soderlind
Collate Posts Into Single Book?
I'm looking for a solution on how to use WordPress to format ebooks. There are a couple of plugins that are looking at this capability, but none are there yet (Anthologize, MPL Publisher). Pressbooks only does it on the industrial level, not the individual.
This plugin is able to generate a file, but it all looks to be centered on a single Post/Page. Is there a plan to change this to be able to capture and arrange multiple posts/pages? Much like Anthologize and MPL tried to do?
The ability to organize posts and output them formatted files for ereaders for export to Amazon/Nook/iBooks/Kobo/etc is the goal I'm looking for (and I'm sure others are as well). Exporting a single post via a downlink button, given how ereaders accept external files, is not that practical -- a downloaded mobi file, for example, won't be accepted by a kindle app (even on a Fire tablet), and epubs aren't that much better (worse, depending on your device/app).
The distribution of these files is best via the intended ecosphere. To get make a mobi/kindle file most easily available is via uploading it to Kindle via an author's KDP. To get it on all other platforms, you're looking at using an aggregator, like Draft2Digital, Smashwords, or Pronoun.
It would be great if this plugin could have the ability to collate posts (draft or custom post type) into a consolidated book that can then be converted into epub, pdf, and mobi files the author could then export and upload to the relevant platforms.
And, be able to do all of this without the download links being visible in each post. Outside of a PDF, I don't see much of a need for the download and read offline option.
I would like to see a formatting solution that can compile multiple posts into a book (as chapters), output to the various publishing formats (epub and mobi for digital, pdf for print) for upload to channel distribution, and not be reliant on having to publicly publish the post (especially if the intent is to sell it via Kindle, Nook, etc).
That is the need. Not sure if you're interested in taking that on, but you and MPL are the only ones capable at this time. MPL has the post selection and organization, but you are the only one so far to be able to generate an actual readable mobi file.
Not ready to work on this yet, but how would you like post selection and organization ?
I'm (very) open for ideas / feedback :)
My apologies, I've been heavily distracted lately.
If I was going to do this, I think the Anthologize plugin does a great job at organizing the posts into a book.
It allows site owners to use draft or published posts (no need for a custom post type, like the MPL Publisher plugin). Those posts are accessed and allowed to be drag-and-dropped in order. I think that is the best method, because people write things out of order, and re-order, etc all of the time as they work through a draft. That they can use draft posts makes it easier as well -- don't want something to go public, just don't hit publish. But, using tags and such can make it all easier to find and keep organized in the normal post manager.
Some plugins use a specific place or page type for meta data pages (Anthologize and PressBooks are like that), and I'm not a fan. Those pages are more limiting than helping, IMO. I think it's better that users just know they have the option of making pages and can individually format them as they desire.
Once a "book" of posts are arranged and put together, the user should be able to review it in their formats, make changes, and repeat as often as necessary. Also, users should be able to make multiple "books" (Anthologize allows for that, Pressbooks and MPL currently do not).
That's all I can think of for now, but will continue to post suggestions here as they come to mind.
Thanks for sending me here from my ticket.
The most important feature in my view is to have something that doesn't need constant formatting and reconfiguration every time an author adds another text. Because: If my "blog" is really just a book I have already completed, I don't necessarily need a plugin, I can also compile the ebook on my computer, render it perfectly and then place it on the server for download.
The actual beauty of creating the ebook on the Wordpress level is, IMHO, that it's flexible and new content can be added more or less automagically. Therefore, the most important features in my mind are to either allow users to initiate a download of existing posts (with possible preconfiguration on an admin level to include/exclude certain categories), or to allow users to compile their own ebook by including posts and/or categories of their choice.
@robmcclel: While I always hope that everyone gets what they wish for, I can't help but wonder if you might not be happier using an actual word processor and then simply exporting your ebook from there. I may not have the entire picture, but at least from what you wrote, using a program like Scrivener might serve your needs much better than trying to make Wordpress do the job. If there are other considerations for your choice, then please disregard this comment.
@GutHib , my comments here aren't for my own personal needs, though I'm sure I'll use the publishing capability as well. I run a large author support network and this is a very desired feature.
While there are a number of software programs that can convert books, most of the authors that use the service have professional formatters handle their bigger works. But, they are always looking for an easy way to format shorter works (short stories, possibly novellas) easily and cheaply, either to publish shorts from anthologies or to offer serialized work. Many use shorter works as incentives for newsletter signups, so streamlining production and reducing costs is an important consideration for them.
If they use an independent software platform, we can't help them, as we do with other aspects of their business. Having a format capability that can be integrated into their website is a win-win for all of our users.