Quote:
Originally Posted by ASterling
Holy mackerel! That's some Cyrillic there!
|
Indeed. It's my go-to screenshot for those people who come to me, who insist that I'm stupid because "OBVIOUSLY," Cyrillic works on Kindle devcies, because they see a book in Cyrillic for sale on Amazon. {shrug}. Even I get sick of being called stupid, after a while.
Quote:
I freely admit I don't understand much of the technical discussion ...
Update from class this a.m. - one student stated he thought all textbooks would be digital in 10 years' time. But I think, more students might have said that 10 years ago than now --
|
Nah, students always believe that crap.
Quote:
|
With the textbook people, their production departments are 100% oriented toward print and paper. They use INDD but I don't think too many are using Adobe CC.
|
Well, that part doesn't matter. The output files are the output files, and we do intake from both--desktop and cloud.
Quote:
|
Most want the older versions and they have the older systems. They are definitely hostile to Amazon and have big trouble adjusting.
|
What I've found, largely, is a real resistance to the PAY of making eBooks. Or the "value," if they are employees of a company. In ye olden days, print layout houses charged thousands of dollars for a layout. The people doing the layout made commensurate monies. I remember that a local bookmaker, here, came to me, asking me to teach her to make eBooks (uh....), but I was relieved of the possible burden of turning her away politely when she found out
what she could realistically charge. She was appalled. She could earn more in a few hours than she could charge for an entire, completed eBook and she wasn't going to have any of that!
Quote:
|
I don't think it's just the "cheapest alternative," it's poor communications all along the line. I first discovered the "problem" while looking on Adobe Forums and seeing production managers for big textbook companies complaining and sniping back and forth with Amazon and Adobe people.
|
It's because they simply do NOT want to have to do what needs doing, after you push the button in INDD to finalize the book. And yes--it's a LOT of work. Liz Castro's book makes it all sound easy-peasy, but it's not. Oh, sure, if all you have is text (fiction), or text with a few piccies, it's not so bad, but the moment you start doing ANYTHING that is "formatting," you're doomed. You just can't get there from here with INDD. And it's damn sure not that simple to go from INDD to MOBI! That's a whole other rodeo.
Quote:
|
You have so much knowledge Hitch ...
|
Not really. I'm just more
widely versed, than a lot of folks, because I have to be. (I mean, compared to folks like Diap, Kevin, Doits, Tex2002ans, etc., around here, I am a total
know-nothing, trust me.)
Despite the fact that I clearly tell folks, a million times, that our products are DELIVERABLES, and not free publishing consulting, I get asked this stuff all the time. Take that, plus the utterly WRONG pontificating and pronouncements on various topics on forums--which need to be addressed, before poor newbs go away with the wrong info--you end up knowing a lot of trivia. Hell, I
just saw a post on the KDP that was completely and flatly wrong. But, one of the "experts" pronounced upon it, and he's
so vicious that it's
not worth it to me to fix it. And if you start swinging over there, even in self-defense, Amazon gets vexed with you, I'm told (fortunately, I don't know that first-hand). So the poor noob that asked the question is going to run around for god-only-knows-how-long trying to do something
that she can't do. {sigh}.
Quote:
|
If even an AVERAGE textbook version could be made to work, I still think it is a lot of money. I have just now myself noticed the download charge relationship so ... optimizing for file size is also important. It is just so complicated ...
|
Well, I put up the examples. That book was 1200 pages long, and I forget the total image count...ah, 445 (looked it up) and we managed to get it in under the 50mb limit. Of course, the book sells for a small fortune, so the delivery fees are the least of their (the client's) concern. I'd think that given the prices that MM charges, they ought not care, either. Firstly, they have a publisher's agreement with Amazon, which probably addresses delivery fees in a completely different way than the Indy agreements. Secondly, their books aren't going to be between $2.99 and $9.99, so they aren't PAYING delivery fees; they don't have that charge. AND, lastly, as they upload via FTP, not the KDP, they don't have that precious 50MB file-size limit.
They're golden, IOW. I have no doubt we could make their books. But will we? I do have doubt about that. They'll want some huge company, like Aptara, etc., not a boutique firm in the middle of Arizona. ;-) (Even though...all due modesty aside, IMHO, we make better books than they do. Certainly, our books get more individualized ATTENTION than books done at Aptara or their ilk. Not dissing Aptara; but they are making thousands of books every week, in a huge assembly line. That's a very different approach than ours. Not that I would turn that VOLUME down, of course....)
Hitch