[pittendrigh]

OK. Perhaps we're not so far apart. At the top of the thread I said I wanted to write some software so I could "not make money my own way." In other words I want to sell two epubs on my website without sharing royalties. My subjects (boat building and fly tying) are such narrow niche markets it's not a profitable enterprise no matter what. I'm just a retired guy having fun.

I'm working on a PHP epub reader/displayer already. It's going to be easier than I expected. The hardest part will be the TOC, which is defined in XML for epub3. But I'm good at XPath. I spent my last 5 professional years working with XML databases like Exist and SleepyCat.

The HTML reader won't require casual surfers to install software first. But it will still act like a book, with TOC, next page, pervious page, goto page and remembered current page. If they like what they see (first 25 pages for free perhaps) they could buy and download the entire epub and then deal with reader installation issues as they they choose.

I already have the framework for reading and displaying the rest. A few session variables will take care of current page number, etc. This will be a fun project. I hope to have something on sourceforge by the end of the coming Winter.

........some fly tying books, published through traditional paper technology channels, might make $10,000 for the author, on a first printing. Second printings are rare. Most make close to nothing. There are too many such books already printed, married to an aging, shrinking market.