Edit pre-published ebook

[Photojack001]

I just discontinued my contract with a publisher. I received an email containing my ebook. I want to change the publisher to Independent Publiher and publish through Kindle Direct Publishing. My question is can I edit this ebook through InDesign? I am completely inexperienced with this software and my first effort to edit an ebook.  I would appreciate any information on this issue.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

InDesign cannot directly edit ePub or PDF files.

[Geоrge]

And this is terrible mistake from Adobe. Serif Affinity Publisher and his father PagePlus was always have feutures for import and redact PDF's.

Here the feature request page about it - https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/30985276-co...

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Not realy, it does not 'open' them, it converts them, and in that process of conversion looses many things!

[Derek Cross]

The term eBook is a generic name for a number of formats for digital books. If your book, for example, is in the Reflowable ePub format, the name of the publisher could be easily changed, but you (or more likely an expert in HTML and CSS) would need to know how to crack open the ePub and make the change. This can't be done in InDesign. Maybe someone on this forum might offer, possibly for a fee.

[Eugene Tyson]

Is it an InDesign file? You would know by the .indd file extension

[rayek.elfin]

Couple of options:

• If your ebook is an epub file AND it is a reflowable layout (not fixed as in all the layout elements on each page are absolutely positioned): this can be easily edited with the free Sigil epub editor.
  https://sigil-ebook.com/
  Calibre is an alternative which also features a built-in editor for epub and azw3 files.
  https://calibre-ebook.com/
  
  
• If your ebook is an epub file AND it is NOT reflowable, but rather a fixed layout epub (all pages contain of absolutely positioned elements that are fixed in place and do not reflow / adjust automatically) then the file can be opened and edited in Jutoh, and resaved.
  http://www.jutoh.com/
  
  If your ebook file is saved as a PDF and you only need to edit a very small part (such as singular lines of text: the publisher, etc.) then open it in a PDF editor: either Acrobat Pro or PDF Exchange Editor, make the change, and resave.
  Acrobat Pro is part of the CC suite. If you do not have access to Acrobat Pro, an excellent affordable alternative is:
  https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/index.htm
  
  
• If you need to make very large changes to an existing PDF, it is probably best to open it in Affinity Publisher and work with that, as suggested earlier.
  
  
• If your ebook file is in a different format than either epub or pdf (like mobi or amazon kindle format) it depends what the best workflow is. A mobi can be opened in some editors, but it is probably a good idea to convert to epub with Calibre, and then edit it like above. 
  If your ebook is a fixed layout kindle book, chances are text might have been converted to bitmap images here and there or everywhere. It cannot be easily edited, and the images themselves must be opened in an image editor like Photoshop.

In any case, please provide use with the exact file format that your book is saved in and whether the layout is fixed or reflowable.

[Derek Cross]

I find that BBEdit is a good application for editing Reflowable ePubs (Mac only).