PROOFING EBOOKSGareth Haman

WHAT WILL WE COVER?

• Hardware and software you'll need

• Files, formats and useful resources

• What to look for and how this differs from 'regular' proofreading

• What you shouldn't have to do...

• Unless you want to offer extra services!

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The case of the Casual Vacancy…

HARDWARE

HARDWARE(VIEWING ON A NATIVE

DEVICE)• Amazon Kindle range

• Apple iBooks device (iPhone, iPad, Mac)

• Kobo, Nook, Sony...

• ...and of course (if you want to offer more services) a Mac or PC

DO I NEED THEM ALL?• No! (Phew!)

• Best single option for hardware proofreading: iPad

• Can use software tools to plug gaps:

• KDP Previewer & others (Amazon's KDP tools page)

• ebook format conversion software such as Calibre (calibre-ebook.com)

• ...or book creation tools themselves

• BUT ALWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR CLIENT!

SOFTWARE & FORMATS

MAIN FORMATS ARE:• EPUB (open standard)

• IBA (iBooks Author)

• AZW/KF8 (Amazon - same as Mobi, different DRM)

• MOBI/PRC (open standard, but older and now less popular - PRC the same but with DRM)

• PDF

• TXT

• HTML (EPUB and MOBI are basically HTML)

• Wikipedia page on ebook formats is a great resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats

SOME POPULAR EBOOK CREATION TOOLS/SITES

• KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing: kdp.amazon.com)

• Smashwords (www.smashwords.com)

• BookTango (http://www.booktango.com)

• Kobo Writing Life (http://www.kobo.com/writinglife)

• Blurb (www.blurb.co.uk)

• iBooks Author (www.apple.com/uk/ibooks-author)

• ...and about a million others!

SO WHY DO SO MANY SITES JUST ASK FOR MS

WORD?• Simplicity, BUT…

• This is simplicity for the author

• …but this is where you come in (if you want to!)

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO LEARN?

• Trial and error - cut & paste some text, convert it, see what you get from various sites

• Good tips on creating EPUB files on:http://www.agentquery.com/how_to_create_epub_file.aspx

GOING INTO MORE DEPTH

• Many ebook formats are essentially self-contained websites

• For real control, get hands-on with HTML

• Some errors in 'meatgrinders' just won't go away - conversion is imperfect

ISSUES

WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR?

• Formatting is usually the biggest problem - in the original and in the end product(s)

• Function also needs to be checked - hyperlinks

• Remember, ebooks are dynamic - you need to check the same thing at different sizes

• Tools have their own issues - the same source file can create different errors in different formats

STYLES MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

DEMO TIME!

HOW DO I MARK IT UP?• Varies by client but can present its own issues - some ideas

are:

• Spreadsheet

• PDF sticky notes/markup

• Comments in Word file (if you have one)

• Hardcopy as a last resort!

• Use a two-screen setup

• Remember: ebook are dynamic - page numbers are meaningless!

REMEMBER• The simpler the formatting, the more

likely you’ll get a clean conversion - if in doubt, strip it out

• Make notes by Chapter/subhead etc. - not page number as it’s meaningless for ebooks

• Give it a go! People pay for expertise, so become an expert!

–Bill Gates (1998)

“Touchscreen e-readers will never catch on”

THANKS!