I think I’ve commented a time or two about how much I love Scrivener, and how much it’s helped me as a writer. I can keep better track of my files, and it’s lovely to have all the chapters and all the research for a particular project all in one neat little package so I don’t have to hunt all over my hard drive for the pertinent information.
What I just discovered, however, is that Scrivener 2.0 has this unbelievably helpful feature where you can compile a project directly into a .mobi or an .epub file. That’s right — if I’m doing something e-only, I don’t have to mess around with laying it out in InDesign to generate the .epub file (which I then would have to import into Calibre to convert it to .mobi). I don’t think I need to spell out how much time this is going to save me. In addition, I think the .mobi file Scrivener produces actually looks better than the ones I’ve been making in InDesign/Calibre. You can set the spacing, enter all your meta-data, add the cover, and do all sorts of really neat stuff.
This is really going to streamline my production process, especially since I’m probably going to produce fewer and fewer print versions of my books. I don’t sell all that many, and the royalty I get off them is paltry, since I refuse to make the cover price correspondingly high so I earn a royalty similar to what I get from the e-versions. And any time saved on the technical end just means more time for writing!
In fact, I put together a book of my short stories yesterday and already have it up on Amazon. True, you can find the stories in various places around the web, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have them all in one place, and I’m pricing the collection at just $1.99, which isn’t bad for almost 25,000 words. I just love the fact that in about an hour or so, I was able to format a novella-length book and test it on my Kindle app. This opens up all sorts of possibilities for me — and, I hope, for lots of indie authors who’ve been struggling with the formatting part of getting their books out there.
*Note: All this refers to the Mac version of Scrivener. I haven’t used the Windows version, but I’ve heard that, since it’s newer, it doesn’t have all the same bells and whistles. Still, it’s worth looking into. It’ll probably be the best $45 you’ll ever spend.
** And no, the people at Literature and Latte aren’t paying me to write this. 
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I have been using Scrivener for over a year now and I think it’s brilliant. I have uploaded three new books using it. Just wondered if you have ever come across a problem with TOC? I have just uploaded a new ebook in .mobi and the TOC has duplicated the first few chapters. I can’t seem to fathom out why.
Hmm, that is strange. I’ve formatted (I think) four books now using Scrivener, and I’ve never had a problem with the TOC it generates. Where are you seeing the duplicate chapters? In KDP’s preview, or on an actual Kindle or Kindle app?