Book authoring software
From MobileRead
This page covers software and techniques for authoring Books and in particular eBooks.
Contents |
Introduction
These days most everyone writing books are using computer tools to help with the job. In some cases computers are being used simply as replacements for the old typewriter with simple editing capability but others are using features way beyond just entering text. If you are an author please add your own ideas and techniques to this page.
The focus of this article is eBook creation and not just conversion of eBooks from one format to another. Please check Creation conversion software for information on converting documents. Note that many of the conversion tools permit editing the source document or even simple file creation but they typically lack the more specialized features needed for true book authoring.
The task
Book writing consists of the composing, composition, proofing, editing, illustration generation, page layout, TOC generation, indexing, bibliography generation, and publishing. Not all books require all of these tasks. Some writers develop an outline and some books require significant research. All of the tasks are iterative and require some sort of version management and control. Software tools can help to automate many of these tasks.
Editing is a particular task that broadens the scope of the book to include other people. A good editor is essential to avoid errors in the final document. Some books have two different editors, one to verify the technical content and one to verify the grammar and composition. The method of communicating these changes back to the author can be greatly influenced by the tools being used. Tracking these changes should include a method of being able to check point the documents themselves.
Authors work different ways but some things that can be useful are ways to capture notes and ideals to incorporate into the book. Breaking the task down can be useful to some authors, outlines, scenes, overall descriptions of what is to be communicated are all items that can make a project easier. Progress measures can also be important when there are deadlines to meet. Even demographic analysis can have a role in some books such as measuring the grade level of the book.
Authors are not necessarily computer experts so the tools need to be integrated and easy to use or they may not be useful.
Software Tools
This section includes applications that run on multiple platforms. Typical platforms include Windows, MacOS X, and Linux. Some will even work on SunOS. The tools listed here may not work on all platforms but will generally work on at least two.
- MS Word is likely one of the most popular methods to enter books for publishing. In fact some self publishing sites require that books be submitted in this form. There is a free tool for MS Word that can generate LIT files.
- PDF is the most popular format for the actual publishing press run but many tools that can generate PDF are not able to supply the extra data like cropping marks that are needed for the press.
- Adobe provides several solutions for producing books. These include Adobe Acrobat, Framemaker, and InDesign. (Pagemaker is also offered but it is not really an authoring tool)
- Adobe Framemaker is a robust tool and includes some basic functionality from Webworks.com which includes the ability to support HTML, LIT, and eReader formats. Webworks also has their own tool called epublisher that includes these features and custom XML support.
- Open Office has a set of tools including Word Processing. There is a macro available for OO Writer than can generate eReader files.
- LaTeX plus Friends have a very long history already. Most of the scientific books you might still know from your own studies are set and written with LaTeX & Co. Unlike most other programs it requires to write the layout in a programming way (not WYSIWYG), similar to HTML or this Wiki. However, the to learn this "programming" will highly pay off later. LaTeX and friends will automatic take care of the complete layout and keep it uniform and very professional. BibTeX takes care of citation, auto generation of a table of content, automatic indexing are just some highlights of the LaTeX system. As Editor (LaTeX is just the "compiler") you can choose among many different. Emacs is very famous for Linux, WinEdt, Texmaker, Kile, etc. are other possible Editors. LaTeX & Friends are available for *nix, Mac, and Windows and completely free. If you like to write a scientific book LaTeX is a must.
- LaTeX however isn't for the faint of heart; but a comparatively easy substitute will be Lyx, which is a subset + user interface that produces LaTeX-compatible documents -- and very professional looking too (Linux+Windows versions available).
Altough ff you aim to produce professional-looking PDF's XeTeX with Kile is a better choice than Lyx since it supports UTF-8 and OpenType features like those offered by the Linux Libertine Font setting of ligatures and different subsets of chars (small capitals, table proportional & minuscle numbers)
Windows specific
- Desktop Author and EBooksWriter are tools for producing books in Windows.
- yWriter has specialized authoring features.
- Readerworks from Overdrive includes authoring software
- Hot Lava Software provides tools specifically targeted to eBooks for the education market and portable platforms.
- WhiteSmoke provides grammar checker, spelling check, text enrichment, punctuation check authoring tool with Dictionary.
- Atlantis Word Processor provides spelling check, templates and other authoring aids. They can natively generate ePUB documents.
Linux (Unix) tools
Unix has long been a choice for publishing. As a matter of fact the original justification for Unix development was for a word processor. A few of the tools currently available for Linux (and/or other Unix systems) include:
- Lyx (also a Windows version)
- Leo
- Kate
- Treeline
- Open Office
- KWord
- Framemaker
- AbiWord
Web based tools
- Smashwords - A free digital publishing platform for independent (self-published) authors. Authors upload their manuscript as a Microsoft Word file and then Smashwords instantly converts it into the following DRM-free ebook formats, ready for sale online: epub, .pdf., .lrf, .txt, .html, .mobi, .rtf and .pdb.
- zinepal.com - A free online service that creates eBooks from web pages and RSS/Atom feeds. Users can add individual stories to their eBook, re-arrange stories, edit stories, change formatting, etc. The service creates PDF, ePub and Mobipocket files.
Publishing
This section will contain a list of publishing houses for authors as services for publishers.
For More Information
Book Writing Applications in Linux is a good tutorial on book writing and covers Linux specific tool usage but is generic enough for others to read.
http://webtypography.net/ is an article on typography for web use. It is equally valuable reading for eBook use although some parts may not apply.
HowTo: Create an eBook contains specific information on converting Books to eBooks but may prove useful anyway.
