Resources for ePub Creators

This post will serve as a general repository of things I’ve found useful when creating ePub-format ebooks.

At the moment, I use the Calibre ebook editor. I have installed Sigil and intend to learn that, in case it produces cleaner output (which seems likely). I’m categorizing the things I’ve found useful in each tool.

---

Calibre Ebook Editor

Install the plugin Editor Chains by Ahmed Zaki: “Automate various tasks in Calibre’s ebook editor” (taken from the plugin description). If you find yourself doing various things frequently in the process of editing and polishing, this plugin is a lifesaver. And you’ll want to have a specific approach for editing and polishing, trust me.

Editor Chains I’ve Devised

To use any of these, first install Editor Chains in Calibre. Open the ebook editor and go to Plugins -> Editor Chains -> Add/Modify Chains in the menu. Right-click in the space and choose Import.

Word Joiners. This is a set of search-and-replace regular expressions that I’ve found will prevent improper line breaks from occurring with interrupted dialogue and end-of-sentence ellipses (e.g., “He said what—” will not have the —” separated from the word “what” on a new line). It assumes the use of the em dash and pretty quotation marks, but can be easily enough adapted for plain quotes or the en dash.

https://www.eleanorthorne.net/wp-content/uploads/WordJoiners.zip