Storyist Software Offers Easy ePub to Self-Publishers

by Joel Friedlander on June 29, 2010 · 29 comments

Post image for Storyist Software Offers Easy ePub to Self-Publishers

About a month ago I came across the software Storyist for the first time. I was taken by Storyist’s idiosyncratic interface and knew right away that it had to be the work of a single individual. You don’t often get quirky hybrid software from a committee.

The man behind Storyist is Steve Shepard, a high-tech entrepreneur and writer who created it to solve his own dissatisfaction with the software tools for writers that were available.

It’s really an immersive environment, and if you find the Storyist interface to your liking, it will probably become addictive, because no other program I know provides this type of interaction with your writing project.

The complete Storyist set of modules or features includes:

  • Word processor
  • Page layout
  • Outliner
  • Storyboard
  • Manuscript and Screenplay formatting
  • Style sheets, style editor, project wide searching, links, etc.

storyist epub files self-publishing

Click to see the Storyist interface full size

Storyist isn’t only a word processor, it has the ability to track your plot, your characters, even the settings in your book or screenplay. Storyist handles screenplay formatting and straight narrative formatting, producing what it calls “submission-ready” files for output.

However, none of that, even though it’s interesting, is what made me stop and take a second look.

Storyist: ePub Conversion for the Masses?

What really attracted me to Storyist was the announcement a few weeks ago that they had added support for ePub conversion right inside the program. As ePub becomes more prevalent, I think we’ll see more and more consumer level tools with the ability to “Save as” or export files direct to ePub without the need for a separate program, or for an outside contractor.

ePub conversions are notoriously uneven. The format also has critical limitations in its ability to deal with graphics, tables, charts and other non-text elements.

But after watching Shepherd’s video demo of how to create an ePub, I just had to try it. It’s a terrific demo and I really sat up and paid attention when I saw how easy it was.

I’m not going to repeat the steps that Steve Sheperd outlines in the video, I don’t think I could improve on it. But in brief, here’s what I did, and what you can do too.

You’ll have to be the judge of whether it makes sense for you to try to do your own ePub conversions. Depending on how complex your books are, and how good you are at techie stuff, learning how to do this properly is going to take time and energy. Should you work on your writing or marketing instead? Maybe. Having said that, the promise of an ePub export that’s as easy as creating a PDF is pretty enticing. That’s the origin of this story.

Step by Step to the iBookstore (sort of)

I grabbed the first part of a manuscript I’m editing for publication. It’s a lecture from the 1980s and it seemed perfect for ePub because it’s got virtually no formatting, just paragraphs. I might have spruced it up a bit, but I was more interested in whether this super easy ePub conversion could really be as simple as it looked on the demo.

I wanted a Report Cover look to go with the text, since the document was only about 10,000 words, and I wanted to see how the iBooks software would render this style of cover instead of a book cover. I created one in Photoshop and saved it as a JPG file. Here’s what happened next:

  1. I dropped the text file into Storyist and applied some basic formatting with the Styles dialog. It was easy to edit these styles for a better appearance. Every paragraph has to be styled for best results, so the easiest way is to assign everything the “Body Text” format, then just change the headings as needed.
  2. Then I dropped the cover file into Storyist.
  3. After choosing “File/Export” from the menu, I was presented with a series of dialogs which are explained briefly in the demo video and more fully in the Storyist documentation, but there was nothing difficult. You choose your files, make sure they’re in the right order, complete publication information, and add metadata to your file.

    I was struck with the complete list of choices you have for assigning metadata. (Checking the documentation, it turns out the metadata fields correspond to the fields specified by the Dublin Core Metadata initiative. Controlling this metadata is critical to self-publishers in the digital space, and bears more discussion than I have room for here.)

  4. storyist epub metadata self-publishing

    Click to see the metadata record filled in

  5. Storyist wrote the book files in ePub format to my drive.
  6. I dropped the ePub file into iTunes and plugged in my iPad. iTunes, recognizing the ePub format as that used by iBookstore, automatically loaded my brand new eBook into the iBooks Library, ready for reading, as you can see in the screenshot at the top of this article.

iTunes metadata self-publishing

Click to see the metadata in iTunes


Not including the time it took me to work out the Storyist interface, stumble over technical obstacles I simply didn’t understand, email back and forth with Steve Shepard to get help for my newbie questions, create the cover file in Photoshop, this whole process was incredibly fast, well under an hour.

Of course, with all those things, I’ve been working on this about three weeks.

Self-Publishing In the Age of Instant Gratification

Granted, in my process my “book” only ended up in my iBooks library. But this is the file format you need to submit your book to the iBookstore, or to an aggregator for listing on your behalf. It’s the same file type used by Sony Reader, B&N Nook, and other eBook readers. I opened the file without a problem in Calibre as well.

What I was struck by at the end of this experiment was the speed with which you can put a book together and publish it in eBook form. I could sit at my Mac right now and start typing, and when I finished I could have the resulting book, along with a graphic cover, online and potentially available within an hour.

I was amazed at the speed, flexibility and ability to radically reduce the financial risk of publishing you gain from using digital printing and print on demand distribution. But this was a different order of magnitude. This was the closest I had come to feeling like I was Being the Media, publishing a product—not a blog post or a story—so directly and immediately.

I’d like to say what the implications of this are, but I’m curious about you. What do you think of this ability to quickly and easily “publish” right from your desktop? Will it affect you?

Ed. note: Cheryl Anne Gardner points out in the comments that I failed to mention whether the ePub files that I created in Storyist were epubcheck compliant. I created two ePub files when I was preparing this article, and ran them both through the epubcheck software. One passed inspection and one did not. Walt Shiel tells me that this error refers to duplicate entries in one of the ePub files. I have no idea how Storyist would handle more complex formatting, or what percentage of files it produces are epubcheck compliant. To be accepted into the iBookstore, your files will have to pass this same compliance test. I would encourage anyone who wants to make use of this tool for ePub formatting to download the free sample and try it and, if you have problems see whether they can be resolved by Storyist support.

Ed. note number 2: I received a note from Steve Shepard about what likely caused the error on my ePub file that wouldn’t verify. It was a simple fix and turned out to be something I simply forgot when making the file. After correcting it—putting the cover in the proper order in the file list—the resulting ePub passed epubcheck 1.0.5 with no errors. Your mileage may vary.

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    { 26 comments… read them below or add one }

    Sid Crudup Jr. November 28, 2012 at 11:19 am

    @ Mike Wallbridge

    thanks a lot for that info. was looking for it. appreciate it.

    Reply

    Alex Reissig September 4, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    I noticed that this is a Mac-only software. Anyone know of a similar software for windows-based pcs?

    Reply

    Mike Wallbridge September 4, 2011 at 11:21 pm

    Scrivener Windows is on Beta to test out for free but soon to be released. It is slightly behind Scrivener for Mac in terms of features but will ctahc up before long. Check it out at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/.

    Reply

    Mike Wallbridge October 4, 2010 at 1:17 am

    Check out the improvements to Scrivener at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/?p=133.

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander October 4, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Mike, thanks for the head’s up. I’ll check out Scrivener when I get a chance.

    Reply

    Mike Wallbridge October 4, 2010 at 1:14 am

    Just a note to say that Scrivener will have a similar ePub export option when version 2.0 is released later this month.

    Reply

    Tom Colvin June 30, 2010 at 4:10 am

    Fabulous post — detailed enough to make clear just what that new software can do. I’m one of those who believes that the ePub format will indeed become a standard “save as” item in programs to come.

    One caveat however: The people behind the ePub format standards are becoming restive. They know that the format has not been updated for quite a while. And seeing the multi-media features of newer technologies, these people are beginning to talk about a major overhaul of ePub.

    One other observation: There are a number of word processors with the other features you mention. I covered a number of them in a post I did some months ago summarizing my reviews of words processors. That post is easy to find as it’s included in the slider of past posts at the top of my sidebar.

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 30, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    Hey Tom, thanks. For those who are interested, here’s the link to Tom’s roundup of Word Processor Reviews

    There will be big changes in typography and web design, including all the “children of HTML” coming soon with HTML5 and the new capabilities of CSS. How these will impact ePub and the books that are made from it will be interesting to watch. Considering how bad most ePub books are when compared to even an average printed book, there’s a lot of room for growth. Thanks for stopping by!

    Reply

    betty ming liu June 29, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    hey joel, i really enjoy your nitty-gritty self-publishing posts. this is such a layered world. i’m getting a real education!

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:09 pm

    Sometimes I’m amazed people hang in there for technical posts or the book design and typography posts, but it does seem that, on one of those layers, everything ends up being connected. Thanks.

    Reply

    Scott Loftesness June 29, 2010 at 10:18 am

    Joel, thanks very much for sharing this – looks very cool!

    Scott

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:46 am

    Sure, Scott. You should check it out, it has lots of interesting interface wrinkles I didn’t get into here, since the ePub export is a pretty minor part of the Storyist suite of features.

    Reply

    Mayowa June 29, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Great post Joel.

    It really is getting easier to put stuff out there. I hope anyone considering this (and all other forms of self publishing) still takes their time to get it right.

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:45 am

    Well, Mayowa, getting it right starts with the content itself. Nothing else will replace that. And you can have your book converted to ePub by an expert for a very reasonable price, so I don’t think tools like this will make or break a publication plan. But it is fascinating to see the technology gradually filtering down to a consumer level.

    Reply

    Cheryl Anne Gardner June 29, 2010 at 9:01 am

    Sounds interesting, but the million dollar question here, which every self-publishing author will be asking, is: will that epub file pass the epubcheck validator? If not, then it’s useless for anything but your own personal enjoyment.

    I can create epub files in Calibre, or in Sigil, but they don’t pass epubcheck and must be tweaked. When a program can create a flawless and validated epub file with a simple ‘save as’ or ‘export’ command then I am sold.

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:44 am

    Hey Cheryl Anne, good point (and one that Walt Shiel asked me on Twitter this morning). The answer is, I created 2 ePub files in this experiment, 1 passed and 1 did not.

    I’m as new as a newbie could be at this stuff, but in talking to the developer, he assures me the Storyist files “should” pass. That remains to be seen, and I’ll rely on folks who are more adept at creating these files to evaluate the output.

    The successful ePub files I’ve seen seem to require “tweaking,” and if you have a document with images or other non-text elements, I have no idea what Storyist would make of it.

    Thanks for participating.

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    Cheryl Anne, check out my editor’s notes. It seems that, at least for the files I created, Storyist did a fine job of producing files that passed epubcheck 1.0.5.

    Reply

    Cheryl Anne Gardner June 30, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Awesome Joel. I am total crap when it comes to tweaking XHTML coding, so I need a program that will produce a clean validated file right out of the gate.

    I might have to beta this. Thanks

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 30, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    I’ll be interested in your results, Cheryl. I wouldn’t know an XHTML if it bit me, so we’re in the same boat.

    Reply

    Cheryl Anne Gardner July 1, 2010 at 5:00 am

    I was so excited when I got out to the site to download the trial until I noticed it’s for MAC. Too bad really. I am a PC girl, for various reasons.

    Ian @sweetscribe June 29, 2010 at 6:50 am

    Sounds like an amazing tool. Just what the doctor ordered. I’ll take it out for a spin and see what happens. Thanks so much for the review!

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:38 am

    The great thing is you can download it and just try it out. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is an intriguing tool, hope you get something out of it, Ian.

    Reply

    Leda Sammarco June 29, 2010 at 6:18 am

    I can find technology rather intimidating, but Storyist does sound intriguing. What interests me most of all is the ability to track your plot and characters.

    This certainly puts self-publishers, with technical ability, right in the driving seat, which is great. As long as the speed of delivery is balanced with time spent planning and writing a good book, then it feels like it could be a win-win.

    Thanks for sharing this Joel. You are a mine of information.

    I see that my fellow writer’s coach, Tom ‘Mr Technical and Very Creative’ Evans is fascinated by Storyist (no surprise!!).

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Leda, you are so right when you say that time is well spent on writing, that’s the bottom line. Sometimes technology is an enabler for writers, sometimes a distraction, and it’s not always easy to tell which is which. Thanks for your comment.

    Reply

    Tom Evans June 29, 2010 at 5:33 am

    This is just what I have been looking for and I knew it had to come. I wonder if they will also support embedding of multimedia too.

    This blog is such synchronicity as I’ve just been writing about this exact subject on my blog this morning – http://www.thebookwright.com/2010/06/29/do-ipad-or-do-i-kindle/

    Next task, to download Storyist – thanks for sharing !!!

    Reply

    Joel Friedlander June 29, 2010 at 10:36 am

    Tom, what a coincidence. Although I have to say all the ebook and epub talk has made me pretty curious. I’ll look forward to your blog about Storyist, it’s pretty neat software with or without the ePub export. Thanks for stopping by!

    Reply

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