Success! Well sort of. Smashwords converted my simple two page chilli recipe into a book, complete with picture. It converted it into several formats and advised me that it was being dispatched to a number of publishers.
It converst the book into the following formats:
| Format | Full Book |
|---|---|
| Online Reading (HTML) | View |
| Online Reading (JavaScript) | View |
| Kindle (.mobi) | Download |
| Epub (open industry format, good for Stanza reader, others) | Download |
| PDF (good for highly formatted books, or for home printing) | Download |
| RTF (readable on most word processors) | Download |
| LRF (for Sony Reader) | Download |
| Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices) | Download |
But it said that it wasn't accepted for iTunes. Why not I thought to myself. Then it was explained. I hadn't applied an ISBN number to the book. I was relating this story on the weekend and thought everyone knew what an ISBN number was... apparently not. It is that magic unique number that is given to every book that, well, you find in a library. Formal definition ISBN – International Standard Book Number - The unique code for the identification of books.
Next questions - How do you get one? Well, in Australia you go to the following URL and if it is your first time, you will need to pony up 55 dollars (GST inclusive) to establish an account.. I haven't done this yet as I want to explore if the Education Department has the facility through its library service to allow teachers to request an ISBN number for their published works, be they prepared in school time, for profit to the individual or any of those other considerations we need to make when we combine an individual's private effort with taxpayer's money.
For those without that level of complication, go to https://compay.com.au/ThorpeBowker/isbn/PublisherDetails.aspx and fill out the form, then pay the money. You can order blocks of numbers if you plan on creating a number of works.
So, once I have secured an ISBN number and resubmitted, I will hopefully be able to report on when my chilli book (I now feel compelled to add more recipes) is published. If you can't wait, go to my Smashwords page and view/download a copy. If you download the RTF version, you can open that in Microsoft Word, remove my content and add your own content in. This was my original intention with this exercise, to create a two page template that teachers could use to paste in their stories or works.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/20790
