# Converting documents to ebooks



## Chime85 (Sep 6, 2012)

Howdy doody all,

I'm having a little play around with a few of my files in that I'm trying to convert them to make them accessable to ebooks. I've downloaded the free kindle on my pc from amazon as a lab rat. 

So far, Ive managed to convert files to .pdf format, and it seems to work on the kindle, in the sense that i can read pages and flick left to right etc. The main issues I am having is how on earth do i make "front covers" for them? the example books have thumbnail pics whilst mine only has the pdf logo for its thumbnail.

Also, any tips on things like chapter links etc? Is there a good, user-friendly tool to convert from word (or pdf) to kindle, something that lets me set up from covers, information etc. Any help at all would be great.


----------



## Aosto (Sep 6, 2012)

Doesn't Amazon have an application that will do this for you? I thought they did, I will have to look and see again. Let me get back to you.


----------



## Aosto (Sep 6, 2012)

They have a KindleGen, but I've never used it. I mush have been thinking of a GUI tool, but that is command line. I'm sure there are freeware sources out there that can do this conversion for you. 

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6


----------



## Steerpike (Sep 6, 2012)

I don't recommend PDF. Save as a bare bones HTML file and upload to KDP. You can include the image via HTML tags.


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Sep 6, 2012)

There's a number of programs out there (like *Calibre*) that will deal with all the formatting. They're pretty complex to use, in my experience, but they take care of it all.

For my part, I'm writing everything as text files and then using command-line scripts (bash, sed, awk, perl) to format them into HTML, which I then run through the appropriate converter.


----------



## Chime85 (Sep 6, 2012)

Thank you for the links and suggestions, everyone. I'll try a few of these out and let you know how I get on


----------



## yachtcaptcolby (Sep 6, 2012)

MobiPocket Creator works really well for generating ebook (.prc) files.


----------



## Chime85 (Sep 6, 2012)

yachtcaptcolby said:


> MobiPocket Creator works really well for generating ebook (.prc) files.



So far, this one seems to be working the best. I've been having a little play with them and some of my earlier attempts cut out all speech quotations. This version has kept in the speech quotations AND left a thumbnail fron cover image


----------



## yachtcaptcolby (Sep 7, 2012)

Glad to hear it's working for you. If there's something in the generated file that isn't quite right, it creates an HTML file you can edit manually to fix it. Assuming you speak HTML, of course.


----------



## MichaelSullivan (Sep 7, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I don't recommend PDF. Save as a bare bones HTML file and upload to KDP. You can include the image via HTML tags.



Yes exactly - Simple .html is the way to go. Here is a link that will take you through it step-by-step.


----------



## Subcreator (Sep 9, 2012)

Is it possible to convert something to ebook format if you don't have a device that can handle ebook? I don't have and can't afford a Kindle, smartphone, or anything else of the sort.


----------



## Aosto (Sep 9, 2012)

You can download Kindle for the pc. It will read ebook format files.


----------



## Chime85 (Sep 9, 2012)

Subcreator said:


> Is it possible to convert something to ebook format if you don't have a device that can handle ebook? I don't have and can't afford a Kindle, smartphone, or anything else of the sort.



Try this, it's where i got mine from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000423913

It's free


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Sep 9, 2012)

You can read ebooks you bought on Amazon at *read.amazon.com* as well. It's basically a web-based e-reader.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Sep 10, 2012)

I managed to get good results by using Calibre. I wrote the text in openoffice, saved it as HTML and used calibre to convert to kindle readable file. It's a while ago though so I don't remember the details and can't find the guide I used (though I found several other similar guides).
Calibre is free and open source and can be found at calibre - E-book management


----------



## Chime85 (Sep 10, 2012)

OK, and how do you determine approx page count? I've seen on amazon a rough page count, but when I've tried converting, the page totals differ. Also, at what zoom is this counted in?


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Sep 10, 2012)

I think the page count is predicated on the idea of about 350 words per page. My book is ~191k words and Amazon calls it 531 pages, which is 359 words per page.

Frankly I don't pay any attention to page counts, just word counts, since page counts can vary, but the word count of a book is constant in all formats.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Sep 11, 2012)

I found that when saving my document as PDF it showed the entire PDF page on the kindle, meaning the letters were really small. Saving it as HTML meant the kindle rendered the text in its own style with the letters significantly larger and easier to read. 

Summary, Kindle pages hold significantly less words than regular book pages.


----------



## Zero Angel (Sep 11, 2012)

There is a book Amazon has put out:
Building Your Book for Kindle. I recommend reading that. It tells you what to do.



Subcreator said:


> Is it possible to convert something to ebook format if you don't have a device that can handle ebook? I don't have and can't afford a Kindle, smartphone, or anything else of the sort.


Right so, you don't have a Kindle at all when you do this. When you go to upload your book on the page they have a "download the previewer" program which is actually not a Kindle for PC app. You download the previewer and the preview file after uploading your book (but preferably before publishing!) and preview it through that. 

For the record, Nook's is terrible. (at least it was when I published).



Chime85 said:


> OK, and how do you determine approx page count? I've seen on amazon a rough page count, but when I've tried converting, the page totals differ. Also, at what zoom is this counted in?


This is done automatically by Amazon. They have mine listed at 393 pages and I didn't do anything for them to come up with that. 



As far as the cover goes, this is a separate high-quality image file that you upload separately. If you don't have one, they put a blank placeholder image in for you. (not recommended). If you want to include pictures in the book, then follow the directions in that Building your book for Kindle ebook, but I believe you have to make a zip folder with all the image files in it.


----------

