I've spent the better part of today looking at ebook and ecover design software.  I've downloaded some demos but so far I haven't seen anything that really looks good.  If anyone has any suggestions for ebook software, I really would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks,
amota99517

Try dailyn at RR, e-mail her in case she didn't get this. She always has wonderful suggestions and advice. Unfortunately I still write on a, (gasp!) typewriter, so no help here. Good Luck.
BobbiJo

I didn't respond on purpose because I've not found any ebook software that I really liked. I've noticed a lot of people simply print to pdf and zip up their files, but that may not accomplish what you want.  Perhaps someoe else has some experience with this.

Thanks for the reply and you are right.  A PDF program is not what I am looking for.  I want this to have the feel of a book.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The only thing I'm going to say is that, if this is for your own use, go for it. There's lots out there to explore.  If you plan to distribute your work to someone else, you may find people have a reservation about unknown *.exe files because of all the viruses going around. That's why pdf is so popular. It is relatively safe, nearly everyone can read it, and it is a generally accepted format transferable to different viewing devices. 

The intent is to sell not just to distribute.  Does that give you any ideas?

I have been looking into putting a very long reference book I have written into e-book form to sell off the web. Now it is on a CD. Most of the e-book compilers I have seen for downloading off of the web make use of html and produce exe files. I have tried one and it seems to compile OK, but they all have so many different options that I can't figure out which way to go.

Has anyone tried any of them? The one I tried was Fast EBook Compiler. All I can say is that it produced an e-book, but I didn't try to use its options.

Has anyone tried desktop author?  It can be found here:  
http://www.desktopauthor.com/

It looks interesting.  There seem to be services on the site that one can use to help sell their books.  But I don't know about the protection on the book and it requires the desktop author reader.  But it is the closest to what I'm trying to do and that is use html for the pages and add my own art to it as well.  I like the feel of page turning  which gives it more of a book or magazine appearance.  Adobe has something but one has to subscribe to a service or the books don't work. 

I went to their web site to see their demo but didn't want to install their reader. I would think having to install something would hurt sales.

I use exe book for about a year now. I like it and I sell about 8-10 books a month. I like it because it has options that keep people from passing it to other computers for free. The pages turn just like a book. you can design your own cover. there are some drawbacks like lack of support. But, I never needed any with this book.  If you listen to people that say they won't load programs into thier computers. you will never sell a book. And besides, if you have a following, they will come to buy from you. Viruses? give me a break. Who in their right mind would sell an E-book with a virus. Might as well say don't download anything from anyone, anywhere. other than that there are slide show programs that work just as well, with features built in to not let your work be passes from one computer to another for free.