Re: Best ebook software or method for a 250-page book from PDF to Kindle

[Jonathan Baker <jbaker2525 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

You have hit one of the sore spots of responsive design. E-books are
generally intended for content like fiction that has very little
formatting. Not at all good for anything else. However, there is something
relatively new, called fixed-format e-books, which was designed to convert
children's books into e-books. E-book pages of this format are fixed, sort
of like an image, and are not responsive. Therefore, this type of e-book is
only really readable on a tablet, pc, or laptop, So, you can convert your
PDF to a fixed-format e-book and NOT lose any formatting. I think the links
should work. I've used this format successfully for picture books that I
wanted to have in print and electronic versions.

The drawbacks are not trivial. Fixed-format books cannot be read on a
mobile device, for instance. Nor can they be read on Kindle devices. They
can be read on Fire tablets, but I think that the Fire devices have to
support color, even if you don't have color in the PDF.  *Big Caveat*: This
isn't a good long-term solution if you will be re-using this content
regularly.

So, why not convert directly, using the PDF, to a fixed format e-book file?
It is an exact representation of the PDF. This is a sort of last resort
solution, but I've done it, so I know it works.

Also, I don't for a minute believe that whomever created the file doesn't
have the original,. I'm guessing that they are just too lazy to go find it.
And they don't care how much makework it is for you.

Let me know if this is a workable short-term solution for you and if you
have any questions.

Jon

On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 1:39 PM Raphael Workman <raphaelworkman -at- comcast -dot- net>
wrote:

> I have a friend who is publishing an eBook. They already asked for
> professional help, but the person created a PDF and didn't save the
> original file in Word or Google docs or whatever it was in. Now the only
> proofread version of this 250-plus-page book is the PDF. I've used Calibre
> to convert the PDF to an .epub file and I've used Sigil to edit the table
> of contents and a few pages, but it is laborious, and I'm new to
> epublishing and .epub and all software related to them. I have some
> familiarity with Adobe InDesign, but I don't have a current subscription
> and I'm doing this as a favor. It could be lucrative in the long run
> because they will use me for all ebooks in the future if I rescue them from
> this quagmire.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with Word and if there is a good way to format it in
> Word and it would just translate to .epub pretty seamlessly, then I'm happy
> to do that. Currently, when I just went from PDF to .epub it was about as
> accurate as going from PDF to Word. Stuff that was originally centered is
> left justified, text sizes and formatting are lost, etc.
>
> It is very well researched meaning it has an average of 3-5 footnotes on
> every page of the PDF, which I'm assuming based on some ebooks I've
> perused, would have to be at the end of the chapter and have hyperlinks on
> the superscript marking denoting a reference that would take them to the
> corresponding footnote. This sort of thing wouldn't be that difficult in
> Word (even though it could prove labor intensive), but in an unfamiliar
> software program it is both strange AND labor intensive.
>
> What would be the quickest way for me to get up to speed in a day or two
> so I can get it done in the next week? What would you recommend (any
> software or tutorial or method) that has worked for you?
>
> Thank you so much!
>
> RaphaÃl
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