Is there an app already installed which would be suitable for writing a book. It will have images and page numbers etc
Not included by default, but I really liked AsciidocFX, its a bit huge and taking some resources but I really liked how useful and friendly can be to create books, I strongly suggest you it for this purpose
Note also that it is basically a nice GUI, you don't even need this software to write a book, you can edit these files manually in your prefered editor and also run the asciidoc commands to build the book, but stills, a pretty nice gui for that, and perfect to see how things work
Other benefits is that because it uses the asciidoc language you don't depend on the tool too, they are simple texts which you can migrate / modify / convert in any moment, and you can also set your own rendering style of the book just like many other options
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I shall check it out, It could be just what Im after. Thank you.
The official best software for professional like book creation would be "latex" combined with "pandoc" but would require a fairly steep learning curve. It's got everything one could think of for writing any sort of book or paper. There's an app called "gummi" that allows a live preview, though.
If you want to keep it simple (particularly in the lay-out) then "markdown" would be quite sufficient with a relatively small step to format to HTML, PDF or Ebook output...It's very similar to how messages here on the forum are formatted (yes, its markdown too).
The included app in Elive is "ghostwriter" which is alright in terms of ease (but a bit lacking in options) and then there's others like the mentioned "asciidocFx" and even easier WYSIWYG ones like "typora".
Personally I use 'typora' to create articles or blogs, it just gets out of my way while I write and edit.
If you're into "desktop-publishing" as a whole then take a look at "scribus" ..... not the prettiest of tools but very handy for intricate lay-outs.
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Texmaker is good for LaTeX, but it doesn't do much for learning curve.
Yeah, I'd go for "markdown" as the easiest route and "latex" if you want a book published/printed.
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I ended up downloading Scribus. I used to use Pagemaker on my Mac 2 in the 1980's. Scribus sort of reminds me of it a bit. It will probably work for what I want. Im writing a climbing guide so it will have photos and route descriptions. It seems simple enough to learn. The guide will ultimately be printed and may be made into an ebook.
There are some really amazing apps available much more than I need.
I will take a look at some of you guys selections. I may find one of them is more suitable. I shall let you know what I end up using. Scribus isnt pretty to look at thats for sure
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Don't forget to give it a try to AsciidocFX, not because of the application itself but about the asciidoc language which -may- fits your needs in an easy way (the tool can be considered a good overview for it), I think asciidoc is very good for generate ebooks
Once I download it and I have the package how do I install it. I tried yesterday. I had it installed but couldnt find out how to open it. Im still learning how to install apps on elive.
If you hit "Ctrl + Space" the launcher should come up (else access it from Elive-center) and when if you start typing the name of the app it will/should appear in the options there.
Then click it and hit "Enter".
Great I shall have a go later. Im installing a new fire for the winter.
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I didn't ask which of the recommended apps you installed/downloaded.
Bear in mind that "asciidocfx" is a java application which has its own specific idiosyncracies. It might start from the "launcher" but I'm not sure ....... personally I'd never recommend a java app to a novice user so I'll leave that to @Thanatermesis (who recommended it) to explain.
If the package is a ".deb" package it might pull in the required dependencies correctly but again, I'm not sure. 
I do know that "typora" (and "zettlr", albeit a tad less stable) offers the same functionality (and more, sans java) as do others (https://alternativeto.net/software/asciidocfx/) in which "zettlr" (which is FOSS) is conspicuously missing IMO. The "typora" page explains how to add their repository to your machine (Install Typora on Linux - Typora Support) and after that it will upgrade along with the other software and show up along with your other office applications in the launch-menu. IMO its a very well made program.... one of those I'm gladly financially supportive of.
- If you're in "free-mode" it will pop-up a nag-screen every now and then but we're used to that on Elive.
OTOH I would advise at looking at and playing with "ghostwriter" first, which should already be installed on your machine. It probably wont be fully what you're looking for but will give an idea of what's possible with markdown (it's a bit clunky, admittedly). Most other, more sophisticated apps will follow about the same work mode.
We have had a discussion on which of the markdown editor apps to include on Elive and "ghostwriter" came out on top. Markdown editor included by default for various reasons.
- Maybe "zettlr" is a better default candidate now.
Then again ... all conversions/exports (on linux) rely on "pandoc" which reminds me of:
I have a lot of things to try out. It may have to be tomorrow. Im struggling to set the aperture on my Sinar shutter. Large format camera. I serviced it without marking the position of the screws. At least I shall be wiser once Ive learned how to calibrate it.
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Ah, that is sooo recognizable. 
The reason why I always lay the stuff I take apart in chronological order. Doesn't always work but mostly it does.
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Hello!
An other one, very good, that I know because it was first on Amiga, MorphOS...
Now, the Linux version is not the up to date one, and it's not freeware (from 100 to 150$ or €): Pagestream...
I only had the demo on MorphOS...
Salutations!
Thank you. Its only a hobby in my retirement so I cant justify spending that kind of money. It seems there is plenty of choice.
I recommended asciidocfx just because the app is so nice and just what @Rory needs, but I agree with that, I don't like java apps too, and is also slow, cpu-consuming, and takes a good amount of RAM, it has also a few issues that I have reported in the past, its just the application that is nice, intuitive, and ready for that purpose for @Rory, BTW as mentioned before, the app is not needed at all, one can have the same functionality from a simple editor (write the book in asciidoc code, render it to pdf or epub with asciidoc commands, etc), asciidocfx is basically a gui for all these features. In other words, Asciidocfx can be also tried as a "test" (especially in Live or the Impermutable mode 
) and then after to see what it can do and how it works, things can be simply written in asciidoc language having a cheatsheet page opened
zettlr ? I didn't tried this one, looks nice too, anybody tried? unfortunately not in the debian repos
In the past I was tempted to include asciidocfx in Elive becuase of the nice features and interface that has, in other words "it is what a user would search for write books", but I didn't because of the previous mentioned reasons, ghostwriter is a better candidate because of its lightness and stability, but imho lacks much more features (in other words, can be a bit useless / unneeded in real world using)
An idea just come to my mind since we have now good technologies for that, what about simply recording the process in a video from the phone? that way everything and movement will be registered
It's very similar to asciidocFx in it's features and look. Ascidocfx has some serious issues (and behaviour) on my machine when rendering existing .md files which zettlr doesn't have,,, I haven't looked why and don't intend to.....I'm personally quite happy with "typora" which has its own (debian) repo to keep the app up to date.
Did you tried both? I just tried in a virtual machine since I cannot reboot my machine right now to use impermutable, I didn't like zettlr I found it lacking a lot of UX friendliness to write a book and also it doesn't convert to epub formats, btw I'm starting to dislike pretty much all those "web-based apps", I mean, an entire browser to run a website, why just don't open the page in your common website? that takes a lot of resources for nothing but anyways...
on my machine when rendering existing .md
wait! asciidoc is not markdown 
, they look quite similar but is different language, you can see https://docs.asciidoctor.org/asciidoc/latest/syntax-quick-reference/ , asciidoc is more powerful, in short markdown is good to simple format at text, but asciidoc includes much more features of formating and special ones related to books like references, links, tocs, etc etc, then the render tool is what is in charge to render the specific format in their specific way, for example rendering a glossary and where to put it
