For anyone considering self-publishing...

[Quietude]

Originally Posted by banjomike

TWhile I've used both the Adobe stuff and Quark, I think Quark is the better for self-publishing a fully professional looking product.

Unlike Adobe, when you buy the package, it's yours. It isn't in the cloud, and you don't have to buy a subscription to use it or install it on a second computer.

Well... without completely derailing the thread, Quark was essentially obsolete quite a number of years ago and a few reboots haven't really brought it into the present day.

And as someone who uses Creative Suite daily and has used the toolset (and many others) for 20+ years, I much prefer to pay $50 a month for nearly every tool in the set than $2500-3000 for a new box of software followed by $300-800 every year for updates. The subscription model essentially ended the perpetual headache of keeping complex tools up to inter-industry standards.

And nothing in the Adobe set is "in the cloud" except some file sharing stuff - the tools live on your system, just like always, and have to check in with Mama at least once a month to keep the licensing activated. You're thinking of Google tools, which do indeed live on remote servers only.

Back to actual, you know, writing stuff. In the end, all those mega-tools do is write clean HTML/CSS with all the wrinkles needed for EPUB, MOBI and Kindle. You can do without them by learning the more basic stratum.

[Lovehound]

It sounds better to just write your novel using MSFT Word, then rent whatever for 1-2 months and import your MS, save to chosen ebook format.

I'm not going to pay more for software than I expect to net.

[Quietude]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

It sounds better to just write your novel using MSFT Word, then rent whatever for 1-2 months and import your MS, save to chosen ebook format.

I'm not going to pay more for software than I expect to net.

Then write in Word, export to HTML, and use a good programmer's editor (free) to edit the result, almost entirely with search-and-replaces.

Net cost, given that most people have never paid for a copy of Word: $0.00.

Word is a great tool once you configure it for actual writing and turn off all the useless bells and whistles.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Quietude

Then write in Word, export to HTML, and use a good programmer's editor (free) to edit the result, almost entirely with search-and-replaces.

Net cost, given that most people have never paid for a copy of Word: $0.00.

Word is a great tool once you configure it for actual writing and turn off all the useless bells and whistles.

Funny, I came from an engineering career including writing lots of software. Notepad++ works great!

I've been using Word since '95, currently '07, gonna be '07 forever. I have the beast tamed.

I'm also heavy in HTML, CSS, etc.