Introduction: So You Want To Make an eBook

This post is part of So You Want to Make an eBook?. I’m releasing this book in sections on my blog, but when it’s all finished I will offer the whole thing as a single eBook. Everyone who donates toward its production (use the coffee cups to the right, note that it’s because of this effort) will get a free copy of this eBook. You can find all the posts here.
Hi everyone. A quick meta-introduction before the introduction (which will go up later this afternoon). I’m planning on putting a section or so up a week. This should only run a month or two, so if you want in on the donation deal, don’t dally.

I just poked back through the “ebook” tag on this blog, and really, there’s some good stuff in there. If you’ve only started following me, take some time to check out some of those older posts.

Also, the idea here is that you get to ask questions. I’m not a wizard, but I’m at the low end of sysadmin competence. I’ve been around computers since I was a wee annoying kid and they still had cassette tape drives. Sometimes I have a tendency to forget that – which is exactly what I don’t want to do here.

My goal is to give you enough information so that you can:
1) Build an eBook from scratch.
2) Learn enough HTML/CSS so that you know how to look at other people’s work and learn new techniques.
3) Know how to fix it when an automatic tool like Sigil, Calibre, or any other borks all over your perfect manuscript.
4) Learn where to look when you need to find the answer.

I’m not going to teach you how to create a web page, program your computer, or anything else – though the skills I will teach you may help there as well.

While I’m posting this here, ask if you don’t understand. Ask publicly in the comments or ask in e-mail.

I am convinced that this is a skill that writers must master – even if it’s so that we know what has happened when the automatic tools go wrong.

I’ll see you again in a few hours.