Publishing with Apple's Pages word processor

If you are like me, the very though of using MS Word makes you cringe.  I have commented many times before on the issues with this, as have many other bloggers.  I prefer Pages from Apple - much simpler and very stable.  I have had issues, however, in converting a basic Pages file into the proper formats for publishing through some of the online distributors.  The ePUB export function makes an elegant book but can only be trusted to work with iBooks and the iPad.

I got turned on to Smashwords the other day, and successfully uploaded The Juno Letters to it with only a few modifications with the original publishing MS Word file I labored so long to create.  The conversions look good - I was pleased.

I decided to publish my novelette "NOCK on Wood" only through Smashwords to see how it goes.  The original file was in Pages, and formatted for PDF display, which had to be undone.  I had some reworking to do to make it generic, but it was pretty simply in Pages.

I decided to send the exported Word format file type rather than try to make a native Word version.  I expected the worst, but was very pleased to have Smashwords take the file without any corrections.

The conversions for ePub and mobi (Kindle) look very good.  In addition, every known format except the Enhanced eBook for iBooks only is supported by Smashwords.  Very cool.  Their interface was the easiest of all the publishers I have used so far, and the support was excellent.

So, if you are a dedicated Mac fan - stay with Pages.  Set your styles as Header 1, Header 2, Normal, etc. to maintain compatibility.  But write away knowing you will not have to wrestle with Word over formatting, styles rewriting, and other horrors I have encountered.

Reaching out...

I have been working to understand social media.  Guy Kawasaki had some excellent advice on the use of each of the major social media sites - I have been following him for years and trust his judgement.  Following on this, I spent a lot of time today getting to know Twitter, and expanded my reach to England and Canada today.  I made a connection with a historical researcher that could use my Strategic Bombing database, and met several members of the Canadian Parliament (it's like this whole 'nother country).  I passed on contacting the Canadian PM - felt a little uncomfortable (except it's probably run by an intern anyway).  Will be following these leads more tomorrow.

Working with ePUB files is hazardous to your mental health.  I have been struggling getting the various eBOOK devices to display correctly.  Invariably, there are some minor glitches.  Lulu.com attempts to resolve this by converting a DOC file to their desired ePub format.  I had early success with this, but still some minor issues.  I spent all morning trying to resolve them, and gave up.  Using Microsoft Word in styles mode is like going to the dentist.

I write in Pages for the Mac - a very elegant word processor.  The export to ePUB option produces an elegant file effortlessly that loads on the iBook from Dropbox easily.  The only thing you have to be careful of is to follow Apple's publication guidelines in the use of stles, and make certain you use page breaks and chapter number styles if you want the number to display.  Otehrwise, you may get a run-on chapter.

Uploading this ePub file to Lulu died.  That's OK - I took it directly to the iBookstore instead.  One issue - be sure UNCHECK the option to use the first page as a cover when you save the ePub for the iBook store.  You will be asked to provide cover art instead.  It caused an error in upload, but I found this tip online.

I will tackle Barnes and Nobel next.  However, any ePub should work with a NOOK - so I am told.  We'll have to see...

Today I got the word we are live on iBookstore.  That is good news.  The iBook Author program has some unique features that makes publishing on that platform a step above the rest.  This includes tight formatting of the book.  This was more time consumiong than the others, but we are done.  Hooray!

Apple's Dev Support team is top notch.  Thank you!

A word or two about retail "partner" programs.  In creating my retail accounts, I found Amazon.com and Lulu.com to be the best and fastest providers for the a new book product from those I have tried.  Both were online within a very short period, and I started taking orders from Amazon the same day.  I found Lulu later on, and although the upload file was more temperamental, their interface was the easiest to use.   I am new to Lulu and have not had any sales yet.

Google surprised me.  With all their resources you would think they would have a better system.  Uploading a change to a book cover - an essential element in tweaking the marketing campaign - is absurd.  You have to replace the entire book file.  After having some issues with this elsewhere, I am reluctant to do this, so have left my flat book cover in place instead of the very cool 3D version.

A word to e-book providers - the thumbnail used to illustrate your book should be a separate file from the cover.  Reading 'page 1' as your thumbnail is something I would expect from some techy programmer, not a marketing professional.

I set up a Pay Pal account to handle the PDF sales, and that went very smoothly.  I deliver the content from my own website.

Apple still is not in the game, and that is a disappointment.  The ability to create a strict format to my design specifications is the entire point behind the iBook Author program, and The Juno Letters is optimized for that platform.  We are in week 3 and still nowhere.  For some reason, they accepted the book as I submitted it on the free site, but still have not approved it for the pay site, finding some 'issues' to fix- which I did and sent myself back into stasis.  I will be calling tech support again tomorrow.  In my 30 years as an Apple customer I have never seen an application so poorly implemented as their book upload program.

I am going to start the email program without Apple iBookstore being operational - cannot wait any longer.

I have a letter going to the Apple board tomorrow, for what it is worth.

I have been busy setting up the marketing campaign for The Juno Letters, as well as starting the research for the sequel, Cross of Fire.  Many of you who follow my blog have received the sample email test.  Thanks for putting up with me on this.

I have signed up for Contact Contact to manage my email campaigns, and will begin to push these out in a week or so, as soon as I get the word of the latest version on the iBookstore.

Lulu.com is an independent retailer I have joined, and they are attempting to push the listing for the ePUB version to Barnes and Noble and iBookstore as well.  The format requirements there were extremely tough, especially trying to upload with a Word document.  Everytime I saved the file, my friends at Microsoft would graciously rearrange my styles for me - thank you, but I need them AS I APPLIED THEM - and what should have been a 1 hour change took over 4 hours.

The ePUB version I created directly out of Pages still looks the best on iBooks, but other platforms have different requirements, so they say.

Despite this, Lulu's interface and system is very user friendly.