Flist help?

[amalthia]

Hey,

I kind of have all these formats for my SPN Big bang going up tomorrow.

PDF, DOC, RTF, EPub, LRF, Mobipocket, Single HTML file, and I was considering posting to LJ for those that enjoy reading stories a bit at a time however, I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing this? When I tried copying and pasting my html code into LJ it looked bad.

So how do other people post stories to LJ?

And I'm not actually sure if anyone will read the LJ 4 part version if there are all these other formats available? What do you guys think, am I wasting my time or is this worth the effort?

Comments

[scribblesinink]

Speaking only for myself: I'm one of those people who prefer to read long stories off-line, now that I've got an eReader. For shorter pieces, I will read them online, but prefer to do so in one sitting. Your single HTML file would be good for that (and offer the chance to "print" my own PDF to the eReader if I'd be so inclined as a bonus).

I don't read fic across several LJ posts if I can help it, and will always look to see if the author offers other options. Announcing fic to LJ or DW is A Very Good Thing, of course :-)

I'm surprised your HTML file doesn't come out well in LJ. LJ is usually pretty good with plain old HTML code. Are you perhaps using style= code? I don't think LJ likes that very much...

HTH

[amalthia]

Which eReader device do you have? I'm making actual eReader/e-ink capable formats like epub and mobi available (for anyone with Kindle, Ipad, Sony PRS, Kobo, and etc...) The PDF is sized to 8x11.

The problem with the html code is that my plain html has < P > tags which adds an extra space in the LJ. So I had to strip all of those.

[scribblesinink]

I have a Bebook Neo (which is also marketed as the Onyx Boox, but I think with slightly different software). Epubs work fine on it, but I set up a 6" "page" for printing PDFs to. I like it for fic offered in HTML format (when not too cluttered with extraneous images and stuff) or for text editor documents, without having to go through the hassle of reformatting for epub. If an epub is offered, I'll grab that instead.

[amalthia]

I kind of have the same criteria. I'll go for plain HTML (with or without images) but if there is a epub or LRF it's so much easier to use the one the author provided. :)

[meri_oddities]

I try never to post content to LJ if I can avoid it. I'd say you should just post a header on LJ that points to the complete version. Most people want it in one file.

And thanks in advance for the mobi version I won't have to create!

[rivkat]

A surprising number of people will read on LJ even when the full version is available elsewhere, possibly because they've got they're style=mine just the way they like it. Have you tried astolat's scripts for converting word into LJ-postable html? That seems to work for me, though if you already have html it might not be helpful.

[amalthia]

I read on LJ/DW for smaller stories myself.

Someone on my LJ pointed out that I had to remove the Paragraph tags because LJ posting adds a space for the paragraph tag plus the manual space I added between each paragraph.

I'm going to give that a shot later tonight. :)

[zillah975]

It's hard to troubleshoot problems posting HTML to LJ/DW without seeing the HTML. If you want, I can have a look and see if I can assist.

These days, when I write a story for posting on LJ, I write it just like I would a regular post -- but I always use the HTML editor. So I always include my HTML tags for italics etc as I write, but no tags for linebreaks or paragraphs.

Personally, I prefer reading stories in HTML, either in one chunk or in linked chapters, and the one advantage LJ/DW has over a website is the "style=mine" and "format=light" function. Sometimes someone links to a story offsite with formatting that I just can't bear -- light text on a dark background, or teeny fonts that when you enlarge them just stretch the page out instead of wrapping, etc. And it's true that you lose readers with every click, but I'm not sure whether those are readers who would abandon the story partway through even if you had it in one file.

If it's less than 300,000 characters, you can post it in one go on DW and link to that from LJ, though I suppose there are still folks who are just categorically opposed to the existence of DW and won't read anything here.

When I'm writing a story to post on LJ or DW, I write it for those sites, including inline formatting tags (italics, etc), but no tags for paragraph breaks or line breaks.

[amalthia]

Yeah, someone else on my LJ seconded your motion to remove the paragraph breaks/line breaks.

I was able to go into my word and do a search for italics and bold and I manually added the html code to those sections. So now I just need to post and double check to see if it all worked.

I think last night I was just too tired to think it out.

As for my single file formatting it's as plain as it's ever going to get when it comes to the internet. No tables, plain white background, black text, and no real use of css beyond centering the chapter headers. I've seen some god awful websites and I tend to try to and avoid their mistakes. :)

Thanks for your help. :)