eBook Production / Conversion Service
Loyola Graphics offers services from OCR / word-processor file to complete ePub and Mobi files, and any process in between.
Kindle sample showing common book elements. It is best on Fire, but works on all Kindles.
“I was pulling my hair out for three weeks trying to get my self-published Children’s Picture Book [Tara’s Lookout] on Kindle. I had done all the steps that Kindle Direct Publishing and all the blogs recommended—formatted in Microsoft Word, saved as a HTML file—and I was still getting a terrible result in the Kindle Previewer; random missing pages, black boxes, pages out of order, and a funky fluorescent green hue.
Enter Loyola Graphics. I found them on Craigslist and within two days my book was looking great and for sale electronically on Amazon. Loyola’s staff was friendly, informative and reasonably priced. I’d recommend them in a heartbeat.”
—Eugene Caputi, author/illustrator
“Auto e-Book” from a single XHTML file (specifications available on request), our automatic processor will
- create ePub directory tree with all required files
- automatically generate OPF (manifest) and NCX (toc/contents) files
- manage links
- generate multiple versions appropriate to different e-readers (without forking input data)
- return a prepared ePub that will pass ePubCheck 1.3 and succcessfully upload to iTunes/iBooks store
- return a .mobi file ready to upload to Kindle store
An example: Kindle collapses white space around subheads. If you place an extra paragraph to force some whitespace, it works for Kindle, but looks far too much on iBooks. One solution that works now is to embed codes that can be preserved for one version of output file and excluded from others. E.g.,
<p class="noibooks"> </p>This line exists in the source file. The processor reads the source file and returns one or more files with or without that line. Other tags, different image formats, etc. are similarly accommodated.
The software tools were built for a book publisher currently (2009–2013) converting an extensive backlist to Mobi/Kindle format. It runs as “software as a service.” Clients upload book files to Loyola server and click to run the processors. The filtered file(s) and a report of possible problems are available for immediate download.
Repair of files that a) will not pass epubcheck for iTunes/iBookstore or b) will not render correctly in an eBook, or c) have inconsistent styling, etc.
Quality control: “Electronic proofreading” can be employed to compile a list of things that may be wrong with your file. A human then evaluates that and makes corrections as desired.
- Unbalanced quotes, parens, brackets or other matching pairs.
- Numeric values in alpha strings (mu5ic or 1isten).
- Improbable words (modem for modern).
- Word not found in 70,000 word common English wordlist.
- Em- and en-dashes not applied or incorrectly applied.
- Missing/extra spaces around punctuation.
- Missing/improbable punctuation at end of line.
- Many more.
Checklist
- If there is a cover, a file should be provided. Sizes may vary, but 600x800 pixels is good. JPG and PNG formats are recommended.
- Your book may be submitted as one file or divided one file per chapter. Page breaks in Word documents will serve as chapter breaks.
- Has it failed iTunes? Please include any error messages emailed to you.
- Do you need a Table of Contents more detailed than chapter and section openings?
- Are there images? Each image should be in its own file, and all the images may be zipped together.
- Is there a CSS file?
- What is the exact title of the book?
- Who should be listed as author?
- What is the date of publication?
- Do you require ePub and Kindle formats? Any others?