Mobi Machine (Your Kindle Formatting Butler)
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About this ebook
Mobi Machine (Your Kindle Formatting Butler) is the first of the three user manuals for Mobi Machine (the Nepo Press web-based book formatting system). This book focuses on how to make Mobi files (eBooks) for the Amazon Kindle and Kindle Apps, showing you everything you need to know to get started. If you want to create eBooks for the Kindle, this is the book to start with.
For making EPUB books (B&N, Kobo, Apple, etc.), start with EPUB Machine (Your EPUB Formatting Butler). These two manuals contain essentially the same information---once you have read one, you probably do not need the other. Pick based on whether your primary interest is Mobi or EPUB.
After you have read one of these manuals, you are ready to make eBooks, but you'll probably want to read the third manual, Advanced Mobi and EPUB Machines, eventually. It covers advanced formatting techniques including how to make "camera ready" PDF files for publishing printed books through CreateSpace.
For self-publishers, Mobi Machine hits the sweet spot with the best combination of high quality, low cost, ease of use, and flexibility.
What do you need? You need a computer with a web browser and a word processor or text editor and an internet connection and a Nepo Press book account. You don't need to install any software. Your same manuscript will work for Mobi files, EPUB files, and PDF files, giving you "one-stop" formatting with nearly instant turn-around. Format your books on your schedule, not someone else's. No limit to the number of revisions, so fixing typos or changing your list of "Other Books by This Author" can be done whenever you wish.
If you are using the Nepo Press service, or planning to use it, this is the "missing manual" to help get you oriented and up to speed quickly.
The trick is to add simple, visible markup to your manuscript then feed that to the Mobi Machine. The result is a professional looking eBook, without the formatting errors so commonly seen in self-published books.
Frank Sergeant
I do a lot of eBook and print book formatting for Nepo Press. Because of this, I suppose, I am particularly sensitive to needless formatting and proofreading errors and do all I can to eliminate them. I think I have found a nearly perfect method for proofreading. The trick is this: if even a single error is detected, another full proofreading must be done. Simple, easy to understand, but nearly impossible to do in practice.
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Mobi Machine (Your Kindle Formatting Butler) - Frank Sergeant
Mobi Machine
(Your Kindle Formatting Butler)
Frank Sergeant
copyright © 2012-2014 Frank Sergeant
all rights reserved
Smashwords Edition
published by Nepo Press (http://nepotism.net)
4th Edition, April, 2014
(formatted April 26, 2014 at 01:48 PM)
cover image credits:
background © Big Stock / AndreasG http://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-352973/
girl © Can Stock Photo Inc. / sbworld9 http://www.canstockphoto.com/little-waitress-standing-with-tray-9343804.html
Secretly Dedicated to Amy
About Mobi Machine
Mobi Machine (Your Kindle Formatting Butler) is the first of the three user manuals for Mobi Machine (the Nepo Press web-based book formatting system). This book focuses on how to make Mobi files (eBooks) for the Amazon Kindle and Kindle Apps, showing you everything you need to know to get started. If you want to create eBooks for the Kindle, this is the book to start with.
For making EPUB books (B&N, Kobo, Apple, etc.), start with EPUB Machine (Your EPUB Formatting Butler). These two manuals contain essentially the same information—once you have read one, you probably do not need the other. Pick based on whether your primary interest is Mobi or EPUB.
After you have read one of these manuals, you are ready to make eBooks, but you’ll probably want to read the third manual, Advanced Mobi and EPUB Machines, eventually. It covers advanced formatting techniques including how to make camera-ready
PDF files for publishing printed books through CreateSpace.
For self-publishers, Mobi Machine hits the sweet spot with the best combination of high quality, low cost, ease of use, and flexibility.
What do you need? You need a computer with a web browser and a word processor or text editor and an internet connection and a Nepo Press book account at nepotism.net/formatting (you can start with a free trial account). You don’t need to install any software. Your same manuscript will work for Mobi files, EPUB files, and PDF files, giving you one-stop
formatting with nearly instant turn-around. Format your books on your schedule, not someone else’s. No limit to the number of revisions, so fixing typos or changing your list of Other Books by This Author
can be done whenever you wish.
If you are using the Nepo Press service, or planning to use it, this is the missing manual
to help get you oriented and up to speed quickly.
The trick is to add simple, visible markup to your manuscript then feed that to the Mobi Machine. The result is a professional looking eBook, without the formatting errors so commonly seen in self-published books.
Table of Contents
Dedication
About Mobi Machine
Preface to the Fourth Edition
Note to Readers
Introduction
Chapter 1 -Your Manuscript
Chapter 2 - Writing a Novel From Scratch
Chapter 3 - Working With An Existing Manuscript
Chapter 4 - Running The Mobi Machine
Chapter 5 - Additional Notes
Boxes
Comments
Drop Caps
Ellipsis Marks
Emphasis
Forcing Line Breaks
Hyphens and Dashes
Images
Indentation
Manuscript Directories
Mono-spaced Fonts
Paragraph Alignment
Quote Blocks
Quote Marks and Smart Quotes
Scene Breaks
Small Quotes
Appendix A - How to Get Your eBook To Your Kindle
Appendix B - Publishing on Amazon
Appendix C - Tips
Quotes curl in the wrong direction
Tags incorrectly combined with body of paragraph
Backing up your work
Reading in a web browser
Distributing the HTML version of your book
Reading your eBook in Amazon’s Kindle for PC
Printing a hard-copy of your manuscript
Word processor versus text editor
Appendix D - List of Tags
Appendix E - Word Processor Settings
Appendix F - Stormy Night Manuscript
Notes and References
About the Author
Preface to the Fourth Edition
The Mobi Machine has gone through several stages of evolution.
The first generation required an author to (a) download, install, and configure several pieces of software, and (b) switch from a word processor to a text editor.
Gentle (and not so gentle) feedback suggested that authors did not enjoy either requirement, although there were exceptions.
In the next generation, we eliminated the need to switch from a word processor to a text editor. Although using a text editor was optional, the burden of installing the software remained.
Finally, in the current generation, that burden has been lifted. Instead of every author installing the software on his local machine, we install the software on the Nepo Press server. Now an author uploads his manuscript through a web browser, clicks a button, and downloads the resulting Mobi file.
This has the additional advantage that the author never needs to re-install software to upgrade the system. We do all of that in a central location. The next time the author connects to the web site, the new software is available automatically.
We wanted to make the Nepo Press formatting service as close to one-stop formatting
as possible. Previously, an author could make both Mobi files (Amazon Kindle) and EPUB files (B&N, Apple, Kobo, etc.), but what about paperback books? The current generation solves that problem also. The touch of a PDF button now produces a camera-ready
PDF for publishing paperback books through CreateSpace.
So, the Mobi Machine is also an EPUB Machine and a PDF Machine, but the focus of this book is on making eBooks for the Amazon Kindle eReaders and Kindle Apps.
This is the very system Nepo Press uses to format its own books and we look forward to sharing it with you.
You will need a Nepo Press book account to use with this book. If you don’t have a book account yet, you can set up a two-week trial account for free. Email frank@nepotism.net with the exact title of your book