An Ebook In 20 Minutes With Zinepal

I created an ebook/ezine in about 20 minutes today — and I did it using Zinepal. This handy online tool (which you can try without even signing up) allows you to pull together recent posts from your blog (via the RSS feed) or from any web page to create an ezine. You can download this ezine as a PDF (which makes it a great way to create an ebook too) and you get mobiPocket, Kindle and epub formats as well. I decided to turn my SEO Your Website Series into an ezine/ebook and this was the result.

How I Created An Ebook In 20 Minutes

Here’s how I did it. I navigated to the ‘create’ tab and clicked on the ‘from any website’ link. I then manually added the URLs I wanted in the order in which I wanted them to appear. I clicked ‘ add to zine’, waited a minute or so, then clicked the big ‘I’m done’ button near the top of the page. You can check the stories and order in a drop down menu, and also add new stories at any time before you publish the zine.

Tweaking My Ebook

Clicking the button took me to a list of the stories which I could reorder via drag and drop. I was also able to edit each story individually (doing things like taking out ads and so on) and to make formatting changes. In the middle of the page was a box where I could set delivery options, keywords (space separated), add a logo, add ads and use templates. I chose to save my customizations as a template but since I was creating a new publication, they were not available the second time around.

Useful Features

I thought adding a logo, an introduction and a couple of keywords made sense. Once those were done I hit ‘create my zine’ and it was ready. Attention! Once your zine is created, it’s like a print magazine — you cannot edit it, so you need to be sure you are ready before you press that button. I found it useful to use the preview button, which showed the PDF and also allowed me to save a copy. This came in handy, as Zinepal pulls in everything from the feed, so your end of post subscription options will be included. It’s also worth editing the chapter titles, as you may not want them to appear in the same format in your ebook as they do online.

Still Needs Work …

Of course, there are a few niggles. Occasionally, Zinepal was unable to retrieve my text and I had to copy it manually. And at one point, it had a heart attack and appeared to have lost my entire ezine (but it hadn’t; it was a glitch). Also, your ezine has a created by Zinepal strapline on each page and I’m not sure why some of my ezines were classed as recurring and some not.

What I Liked

Those niggles aren’t enough to stop me from using it. I love the fact that it creates different versions of my ebooks, that it automatically includes images from the original post, that I can have it sent by email and that people can subscribe to my feed. If you already publish quality content on your blog, this makes repurposing it very easy. Try it and see what you think. Did I mention that it’s free?

(Photo: Clarita)