Quote:
Originally Posted by Trane
To all, thank you for your input. I am not about to engage in an argument, however. Amazon engenders loyalty, probably and especially for people who have made money publishing with them, which is understandable. To be fair, once I start publishing I might soften in my attitude in that at least there will be an up side to Amazon to counter the negatives (not excuse or embrace them, but counter them).
OTOH, defending Amazon by pointing to companies who do worse (Apple for instance) is not resolving Amazon. So what to proprietary formats? This shows a total lack of understanding of the bigger picture of what serves the international community of online standards... i.e., the public, education, and ease of making as much information available to as many people as possible in the most efficient way... yes, even while making a profit. Proprietary formats that undermine international standards work against that, and there is only one reason for it.
Amazon would not have such a big job supporting their older devices, nor would coders who have worked so hard to make their programs adaptable, if they had initially made them compliant with standard code. Yes, e-ink is different and there are built-in restrictions, but the 'solutions' they came up with are not solutions at all. Now that newer Kindles are capable, they still aren't supporting the standards. That works against the entire ebook industry. That's my opinion, YMMV, and we can agree to disagree.
(And to Hitch, I don't read books with pictures and if I did, I'd use an app that supports the code. Maybe Aldiko does, I don't know, b/c I have never had a need. But I have 4 e-reader apps on my tablet.)
Have a good day, all...
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Don't get in an argument, but.... :-)
Well, I think that as you invest more time in attempting to make your book, being a publisher, etc., you'll find that those "standards" you're so hot on are pretty much NOT used by anyone in the retail sector. Apple has blithely ignored them since the get-go; KoboBooks has its own goddamned format, and B&N's engine brings its own set of issues.
All that IDPF "standards" stuff sounds GREAT, doesn't it? But there are realities which, as a newcomer, you haven't encountered yet. Firstly, if you view the IDPF standards, over the last, say, 7 years, you'll see that what goes in to those standards is highly--highly--politicized, and you most certainly can't lay blame for that at Amazon's feet. Secondly, for every step forward, there are two back, and thirdly, as I said, guess how many retailing environments actually pay attention to those standards? As in, NONE?
As Tex pointed out, you yourself are using an eReader that ignores your own CSS. Welcome to eBook making, 101: everything you thought you knew, from standards, from books, from blog articles, from Liz Castro: most of it is wrong.
As Tox pointed out, LOTS of people read on eInks. Simply assuming that if Amazon "had only" stuck to the ePUB standards that all the issues would magically go away is just incorrect, as those of us who are bookmaking find out DAILY, struggling with things like B&N's issues, or Kobo butchering complex layout books, etc.
So, yes, you're right, that just "pointing at other retailers" doesn't somehow exculpate them of the
perceived wrongdoing that you've ascribed to them, but, really:
says who? Any company,
any where, can release an eReader. That's capitalism. There are thousands of eReading apps out there, on thousands of devices. Just because Amazon decided to use a different format (which, I should point out, already EXISTED, in mobipocket, which was WIDELY used, way back then....), doesn't mean that what they've done is somehow "wrong." YOU think it's wrong, because you are ascribing their motives to greed. Maybe it was as simple as, they bought mobipocket and liked it?
OR, how about this one:
They realized--as
any person would do--in reviewing both ePUB format and MBP,
at the time,
that nearly any idiot could learn how to make a mobipocket eBook, to upload and sell on their site.
Amazon had already seen what was happening with Smashwords. You didn't need to be Oppenheimer, to know that self-publishing was going to be BIG. However, in 2008/09-2010, you had to be fairly "tecchy" to make an ePUB. BUT, almost anyone could learn how to use MobipocketCreator, to make a (then) PRC file, which of course became "mobi."
I wonder just how HUGE self-publishing would have been, back then, if Amazon had only accepted ePUB format, instead of using a format that could be,
and was, widely accessible and usable by everyday would-be publishers?
It's always dead easy to ascribe GREED to corporate America. It's easy to point fingers, and say "oh, so EVIIIILLLLLLLLLLL." I--and many others here--were here, around MBPC, around early ePUB, around Amazon, around Smashwords, etc., back then, and I can tell you that to THIS DAY, if Amazon suddenly said "oh, all ye self-pubs, you ALL have to use ePUB format," things would change drastically--for the self-publishers. Hell, I'd LOVE it if they did that! Because I'd make a shitload more MONEY.
Not to mention, the millions that they've put in, creating tools that almost any dumbo can use, to make an ebook from a Word file, from an HTML file, from text, from this or that or the kitchen sink. ALL of that, every penny (including millions of bucks in unpaid tech support),
is in support of making self-publishing a decent-quality eBook EASIER for the self-publisher. It damn sure
isn't about making it easier or cheaper on THEM.
I deal with the
same type of questions, tech issues, user issues, etc., all day, that they do, and I know full well what that COSTS, in terms of real capital outlay. (FYI: unpaid tech support, answering questions like, "How do I download a file from a browser," "I can't find my downloaded file," "I don't know how to open this MOBI/ePUB file," etc.
is the SECOND largest expense category in my business, coming in a very close second--2nd--to what I pay my bookmakers to build the books. If I didn't have to provide it, that would make a VERY nice living for someone or be very nice profits in
my pocket. I am
100% sure that Amazon's costs on this are even greater, percentage-wise, than mine, simply because I've seen the questions on the forums, etc. I must see "how do I make a TOC in Word" about 100x a week.)
So, believe what you will--you will, anyway--but there are other factors at play here, and there ALWAYS WERE. And, for that matter,
still are.
Hitch