Comments on: Three Mac apps to help you self publish your book

By: TyusDurant

TyusDurant — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:17:20 +0000

Nice article, I would suggest if you are serious about making epubs consider what you are going to use for a text editor as well. All epubs will have to be tweaked if you want to include javascript for interactivty and non of the current epub programs have that capability built in.

By: Alicia Mayer

Alicia Mayer — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 03:35:23 +0000

Fantastic reply, and very important when your self-publishing plans are focused on rare photographs.

By: deborah1

deborah1 — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:26:59 +0000

Once you get the feel of the basics, InDesign is pretty easy to use. Lynda.com has some great training courses, if you want to learn how to use any of the Adobe products. David Blatner of (http://indesignsecrets.com/) also provides some invaluable tutorials and resources for InDesign.

By: spudart

spudart — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:58:38 +0000

Thank you for listing InDesign. So often lists like this only include the cheap programs. But yes, InDesign is very robust. I have plans at work to make it the hub of all our ebook creation. Down with Microsoft Word!

By: agstorm

agstorm — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 01:32:00 +0000

Great article and a good informative read. I use Scrivener and I am still waiting for the iPad app – hopefully this millennium. I’ve tried Pages for writing, but I have to admit, for me at least, I still prefer Scrivener. As it is, I’m looking hard at dumping my current self-publishing company and going it alone (scar thought); should be interesting.

By: IBooks Author

IBooks Author — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:03:22 +0000

I think you need to throw iBooks Author into the mix here. I’m just finishing up on my first book with it, so I don’t have the total solution under my belt… but it is definitely the wave of the future.

By: vixenuk

vixenuk — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:40:38 +0000

I am trying to decide what is best to use. Thank you for this helpful article!

Can you not use pages on the iPad and transfer to InDesign? I have toyed with ID but realise I need proper tuition to benefit from the software. I am conversant with iBooks Author (though that has the obvious pitfall of limiting publication through Apple).

If anyone can help me to learn ID and what app will link to iPad, I would be very very grateful!

By: maxclarke

maxclarke — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:56:25 +0000

Thanks for the Scrivener mention, I’ll give it a try.

By: Guy Antibes

Guy Antibes — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:27:40 +0000

I don’t use Pages, but I use the other two in a workflow when I write novels. I draft in Scrivener because of the many files (character sketches, scene descriptions etc.) can be opened in a split window. I’ll do one or two rewrites in Scrivener, and then I’ll put the novel into MS Word and use their grammar and spell checker. When I’ve got the manuscript in decent shape then I put it into InDesign (I have the older CS4 version, but it works superbly). Here I can compose the graphical aspects of the book including orphaned lines and any artwork.

I take the InDesign file and convert it to a high quality PDF for publishing at Amazon’s CreateSpace. For e-pubbing, I take the InDesign file and transfer it back to MSWord so I can take advantage of the Word conversion tools available at Amazon, Smashwords and PubIt (B&N’s e-book publishing site.) For cover design (I do my own book covers), I use Adobe Photoshop for the images and Adobe Illustrator for the layout and PDF output to CreateSpace. I order a Proof copy of the actual book from CreateSpace for a final polish. I find I can catch errors or issues with phrasing better if I look at my manuscript in different formats.

InDesign gives your print output so much more polish than using a word processing program that it’s worth the hassle of learning the program. I also find that

I’ve done eight books this way and it works just fine (see Guy Antibes in Amazon for samples)

By: Aalok

Aalok — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:57:18 +0000

I use Omm Writer for writing. I was completely blown away with this app. Nothing comes close and it is really reasonably priced for what it offers. Zero distractions to bother you with meditative sounds & visuals to allow your thoughts to flow.

1. Plug in your headphones
2. Choose your favourite theme, sound, typing
3. Dive into an ocean of writing ecstasy

http://www.ommwriter.com/