Writing

2015 Book Publishing Industry Predictions:

Mark Coker, from Smashwords, gives his 12 predictions for  2015 on his blog.

“Slow Growth Presents Challenges and Opportunities”

[I’ve added this later – perhaps making my post a little more ‘interesting’ and not so blankish looking.]

Tonight, I’ve been over to Smorgasbord – Variety is the Spice of Life blog catching up on the great ebook series of articles Tess has been reblogging.  I got to worrying about the formatting foibles ahead of me in a few months.

As I’ve mentioned before, I use a free writing software application called yWriter5 from Spacejock Software (I have no affiliation with the author/software fellow Simon Haynes). I’ve just come from visiting his website to check what he has to say about ebook conversion and I’m pleased – no, THRILLED – to discover that the very latest software update includes a new ‘export for e-book feature’.

yWriter5 already has a ‘convert to HTML’ but this new export feature is optimized for conversion to e-book using Calibre. Simon says the resulting e-book should format without any nasty surprises. He should know – he’d be using it for his own books.

Works in progress in Word of Open Office can be imported and converted with a minimum of fuss.

The man is a genius!

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27 thoughts on “2015 Book Publishing Industry Predictions:”

    • Don’t worry, I was getting a bit nervous about the last step. But just found out my favourite free software fellow has updated yWriter5 with a easy way to use the HTML file with the Calibre conversion to ebook. 🙂

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          • Thanks for the link, M-R. People need to get over this idea that they need to approval or validation by the ‘gate-keepers’. Is IT turning into the new vanity publishing, I wonder!
            I am aware that the Amazon ‘gold rush’ is over. I just want to write a story – hopefully well – and put it out there. I cannot ignore Kindle or Amazon if I want to reach readers.

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          • Thanks again for the link. I went back and had another look, and then followed that blog link back to read the whole news article. Interesting, I hadn’t guessed that Amazon use their books just to get people into the Amazon shopping experience. Well, the first purchase I ever made on the Internet was Amazon UK, got a Pink Floyd video (!) that you couldn’t buy in Australia. We were stoked to be able to buy stuff overseas. I can buy books (real books) cheaper from the UK than here. I buy from The Book Depository, but I compare prices everywhere first. I’ve just got two William Berhardt writing books on kindle. While they are cheaper, they aren’t as good as the real thing – I should have got paperbacks like I have in the rest of his series. Some books are worth paying the bit extra for. Besides, you don’t even own the books you buy on the kindle – Amazon can wipe your library anytime they like! (so I’ve heard)

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    • Tess, I finally got back to your blog to read about your travels, and then I found myself at Smorgasbord instead. [sigh] Thanks for being so generous with your time and visiting me despite my feeble followingship. ❤

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    • I feel blessed that I found yWriter while googling free writing software before I began writing in ernest. Though I did make a donation, because it does everything I need – and has a lot of stuff tucked behind the scenes that I should be using. It has a wonderful drag and drop interface if one wants to switch the scenes about. It counts words and keeps a log and automatically backs up as you work and when you close down. I should do a review of it in a post one day. This ebook export is icing on the cake. As well, Simon has a little program called yRead, where you can ask one of your scenes to open in yread, and you see what it would look like in paperback size, the pages side by side. That’s how I edit, and judge paragraph sizing and white space. Goodness – I should do a post on it!!

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  5. WOW! Am I glad I came back here! Thank you, thank you, thank you! SO excited! I had a most lovely, amazing, wonderful woman editor offer to help me publish my first e-book, and I spat in her face by burying my head in the sand in quaking fear. (I guess it’s at least time I wrote to her.) I didn’t feel ready, as it turns out. Now, I’m getting closer, and know I want to try it myself.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you again!

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  6. I a delighted to see an update on your progress with your novel! I was actually here looking for a good opportunity to thank you again for directing me to yWriter5. My current River Novel is there, and I’m loving it. I can’t imagine a better software tool. I appreciate your reassurance that it will make publication smoother than it could be. I, too, am one to make a donation to help keep freebies available.

    In addition to the elements that you described, I also use the lists of Items for each scene in each chapter. For example, I have a thing about squirrels throughout the story. Squirrel is on the list for the book, and I drag it to the list of Items in each scene where they appear.

    I am aiming to store more images in yWriter5. I like that feature, too, as searching for images helps me to get more in touch with the story. For example, the squirrel on the tree looks like this, not that…

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    • Grace, I’m glad you enjoy using the writing software. I can’t sing its praises enough. I use items and images too, and the character interface – must get the colour of eyes right! I track anything I think I might need to know. I always track any mention of magic so I can make sure it is consistent when I edit later. I’m gradually employing the other functions, too overwhelming at first.

      I just updated to the latest version – it is the one with the new export feature which Simon Haynes says should be problem free. I already have Calibre but didn’t know how clever it is. Fingers crossed.

      I’ve just popped over to your blog. Must hang a load of washing out, grab a cuppa and have a stickybeak at your WIP. Thanks for dropping by my blogs. 🙂

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      • I just peeked at the Export menu at yWriter5. What a list of options! Thanks for the heads-up! I just took a peek at the Characters tab. What fun! I look forward to working on filling that in 🙂

        I have found Calibre to be flawless for reading and converting any file format…so far…

        Thanks for stopping by and dropping sweet crumbs at my blog.

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