Interacting With Editor

[phase3player]

I'm planning tow rite 2 books with Storyist: a novel and a non0fiction book.

 

In both cases, the flow will be like this:

 

1. Write the book

 

2. Export it out and send it to a professional editor who will line edit for me and possibly format it to be "camera ready." He does his editing/formatting in Microsoft Word.

 

3. Get the book back into Storyist, make final edits, and ultimately export it for publication as paperback, Kindle and ePub

 

At some point, final formatting needs to be done so the book is "camera ready" and can be exported in various ways for final publication.

 

I need to create a workflow for taking the books through these stages, making it as easy as possible.

 

Questions:

 

1. Should I write the books in Storyist with formatting of chapter titles, body text, etc?

 

2. Should I write the books in Storyist with no formatting?

 

3. How should I export it to get it to the editor -- retaining formatting if that's the answer to the questions above?

 

4. How should I import it back into Storyist to get it ready for the final exports and publication -- including retaining formatting if my editor formats it to be camera ready in Word?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

 

- Robert

 

 

 

How should I import it back

[marguerite]

Hi, Robert:

Most of what you want to do can be done seamlessly in Storyist. The one issue you need to get ready for is that when you import the file back into Storyist, it will be treated as a new file, so Storyist will "forget" your section names. This is not a big issue, since you can set up the files in such a way that Storyist recognizes where the chapters and sections begin and end and, with a little prompting, applies chapter title styles as appropriate, but there is not much point in naming 165 sections just to have them come back as "Untitled Section."

 

The process I use works roughly as follows:

1. Write the file in Storyist. Make use of all the characters, setting, plot tools, notes, etc. They will not be affected by export/import. Back up!

2. In Storyist, name your chapters Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. If you need descriptive names, add them after a colon: Chapter 1: Cambridge.

3. Make sure you use # on a line by itself to separate sections. Style this with the Section Separator style.

 

When you get ready to export the file to your editor, do two things.

1. Export the file from Storyist as RTF. Choose File > Export, click on the name of your manuscript, choose "Text and image files" from the drop-down menu, and make sure the file type is RTF, not RTFD.*

2. Set up a Word file with the style names and definitions that correspond to Chapter Title, Section Text, and Section Separator. Save it (as a template, if you like), then import your RTF file into that Word file. Word will recognize the Storyist styles and apply the appropriate formatting, keeping your overrides (italic, etc.)

 

When you get the file back from your editor, deal with the editing in Word. When you are ready to read it back into Storyist, save the file as RTF through Word. Choose File > Import in Storyist and make sure that "Show import assistant before importing" is checked. When the window shows up with a list of styles, match them using the pull-down menus in the apparently blank area to the right (I'm not sure this step is necessary, but I do it for safety, because it lets you tell Storyist that it should convert Normal to Section Text, etc.). Click your way through, and you should be set. Storyist will retain your style overrides on import.

 

If, for some reason, Storyist misses a chapter heading, you can use the Format > Style > Apply styles by matching text option and tell it to search for Chapter (the reason for step 2, above). Similarly, it can search for # and apply Section Separator.

 

File import and export are described in the user manual, so I suggest reading those sections before you try it, as I may have missed a step (I'm writing this from memory, but I do a lot of exporting to Word and at one time did a lot of importing, too).

 

The good news, though, is that you can produce readable Word files from Storyist with just a bit of effort.

Good luck with your project, and welcome to the forums.

Marguerite

 

*Assuming you have no images in your manuscript. If you do, you need RTFD, but Word is a bear with images anyway, so I suggest leaving them out till after editing.

[phase3player]

Hi Marguerite ...

 

Thanks very much for your reply above. I'm new to Storyist and am just now going through the Users Guide, so maybe these additional questions about Styles will be answered there.

 

I'm not an expert on writing Style labels, so bear with my descriptions below.

 

Let's say in the final manuscript all chapter headings will be "X" bolded font, all body text will be Palatino Linotype, and all text within chapters that is bold or highlighted (larger, etc.) will be "Y" bolded font.

"setup a Word file with those style names" as you suggest above?

 

When I import the file back into Storyist, you said, "When the window shows up with a list of styles, match them using the pull-down menus in the apparently blank area to the right." How does that relate to what I just asked?

 

Thanks for the help. I'm happy to pay for your time if this is beyond the scope of this Forum. I just want the answers I need.

 

- Robert

[marguerite]

Hi, Robert,

I think what you are asking is something many new users would like to know, so it is definitely not beyond the scope of the forums. I would, however, need a bit of time at my Mac to ensure I am providing exactly the information you need. I am not at my Mac now. Sometime tomorrow, unless Steve or someone else beats me to it, I will post instructions for creating styles in the Using Storyist section.

 

In brief, Storyist has certain styles embedded in each template (Novel, Screenplay, etc.). To alter one, change the formatting in a paragraph, before you apply any special formatting, to be whatever you want, then triple click the paragraph and choose Format > Style > Redefine style from selection. All paragraphs with that style will change, and any special formatting you applied elsewhere will remain.

 

The process in Word is similar, but not exactly the same.

Best,

M

[orrenm]

Hi Robert,

 

Let's say in the final manuscript all chapter headings will be "X" bolded font, all body text will be Palatino Linotype, and all text within chapters that is bold or highlighted (larger, etc.) will be "Y" bolded font.

"setup a Word file with those style names" as you suggest above?

 

It sounds like you would basically set up three styles:

1. Chapter Headings ("X bolded font")
   
2. Body Text ("Palatino Linotype")
   
3. Body Text Emphasized ("Y bolded font")
   

 

You want to make sure that the names that you give your Word styles match the names that you give the Storyist styles. So as you can see above, the one style that isn't a "Standard Storyist offering" is your bold/highlight style; you'll need to create a style the way M showed you, and then create a Word style to match. M does a good job of walking you through the Style creation process, and of course read the documentation as well.

 

Hope that helps,

Orren

[marguerite]

Hi, RobertS:

You can find a brief introduction to styles here. As I mention there, you want to minimize font formatting for e-books, or at least recognize that the creation of an ePub or Kindle file will remove most of your formatting except for bold, italics, and underlines, because the whole point of e-books is that the user determines the font and page breaks change on the fly.

 

You can still set up the formatting to please yourself in Storyist while you are writing the manuscript. If you print a file to PDF, it will retain your formatting. Files transferred to Word will also retain their formatting, with the exception that Word has its own approach to fonts, although you can usually tell it to map Font X to Font Y (you'll have to search the help files for Word to find the location of this command, as Microsoft appears to have moved it). And make sure your editor has the same fonts on his/her system, or the files will be anything from weird to unreadable on his/her screen.

 

Orren's approach is a variation on the one I suggested in the long post, which is to adjust the three basic Storyist styles to have the formatting you want and add a new one if you have a heading that is always bold. (If only some of the text in the paragraph is bold, just select it and hold down the Command key [the cloverleaf next to the space bar] and b simultaneously or choose B from the Inspector with the text selected.) Either way works, but if you change the style names, you have to adjust the import a bit.

 

The import is easiest to imagine if you just set up a test file and walk yourself through it. The screen I was talking about is the second one you encounter if the Import Assistant is checked (see screen shot). If you have kept the three Storyist styles (Chapter Title, Section Text, and Section Separator), however you formatted them, and not added any, you can just click OK to get to the next screen. If something like "Normal" shows up, click on the double arrows under Section Separator and choose Section Text. What you're telling Storyist is: wherever you see the word Chapter, apply the Chapter Title style and begin a new chapter; wherever you see #, apply Section Separator and begin a new section; and treat everything else as Section Text.

Best,

M

[phase3player]

Thanks a lot, M ...

 

I appreciate it very much. Seems a bit overwhelming right now, but I'll work my way through it.

 

The only thing I'm still not clear on, based on a comment you made above, is how much to format for Kindle and ePub? Not sure if that's covered in the Storyist Users Guide. Got it on my desk to read through cover to cover this week.

 

Thoughts?

 

- Robert

[marguerite]

Hi, Robert:

No, I don't think the user guide covers it, although Steve's video, which you can find among the tutorials at www.storyist.com, may mention it.

 

Basically, you can format as much as you like, but very little of it will be retained in the e-book export. Italics, bold, underlining; left, centered, right aligned (and justified? not sure) text; and I think paragraph indents are about it. Your chapter titles are converted to linked entries in the Table of Contents.

 

For a manuscript that I planned to send for editing, I would keep the text as Courier 12 or, if you hate Courier with a passion, Times New Roman 12 until it came back from the editor. That way, you have a reasonable shot at exchanging files even if the person has Office for Windows.

 

After that, it depends what you want to do with it. But it's also your book. If you like looking at it on screen in Palatino, then why not set Section Text to Palatino for now and worry about the rest later?

Best,

M

[phase3player]

Thanks a lot ... again ... M.

 

I generally use official support channels to get help. It's only recently I've started using forums like this.

 

I'm consistently amazed how generous so many people, like you, are with your time and expertise and experience, and I appreciate it very much.

 

- Robert

[twoolever]

Marguerite,

 

I'd love to have the same information you gave about workflow, except using Pages instead of Microsoft Word. What would I have to change to do follow your advice given here?

 

Not only do I plan to write several non-fiction titles and publish to epub and paperback using Storyist, I already have two titles in print written in Pages that I plan to use Storyist to convert to ePub. I've already discovered that one cannot export right out of Pages to ePub and have it pass the iBook store formatting requirements.

 

Thanks!

Tonia

[marguerite]

Hi, Tonia--

Welcome to the forums. The problem with Pages is that it strips all the style formatting out of RTF files (and produces pretty crummy ePub files on its own, as you discovered). The text looks the same, but Pages "forgets" that it is, say, Section Text.

 

If you are keeping the main text in Storyist and only exporting to Pages, this is not a problem. But if you plan to read the same file back into Storyist, then you really have to go Storyist > .doc > Pages > .doc > Storyist to make it work.

 

What you do not need is Word. Google OpenOffice for Mac. It is freeware, although they will try to talk you into supporting it. Download and install it. Then follow the process as described, save the RTF file to .doc, and open that file in Pages. Define the styles in Pages, and you should be good to go. If you have Word but don't like it, you could use it just as an intermediary.

 

I am typing from my iPad and can't check this right now. Storyist used to export directly to .doc; the results just were not as good as exporting to RTF. If it still offers that option, and if you have really simple formatting, you might try exporting to .doc and importing that file to Pages.

 

Sorry, I was away. Otherwise I would have responded sooner.

Best,

Marguerite

[twoolever]

Thanks ever so much, Marguerite, I will try your suggestions. I do not like Word and was thrilled when Pages came along; I have successfully laid out several books and covers in Pages that turned out excellent for print versions. With the new publishing model going to e-book publication first, I'm having to learn all over again, and since purchasing Storyist I'm determined to keep my workflow as simple and clean as possible.

 

Gratefully,

Tonia

[marguerite]

Tonia:

 

I just tried a couple of variations on .doc/.docx export and Pages import. If anything, Pages seems to have gotten worse about styles than I remember it being before—which on one hand makes your life simpler (minimal benefits to going through Word) but on the other complicates it (looks like you either have to format in Pages or accept the defaults). Fortunately or unfortunately, this seems to be a problem with Pages (see example 3 below), so Storyist can't resolve it.

 

My results:

1. .doc file exported from Storyist—Pages opened the file and preserved all the formatting (bold, italic, fonts, etc.) but only as variations on Normal text. That is, it dropped all style information just as it would with an RTF file.

2. .docx file exported from Storyist—exactly the same result.

3. .doc file created by Word and imported to Pages—the styles were retained (sort of) but not consistently. In some cases text defined as Section Text became Normal; in other cases Pages created a new style called Section Text A and applied that.I couldn't see any pattern, but I tested about four different files and got different results each time. In no instance did Pages open the Word file and leave all the style information intact, although in a few cases it honored the first style it found.

 

So the big question is what exactly you want to do. If you are happy with importing your existing files into Storyist and keeping them there, with occasional exports to Pages but no new imports, you can just export the files as RTF, open them in Pages, and get on with your life. If you want to export a file for editing, you might be best off exporting as RTF, sending that file to your editor, and then manually entering the changes into your Storyist document. (It's not as big a headache as it sounds, because as you go through the corrections you can be thinking about what the editor had in mind and whether you want to accept or reject each change.)

 

If you do want to re-import the file to Storyist, you can, but you will may to reassign the styles once you get it there.

Best,

Marguerite