[kmhodge]

So I am working on converting my google docs into ePub and Mobi formats. My problem is that everything looks fine until I send it to my kindle. When I send it to my kindle it is missing the spaces that I put in. The chapters I broken down into time stamped vignettes and I need a space between the end of the paragraph and the time stamp for the new vignette. Does this make sense? I'm super new to this so any help you can give me would be much appreciated. I am using calibre to convert my documents.
Thanks again!

 

[ML-Larson]

Download Calibre.  It's free, and will convert a doc or docx into a large variety of ebook formats, including mobi.

 

[kmhodge]

I am using Calibre already. I need to know how to keep spaces between sections. When they are converted and read through the kindle they disappear. I clicked the box that says to have spaces between  paragraphs.

 

[ML-Larson]

In that case, make sure you're using page styles, and not just double-spacing by hitting return twice.  That often parses as an error and gets stripped out, even if you tell it to keep the spacing.

 

[kmhodge]

Page Styles?

 

[Salvador Mercer]

Hi,

Page styles are all those little boxes on the HOME tab that make each header or section of your script a certain 'style' which includes formatting and spacing both before and after the paragraph as well as font, size, etc.

Look for it on the home tab.  I learned about it when I wanted to make a Table of Contents and this can be done with the use of styles.

PM me if you need more but the WORD help should be enough, it worked for me recently.

Luck!
SM

 

[kmhodge]

I'm doing everything in Google docs so I'll have to research how to do it in their systems. I enabled Heuristic Processing in calibre and that seems to have done the trick though some glitches are still showing up.

 

[G. Henkel]

Unfortunately you do not mention exactly how you take your Google document and turn it into eBooks, but here is a link to my tutorial about eBook formatting. It will give you great guides as to how to proceed and make sure your book will work properly on all platforms. I also have a book on the subject called "Zen of eBook Formatting" which goes into even more detail, showing more advanced features as well.

http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/

 

[Janet Rochester]

Guido is the best. Just do what he says and you'll be fine. I've used his instructions to format all my books and they come out perfect.

 

[kmhodge]

Unfortunately you do not mention exactly how you take your Google document and turn it into eBooks, but here is a link to my tutorial about eBook formatting. It will give you great guides as to how to proceed and make sure your book will work properly on all platforms. I also have a book on the subject called "Zen of eBook Formatting" which goes into even more detail, showing more advanced features as well.

http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/

Guido,
I have the document in google docs. I save it to disc as HTML and then use the Calibre program to convert it to ePub and Mobi. I was able to get the spaces but now my indents are a bit wonky (some more indented than others). Does this answer your question?

 

[G. Henkel]

It answers the question, yes, and I can tell you that the process is not a good one. If you export to HTML from Google there is most likely all sorts of garbage in the code and you have no control over the flow or structure of it, unless you go in an hand-edit the HTML file again. It is one of the key messages that keep trying to drive home with authors, that exporting from a word processor is simply not a good idea because- as you saw for yourself - it creates a lot of unexpected behavior.

Try the tutorial on my blog, or my book, or if you feel it's all too technical, feel free to ping me. I'd be more than happy to format the book for you. I've been formatting hundreds of books in the past and I've worked with some of the biggest selling authors - http://guidohenkel.com/ebook-services/

 

[Writer's Block]

I used to use Google Docs for writing until I found it too difficult to manage all the docs I had for my novel. So I downloaded Scrivener. It's fantastic for managing and compiling for .mobi / .epup / print.

It's free for the first 30 days. You should give it a go, might help you out.

 

[G. Henkel]

I love Scrivener as much as the next guy, but to use it for a commercial eBook export is not really a good idea. I just posted on this subject over in this thread - http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,210032.0.html

Using exporters ,whether it's from Scrivener, Word, InDesign or any other software, is really, really asking for trouble - a lot of it! If creating eBooks were really that easy, there would not be all these tens of thousands of broken and seriously flawed books in eBook stores.