Author Tool Tips: Editing an epub file with Calibre

If you need to make a tiny tweak to your ePUB file, such as taking out the name 'Amazon' so you can upload your files to places like Apple books, today's tutorial stream should help!
I've only used Calibre a bit. But it's been a big help for the things I've needed to do. (True confessions: I'm doing this tutorial partly so I have a reference for the next book!)

Background

I used Reedsy for my original ePub, PDF, and mobi file generation. But Reedsy makes ePub 3 files. I needed ePub version 2 files for Draft2Digital ebook distribution. D2D can make ePub from word, but I had 2 issues.

It messed up my prettily formatted files with drop caps when the letter had a quote in front and got rid of any margins with header lines. GRR!

I found out several of the places D2D distributes to won't allow ANY mention of other distribution platforms. (So saying 'Leave a review at Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub' is bad because it has 'Amazon' in it.)

Note

We will edit the HTML view of the ePub file.

Breathe. You can do this!

Twitch highlight video for this tutorial is:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/981536630

Make a Copy Before you Start

You'll be editing on your 'final' file. Make a backup copy of it.

How to Make Text Only Edits to an ePUB file in Calibre

Open Calibre. (If you have an old copy of the same file, remove it. Right click on the listing. Choose Remove Books-> Remove selected books)

Drag your ePUB file into Calibre.

Edit it. (Right click on the listing. Choose Remove Books-> Remove selected books)

Double click on the chapter/section you need to edit.

Find the area you need to edit (by a) clicking on the line/section in the reader view and going to that line in the HTML or b) clicking in the HMTL view and CTRL+F to search.

Change your text.

Save and close the Edit Window.

Check the changes are there.

Go back to the book listing in Calibre. If you double click on the size (not editable), it will open a viewing window.

Right click on the ebook listing. Pick Save to Disk. It will save a folder with your author name that has the new ePUB file.

How to Make Simple Formatting Edits to an ePUB file in Calibre

(We'll make a simple margin change class for the demonstration.)

Open your ePub file for editing and double click the chapter/section you want to first edit.

Open up the Live CSS pane. (View->Ensure 'Live CSS' is checked.)

Click on the line you want to change the CSS for.

Add a CSS class to the HTML in that line. For our example, we'll add this into one of the <p> elements:

class="topSpace" 

In the Live CSS pane hunt for base and click on it. (A new tab will open.)

At the bottom of the CSS file, we'll add this code:

.topSpace {
 padding-top: .5em;
}

Wa-lah! we have a little more readability.

Now add that same class to any other HTML in the document that needs it.

Save your work in the editor.

Save your file.

Compare it to another file!

Where to get Calibre

Download it at calibre-ebook.com

What operating systems does Calibre support?

Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS

Other Options

For my next book I will look into Vellum, running on a cloud Mac server. I've heard it's easy to use and rave reviews about it. But I could not justify the cost for my first book. Too many other expenses!