Survey • 22 March 2012 • The SnowBlog
Survey
So I know how *we* make ebooks for Amazon (as you'd hope). I was wondering, though - how do *you* do it?
We make our own ebooks, from their typesetting files in InDesign CS 5.5. We use the Kindle InDesign plugin that Rob's mentioned before, which helps a bit, to create the Mobi file, along with a lot of custom macros. If you want, I can write them up. Then we upload said file, along with an ONIX message and the cover design measuring no less than 500px wide, to the Mobipocket FTP site. From there, I follow a series of not very obvious links to get the files from the upload folder (which is a mobipocket site, but which is called ebookbase.com, to my endless confusion) to the 'import cabinet' (more confusion) and thence live onto the interweb for to be vended. We also use an XMP export from our bibliographic data whatsit system so I don't have to laboriously type in the title, author, isbn, pub date etc. (It would take all of 8 seconds, but it's the principle, people, the principle. Plus a person, such as me, can make a lot of mistakes in 8 seconds.)
I'm interested, though. If you're a publisher, do you upload things to Mobipocket yourself, or do you get a man in to do that? Do you upload single-title ONIX messages? Or what? Do tell!
Emma
So I know how *we* make ebooks for Amazon (as you'd hope). I was wondering, though - how do *you* do it?
We make our own ebooks, from their typesetting files in InDesign CS 5.5. We use the Kindle InDesign plugin that Rob's mentioned before, which helps a bit, to create the Mobi file, along with a lot of custom macros. If you want, I can write them up. Then we upload said file, along with an ONIX message and the cover design measuring no less than 500px wide, to the Mobipocket FTP site. From there, I follow a series of not very obvious links to get the files from the upload folder (which is a mobipocket site, but which is called ebookbase.com, to my endless confusion) to the 'import cabinet' (more confusion) and thence live onto the interweb for to be vended. We also use an XMP export from our bibliographic data whatsit system so I don't have to laboriously type in the title, author, isbn, pub date etc. (It would take all of 8 seconds, but it's the principle, people, the principle. Plus a person, such as me, can make a lot of mistakes in 8 seconds.)
I'm interested, though. If you're a publisher, do you upload things to Mobipocket yourself, or do you get a man in to do that? Do you upload single-title ONIX messages? Or what? Do tell!