Spontaneous ∂erivation

Sat 9:30 PM

This book needs a cover; that would have been a nice tutorial on Covers for All Book Formats More or Less, but that’s a blog post for another day.

Time for Mobipocket.

mobigen run on the Epub file finishes in a minute. File checks out.

Sat 9:32 PM

Wondering what format to do next.

Oh yes, PDF. Which means a detour via html2ps and then Ghostscript’s ps2pdf.

This is a little more complicated.

Especially since html2ps is segfaulting for some reason on my Mac.

Sat 10:02 PM

Removed incidental cause of the seg fault, will be fixing it for real tomorrow or sommat.

Or… not. html2ps doesn’t deal with raw utf8; it lives on ISO encoding. Like the rest of perl. No Ruby (defaults to utf8) equivalent around.

Sat 10:24 PM

The other option I know of, wkpdf, needs a consolidated HTML file.

So… let’s take the worked original file, and add anchors. MacVim again!

This time I’m running short perl filters against the text directly in the editor, then using grep to grab the anchors and more regular expression/replace to create the links.

Incidentally, this also gives us the one-file HTML version with a table of contents.

Sat 11:09 PM

Well, I ended up enabling the web server with PHP5, increasing memory limits and PCRE backlimit, to try to run html2pdf, the PHP version. But most of my problems stem from the document being too large.

At this point, I can already generate every other format. Except for PDF with hyperlinks (PDF without such links I can do). Which has always been a bit of an Achilles heel for me.

By the way, apparently the Mac these days comes with textutil, so I might have been able to save a bit of time earlier in Act I. Hey, it can convert to… Word document, Open Office Document Text, …. hang on….

Nah, doesn’t preserve inter-text hyperlinks.

Sat 11:20 PM

Let’s just get all the other mobile formats out of the way.

Using calibre’s any2lrf, we get a valid Sony Reader file in under two minutes.

Using calibre’s oeb2lit, we get a valid Microsoft Reader file in under two minutes.

It takes me longer to type all this down for you and to locate my bookmark to the calibre site, actually.

Sat 11:29 PM

The state of affairs:

• Valid Epub.
• Valid Mobipocket (MOBI).
• (Really) Valid HTML with linkage.
• Valid Sony Reader.
• Valid Microsoft Reader.

All in one day. Actually, counting up the time, less than one day.

Yes. It is here.

Update! Ask and ye shall sometimes receive, if it is within my power. A PDF version is now available, with clicky links and everything. Please see Locations below.

Update #2! No one asked, but I created an LRF file for older Sony Readers that can’t read ePub files. I don’t have a Sony Reader, though, so I’m not sure how it turns out; I think the formatting might actually look different than the corresponding ePub, even though they’re all from the same source files….

Note: Remember: these are an unofficial—if legal—conversion. Both the original and these conversions are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Schedule: I plan on doing the episodes as individual files, with “up to now” season compilations as a separate, updated ebook file. Eventually the individual episodes will expire (but that won’t be until season end) and there’ll just be the Season 2 Ebook.

Exciting Features:

• Episode 1 in mobile reading form.
• Pretty cover for your ebook device/software.
• Typographical quotes and dashes!
• All episode-specific easter eggs and extras included.

Locations:

If you own a Kindle or other device/program that can read Mobipocket files (.MOBI):
  Shadow Unit - 2x01 - Lucky Day (Kindle/Mobipocket) (153.9 KiB, 441 hits)

If you own a Sony PRS-505 or later, Adobe Digital Editions, or some other device/program that can read EPub files (.EPUB):
  Shadow Unit - 2x01 - Lucky Day (Epub) (344.3 KiB, 292 hits)

If you own anything that can read a PDF file (bonus if it can deal with links in a PDF file):
  Shadow Unit - 2x01 - Lucky Day (PDF) (135.5 KiB, 319 hits)

If you own an older Sony that cannot read EPub files and don’t want to use the PDF above¹:
  Shadow Unit - 2x01 - Lucky Day (Sony) (157.6 KiB, 280 hits)

Enjoy!

Need Season 1?

It’s currently only available for the Kindle, but can be converted via calibre for Sony. (It’s a huge file, relatively speaking, for an ebook).

Screenshots!

Below the cut.

Click here to read more »

1. It’s not form-factored for a small screen, still need to figure out how to do that with the tools I have on hand. [↩]

As of this writing, calibre, which can convert many things from one format to another featuring command-line tools, does not convert LRF to HTML, or indeed, to most anything else other than LRS, an XML format. Currently this is not a high-priority item to fix in calibre itself, because calibre is aimed at converting things to LRF. (The ePub conversion is still relatively new and shiny.)

ETA: Here’s the LRS specification.

So. Heck. Why not. I’m using Ruby, by the way, because Ruby has the kick-ass REXML library, which also forms the cornerstone for my ruby-epub stuff (still in the making).

Geekery after the cut.

Click here to read more »

There are pictures under the cut, yes.

Shadow Unit is damn good horror/science fiction/fantasy combined with the gritty reality of real spycraft a la Sandbaggers—or, if you’re more up-to-date, Queen & Country. And so, like with many things I love these days, I wanted it on my Kindle to look at whenever I want (among other things, the Kindle has increased the amount that I re-read). There were complications of course.

Shadow Unit is an odd serial work: the kind that can only arise in a hyperlinked environment like the web. Its structure isn’t just a linear story. For example, there are hidden easter egg links that take you to “deleted” scenes, extra story bites, back story, even character sketches. There’s even a PDF script book somewhere in there.

In other words, Shadow Unit not something you can just straight-out textify without losing a vital part of its personality.

One thing that the MobiPocket format is especially good at is capturing a super-linked work—in particular because it’s based off of HTML with some extensions, and also is essentially a directory archive that can store separate image files and HTML text, all zipped up together. This is perfect for, say, reference works that live and die on the index, or anthologies of stories; something like Shadow Unit fits right in.

So I decided to create a “bootleg” eBook for Shadow Unit and distribute it for free—and naturally DRM-free. The final copy will be ready by Sunday, I think. It’s mostly ready right now, but I have some kinks to work out.

Don’t worry, I’m not violating copyright; the creators—Elizabeth Bear, Emma Bull, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly, Amanda Downum, and Stephan Shipman are using the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license. As long as I’m not selling it and I provide attribution to them, it’s alright. I’m also going to be using the same license.

There is an extra addendum to not alter the prose, which I also complied with.

Among the things I learned during this process:

• eBooks take some thought to lay out professionally, even if you’re just aping it like me. Which makes sense, since digital “printing” is still printing, just with different considerations and angles;
• putting together an eBook that draws even somewhat heavily on linking is even tougher than just a normal eBook like I did yesterday;
• making the Shadow Unit eBook is a bit like putting together a TV show DVD, with so many fussy details and extras to get right.

I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I have lots of respect for publishers.

But anyways, on with the current features—and pictures!—below the cut.

Click here to read more »

To Glory:

1. Find a story online to practice on.
2. Discover that the HTML is horrible, and strip it down and massage code via perl scripts. This is almost always the case.
3. Install CrossOver Mac because you have an Intel mac, and you really, really don’t want to open the work laptop.
4. Create a Windows 2k “bottle” (simulated environment) on CrossOver to put software in. Cute.
5. With CrossOver, install IE6 in the Win2k bottle. For some reason MobiPocket Creator needs it.
6. Download MobiPocket Creator and install with CrossOver as “advanced” edition.
7. Import HTML into the Creator a few times until you get it right.
8. Discover that Stanza (Mac only) is way better than any MobiPocket previewer for your new Mobi file.
9. Mess around with metadata and get the format for author name wrong for a while.
10. Not that it mattered, since you didn’t realize you had to hit the Update button allll the way down a long scroll of page, not the convenient “save” button at top. Note to self: GUIs continue to be stupid.
11. Several uploads over USB to Kindle later, you reach enlightenment.
12. Search around the web for the key stroke that makes your Kindle take screenshots of itself (it’s Alt-Shift-G). Marvel at lack of feedback Kindle gives you to tell you if the screenshot even worked. And good thing you have an SD card in, since the screenshots will only save to the SD card.
13. Connect Kindle via USB for the umpteenth time.
14. Download screenshots.
15. Post to blog via ScribeFire.

    Ta-da! Clicky for full size.

    
16. Now you have to figure out ToC, multiple files (or just one gigantic HTML file?), guides, images, and such.

Notes on the Home content list screenshot:

• Yes, I keep forgetting to delete my samples even after I buy the books (Dust in this case). It is possible to do so, but the Content Manager is slow, not easy to navigate, and I have a zillion books/samples on it now, so I keep putting it off….
• For some reason Farthing’s metadata doesn’t show Jo’s byline. That needs to be fixed before it goes into real publication, of course.
• Flatland is from FeedBooks.
• “Green” (by Jay Lake) is an upload via the Kindle email conversion service. Uploads that are converted (HTML for instance) stick your email in as the author. It’s one reason why I wanted to learn MobiPocket—so I could get the metadata right.