Creating M4B files from MP3, then splitting

[hungledink]

Hello,

I have an audiobook in MP3 format. I want to convert this into M4B format, so I can make use of the ipods bookmarking facility.

I have read lots of info on how to do this but I thought I would ask the experts.

I have used MediaCoder to convert the MP3's to one large M4B file, its 947mb. This now needs to be split. Is there anyway to do this without re-encoding?

Or is there a way to do all the steps at once, preferably using freeware.

Thanks.

[minidv2dvd]

must be one big book! anyway it's probably best to split the mp3s into 3 equal groups and then convert the groups to 3 m4s.