
: Re: Can I use Google Docs to write an ebook for Kindle? I'm in the process of writing my first eBook. The writing is nearly finished - I will be done by Tuesday. Currently I'm writing in Google
Yes. You can write. Here are my experiences.
MS Word approach
I exported the manuscript as .DOCX. This format worked best for me. I faced serious problems with .epub and .pdf formats.
Caveat - If you have used Google doc specific embedded drawings then they are likely to get clipped. I had to convert them to pictures using Windows sniping tool and embed them back as an image
Caveat - I had lots of problems with equations. They would not align well with oridinary text or with bullets. Some of the Equation toolbar symbols like the summation did not show up at all. I had to use the "insert symbol" approach
Caveat - Table column widths appeared different on Kindle
Overall suggestion using MS Word - write a couple of pages on GD which captures some of your complex formatting scenarios, export to DOCX and preview the file on Kindle previewer (online) . I would recommend doing this upfront so that you can learn lessons
HTML approach
You can also save your Google Doc content as a HTML file. This will come down as a ZIP with 1 HTML and a subfolder with all the images. But there were serious challenges.
HTML errors - Kindle Previewer 3 would frequently complain that there were errors in the HTML. I had to un-minify the HTML and then run Kindle Previewer again. Go back to the offending line number. There were many empty IMG tags and I had to remove all of them
Font units - The font sizes were too large when viewed on Kindle. I had to change the font units from pt to em for much improved rendition on Kindle
Equations - If your manuscript has mathematical equations then these will be converted to static pictures.
Table of contents - The table of contents that was generated inside Google Docs would not work nicely on Kindle. Clicking on the ToC would take me to unpredictable locations in the book. I have no explanation for this.
Further reference -
medium.com/@perrygarvin/how-to-make-an-amazon-kindle-book-using-html-and-css-146070ba0d7e daveparsonsnz.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/converting-a-google-doc-to-a-kindle-format-mobi-file/
Summary
Yes you can definitely use Google Docs for authoring Kindle content. You can use MS Word or HTML. You should try out a short sample before progressing too far down the road. However, in my case, I am almost on the verge of abandoning GD in favour of a tool like Scrivener, which I believe is more suited for such an endeavour.
Hope this helps.
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