Quote:
Originally Posted by AuthorGreg
Even if you have all those devices to test on, you only gain a small measure of confidence in the results, as you are only side-loading. Amazon, B&N, et al would really do us a solid if they provided reliable previewers.
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Well, this is where solid tests of "templates" on the conversion side of things would help. For example, I tested my CSS on lots of devices a long while back, this is my "tried and true" CSS, I know it works.
Now, since I use this in every book I convert, I don't have to waste time testing every little thing all over again (only if I decide to add in something new into my repertoire, like that gray textbox).
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuthorGreg
I'm mystified by B&N (Nook Press) in particular. Why provide a false sense of security to the self-publisher with its faux previewer, only to munch the living hell out of the final processed product?
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Yeah.. I am mystified by someone like B&N (or even Amazon), who creates these previewers.
The renderer on the device is CLOSED SOURCE, the companies who produce these devices are the only ones who have access to it... they are the only ones who know the exact code that is being used to render the output.
Even something like Kindle Previewer does not allow you to fiddle with all the things as the physical device would (margins, line-spacing, different fonts, etc. etc.).
What we would need is just a trustworthy/reliable source, with lots of different devices, who can test out different code + lots of sample images + lots of different settings, and come up with a few/lots of clean CSS "templates", which others can then safely/reliably use in their ebooks.
If I ever get a few thousand spare dollars to purchase a ton of devices, and lots of free time, you know what I will be doing.
For now, I will just work on creating clean/consistent code in all of my books... As long as the underlying code is fantastic, CSS tweaks can be performed in less than a few minutes.
Everything I work on is CC3.0, and a lot of my work is also on Public Domain books... so you can just take any books I created, and toss them on your device and see how the final book would ACTUALLY look. If you like what I do, send your stuff my way and I don't mind "bashing it" into my templates for you.
Perhaps in the future, there will be a "Tex2002ans" template, a "JSWolf/Toxaris/mrmikel/Jellby" template... And then you just pick one you like the look of. :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuthorGreg
As an author, I don't sleep well realizing that an eBook bought today will be properly formatted, but that the same eBook could be rendered as total crap the very next day with either a change in the firmware or the ePub processor itself.
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Which is why you try not to handle the design by yourself... hand it off to someone who knows a thing or two and has to deal with this crazy crap.
I will take my hammer and bash it into my trusted "in-house" CSS (and clean up your code, and make it easier to understand/maintain... I will make your life much easier in the long-run).
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuthorGreg
It's no wonder the smart money is on print books to prevail in the end. I share that opinion myself.
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Well... printing has had their technologies perfected over the centuries... ebooks are quite new.
With print, you can have it "designed/typeset once" and set it and forget it, but you lose all of the advantages of ebooks. And do not come crying back to me in few decades when you want the book updated/fixed (or maybe you want to go from a small paperback to a larger hardcover version)... Or maybe the printing company you want to use in the future will want it in format X, but you have it in fixed format Y.
Your computer crashed and you lost the source file... and the program originally used to publish it does not exist any more... the publisher you worked with went out of business and took all the source files to the grave with them.... so then you have to work backwards from a horrible source. (ok ok, maybe I am biased, since I have to work backwards from dreaded book scans, or digital PDFs in which I have no source files for).
I don't see HTML+CSS going anywhere any time soon though. So if you keep your layout/code quite simple, I don't forsee anything breaking for a LOOOONG time.
If you have a clean code base, and want to generate a completely new look for your book, BAM, a few tiny CSS tweaks, and your book now looks completely different:
http://www.csszengarden.com/
Now, while most ereaders aren't quite to this level of CSS yet, they most likely will tend towards more CSS compliance.
On the topic of fixed layout/print:
Perhaps one day there will be an easier way to sell PDFs than directly on your site... or easier tools/ways to create fixed layout ebooks... but according to my experience this is just spelling pain and misery (and lots of money), with very little gain.
With ebooks, in the blink of an eye, millions of copies of your book can be replicated and around the world changing everyone's lives.
Cost of printing/transporting a million physical copies of your book around the world:
A few million
Cost of spreading a million EPUBs around the world:
Bandwidth Costs (few hundred/thousand dollars).
Ebooks are the way of the future, physical books are going to go the way of the dodo.
(ok ok, maybe not the dodo, but I definitely see them becoming less influential as more and more gets influenced by the digital revolution).
Side Note: Ebooks have the ability to let the blind read:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_mccallu...e_to_read.html
Can't get any more amazing than that. DOWN WITH PHYSICAL BOOKS!!!