If you are attending one of the classes I teach on this subject, and you want to take an existing manuscript and convert it to a working eBook file during the class, then you will need the following:
- Laptop
- Jutoh installed as either a working trial or fully licensed version
- Open Office, or the ability to save from .ODT to Word 97/2000
- A complete manuscript (short story to novel length is adequate), but it should have at least 2 chapter heads or main “sections” to the book for proper demonstration purposes.
Your word processor shouldn’t really matter. I use an MS Word platform, but all of this is still possible with the Mac equivalent(s). The only minor complication I’ve ever encountered is how Mac equivalents treat with styles. Styles are at the heart of what makes this process fast, easy, and reliable, so you will need a firm understanding of how to create them, derive them from templates, and apply them consistently. This will be addressed during the class.
The applications you will or may need to install are as follows:
Jutoh eBook Conversion Utility ($39)
Jutoh is a dedicated, client-side application designed to perform a variety of tasks, but its focus is on exporting eBook files to .MOBI (Kindle), .EPUB (most other platforms), and .ODT (for conversion to .DOC and upload to Smashwords).
Apache Open Office (free)
Open Office (of which you will only need the word processor) is used to convert the outputted Smashwords .ODT to a Word 97/2000 DOC file, which is subsequently uploaded directly into Smashwords.
Pagina ePub Checker (free)
I rarely use this utility, as I rarely get errors with my books. However, in some cases this EPUB validator can examine EPUB files and expose some issues with the XML contained within.
