Design & Decorative Arts

eBook Formatting Guide for Epub & Kindle Mobi Books using ...

Free for a limited time. 5/19 to 5/21

NOTICE: on 5/13, my server went down. The sites are back up (5/18), but if you have problems accessing videos, please use our temporary site:  69.167.133.48/~firstste/index.php or at youtube.com/user/UnrulyGuides, Contact me from Youtube or Google+

PUBLICATION: OCTOBER 2011
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Version 2.0
2011 Edition
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NOTE: References SIGIL eBook Editor 4.9.

Online Videos updated (to Sigil 5.2)

All videos available online

Revised Version 4.0 out Summer 2012.

If you have any issues or questions, please contact me prior to purchase.

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Ebook Publishing and Formatting Guide for Epub & Kindle Mobi books (Sigil Ebook Editor)

This is the modified  guide from our DIY Formatting Kit VERSION 2.0. It contains all the code you need to make your own formatting template.

This book requires working with HTML. If you prefer pre-made templates, Lifetime Updates & Hands-on email help, please go to FirstStepsPublishing.com

NOTICE: on 5/13, my server went down. The sites are back up
(5/18), if you have problems accessing videos, please use our
temp. site:  69.167.133.48/~firstste/index.php or via youtube.com/user/UnrulyGuides.

As an author you don't have time to read through long manuals on the intricacies of HTML and CSS style sheets. In fact, you just want a method you can "plug and go", right?

Unfortunately, e-publishing is not...repeat...NOT a one-click process (yet). Not if you want your file to look its best.

This guide offers just one way to e-publish your book, though it is one of the most effective as it formats for Kindle, Barnes & Noble AND iBookstore. It is the easiest process I have found (so far) for authors to accurately format an  e-book file that validates using epubcheck standards without having to become an HTML expert.

: What this book IS: a Step-by-step process to take you from MS to Epub AND Mobi

: What this book is NOT: A one-click solution. Epub and Mobi files use HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and require a slight learning curve.


Tools Needed
  • Open Source (free) SIGIL Ebook Editor
  • Online Word to HTML conversion tool (free, but donations accepted)
  • A word processing program
Includes
  • Links to 10 online step-by-step videos (Now Available for download*)
  • Code for Creating Master eBook templates
  • Troubleshooting and Tips Section

Contents at a Glance

Learning the Basics
  • HTML and E-books
  • Epub vs. Mobi vs PDF
Part 1 - Styles and Formatting
  • Formatting your Manuscript
  • Lesson 1: Styles
  • Lesson 2: Formatting
Part 2 - Creating Templates
  • The XHTML Template
  • Inserting Images
  • Adding the Table of Contents
  • The Content Style Sheet Template
Part 3 - Step-by-Step Tutorial
  • The Set Up
  • Convert to HTML
  • Using Templates
  • Splitting pages
  • Setting the Meta and TOC Editor
  • Validating the Epub file
  • Convert Epub to Kindle in One Step
  • Proofing
  • How to Upload to Kindle and Barnes & Noble
Troubleshooting & Tips
HTML & CSS Basics
Resources

Testimonials

"...The first day after purchasing DIY, I successfully published one book on Amazon's Kindle site.
The next 2 days, 2 books each. I've just started and have lots more to publish thanks to DIY." - John Boeschen, Author

"...I was just about ready to give up and then I stumbled upon your Ebook Formatting Kit. What a lifesaver!
Now, I can be assured that my ePubs will pass Apple's strict validation. Thank you sooo much Suzanne for
helping me crack the code, your assistance has been invaluable! I could not have done it without you." - James G.

"Suzanne has created some extremely helpful guides for new and experienced authors as well as
self- and small publishers. She takes complex subjects and carefully describes solutions to myriad
issues facing this rapidly expanding group of people. She goes above and beyond to help clients and
non-clients to be able to get the most out of their book development, creation and marketing.
She is very knowledgeable and generous with her help. She's simply great!" - Jeremy Soldevilla
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Price: Too low to display

How To Decorate A Bedroom

Decorating does not have to be hard or complicated, but it does take some special knowledge to really do it right. Now anyone can easily learn some basic bedroom decorating tips that will turn any bedroom into something right out of Home and Garden!

Whether you are just moving into a new place or want to redecorate your old one, this guide will show you the quickest and easiest way to have a bedroom others will envy!

Scroll up and click the Buy button and start decorating your bedroom today!
Price: Too low to display

Sweet Designs Bake It Craft It Style It

Bake it, Craft it, Style it! Amy Atlas, home baker, crafter, and party planner extraordinaire, shows her readers and fans how to create fabulous sweets tables for adults and kids, combining easy recipes, dressed-up store-bought treats, and craft ideas, to make dessert a fitting grand finale to any gathering. Amy Atlas gained an international following when she introduced the concept of meshing baking and crafting to make beautiful sweets spreads. She has designed tables for Brooke Shields, Electrolux with Kelly Ripa, Gayle King, Martha Stewart Weddings, Mindy Weiss, and O Magazine. Since 2008, hundreds of thousands of readers have flocked to her award-winning blog, Sweet Designs. Now they'll learn how she does it for the first time in her first book filled with brand-new tables, original recipes, do-it-yourself instructions, and dozens of tips and secrets.
Sweet Designs includes 15 chapters filled with more than 100 recipes for every kind of irresistible treat, plus over 75 easy, affordable DIY craft projects to make them even more special. Each chapter features an amazing dessert table that reflects themes Amy's clients most often request: a favorite color, design, flavor, destination, passion, or holiday. Amy tells readers how they can make just one item, mix and match items from different tables, or make the dessert tables as shown.

Each chapter explains how to:
  • Bake It: Recipes for making decadent sweets of all kinds, including cakes, cookies, pies, brownies, mousse, truffles, popsicles, ice cream bars, and drinks.
  • Craft It: How-to's for creating Amy's signature popcorn cups, candy bar wrappers, paper pinwheels, banners, candy bags, and more, plus simple instructions for accessing her one-of-a-kind patterns and templates on her website.
  • Style It: Designer secrets for arranging sweets, choosing patterns, accessorizing a pedestal or serving dish, and mixing textures and colors.
  • Shop It: Pick up sweets from the corner store to pair with home-baked desserts and a chapter-by-chapter resource guide for finding the less common ones.
  • Display It: Dressed-up serving vessels, backdrops, dessert tags, and other simple display touches to create the whole dessert table or make a single treat stand out.
  • Switch It: Creative ways to swap the colors and desserts or platters to better suit your needs, grow them down for the kids, minimize your time with easy-does-it tips, and more.
For every maid of honor who needs to plan an epic bridal shower (and then later the baby shower), every mom who needs to put together a birthday bash her kids will never forget, and every Scrabble aficionado who wants to throw the game-night party to end all game-night parties, Amy serves up that elusive "wow factor" to make every celebration an event to remember.
Price: $17.44

I Brake for Yard Sales and Flea Markets Thrift Shops ...

Good Morning America correspondent Lara Spencer is a self-confessed frugalista with a passion for shopping at yard sales, thrift shops, and estate sales, and for decorating her home and friends’ homes with her fabulous finds. In I Brake for Yard Sales, Lara shares her secrets for bargain hunting and tells you where to shop, what to look for, how to pay for it, how to restore it, and finally, where to put it in your house. Looking for the newest arrivals at your local thrift shops? After busy Saturdays and no-pick-up Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the best days to shop for fresh items. Peppered with wisdom from world-renowned appraisers whom Lara knows from her previous work on Antiques Roadshow as well as contributions from well-known designers, this book also features the house of comedienne and good friend Kathy Griffin, which Spencer herself refurbished and decorated.

Price: $13.90

My Passion for Design

A lavishly illustrated personal tour of the great star's homes and collections.

For nearly five decades Barbra Streisand has been one of the singular figures in American entertainment. From the cabaret to the Broadway stage, from television and film stardom to her acclaimed work as a director, from the recording studio to the concert hall, she has demonstrated that the extraordinary voice that launched her career was only one of her remarkable gifts.

Now, in her first book, Barbra Streisand reveals another aspect of her talent: the taste and style that have inspired her beautiful homes and collections. My Passion for Design focuses on the architecture and construction of her newest homes, the dream refuge that she has longed for since the days when she shared a small Brooklyn apartment with her mother, brother, and grandparents. A culmination and reflection of Streisand's love of American architecture and design between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the book contains many of her own photographs of the rooms she has decorated, the furniture and art she has collected, and the ravishing gardens she has planted on her land on the California coast. In addition to glimpses of her homes, Barbra shares memories of her childhood, the development of her sense of style, and what collecting has come to mean to her. My Passion for Design is a rare and intimate private tour into the world of one of our most beloved stars. It will be welcomed by her many fans and all lovers of the great achievements of American design.

Price: $3.95

Blown Covers New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See

Françoise Mouly takes us behind the scenes at the New Yorker and reveals how the magazine creates its signature covers commenting on the most urgent political and cultural events of the day. She shows the shocking and hilarious sketches that didn’t make the cut and explains how these are essential stages in the evolution of a cover that stands the test of time but retains its edge. Her book captures contemporary history—from the farce of Monica Lewinsky to the adventures of Michelle and Barack to nuclear meltdown in Japan—in images that are as acute as they are outrageous. More than that, it shows how the magazine that exemplifies journalistic excellence in America also dares to cultivate a sense of humor when grappling with complex moral and political issues.

Price: $15.79

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

New in the "100 Ideas that Changed..." series, this book demonstrates how ideas influenced and defined graphic design, and how those ideas have manifested themselves in objects of design. The 100 entries, arranged broadly in chronological order, range from technical (overprinting, rub-on designs, split fountain); to stylistic (swashes on caps, loud typography, and white space); to objects (dust jackets, design handbooks); and methods (paper cut-outs, pixelation).
Price: $16.04

The Art of Brave

Brave is Pixar's thirteenth feature film, but it marks two big firsts for the award-winning animation studio. It's Pixar's first feature film driven by a female lead and its first set in an ancient historical period. Against a backdrop of castles, forests, and highlands, Brave follows the fiery Merida as she clashes with the duty of her royal life and embarks on a journey through the rugged landscape of the dark ages of Scotland. At once epic and intimate, the latest Pixar masterpiece weaves a story of magic, danger, and adventure and the fierce bonds of family.
Featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with the film's many artists and filmmakers, The Art of Brave showcases the gorgeous concept art that went into the making of this movie, including color scripts, storyboards, character studies, environment art, sculpts, and more. A Foreword by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews, the film's directors, and a preface by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter shed light on the creation of this landmark film.
Price: $21.74

Creative Workshop 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design ...

Have you ever struggled to complete a design project on time? Or felt that having a tight deadline stifled your capacity for maximum creativity? If so, then this book is for you.

Within Creative Workshop, you'll find 80 creative challenges that will help you achieve a breadth of stronger design solutions, in various media, within any set time period. Exercises range from creating a typeface in an hour to designing a paper robot in an afternoon to designing web pages and other interactive experiences. Each exercise includes compelling visual solutions from other designers and background stories to help you increase your capacity to innovate.

This book also includes useful brainstorming techniques and wisdom from some of today's top designers. By road-testing these techniques as you attempt each challenge, you'll find new and more effective ways to solve tough design problems and bring your solutions to vibrant life.
Price: $15.22

Advanced Style

Advanced Style is Ari Seth Cohen’s blog-based ode to the confidence, beauty, and fashion that can only be achieved through the experience of a life lived glamorously. It is a collection of street fashion unlike any seen before—focused on the over-60 set in the world’s most stylish locales. The (mostly) ladies of Advanced Style are enjoying their later years with grace and panache, marching to the beat of their own drummer. These timeless images and words of wisdom provide fashion inspiration for all ages and prove that age is nothing but a state of mind.

Ari Seth Cohen started his blog inspired by his own grandmother’s unique personal style and his lifelong interest in the put-together fashion of vibrant seniors. Each of his subjects sparkles like a diamond after long years spent refining and perfecting their individual look and approach to life. The Advanced Style book will showcase, in luscious full-color, the best of the blog, but will also act as a true guidebook with all-new material featuring wardrobes, interviews, stories, and advice from a cadre of his most chic subjects, along with a large selection of never-before-seen photography—fresh off of sidewalk catwalks around the world!
Price: $20.58