When is Too Much?

[Mhayes]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum and I know the majority of writers for eBooks seem to be fiction writers. I am in the planning stages of a non-fiction eBook (followed by POD) and the more I research, the more questions that come up. My book depends heavily on photos of before/after restored from disaster areas. I know that the Nook, iPad, and others show color better than the Kindle, but my biggest concern is what would look great on a printed book--8 1/2 x 11--is not going to work on an eReader? I will have both the eReader and maybe the POD done in InDesign by a professional designer. However, do you think I'm wanting too much?

Thanks for the help.

MH

[speakingtohe]

To display wonderfully on an eink device, your picture might have to be converted to grayscale or something. And perhaps scaled appropriately.
pretty sure you can do it if you have the patience.

HELEN

[Mhayes]

Thanks Helen. I don't want to go grayscale as the majority of the photos restored are in color. I know there are more Kindles which are great for fiction where there isn't the need for many illustrations. I'm also reading that nonfiction sales are small, but in print it is the opposite which would make me think it is not as appealing. At two columns and photo illustrations sounds like it might be harder to pull off and not so easy to read?

Margie

[Ken Maltby]

Your project, like coffeetable books, magazines, cookbooks, manuals, and many school
textbooks, does not fit well on small screen black&white devices. The tablets and new
color technology for reflective displays as well as on computer screens, are a much
better match for such material. I would think that there are selfpublishing options that
take that into account. With all the ecookbooks I've come across, there must be a
market for such publishing.

Luck;
Ken

From the perspective of a tech person, and not a publisher, it sounds like you're book will only be satisfying on tablets and computer. Adding to the reasons mentioned earlier, using InDesign to publish an ePub/Mobi title sounds like a big faux pas since InDesign focusses on page layout while ePub/Mobi pretty much destroys the page layout in order to reflow the text different shapes and sizes of display. Since most eink devices use some form of ePub and Mobi, they wouldn't work well for your book. (Yes, they support PDF too. But there are a lot of complaints about how popular eink devices handle PDFs. While you can design a PDF document that is friendly for small screen eink devices, you would also be limiting its value for table/computer/POD readers.)

[charmian]

A Kindle (except for the DX version) is not going to have room for two columns. When people read two column pdfs using 6" readers, they usually convert them to single column.

[Mhayes]

Thanks Everyone, I really appreciate the feedback. A little more about the book. Not only would the book show a photo that was damaged in a natural disaster like Katrina, but it would show the finished restored photo and screen shots of how it was restored in PhotoShop. I was under the impression that on something like an iPad you could actually have short videos and perhaps links to videos?

The tablets and newcolor technology for reflective displays as well as on computer screens, are a much better match for such material.

Ken, I agree and was thinking the ipad. I know that you can download the nook and that would allow the ebook to be read off the computer. As president of Operation Photo Rescue with over 2,000 volunteers in all 50 states and 49 countries; I keep thinking the ebook has a lot of potential, but then I get hug up thinking it couldn't be presented in the same way that a POD book could. The book has its charm, but in full color would make it expensive unless the page count was around 100-150.

[Andrew H.]

Something like this would only work well on a tablet or computer. E-ink readers work brilliantly for books usually published as mass market paperbacks, which are mostly fiction. The farther you move away from this model (pictures, charts, color), the less satisfactory the experience with an e-ink reader is.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Mhayes

Thanks Everyone, I really appreciate the feedback. A little more about the book. Not only would the book show a photo that was damaged in a natural disaster like Katrina, but it would show the finished restored photo and screen shots of how it was restored in PhotoShop. I was under the impression that on something like an iPad you could actually have short videos and perhaps links to videos?



Ken, I agree and was thinking the ipad. I know that you can download the nook and that would allow the ebook to be read off the computer. As president of Operation Photo Rescue with over 2,000 volunteers in all 50 states and 49 countries; I keep thinking the ebook has a lot of potential, but then I get hug up thinking it couldn't be presented in the same way that a POD book could. The book has its charm, but in full color would make it expensive unless the page count was around 100-150.

There are also a number of 10" color tablets running under the Honeycomb
version of Android. (The automatic "iPad" reference annoys me even more
than the automatic "Kindle" reference, for eReaders) [Don't worry about my
pet peeves, such annoyances form a part of the evidence that I am still
alive.]

There are a couple of new color reflective (non-backlit) ereading technologies
that are just coming to market, including eInk's "Trition" display and the
"Mirasol" display. Between the large LCD tablets and new low power color
technologies, projects such as yours may become more practical over time.

Just a suggestion though, you may find that your effort may gain a wider
audience and/or be more practically distributed as an .HTML ebook, that can
be viewed in the browsers of the tablets as well as on computer screens.
That well also provide for good color rendition and the potential use of
hyperlinks.

Luck;
Ken

[Mhayes]

Thanks Andrew and Ken.

There are also a number of 10" color tablets running under the Honeycomb
version of Android. (The automatic "iPad" reference annoys me even more
than the automatic "Kindle" reference, for eReaders) [Don't worry about my
pet peeves, such annoyances form a part of the evidence that I am still
alive.]

Ken, didn't mean to make the "iPad" sounds so generic, but was trying to hint that I needed something bigger than a small eReader for the photos to look good. I hope by the time I am ready I will have a better understanding of what will work. Thanks for the suggestion of a .HTML ebook.

Margie