Ask HN: Toolset to write an e-book | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Toolset to write an e-book

7 pointsarmandososa13 comments

I have a good idea for an e-book and I have like 50% percent of it written. I'm currently writing it using textile markup in WriteRoom. I'm planning to render it to HTML and from there use "print as PDF", but I think that there have to be a better workflow.

I know some of you have written e-books and I would appreciate any advice on the matter.

Thank you!

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I did an ebook recently and it was an awful experience. I started with Adobe InDesign and tried to port to PDF - failed due to image support and integration with Kindle/ebook readers. I then switched to Word and tried to do PDF export and that failed for the same reason. In the end, I ended up having to go through multiple exports using multiple tools - one set for PDF, one set for HTML, one set for Kindle, one set for other ebook readers. I originally had planned on doing several ebooks but #$%^ that.

Yes! I'm a graphic designer and had to do some editorial design before and dude… I hated everything about it! That's why I expected this process to be a major source of frustration.

My personal toolset consists of emacs and pdflatex. I don't care about rendering to HTML, and my writings typically include math formulas, so I suspect my requirements are a bit different from yours. Nonetheless, when it comes to typesetting beautiful PDFs, you really just can't beat LaTeX.

There was an article a while back by the person who writes those "Dive into" series (Mark ??). Iirc, he stopped using markups and began writing directly in HTML. That way he could see exactly what he was getting and not waste time fighting a markup. See if you can google him. (dive into mark - iirc).

I used to have a lot of problems with textile some years back. One never knew when it would just ignore a markup. Same often happens with markdown.

Thank you, I think I found it: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/03/27/dive-into-histor...

So, HTML is really the best way to write a book? I mean, as a web developer I can write HTML, but I feel like thinking in markup will break my inspiration a bit.

Also, in the comments someone mentioned Pandoc, which looks sweet http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/

I have created 3 ebooks so far. Typed them in MS Word and printed as PDF using Pdf writer.

So, regardless of what you use to create the ebook, where can/should you publish it once it's done? I know you can post it, say, on your blog to download, but what else would you do. (Submit to Amazon, or iBooks, or more?)

I think LyX is a good alternative here. Good converters to html, pdf, text... great outliner (much needed for a long piece such a book). Has track changes, and it's plain text so you could use a vcs with it.

This may not be directly relevant, but it doesn't hurt to use version control to keep track of changes or for just giggles to see what the heck you were thinking through the writing process.

Writing is one of my hobbies/passions outside of coding, and using svn/hg/git/etc is so great, since it's all text (or should be, screw word and other word processors that save in binary formats). Being able to track changes and easily get back stuff if you change your mind is wonderful, just like it is in coding.

That's a great idea! I've never really thought about that. Recently I've erased a whole chapter that I was feel was no longer relevant and, in hindsight, I think it's a bummer that now it's lost.

If you are going from HTML -> PDF then by far the best tool I have found is princeXML.

Outstanding HTML -> PDF rendering with automatic TOC, page numbering, splitting tables across pages. Excellent CSS and SVG support.

Pricing is reasonable too.

Prince looks promising, but it's a bit pricey for my needs. I think I will use the free version and have their logo as a sponsor :P

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