LaTeX documents are projects consisting of an entire folder of files, as opposed to everything being in a single file such as with Word documents. While this initially requires more time to set up, this manner of creating documents shines once your project gets larger—or when you work on multiple books.
As an alternative to Amazon and Google, you could try out the platform “Leanpub.” Leanpub is designed to provide you with just enough to get your book properly published, marketed, and sold. You can read more about how Leanpub applies Agile principles at https://leanpub.com/about. In this section, I will compare Leanpub to Amazon and Google.
While Amazon KDP is the current market leader, it might be worthwhile to also publish your book on other platforms. One alternative (only for e-books at this time) is Google Play, where people can buy directly from their pre-installed “Books” application on their Android smartphone (or online on their computers).
Cover graphics are separate from the LaTeX project. You can neither create a cover graphic in LaTeX nor include it in your project. Instead, you need to use an external program to design it. I can give you only a technical guideline and some ideas. I recommend hiring a designer to produce the final version. If you are somewhat proficient with a graphics editor, the following sections can get you started with your cover.
Publishing on Amazon KDP is relatively straightforward once you have the MOBI file, or the PDF file (for the print release) ready (this is discussed in the book Better Books with LaTeX the Agile Way in detail).
Polishing for an e-book release is significantly easier than for a PDF print release. This is because the reading software or device on which your book is displayed for the reader reformats your book to fit correctly on a particular screen. Also, printed books have individual pages, while e-books do not. Your e-book’s contents are handled like a one-page website where you simply scroll from top to bottom.
While using LaTeX can save you a lot of time by automatically formatting each page, it has its limits. For example, you might end up finishing a section or chapter with one line that ends up alone on a page. This is ugly but it is not something LaTeX can do anything about. The program’s hands are tied because it cannot rewrite the text for you. It will display every line—even if the final line in a chapter is “orphaned.”
In a previous article (and the book), we we have covered the main, front, and the back chapter folders of the LaTeX Book Template. You can find the Overleaf template here as a free download. Now we will discuss those folders again in more detail and go through the remaining folders. This will help you to know where the …
This is an excerpt from Better Books with LaTeX the Agile Way. You can get a copy here. As opposed to their electronic counterparts, printed books do not have a search functionality to find specific words in the text. Instead, they have an index at the end as a service for the reader to quickly …
Books build upon other books, just like scientific experiments build on other scientific experiments. Be it out of scientific accuracy, as a service to the interested reader, or out of gratitude, you should include references to your sources.