Inexpensive Digital Book Creation Tools Begin to Arrive

Graphics.com
...A new generation of eBook tools seeks to place the ability to create digital books within the reach of a broader audience.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4658

When it comes to print publishing, Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress are the undisputed leaders. Given the inexorable rise of digital books, it's no surprise that Adobe and Quark both offer solutions based on their flagship layout applications. XPress 9, released last month, made significant strides by adding the ability to design for and publish to digital devices in a variety of formats, including the open EPUB format employed by Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble NOOK and Amazon Kindle. Adobe InDesign also provides this capability.
While this is as it should be, inexpensive alternatives are beginning to show up. While the functionality of these in some cases is limited, it's a safe bet that their sophistication will quickly increase, to the point where purchasing an expensive application like InDesign or XPress for eBook creation might become difficult to justify.
EPUB Builder for Windows
AnyBizSoft just launched this basic utility, which can generate an eBook in EPUB format by combining up to 100 files in doc/.docx, .pdf, .txt, .html/.htm/.xhtml, .chm, .epub, .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif and.tiff formats, with support for nine languages. While it doesn't provide WYSIWYG capabilities during the conversion process, it's apparently possible to control such aspects of the book as its layout, cover and table of contents. Sounds like it would take some trial and error to generate any but the most simple documents, but for $39.95, that may not prove to be a barrier for some. A trial version is also available.

Sigil
Just updated is the donation-ware Sigil application, available for Mac, Windows and Linux. This open source tool can also create an EPUB document from TXT, HTML and other EPUB files but also provides the welcome ability to edit eBooks in a WYSIWYG environment, via Book View, Code View and Split View. It thus provides a handy way to tweak EPUB files created with any tool, including InDesign or XPress. This is one to keep an eye on, since its open source nature is resulting in steady improvements.