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Can anyone, who has any experience with writing ebooks, recommend a way for me to proceed?

I have a book in Microsoft Word heavy on mathematics: formulas (inline), equations (numbered) and diagrams.

I want to create an ebook from it (both epub and kindle versions), I was thinking one of two ways:

  1. Convert Word document to ebook somehow
  2. Write an ebook from scratch, striping all ms-word formatting

For #2 I am deciding between:

  • LaTeX
  • Markdown
  • reStructuredText

PS: I use both Windows and Linux - so don't worry about OS, I can use anything (except MacOS).

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Working on an answer, but you may have drastically different results depending on whether you use Windows, Mac or another OS. – Steve the Maker Jan 26 '12 at 3:58
You might contact the author of an existing e-book with formulae in it and ask them how they did it. – Neil Fein♦ Feb 9 '12 at 5:04

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords (which distributes to B&N, Apple, Sony, etc.) all have their own conversion programs that start with a Word document. I'm not sure how well they would handle the mathematical bits, but it might be worth a shot.

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Smashwords's style guide specifically states it can't handle text in a text box, so I'd imagine that formulae - which are either that or graphics - wouldn't fare much better. – Neil Fein♦ Feb 9 '12 at 5:03
@VolcanoLotus, but can you use your own programs like Scrivener instead to get those formats? – Vass Apr 5 at 10:27
@Vass I'm not entirely sure I understand your question - do you mean using Scrivener to get it on those retailers? I know there's a lot of software out there that'll create .epub and .mobi files for you. What I don't remember is if anyone requires you to use their conversion tools. It's been over a year, but I think when I did it, Amazon and Smashwords required the tool and B&N didn't, but I'd recommend checking that on each retailer's site. Does that answer your question? – VolcanoLotus Apr 5 at 14:53
@VolcanoLotus, yeah that is pretty close. I am a bit confused with all of these formats and retailers. Especially now knowing that there are changes as well. It seems like the two major formats are epub and mobi and that cover amazon B&N apple and nook, but I did not know that they have their own tools as well – Vass Apr 7 at 15:16
up vote 6 down vote

After doing a bit of digging, Aspose Words Express is the best resource that I came across for converting your files.

I've used Calibre before, but I've had very mixed results.

Calibre is great for converting my own books for reading on various devices, but it can sometimes leave a lot of work in terms of editing artifacts for a press-ready piece of work.

I did use the Aspose converter a few times. All I can say is that it works pretty well and that I was satisfied with it. You are likely to have to do some very thorough checking, regardless which method you choose, but Calibre and Aspose Words Express are both worth a try before you take the time to do a full rewrite.

One technical note: the Aspose website does require a login to download, but the express version file converter seems to be completely free and available offline in the PC format.

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I've came to realize that converters will never get me exactly where I want... but I'll try that one, thanks. – drozzy Jan 26 '12 at 14:58
This is almost always the case. Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you, I'm definitely curious to hear your feedback. – Steve the Maker Jan 26 '12 at 15:18

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