As part of the process of learning about the practicalities of creating an ebook for my Kindle, I practised on transferring the content of the digital book I had already created at http://issuu.com/miltoncontact/docs/monty-bear-and-the-chocolate-egg, which you can read online, but not download. (the Amazon Kindle link is at the bottom of the article).
The work process for creating the Kindle ebook was as follows:
- Convert and edit the images into greyscale, with a high contrast. This is important as the Kindle reader has a lower contrast range.
- The images were resized to be 520 pixels wide, the optimum for the Kindle reader
- I then used Sigil, a WYSIWYG ebook editor, to layout the book with the edited images and text.
- To force each image and its short text to be on a new page, I had to make each page a new chapter.
- The ebook was then saved in epub format.
- The ebook was then imported into Calibre and the meta information (about author, title, publication date and preferred book cover) was added.
- Using Calibre, the ebook was exported into the .mobi format, which is accepted by Kindle.
I could either import the book to my Kindle (best option) or use the free PC software to view Kindle ebooks available here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000423913
By generating this very simple book, I learnt a considerable amount on the practicalities of producing an ebook for Kindle - and other - ebook readers.
Please feel free to sample or purchase the ebook, "Monty Bear and the Chocolate Egg" at only £0.70p for your Kindle from here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monty-Bear-Chocolate-Egg/dp/B00519TOIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306161559&sr=8-1
I would really appreciate your comments after trialling this out on young children!
Great little book, Chris.
ReplyDeleteI have a question though. If this took several hours for a 20 page picture book, how long do you estimate a 100 page book with text only might take?
Thanks Ruth :-)
ReplyDeleteRe 100 page book. The time depends on the formatting required.
If you take care during writing and set a limited number of styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, normal text, bold text and italic for example), the time taken could be as little as a couple of hours.
If you have lots of pictures, bullet points perhaps tables etcetera, or if the original document has hidden formatting, then reckon on requiring a day or even several to iron out the format to look perfect.