How can I use Evernote to send my manuscript to a publisher in 2019?

[mimosa 1]

Hi,

What I mean is: in which format must I convert to for sending my evernote manuscript (in WIP) to publishers who don't necessarily use Evernote?
This is a key criteria before I continue with Evernote or switch to another software.

1. All I've found on internet is that:
    

• I can send in pdf or epub (mine needs to be also in paper format) or HTML (not very useful for a publisher)
  (Publishers need to edit).
   
• It seems Fastpencil was recommended for doing so in 2014 (5 years ago):
  https://evernote.com/blog/publish-books-instantly-from-evernote/

 

2. I've also read the note on how to optimise Evernote for publishing:
    https://evernote.com/blog/i-wrote-a-novel-entirely-in-evernote/
   But not a word here on how to convert all this to a publisher-acceptable format.

3. Nothing in your help section on publishing either (search with the word "publisher").

 

In terms of ideas, this query leads to the following:

1. Add a section called Publishing in your Forum and in your Help database.

2. Ask Forrest Dylan Bryant to complete his blog article (quite excellent otherwise) or write a new one responding to this query.
https://evernote.com/blog/publish-books-instantly-from-evernote/

3. Get commentators to comment this functionality.

Looking forward to reading you!

Mimosa 

[eric99 980]

This tool let you convert evernote enex file to almost any popular file format:

https://download.cnet.com/BitRecover-Evernote-Converter-Wizard/3000-18483_4-77698337.html

https://www.bitrecover.com/evernote/converter/#five

 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:09 PM, mimosa said:

What I mean is: in which format must I convert to for sending my evernote manuscript (in WIP) to publishers who don't necessarily use Evernote?

Your publisher will specify the format options.

Evernote only supports html and enex export.  You can also print-to-pdf.

If your editor specifies Word format; I suggest you use the MS Word editor.  The document will be stored in an Evernote note as a file attachment.

I use different formats for my WIP.  Word/Pages for documents, Excel/Numbers for spreadsheets, ...

[mimosa 1]

22 hours ago, eric99 said:

Hi Eric,

Thank you for your most useful info. Do you know if formatting is maintained in Word?
Hope some will come back here to say that they were satisfied in this conversion.

Regards, Mimosa

Eric had written:
This tool let you convert evernote enex file to almost any popular file format:

https://download.cnet.com/BitRecover-Evernote-Converter-Wizard/3000-18483_4-77698337.html

https://www.bitrecover.com/evernote/converter/#five

 

 

 

[mimosa 1]

15 hours ago, DTLow said:

Hi DT Low,

Did you read Eric99's answer? If it works well, this is infinitely better because one can't work well on Word using both the PC and the mobile, nor for collecting and seaming together notes. These are the big advantages of Evernote.

Thanks, Mimosa

DT Low wrote:
Your publisher will specify the format options.

Evernote only supports html and enex export.  You can also print-to-pdf.

If your editor specifies Word format; I suggest you use the MS Word editor.  The document will be stored in an Evernote note as a file attachment.

I use different formats for my WIP.  Word/Pages for documents, Excel/Numbers for spreadsheets, ...

 

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, mimosa said:

Did you read Eric99's answer?

Yes, and I'll check into the conversion app; it could be useful.

My experience with conversions is that some formatting stuff gets messed up.  I prefer to stick with the same format.

>>using both the PC and the mobile

I use a Mac and iPad.

Mac/Windows handle attachments editing very well; almost transparent to the users.

IOS really sucks at editing attachment files.

 

[mimosa 1]

2 hours ago, DTLow said:

Yes, and I'll check into the conversion app; it could be useful.

My experience with conversions is that some formatting stuff gets messed up.  I prefer to stick with the same format.

Thanks!
Hope to hear form you how it goes. Preserving formatting is essential for the book I'm preparing.
However, I'm on PC, not Mac. Hope to hear maybe from others their conversion experience to Word for PC. Mimosa.

 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:09 PM, mimosa said:

HTML (not very useful for a publisher)
(Publishers need to edit).

I can edit HTML.  In Evernote, we edit notes formatted in ENML, an HTML fork

[mimosa 1]

Yes, we edit even here as you've added the edit bar. It's very limited as we know.

Thanks for your continued suggestions, always welcome.

Mimosa

[MatS14 19]

Hey @mimosa, When you do a quote, you don't have to put all  the text even that your writing in it, just do the quote of what someone says, then write below it.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,954]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:09 PM, mimosa said:

Hi,

What I mean is: in which format must I convert to for sending my evernote manuscript (in WIP) to publishers who don't necessarily use Evernote?
This is a key criteria before I continue with Evernote or switch to another software.

1. All I've found on internet is that:
    

• I can send in pdf or epub (mine needs to be also in paper format) or HTML (not very useful for a publisher)
  (Publishers need to edit).
   
• It seems Fastpencil was recommended for doing so in 2014 (5 years ago):
  https://evernote.com/blog/publish-books-instantly-from-evernote/

 

2. I've also read the note on how to optimise Evernote for publishing:
    https://evernote.com/blog/i-wrote-a-novel-entirely-in-evernote/
   But not a word here on how to convert all this to a publisher-acceptable format.

3. Nothing in your help section on publishing either (search with the word "publisher").

 

In terms of ideas, this query leads to the following:

1. Add a section called Publishing in your Forum and in your Help database.

2. Ask Forrest Dylan Bryant to complete his blog article (quite excellent otherwise) or write a new one responding to this query.
https://evernote.com/blog/publish-books-instantly-from-evernote/

3. Get commentators to comment this functionality.

Looking forward to reading you!

Mimosa 

One clarifying point: This is (as you've perhaps seen by now, actually) primarily a user-to-user forum, not a way of contacting Evernote directly. So suggestions made here are not likely to be followed up by Evernote.

Then a clarifying question: are you actually writing a book in Evernote and then trying to send the Evernote content to a publisher? If so, that's really not what Evernote was designed for. People do it, I know, but it leads to problems like this. Evernote is great for gathering and organizing information, thoughts, and (to some extent) drafts, and having the material readily available on multiple platforms. But it's just not meant to be a manuscript production tool. It may be necessary to gather material in Evernote and then transfer it to Scrivener, or even to a  word processor, in order to produce material that publishers can work with.

[mimosa 1]

Thanks Dave-in-Decatur, I have come to the same conclusion, however, Evernote has been advertising it's use as a publishing tool, (see the Bryant blog mentioned in my initial posting) and had been recommended as a publishing tool by IT pundits, which is how I discovered Evernote, so there's a real gap between marketing and reality.

I believe the solution is the following:

1. Continue using Evernote to collect notes.

2. Once finished, copy them all into one or a few evernote files and seam everything up in Evernote.

3. Copy/paste the final version to Word.

I have tested pasting: this does respect the chapter numbering and subnumbering as well as bold and underline. Of course it's not ideal: wrong font, font size diminishes per bullet, paragraph spacing needs to be corrected,...: these are relatively quick and easy to remediate with the Word editor.

For French script: the biggest issue is that French requires an attached space before !?; and :, but not an ordinary space. Does Evernote provide this? (The search/replace in Word isn't able to automate these replacements).

Can anyone in the User forum solve this? I will also post this separately.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,954]

Well, as I said, I know that people do this. I just don't know why. Bryant says he finds his do-it-all-in-Evernote method simpler than switching among programs with different interfaces and structures. I can understand that, but I don't experience it myself. For me, saying "I wrote a novel entirely in Evernote" is like saying "I can juggle 6 eggs, a chainsaw, and an unabridged dictionary all at once"--it's a neat trick, but an awful lot of work to pull off. For instance, when I look at Bryant's first step I instantly get queasy:

Step 1. Notes and notebooks

For a novel-length project, set up a notebook exclusively for that novel. Each chapter goes into a separate note. Along with the actual chapters of the draft, I like to include a few additional notes:

Snippets: This note is where I record all the random bits of dialogue and description that pop into my head during the day, even if I don’t know how I’ll eventually use them. (Psst: If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, include snippets as part of your word count!)
Unresolved questions: I start each day by reading the previous day’s writing and note any loose threads I find. This step helps me write a tighter ending and saves a lot of time once I’m ready to edit the story.
Deleted scenes: Sometimes I can’t stop myself from editing while drafting. If I feel compelled to cut a scene, I like to keep it handy, just in case.

"Each chapter goes into a separate note." But scrolling or even searching through a chapter-length note (especially on a mobile device) sounds like an unappealing chore to me. Again, in my understanding Evernote was designed for notes. As for deleted scenes--one note with all the deleted scenes from an entire novel? Again, it sounds unwieldy to me. But the snippets and unresolved questions notes sound just like what Evernote is made for. That I understand.

So I would agree with you that Evernote does itself a disservice by hosting blogs that suggest maximalized, tour-de-force uses that most people would find difficult to manage. I guess that's just how software is marketed (as everything has always been marketed): one program to gather thoughts, create drafts, organize everything, cure warts, and help you stop eating ice cream at midnight!

If you haven't already, I'd suggest taking a look at Scrivener. They're nearing the final stage of a complete update of their Windows version, but I find the current version great for organizing and reorganizing material I've gathered from Evernote (a lot of copying and pasting can get involved in this), before doing the final work in a word processor.

[mimosa 1]

Hi David,

Thank you for taking the time to respond in detail.

I had heard of Scrivener, and had visited their site when I was checking solutions and chose Evernote.

So I just visited again their site now that I'm an Evernote user and know much more. What appears is that it can't be downloaded on Google's Playstore, so it doesn't seem designed for mobile function, except perhaps for Mac.

This is the big advantage of Evernote as already mentioned: On my Galaxy Note 8, I can work directly on my text, add notes, quotes, articles, pics , anywhere, anytime, at meetings or in a bus, and away from a table. Surprisingly, the Mobile version of Evernote is better for many things compared to the browser version on Chrome. I can understand that not all are happy composing text on a mobile (it depends on screen size), but then, when needed, I revert to the PC based version.

So, the subject remains open to you and others to provide their experiences.

Again thank you.

 

[Lee Wimberly 0]

I take it that FastPencil and Evernote do not really work together for publishing.  Very disappointing.  I really like authoring in Evernote, but feel like I have been sold a Bill of Goods by the company when they claim something that just is not so.  FastPencil has a support does not respond.  

Looks like we are on your own when it comes to publishing.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

26 minutes ago, Lee Wimberly said:

I have been sold a Bill of Goods by the company when they claim something that just is not so.

Just to be clear, when Evernote uses the term "publish" it doesn't mean send my manuscript to a publisher.   
This requires a third party conversion tool

What is your issue with FastPencil?   
The overview says   Import your Evernote notes and create a book or manuscript instantly. With a few clicks you can format to an ebook or professional print book, publish, and send to thousands of print or ebook distribution channels.

[Lee Wimberly 0]

On 4/3/2020 at 4:19 PM, DTLow said:

Just to be clear, when Evernote uses the term "publish" it doesn't mean send my manuscript to a publisher.   
This requires a third party conversion tool

What is your issue with FastPencil?   
The overview says   Import your Evernote notes and create a book or manuscript instantly. With a few clicks you can format to an ebook or professional print book, publish, and send to thousands of print or ebook distribution channels.

DTLow:  Thanks for your response.  You are correct.  I phrased that incorrectly.  What I was reacting to was the documentation that I could move my notes to FastPencil, which was a publishing software.  My frustration resulted because instructions for moving content into the publishing platform was locking up.  When it locked up it did not inform my WHY it was locking.  It took an overnight of "sleeping on it" to identify that I had imbedded graphics.  Once I removed the graphics, the content went just fine.  Since I am authoring a total of five (or now) books, I will do the writing references to the graphics, then integrated them within FacePencil.

[mimosa 1]

@DTLow

In view of your new user experience, would you recommend Fastpencil to convert from Evernote a book written as a stack with several folders, of which the main one contains 100+ notes?

Are the categories also transferred? 

And what's the format produced by Fastpencil?

Thanks so much, Mimosa

[DTLow 5,736]

6 hours ago, mimosa said:

In view of your new user experience, would you recommend Fastpencil to convert from Evernote a book written as a stack with several folders, of which the main one contains 100+ notes?

Sorry, I'm not a writer, and not qualified to make recommendations

I am an Evernote use and fan.  I'll be checking out the Fastpencil product   
I like the concept

There's a FastPencil review at http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2013/05/fastpencil-reviewed.html

[PinkElephant 8,091]

If I take a look at the pricing, fast pencil seems to be an initiative to become a poor writer instead of a writer.

It seems to offer a product, but my impression it does in fact sell "hope".

[DTLow 5,736]

5 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

If I take a look at the pricing

https://www.fastpencil.com/pricing/

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Most of the stuff listed as "features" can be yours for no money, if you are able to type the letters g-o-g-g-le-.-c-o-m into your browser.

It is a well known fact that there are "editors" that promises everybody being published - if you are willing to pay for it. My idea of authoring would rather be to be paid than paying.

Plus if I read it correctly, you give away the rights to your project in exchange for "competitive royalties", whatever this means.

[mimosa 1]

Thanks to all for your contributions. The fact is I'm not looking for the Fastpencil features at all. I find evernote's phone version so practical for writing anywhere, adding categories and editing. WHat I'm asking is how to convert my Evernote files to a format a standard publisher can use without losing features such as page layout, ie bold titles, words in italic, etc. Of course, one can copy to Word including formatting, note after note. But Word isn't really designed for managing pages and pages that have categories. 

Has anyone practised transferring Evernote folders, notes and categories to Scrivener once their manuscript was ready for finalising?