There are two methods to create an ebook.

Method №1. Photograph the book

You need:

Phone

Stand

Stand

Save the picture and find similar stands using Google Images

Lamp

Weight for pressing pages (for example, a puck)

Power bank

Disadvantages of photographing:

Variation of text size due to page flipping

Imperfect straightening of lines by the Book Restorer program

Advantages:

Availability

Description:

Fix the phone on the stand. Turn on the lamp. Put the book so that one page completely falls into the view of the camera. Pull the page with one hand. If the second page starts to slam, put some weight on it (I use hockey puck). Press the button with your second hand. Then process the photos with special programs.

If you want B/W ebook with colored illustrations (method of separated scans), see DjVu.

If you want to keep the photos as they are, see PDF.

If you want to get a textual ebook, see FB2, EPUB.

Method №2. Scan the book

Buy a Plustek scanner.

Practical recommendations

  • First of all, check if the book is already on the Internet. See How to find books.

  • How to obtain the book to digitize it? Get it in the library. Sign up for the large local library: there you can find books and periodicals that you won’t find anywhere else. If the largest local library allows reading only inside the library, photo the book inside the library (usually t’s free to take photos). If you didn’t find necessary book in local libraries, use interlibrary loan: find the book on WorldCat and reach interlibrary loan department of the large local library. As a last resort, buy the book.

  • During digitization, you can listen to lecture, podcast or audiobook.

  • After photographing, check if you have missed a page or photographed one page twice. An effective method is to quickly scroll 10 photos and see if the page number has grown by 10 or not. If it grew by 10, there was no mistake.

  • Caution. Do not release the book earlier than a year after its publication to avoid the conflict with the copyright holder. If you publish the book too early, it will undermine the book’s sales.