Burning Slug Resources

Useful Resources

Here are some additional resources for Burning Slug users. Many of these cover advanced topics; you don't need to know everything here for basic use.

Markdown Resources
The formatting convention used by Burning Slug is based on Markdown.
Markdown:Basics This page and the associated Markdown:Syntax page are the "boot camp" of Markdown. An excellent place to start.
Mastering Markdown This page has links to many other tools, tutorials, and general resources.
Markdowntutorial.com A very nice interactive tutorial.
Markdown: a MacSparky Field Guide Available on the iBookstore. It includes both text and tutorial videos.
Instant Markdown
Plain Text Editors for Burning Slug
Sublime Text for Windows, Mac, and Linux
TextWrangler for Mac
TextMate for Mac
Windows Notepad (should already be installed on Windows machines)
Atom, a new editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Early days, but seems to be quite featureful. Free.
Windows Notepad (should already be installed on Windows machines)
Notepad++ for Windows
vi/vim or emacs for Linux (should already be installed)
Kindle Tools
Kindle Previewer Amazon's free Kindle Previewer is available for Mac and Windows. It lets you convert your EPUB files to Kindle format and preview it in simulations of several different Kindle models.
KindleGen KindleGen (also free from Amazon) is available for Linux as well as Mac and Windows. It is a command-line program.
Calibre Calibre is a free ebook management tool that (among many other functions) can convert to and from most common ebook formats.
Cover Images
GIMP is a free image editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
MorgueFile.com has a large collection of images that you can use as a base for your cover.
Wikimedia Commons is another good source. Check the license to make sure it's okay to make commercial use of the image.
Flickr has millions of photographs available. To find images that you can use in your cover, go to the advanced search and check "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content", "Find content to use commercially", and "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon" (other images on Flickr will require explicit permission from the artist).
There are also many stock photo image sites on the web where you can purchase image rights for a reasonable fee.
Sarah Hoyt has written a good series of tutorials on basic cover image creation.
Selling Your Book
Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (ebooks)
Apple's iBooks Store (ebooks)
Barnes & Noble's Nook Press (ebooks)
BookBaby (ebooks -- can distribute to multiple online stores)
Google Play Books (sell ebooks on the Google platforms, e.g. Android)
Smashwords (ebooks -- can distribute to multiple online stores)
Draft2Digital (ebooks -- can distribute to multiple online stores)
Amazon's CreateSpace (print books)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
CSS is used to style ebooks and websites.
Getting Started with CSS
HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide (8th Edition)
Head First HTML and CSS
L^AT_EX
L^AT_EX is used to generate PDF files and printed books.
The T_EX Live distribution for Windows and Linux
The MacT_EX distribution for Mac OS X
The Not So Short Introduction to L^AT_EX 2ε
The Memoir Class. By default, Burning Slug uses this class to format your document.
The L^AT_EX Companion (2nd Edition) (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting)
Miscellaneous Resources
ISO-8601 dates
ISO-639 language codes
HTML color picker (use this to get the color value for drop caps/lettrines)

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