I am trying to convert a friend’s book to kindle that I designed for her for print. The book was designed using Adobe InDesign and Adobe offers a PDF white paper with instructions for conversion. One of the programs it recommends is a free open-source conversion utility called calibre which is useful whether you are using Adobe products or not.

I have downloaded calibre and will try it once I have completed the manuscript. Please, do let me know how/if it works for you. Kindle seems a grand system for writing and not having to fiddle about with publishers…if the formatting cam be mastered. :) We’ll see, eh? Best of luck to both you and your friend.

I am writing a novel and I can;t wait to finish it so I can put it on kindle. I just have to… finish the damn thing.

That can be the very hardest part. How many re-writes/re-visions have you been through, as yet? By the way, best of luck with it and never forget: Writing is hard work. :)

Oh I’m still on the first draft. Well, Not quite. I got as far as about chapter 9 and realised I’d made a major mistake so I went back and re-wrote that part.

@downtide It is difficult to keep all together with writing. Takes time , effort and energy – skull sweat, eh? Are you a member of any writers groups? Have you any favorite,i.e., ‘helpful books’ on writing? What, if I may ask, are your opinions of the various “free ware” software programs said to help with writing: Storybook; Ywriter;Calibre, etc.?

@throssog I’m not a member of an official writers group but I have a friend who is a professional writer and I get together with him and a few other friends on a fairly regular basis to write and give each other encouragement. As for those software programs, I’ve tried two or three but I find them WAY too much of a distraction and they are more of a hindrance to me than a help. I do all my planning and writing in an ordinary word-processor. That said, the program I like the best is Ywriter.

@downtide In re: writing programs – know exactly what you mean. I’ve Ywriter ( and several others) in my machine…but have not , yet, begun to use them. Perhaps later. Right at the moment I’m trying to learn all I can about the conversion software and its reasonable/realistic use(s). Any words of wisdom…guidance? “He said pleadingly”.:)

Just an additional piece of info concerning html and conversion to Kindle formatting: Take a look at this site and the multiple articles Guido has been kind enough to set up for all and sundry:
http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/
Best of luck to all and any who try to write!