The HORRORS of a poorly coded eBook

[PeterT]

I recently borrowed from the library a copy of Fast Flavours by Michael Smith and much to my horror, I think it has to be a fixed format ePub.

287 xhtml files!
275 image files (many of which are nothing more than a clock face to show complexity of the recipe and an outline of a box to appear below the main recipe and contain some comments.

As far as trying to change font sizes in it or even reading it on (in my case a Kobo Glo) forget about it.

Why on earth do publishers release something and attempt to replicate the look of a print book down to the minutest detail?

I could see this having been done in a PDF maybe (and then I would not have even bothered to borrow it).

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I recently borrowed from the library a copy of Fast Flavours by Michael Smith and much to my horror, I think it has to be a fixed format ePub.

287 xhtml files!
275 image files (many of which are nothing more than a clock face to show complexity of the recipe and an outline of a box to appear below the main recipe and contain some comments.

As far as trying to change font sizes in it or even reading it on (in my case a Kobo Glo) forget about it.

Why on earth do publishers release something and attempt to replicate the look of a print book down to the minutest detail?

I could see this having been done in a PDF maybe (and then I would not have even bothered to borrow it).

Hey, Peter:

Beats me. I just had a somewhat unhappy experience, with a (prospective) client who INSISTED that her book had to be made as FF. I send a very thorough, lengthy, detailed email explaining why it wouldn't work--the book had multiple page-columns throughout, spreads, etc.--and thought she understood it.

Then I received a voicemail, asking for a return call, and thanking me, mind you, for my detailed information--and then, the very last line, was, "but my book needs to be FF, so please call me."

I called her, and she just said it had to be FF, despite everything I'd said, and I told her I'd have to decline the work. She was SHOCKED! She spouted "why?" rather loudly, and I said, quite a bit less diplomatically than I normally would have (I can only plead overwork and exhaustion), "because it will make a horrible fixed-format book on Amazon." And it WOULD have.

She replied "FINE," in a loud tone, and promptly hung up. Oh, wait, I forgot the part where she asserted "I sell tons of them there." I was pretty taken aback--I went to look at her books, and sure enough, she must have uploaded PDF's, because they are all imaged-pages. All the text, everything--page after page of images. And there are, already, comments from readers talking about how you can't "zoom" the text, and how the formatting is "odd" or "weird."

Her books were "formatted" (for lack of a better word) basically like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Italy-Luxury-F...dp/B00BQKZR9C/

A friend of mine stumbled across that one, and sent it to me, for a blog article I'm writing (eventually) on why professional formatting MATTERS. {sigh}.

There are, simply, just days like this.

Hitch