I looked into the self publishing thing about a month ago. By the way, if you want your work to also appear in the iPad ibookstore and other markets, you should also publish to "smashwords[1]" in addition to Amazon. Doing those two together will get you on about every e-book store out there.<div>
<br></div><div>The common denominator is that the common epub format should work well. epub is like HTML with most of the extra features removed. Much like RTF is to MS Word. And, as you'd expect, if you don't get too clever, you can convert from DOC format to epub. The trick is not getting to clever, which by definition implies that Text Edit should be a good fit.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If you go to Amazon's help site you can find a template to download in MS Word format [2] (see it on the right side as an attachment). It seems to open perfectly in Text Edit. PDF is OK but in my experience it does not convert as well to mobile formats. I've tried converting from PDF to epub and it's not great. Amazon also publishes a list of formats that you can convert from [3]. I'd stick with Text Edit. I'd also check out smashwords and see what their recommendations are. They'll get you on iBooks, kobo, sony, barnes and noble and more.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I've never actually done it, only read about it. So take this with a grain of salt. If you do it, I'd love to hear a report of how it goes. :-)</div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/2.0.0.9.7.3.1.3.1.MZDCBookContentProviderSignupRequirementsPage.1">https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/2.0.0.9.7.3.1.3.1.MZDCBookContentProviderSignupRequirementsPage.1</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>[2] <a href="http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=114">http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=114</a><br><br></div><div>[3] <a href="http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=21&categoryID=29">http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=21&categoryID=29</a></div>
<div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Clara D Reger <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cdreger@grm.net">cdreger@grm.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><br></div><span style="font-size:14px">Well yes, of course, Amazon's software, which is notoriously Mac unfriendly. It <i>could save me a lot of time</i> knowing how to format, because (my understanding is that) RTF is out and it must be a Word doc file. Otherwise, things get scrambled. </span><div>
<span style="font-size:14px"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:14px">Can I use Text Edit and save that as Word? Or is a PDF OK? What about photos and illustrations? If anyone else out there has sailed these uncharted waters, plz say hello. </span><span style="font-size:14px">Yes, I have tried to research online but I may not have tried the right places. </span><div>
<span style="font-size:14px"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:14px">Thanks, </span></div><div><span style="font-size:14px"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:14px">Darlene </span><span style="font-size:14px">"Publish or Tear Hair Out Trying" Reger</span></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:14px"></span><br style="font-size:14px"><div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div>On Apr 16, 2011, at 10:19 AM, Geoffrey Stevens wrote:</div><div><br>
</div><div><br></div><br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium"><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma">
<div><div></div><div class="h5">With Amazon's<span> </span><b>Kindle Direct Publishing</b><span> </span>free software.<br><br><hr>From:<span> </span><a href="mailto:cdreger@grm.net" target="_blank">cdreger@grm.net</a><br>
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:21:46 -0500<br>To:<span> </span><a href="mailto:dmmug@dmmug.org" target="_blank">dmmug@dmmug.org</a><br>Subject: [DM-MUG] Kindle via a Mac<br><br>Does any one have experience publishing to Kindle from a Mac? Advice from someone who has successfully done this, would beat trolling through all the PC advice on the Amazon and related sites, trying to find the Mac friendly info. The problem is well defined — formatting issues. The successful solutions — needed. Anyone?<div>
<br></div><div>Darlene Reger in MO.</div><br></div></div>_______________________________________________ DMMUG mailing list Use this Address to send mail to the list:<span> </span><a href="mailto:DMMUG@dmmug.org" target="_blank">DMMUG@dmmug.org</a><span> </span>Use this page to modify subscription options:<span> </span><a href="http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/dmmug" target="_blank">http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/dmmug</a>_______________________________________________<div class="im">
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