PUBLISHING DIARY:  Converting to Audio and E-Book

Enabling effective editing for me and for my gracious editors requires two steps – converting the manuscript to both a machine-read MP3 version and to a Kindle eBook.

Now, for the first task, I use a program called “NaturalReader” (https://www.naturalreaders.com to sample).  Now, this has a tie into MS Word so you can select text (like a chapter), and then direct the program to covert it.  If you use another editor (such as Google Docs), you can “cut & paste” out of that and into NR’s control program, accomplishing the same result.  Basically, I end up with one file per chapter (with the introduction together with the first chapter and the epilogue on its own).  These files will be then loaded onto whatever device I’m using to edit the “Kindle eBook”, and there you go – off to the races!  This step takes about two to three hours.

For the next step, I want to give a grateful nod to the book I use, namely “The eBook Design and Development Guide” by Paul Salvette (http://amzn.to/2itJ5Ug).  It doesn’t exactly hurt that I have, by profession, a background in HTML, XML, CSS, regular expressions, and the like.  Although not required and more that adequately explained in Salvette’s work, having such skills already is a help.  What Salvette does and I find myself going back to over and over again is his chapter on a “work-flow” for converting a document to an e-book.  It’s very helpful!  This process takes a bit longer, and I’ll be working on that over the next two to three days.  That’s a bit more like eight to nine hours of work.

However, when it’s all done, the MP3 files and the draft eBook can be loaded onto a Kindle or an iPad that has the Kindle software, and then the editing process begins.

More on that later, as I’m into it!

Merry CHIRSTmas and have a happy and very blessed New Year.

JTL