The very first thing that we do to your file when we start production is to convert your source material, whether you typed it in Word or gave it to us in PDF, into HTML.  HTML is the same thing that makes web-browsers work, like Internet Explorer or Firefox.  Ebooks have a very limited range of HTML, because much of what has become the standard was adopted from HTML as it was in the early 1990's, not the much fancier HTML that you see on websites today.

It takes us 3 more steps to get your PDF into HTML than it does from any word-processing program, like Word or Open Office or WordPerfect.  This is why conversion from PDF is more expensive than from a word processed manuscript.

HTML is basically the heart of your eBook.  It’s what makes the Chapter headings appear where and how they should, puts page breaks before them, and controls the appearance and layout of your book.

Once we have the HTML, we perform cleanup on it.  Some books are easier to clean than others.  Some people are very familiar with Word and how to use it, and their books will be “clean" Word files.  Some people are not, and we have to do a lot of cleanup on the HTML so that all our books start from the same, cleaned-HTML place.  If you are the kind of person who knows how to use Word’s Pilcrow feature, and see your codes, you probably will have very little cleanup, if any.  If you’re the kind of  Word or Open Office user that doesn't know how to use the Styles and Formatting features, your manuscript will take more cleanup. 

The very first thing that we do to your file when we start production is to convert your source material, whether you typed it in Word or gave it to us in PDF, into HTML.  HTML is the same thing that makes web-browsers work, like Internet Explorer or Firefox.  Ebooks have a very limited range of HTML, because much of what has become the standard was adopted from HTML as it was in the early 1990's, not the much fancier HTML that you see on websites today.

It takes us 3 more steps to get your PDF into HTML than it does from any word-processing program, like Word or Open Office or WordPerfect.  This is why conversion from PDF is more expensive than from a word processed manuscript.

HTML is basically the heart of your eBook.  It’s what makes the Chapter headings appear where and how they should, puts page breaks before them, and controls the appearance and layout of your book.

Once we have the HTML, we perform cleanup on it.  Some books are easier to clean than others.  Some people are very familiar with Word and how to use it, and their books will be “clean" Word files.  Some people are not, and we have to do a lot of cleanup on the HTML so that all our books start from the same, cleaned-HTML place.  If you are the kind of person who knows how to use Word’s Pilcrow feature, and see your codes, you probably will have very little cleanup, if any.  If you’re the kind of  Word or Open Office user that doesn't know how to use the Styles and Formatting features, your manuscript will take more cleanup.