: "Hey, WM! Nice to meet ya!!

I personally write manuscripts in Word and convert to epub, mobi, and pdf with Calibre. You can download it for free.

Hope that helps some!

Hugs,
Ann"

WM wrote: "Hi everyone!

Does anyone know a reputable, inexpensive reliable service (or method) which converts Word documents to epub format?"

Thanks Annie. BTW - I like your page.

C.A. wrote: "I vote for Calibre as well."

Thanks Ken

Sharlin wrote: "Fiverr.com has people you can hire to do this sort of thing."

Thanks Sharlin!

Christina wrote: "Moved to the appropriate folder. Do take a minute to read the pinned posts at the top of each folder. Thanks."

Thanks C.A.!

Ken wrote: "Going against the grain, but I recommend Sigil rather than Calibre. I use it because I "roll my own" HTML and CSS, but you can use it even if you don't know HTML.

Calibre can produce some odd arti..."
Thanks Ken!

C.C. wrote: "I second Annie's recommendation. Calibre is free and easy to use.
Good luck!"

Annie wrote: "Hey, WM! Nice to meet ya!!

I personally write manuscripts in Word and convert to epub, mobi, and pdf with Calibre. You can download it for free.

Hope that helps some!

Hugs,
Ann"

Thanks CC

J. Riley wrote: "Calibre is an awesome tool.

I've used it many times.

I also do this, save from word in RTF format, bring it into Atlantis Word Processor and save as ebook.

Then I take the ebook into Sigil and ..."

Thanks J Riley!

Ken wrote: "I downloaded Sigil once to give it a try, but looking at the guide for it, I decided that it had a huge learning curve just to get started. Or maybe it's me. Calibre seems more user-friendly."

Yes, it has a learning curve, but I personally have problems with Calibre and know many people who do. It often puts strange end of paragraphs in the middle of a sentence etc. I thought it was just me because I refused to update Calibre after having had huge problems with the update (a while ago), but other authors I know have had the same problem without knowing why. Two docs by the same authors (different books) one would work just fine the others wouldn't So if you use Calibre, make sure it worked before using the file to distribute.

Yet, Calibre is free so it doesn't cost anything to try it (and so is Sigil) but with the second program you have to enter each chapter separately to have good results. You can't do a whole copy paste and get away with it.

G.G. wrote: "Yes, it has a learning curve, but I personally have problems with Calibre and know many people who do. It often puts strange end of paragraphs in the middle of a sentence etc. I thought it was just me because I refused to update Calibre after having had huge problems with the update (a while ago), but other authors I know have had the same problem without knowing why...."

I've never encountered those problems with Calibre, and I've been using it for more than 3 years. I do convert to HTML before converting, so maybe that's the difference. If any problems do occur, it's usually only with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.

I admit I've done it more often converting to iPub than Kindle, and I also use an iPad to read those files. Maybe it turns out ok on Kindle. I'd have to check it out again and ask the others who had the same problems if it was only with iPub or Kindle also. (I hate adding Kindle to iPad manually. I can add but no idea how to remove. :/ )

As for converting to HTML maybe that what it is. I convert the file authors send me for a beta read into iPub (with their permission) because it's easier for me to highlight and write notes. They usually send me a PDF.

As I said, I am not against Calibre. I am just saying that when used, one should always make sure (somehow) that it worked. Nothing like sending an unreadable file to a reader. And I've received my share of them all done with it. :(

I don't have any experience with iPub, since I uploaded to Apple through Smashwords, and now Draft2Digital. I didn't use Calibre for my uploads there; I converted my .odt to .docx and uploaded that. When I try to upload .docx straight to Amazon, it works but provides no NCX menu when they convert it. If I use Calibre to convert HTML to Mobi, it works perfectly.

You can save in HTML from Word then take it into Sigil to save as epub. You have to use the inbuilt function to split the file manually, usually into chapters. Even if you have used a style that the e-reader will use to automatically start each chapter as a new 'page', the epub needs to be made up internally of multiple files as some readers don't cope with large files. Calibre automatically does this when you convert a HTML file to epub.

I use Calibre. Running it on Linux has the advantage that you can automate the process completely by scripting.

Ken wrote: "I don't have any experience with iPub, since I uploaded to Apple through Smashwords, and now Draft2Digital. I didn't use Calibre for my uploads there; I converted my .odt to .docx and uploaded that..."

I've looked at the code generated by Calibre, and seen enough "junk" that I'd be reluctant to use it. It may look clean on the surface, but my guess is that's what's causing the problems with your Look Inside (which has a stricter HTML parser than the actual Kindle previewer does).

Still, like Word, it can produce acceptable results; as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters :)

Ken wrote: "I've looked at the code generated by Calibre, and seen enough "junk" that I'd be reluctant to use it. It may look clean on the surface, but my guess is that's what's causing the problems with your Look Inside (which has a stricter HTML parser than the actual Kindle previewer does)..."

It no longer causes those problems, so they must have fixed it. I originally got around the problems by running the Calibre result through the Kindle Previewer to get a "converted" doc. I no longer have to do that.

Ken wrote: "Going against the grain, but I recommend Sigil rather than Calibre. I use it because I "roll my own" HTML and CSS..."

I gave up on trying Calibre when I first started to publish because at times Amazon was rejecting all Calibre files. That's been an on-again, off-again issue from what I've heard, though maybe the issues were straightened out since then.

I actually do Word to ePub via Smashwords. Some people have had issues with Smashword's meat grinder (mostly when they have complex Table of Contents), but I've had nothing but success with it. You just have to religiously follow their Word template, making sure to nuke all Word formatting and cut/paste into the Smashwords template and use Styles for everything.

Smashwords then creates the ePub and other formats I need (except Kindle).

PS ...
For Kindle files I roll my own HTML/CSS as well. Once I have that (the various html files, the table of contents ncx file, and the opf file that defines the eBook's structure) I use Kindle's own Kindle Previewer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm....

You have to have KindleGen loaded as well: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm....

Micah, I simply upload my validated ePub files directly to KDP (you don't need to convert them to another format). 30+ titles so far, and zero problems.