I use Jutoh exclusively for creating and editing my ePubs because it’s low cost, easy to use and produces error free results…if I stick to protocol.
Jutoh, the beginning
About three books in the past, I was seriously searching for a low cost way to convert my two books to ePub. There were a number of third party ePub converters but I wanted to convert them myself. I was reading reviews, on a website, of software that self-publishers could use to create and edit ePubs and ironically, there was one that I had sitting idle on my computer, eCub by Anthemion. It was free but the company also had a more robust commercial ePub creator/editor called Jutoh http://jutoh.com/ and it was low cost, $39.00. I mention the price here because it has more than paid for itself by enabling me to produce ePubs for a variety of vendors, LuLu, Google, Barnes and Noble, iBooks and creating ePubs that could be converted to the Kindle format (mobi) using Calibre.
Jutoh 3.07 is a program released by Anthemion Software Ltd. Some people decide to erase this application. This is easier said than done because uninstalling this manually takes some skill related to Windows internal functioning. Jutoh allow you to create ebooks in popular formats that you can sell on many ebook sites, including Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iBooks. Create your project in seconds from existing files using the. Jutoh is popular application. You makes it easy to create ebooks in popular formats that you can sell on many ebook sites. This app easily create your project in seconds from existing files using the New Project Wizard; or create your book from scratch using the built-in styled text editor.
Using Jutoh
Jutoh Ebook
When I first began looking for an ePub creator/editor; I wanted a program similar to one that could convert a Word doc to PDF with one click and I found some but the results were far from suitable. The more I looked, the more I found suggestions that the best error free ePubs were built manually. I had always considered “building manually” meaning using a program like Notepad or Notepad++, writing in Notepad or importing the text, converting the text to htm and importing the htm to an ePub creator/editor or using Notepad or Notepad++ to compile the htm into an ePub. Jutoh made the ePub process easier. It’s still a manual build but easy. I began by copying and pasting each print-ready Word doc into a Jutoh folder. I do this because the print-ready Word doc is already edited and proofread. I then convert each segment to htm and the htms are imported into Jutoh. The segments are assembled to match the print-ready layout (title page, copyright page, foreword, dedication, chapters, etc). After the htms are assembled, edited and proofread, I run the Compiler, then run the Error Checker to check for errors and if there are none, preview the newly created ePub in Adobe Digital Editions. To create an ePub that meets iBooks requirements, I select the “Optimize for iBooks” configuration. Although Jutoh can optimize for Mobi (Kindle), I don’t use it because I get better results using Calibre to convert my ePubs to Mobi. Using Jutoh, I can import a book cover or create one. I can also edit ePubs and make layout adjustments, such as text, type, size and color, justification, spacing, indents, etc. If you’re interested in learning more about Jutoh, you can download this free book titled Creating Great Ebooks Using Jutoh, here http://jutoh.com/book.htm.
Jutoh Vs Scrivener
RH
1Jutoh Reviews
I love the formatting software Jutoh. I have not made a secret of this. I have been using it for many years as a professional formatter. I teach a class on how to use it. I’ve even got a free video up on YouTube on how to get started formatting with Jutoh. And just when I thought it was all that was wonderful for formatting beautiful books—the developer went and made it BETTER!
Jutoh 3.0 has a whole host of fantastic new features for not only for formatters but for writers. It’s clear the developer, Julian Smart, is trying to make Jutoh a program geared toward authors—something they can use instead of Microsoft Word or even Scrivener.
Already Jutoh was a great program at creating well-designed, professional ebooks. With capabilities including drop caps at the press of a button, easily embedding fonts into a book, and—one of my favorite—conditional formatting so in one document you can create retailer-specific versions of an ebook with links that go back to the retailer where the book was purchased. Jutoh makes doing all these things super-easy and, on top of that, has a pretty low learning curve.
Anyone can install Jutoh and have a great-looking ebook within minutes.
But now, with the newest update there are all sorts of great added features like spell-check, author tips and writing prompts, but best of all is the new storyboard feature. Just like in Scrivener, you can now create virtual index cards to storyboard your book. I can’t tell you how much I love this new feature.
You can create different types of cards and even have pre-set text that simply appears on a card when you double-click to create it. This saves me so much time—when I click to create a new card automatically is listed “Goal, Conflict, Turning Point” and other important points I want to be able to fill in and have at my fingertips while I’m writing. I have a different card type for each of my protagonists, each one having a different color background so I can easily see whose POV a scene is in.
If I want I can easily write the scene in Jutoh—all the regular functions of a word processor are there. I have to admit, I still write my scenes in Word, but then I copy and paste it into the card in Jutoh. Once my story is done, with a click of a button, the contents of the cards are transferred into the individual documents which will become the chapters of my book. Another press of a button and the book is compiled into an ePub or mobi document.
Also like Scrivener, you can have it keep track of your daily word count with a daily goal as well as an overall book goal. For those of us who like to keep track of how many words you’ve written in a day, this is a great tool. It really keeps me moving ahead knowing that I’ve got a goal to reach and something—if not someone—watching to make sure I reach it.
I haven’t toyed with it too much, nor would I expect very much of it, but you can now even do a simple cover design in Jutoh. Truly, there doesn’t seem to be one aspect of putting a book together that Jutoh doesn’t include.
And finally for authors, I don’t know if this is a new feature or just one which I never noticed before but Jutoh can actually read your book aloud to you! Yes, it has a speech feature. There is only one thing better for catching typos and mistakes than having your book read to you and that, of course, is reading it out loud yourself. Having that feature right at my fingertips is so very nice. Granted, the voice is very computer-sounding, but even with the amazing advances in current voice technology, it’s still hard to find a good text to speech that doesn’t sound like a computer (the best I’ve found online is https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ where you can choose the male or female voice you like –American or British—and even change the language (French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, or Swedish) in which your work is written).
Jutoh Program
The new Jutoh 3.0 has a number of amazing updates for the average user and others for those who are more computer savvy (formatting inspector and so on). It’s been made even easier to use and I just love all the new features for authors. This is absolutely a program that will perpetually be open on my computer—no longer simply being used to format but for so much more!
If you are interested in learning how to use Jutoh, I am going to be teaching a live, online class on how to format with Jutoh on October 12th at 7 pm Eastern U.S. Time. Just click here to register.
If you don’t have a copy of the software, but want one and also help out a struggling author (me) here’s a link where you can purchase the software (it’s an affiliate link).
Jutoh Coupon Code
And as always, I am available to assist you with your writing, plotting, and editing. Check out my book coaching services.