Right now, the coronavirus is forcing publishers to convert more books to epubs quickly. I’m receiving lots of requests for this kind of work, and we can’t take them all on at Electric Book Works. I’d like to point publishers to experienced, freelance book-production pros. In particular, I’d like to support solo freelancers at this difficult time.
Below, I’ll list the pros I hear about with their details. Please contact them directly if you need epub conversions. (Note that epub conversions are essentially also Amazon Kindle conversions, since you can upload epub files to Amazon.)
Here’s how my list works:
1. There are good conversions and bad ones. Unless I say otherwise, I cannot vouch for anyone listed here, nor the quality of their work. If you’re a publisher who wants independent quality assurance, contact me at Electric Book Works.
2. For now, I am only listing individuals who do these conversions themselves. I’m interested in recording which individuals have the necessary skills. If I’m told that they do their work at or as a company, I’ll mention that.
3. If you have worked with someone listed here, you can leave a review about them in the comments. I moderate all comments on my site, so I will publish positive ones that seem credible to me. And I may choose to hide negative or unhelpful reviews. If I get a credible, negative review, I may choose to remove someone from the list. I can’t and won’t enter into any correspondence about my decisions. Unfortunately I don’t have any capacity for that.
4. I won’t be able to maintain this list often. It may get out of date, sorry!
5. If you’d like to be listed, send me your details. I need your full name, your email address, your city, and a short (one paragraph) description of your epub-conversion skills and experience. If you have a website or online resume (e.g. LinkedIn), please include its URL. Publishers are far more likely to contact you if they can read more about you online first. And I will list your website rather than your email so that you control how people contact you. If you’d like to be removed, just let me know.
6. If you are a company that does epub conversions, I won’t list your company, but you can put your details in a short, professional note in the comments below. All we need is your company name, website URL, country, and a one-line company description. If you don’t include this, and only this, I probably won’t publish your post. Sorry. I won’t be editing anything, so I’ll only approve comments that are already clear, concise and helpful.
Thanks, everyone. Here’s the list so far in reverse-alphabetical order.
- Xola dos Santos, working as XDODE in Cape Town.
- Wouter Reinders, working at Purple Pocket Solutions near Cape Town.
- Wesley Thompson, working as Liquid Type near Johannesburg. Wesley is one of the few people on this list I’ve worked with extensively, so I can personally recommend his work.
- Stephen Sunguro, former e-learning project manager now freelancing, based in Zimbabwe. Email stephens2000@gmail.com or connect on LinkedIn.
- Micaela De Freitas, a production specialist based near Johannesburg. Email
- Martin Endemann, a designer and digital specialist based in Paarl, South Africa. I’ve known Martin for a long time and know he’s very, very experienced. Find him on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Kevin Callahan, working as BNGO Books in New York City. Former editor-in-chief of EPUBsecrets.com.
- John and Shirene Dovey, formerly of Just Done Productions in KZN, South Africa, now freelance from Pedasi, Panama. Email dovey.john@gmail.com.
- Heleen Liebenberg, working as élan Concepts near Johannesburg. She’s on LinkedIn, or email ms.hliebenberg@gmail.com.
- Emily Vosloo, working as Texture Publishing. On LinkedIn.
- Dave Henderson, who’s been running MyeBook for over ten years. Email publish@myebook.co.za. On LinkedIn.
- Andy Thesen, working as Andy Thesen Desktop Publishing. Email athesen@global.co.za.
- Aimee Armstrong, experienced freelancer in reflowable and fixed layout conversions, based in Johannesburg. Email aimeearmstrong1991@gmail.com. On LinkedIn.