Calibre for Readers – Part 2

calibre logoIn Part 1 of this series I discussed using Calibre for library management of your eBooks and a little about the things to consider in deciding if doing this made sense for you. I also outlined how to get an eBook from your Calibre library to an eReader that is connected to your computer. In this installment, we’ll cover a few other functions of the Calibre program you might find useful. Continue reading “Calibre for Readers – Part 2”

Calibre for Readers – Part 1

calibre logoA few months ago I did a post about using the free program Calibre to create a Kindle compatible eBook file. That barely scratched the surface of the program’s capabilities. In this series of posts I’m going to discuss some of those other uses with a focus on how the program might be used by a reader. This won’t be a full blown tutorial. Instead I’ll make some suggestions and point you in the right direction. Obviously before you can do any of this you’ll need to download and install the proper version of Calibre for your computer. Continue reading “Calibre for Readers – Part 1”

A Quick and Dirty eBook with Calibre

calibre logoSome indie authors are tech savvy and masters at formatting their completed manuscripts into the two most commonly used ebook formats, ePub and Mobi. Some hire someone to format their eBook files. However, the approach taken by many is the simple one, upload a Word document to Amazon and let KDP convert the file. If you’re only publishing through Amazon, this works great. At least until you want to send an eBook to a friend, submit your book to a reviewer who requires an eBook file for submission, or … well, you get the idea.

If your book is already published and you followed my advice to not use DRM, you might consider purchasing a copy of the book from Amazon and copying the file from your Kindle or the Kindle for PC directory to use for these purposes. (I’ll leave it to you to figure out how to do this.) But if your book has DRM or you want to send an eBook file in advance of publication to reviewers or beta readers, another approach is needed. There are many ways this might be accomplished. The approach I’m going to outline here is using a free program called Calibre. Continue reading “A Quick and Dirty eBook with Calibre”

How to Prepare a Novel for Publication in Ten Sort-of-easy Steps

KS Brooks was kind enough to give you the details of her pre- and post-release rundown for Triple Dog Dare (actually, it was a mandatory requirement of her probation, but we won’t go into that). Since I’m going through something similar, without the probation (so far) or a collaboration partner, I thought I’d share my perspective on the pre-release mayhem that’s happening in my house as I prepare to publish Sliding Past Vertical, my fourth novel. Here’s how it has gone down so far. [Note: Your actual mileage may vary. I certainly hope so.] Continue reading “How to Prepare a Novel for Publication in Ten Sort-of-easy Steps”