ebook conversion
With the advent of the iPad, Kindle, Nook and other eReaders, ebook conversion of a print book into ePub and .mobi formats is now in great demand.
An ebook is, of course, an electronic method of reading a book or other materials in an easy and compact way, but ebook conversion from a hard copy to an eReader is much more than a simple scanning process. Converting to ePub/.mobi involves removing much of the print-based formatting (page numbers, footers, indexes, etc.) that are not relevant in the eReading context. The result is a single block of flowable or fixed layout text and images.
We will get your book ready for devices such as iPads, Kindles, Nook and other eReaders, making sure that all images are resized and formatted, in their correct placing, text flows correctly from chapter to chapter and is clear and easy to read.
Writers write, that’s what you’ve choosen to do in your life. So let us handle the task of ebook conversion so you can concentrate on writing. We’ll take care of the document conversion, page layout, cover design and testing, turning the source files into an ebook ready for sale online.
eBooks come in two ways. Flowable and Fixed Layout (FXL)
Text-based books are, by large, the best suited for conversion to ePub/.mobi in the flowable format. This means that books flow easily from page to page with minimal breaks except for where the author/publisher wishes it to be so (Chapter Headings for example). The drawback to flowable is that the moment a reader increases the font-size all of the designers carefully prepared work goes out the window. If your book contains items like tables, these can break and start to spread over pages they should not, bad usage of page breaks can lead to empty white spaces. Tables can be turned into images or lists, but this may not be to an authors liking, so it is essential that an author has a good idea of how the ebook conversion will look in flowable and that the reader has more control over the way they read a book than with a print version.
Therefore books which contain lots of charts, formulas, tables, images, etc. are better suited to the Fixed Layout format. The FXL process may take longer as a redesign of the book could be necessary, but FXL tends to be more representative of the original work. If you already have something like a cook book or children’s book in print then that is the way it will look like on an eReader with FXL. The drawback to FXL ebook conversion is the lack of font-sizing and it feeling more static than flowable. It also does not work well on older ereaders such as Amazon’s 1st-gen Kindles.
Tablets like the Apple iPad and Kindle Fire are the best format for full-colour photography and image heavy eBooks, whilst readers like the Amazon Kindle Voyage only show images in monochrome.
You may have seen books that have a lot of interactivity and animation. Whilst placing video, sound and links, etc. in eBooks is no problem some, like The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore are not pure eBooks as such, they are more akin to apps. Apps require full development and programming and are costly to produce, Ninja Beaver Studios does not offer this kind of conversion.
We are a small, but dedicated and knowledgeable team who are committed to handling your work with security and discretion.
Dependent upon the size and the amount of formatting needed, an ebook conversion can take from a couple of days to a few weeks. Although an eBook is nothing more than a series of HTML files that does not mean it should not have clean markup and styling. A good, readable eBook depends upon these and this is part of what Ninja Beaver can provide. More information on the creation of an ebook can be found here .
Our rates are determined by the page size of the book plus the level of bespoke formatting required; you can email us and we’ll provide you with access to our file server or set up a Dropbox folder for you. Once we have a good idea of your needs we’ll give you a quote to get your book into the future of publishing.
Our ebook services
- Tagging and linking of the Table of Contents (TOC).
- Proofing of the illustrations to make sure they are resized properly (the original source files may be required).
- Removal of the original page numbers and page headers (to prevent them from appearing in the middle of the page)
- Re-flowing of the text by chapter and re-pagination of the entire book.
- Testing upon various ereaders to make sure they read and flow well.
- An eye-catching cover design to help sell your book. The cover can come from various sources; stock photos, supplied images or original artwork. A logo design and branding service is available if you wish to create a range of titles. If you wish for original artwork with your book this will increase the cost, but please get in touch to discuss in further detail.
- Ensure the files conform to the various eReader’s validation requirements.
- Various styling (i.e. drop caps, captions, underlining, hyperlinks, footnotes).
- A lot of big ebook publishers put their projects through an automated process. This is fine, but all the ebooks then tend to come out the same. We favour a more bespoke ebook conversion process. Each title is carefully formatted to ensure it looks good on the target ebook readers. We accept a wide range for source document formats, including Word, PDF, HTML, etc. But our preferred workflow is Word → Adobe InDesign → Adobe Dreamweaver → ePub/.mobi.
What we do not offer
We will not proof or correct the manuscript file. We do not scan hard copies of books. The ebook conversion service does not guarantee your book will look exactly as the printed version or PDF, so we would ask authors or publishers to make sure that they have a good idea of what their book may look like in a stripped-down version. The formatting of the original file is critical to the outcome of the ePub conversion. Ninja Beaver Studios will always be more than happy to convert any book to the ePub/.mobi format but anything that we consider to be illegal, too extreme or suspect may be plagiarised will be refused outright.
Examples
FAQs
Can any type of book be converted to the EPUB/MOBI file format?
Yes. The ebook conversion process to an ePub/.mobi format is similar for all eBook formats. The result is a single block of flowable text and images. Converting to ePub/.mobi involves removing much of the page-based formatting (page numbers, headers and footers, page breaks, etc.) that are not relevant in the eReading context.
Text-based books are largely the best suited for conversion to ePub/.mobi format. Books which contain lots of charts, formulas, tables, and images are more suited to a Fixed Layout, but the process may take longer.
I found a typo in my book or would like to make another change to the manuscript, can I make that change once the ebook conversion process has started?
Maybe. If caught in time, it is possible to change typos (or if we notice one, you will be informed) but a bigger design change to the manuscript may incur additional costs or will have to wait until the conversion to ebook completed.
Does Ninja Beaver offer publishing or distributing services?
No. With this service, we will only format, convert and test your files to ePub/.mobi on the appropriate devices. Once you have these files, you then can choose how to distribute your work but we will provide information on how to do this.
I’ve used a variety of special fonts in my book, will these convert well?
On the whole, yes. Though eReaders give the reader a limited choice of fonts to read with, embedding different fonts in the text is also part of the ebook conversion service. We ask though that you have the licence (if needed) to use the embedded font. The simpler the font, the better.
Why should I have the manuscript formatted before doing an ebook conversion?
An ebook conversion extracts the formatting from the original file. If images are not saved properly, page breaks are not done correctly, etc. the outcome of the ePub file may be jumbled and will not look right on the reader.
