Ask HN: How do you author your eBooks in 2017? - schappim
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j_s
Some sub-discussions here may be useful:

How to Self-Publish a Novel in 2017 |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13743908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13743908)
(Feb 2017, 163 comments)

How I Made $70k Self-Publishing a Book about Ruby on Rails |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13876514](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13876514)
(Mar 2017, 175 comments)

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allwein
I've been using Ulysses, which is a Markdown based text editor for Mac/iOS. I
really like it's organizational features and it's export support for various
formats. [https://ulyssesapp.com/](https://ulyssesapp.com/)

It's subscription based, $39.99/year, which unlocks is for both Mac and iOS.
It's got sync built-in, which is nice for needed to make corrections or
updates on the go or to record ideas when I'm out and only have my phone.

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jetti
I have used Microsoft Word and Leanpub[1]. Super easy and I like the set your
own price.

[1][https://leanpub.com/](https://leanpub.com/)

~~~
rwieruch
I have self-published two ebooks on Leanpub [0]. It just great to get you
started in self-publishing, because they take multiple input source and output
your ebook in PDF, EPUB and MOBI. It used to be for free to create an ebook,
but now it costs you $99 to create one. Still, you will get a lot of value out
of it.

There are several ways to write your ebook: For instance, I have written mine
simply by using markdown, uploading it to GitHub [1] and giving Leanpub access
to it as collaborator. That way Leanpub is able to pull the recent manuscript
from your repository for a new release or generating a preview. In addition,
hosting the manuscript on a public GitHub repository (in case your ebook is
open source), gives you the ability to make use of collaborating with others
on it. Highly recommended platform!

\- [0] [https://leanpub.com/the-road-to-learn-react](https://leanpub.com/the-
road-to-learn-react)

\- [1] [https://github.com/rwieruch/the-road-to-learn-
react](https://github.com/rwieruch/the-road-to-learn-react)

~~~
jetti
Oh wow. I didn't realize that they charged for your book too. I'm working on a
new book and I think I may take it elsewhere.

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itamarst
If you want to produce epub and mobi, and not just PDF,
[http://manual.softcover.io/book](http://manual.softcover.io/book) is a nice
tool that inputs Markdown and gives you a lot of power. I used it for
[https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/](https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/).

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simulo
I use atom editor [1] (but any other will do, too) for editing and pandoc [2]
for conversion. It is not the most integrated solution, but independent of any
platform.

[1] [https://atom.io/](https://atom.io/) [2]
[http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/)

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quantumfoam
I myself don't publish but I've seen some authors use Markdown and [1]
GitBooks. Kelsey Hightower wrote Kubernetes: The Hard Way in the same manner
[2]. It reads nicely. For publishing, you could look into GumRoad [3]. When I
do some technical writing, I personally like to use StackedIt which supports
Markdown and allows you to export to PDF with custom layouts.

[1] [https://www.gitbook.com](https://www.gitbook.com) [2]
[https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-
way](https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way) [3]
[https://gumroad.com](https://gumroad.com) [4]
[https://stackedit.io](https://stackedit.io)

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zackmorris
I haven't written an eBook, but I use [https://typora.io](https://typora.io)
for all my markdown editing. It's a WYSIWYG editor, which is very rare today,
but has roughly doubled my writing speed because of that.

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matchmike1313
We just use Microsoft Word and follow the correct eBook formatting standards
for where we want to publish. Amazon has some good guidelines on what
formating it needs for Kindle. We are tempted to use some of the online
services for formatting outsourcing.

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ankyth27
I use ms word and PowerPoint, since most of ebooks which I make are 30-100
page marketing materials I find hubspot's ready (google them) made templates
very helpful. For cover I use canva and PowerPoint.

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twobyfour
Scrivener to actually write, then convert to PDF or Word depending on what
post-processing, additional formatting, or other format conversions are
planned.

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hbcondo714
We used VitalSource while working at an university. They offer two eBook
formats: Reflowable eTextbook and Fixed Page eTextbook

[https://support.vitalsource.com/hc/en-
us/articles/1150039655...](https://support.vitalsource.com/hc/en-
us/articles/115003965568-What-eBook-format-do-you-provide-)

