To be helpful, the steps of converting a print book to ebook are thus:

  1. Scan the print book, which can either be done:
    1. More affordably, by breaking the book and ripping off the spine, or,
    2. More expensively, by keeping the book and spine intact (usually an additional $0.15/page)
    3. The average price for scanning alone in the US ranges from $0.40/page to $1.25 page for plain text; highly-formatted text (like a medical or financial textbook, as an example) will run more.
  2. Then the scan has to be run through OCR (Optical Character Recognition), which turns the scan into actual, digitized text.  The charge for this varies, but is usually included in whatever price you are quoted in Step #1.
  3. The resulting files--should be in Word and in POD PDF format--have to be proofed.
    1. The average price for proofing runs approximately $1/page, or at least $10-$15/hour for 8-10 pages/hour.
  4. Once the files are proofed, the author/publisher should review them (if the proofing was sub-contracted out), and approve them, ready-for-ebook-conversion.
  5. We then take the finalized Word/PDF file from the OCR'd, scanned book and begin the process of conversion, which runs approximately like this:
    1. We export/extract all the html from the Word book/ms/document;
    2. We clean up the code, which is always poor quality from scanning services (no fault of theirs);
    3. We place the properly-coded text into xhtml, which creates an epub, which is one type of ebook format;
    4. We send you that epub for review, along with Proof sheets;
    5. You review the ebook and return it to us with whatever corrections are needed;
    6. We then make those corrections, and return the revised epub to you for approval;
    7. You approve it, and we then,
    8. Export that xhtml from within that epub, convert it into html, "downcode" it to suit the Kindle device, and make a
    9. Kindle book, which we send to you for review and approval, and repeat steps 5-7 if necessary, although that's rare.

And that's it.  The whole process.  It takes a while to do everything--usually the proofing by the author-publisher in Steps 4 and 5.5 take the longest--but for authors with an established fanbase and backlist, it's well worth doing.  

T'was the Night Before Christmas... 

 (With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, may he forgive my doggerel...)

...and all through the shop,
all we minions were working,
   until ready to drop.

The ebooks were flying,
the covers were spare,
The edits were crazy,
   with "one more thing I must share!"

We waited for Santa,
'Cuz we love old Saint Nick,
But Hitch made us work,
   Waving 'round an old stick!

So slave we all did,
And made all your books,
So that Hitch would say now,
   that we're off the hook.

Come today we're off,
to rest up our fingers,
Our hats we will doff,
   No books they do linger.

But we'll all be back,
Don't give it a thought,
for like all wage slaves,
   we're easily bought.

We'll be back on the fifth,
all eager and fresh,
All ready for you,
   after a well-deserved rest.

So Hitch wants to say,
very strongly and loud,
THANKS ALL YOU GUYS,
  you're the best type of crowd.

Indy and Len and Hitch and the gang,
will be back on the 5th,
to do books with a BANG!

In the meantime don't worry,
if you're in a hurry,
'cuz some poor guy got stuck
   sitting here like a duck.

Your emails we'll receive,
so no need to grieve.
We'll be a bit slow,
but we're raring to go.

Your books will be worked on,
your edits still made,
we're just resting a bit,
   before we all fade.

So please excuse the delays;
It won't be for days;
we'll jump on your queries,
   for your wondrous new series.

We waited for Santa,
'Cuz we love old St. Nick,
And sure 'nuff he came,
   It wasn't a trick.

And as he rode off,
into the night,
I could swear I heard Hitch yell,
   "That Edit's Not Right!"

~~~~~~~~~~

We'll be back on the morning of January 5th; we'll be here parttime between now and then, thanks.