Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Beale
As a person of taste and discernment I naturally buy vinyl LPs. All the better when one comes with a code to download the music, offering you digital convenience alongside analogue quality. In the same way, I'd love to get a real book accompanied by a download offering searchable text, zoomable illustrations etc.
For reading I'd prefer a real full-length book, for smaller scale things I'd be perfectly happy with an electronic item, especially one that exploited the medium's strengths.
Speaking as a writer, I'm intrigued Apple's iBooks Author software. It offers templates for creating books or whatever which you can then sell through the App Store. That also addresses the point about losing your books if your computer crashes because you can always reload your purchases from the store. It's incompatible with my OS version (which I don't want to change yet because I still need to run some older programs) and it's usually wise to let them get a version or two under their belt before you jump in. Also, templates notwithstanding, design is an issue with a number of the self-published books I own. I enjoy a book more if it's well laid out and that skill isn't so widespread.
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Hi Nick,
The books my company publishes (fiction) often include interior illustrations and charts. The Kindle, for example, if you read their technical fine print, is not yet at the point where this can be done or done well. I am unfamiliar with what Apple is offering.
I'm sure there are competent layout people out there, with some working freelance. The skill is not too difficult to master, but selecting a text font, leading (the distance between lines), and the best places to insert art and photos does require a good design background. Once again, the basic principles are not that hard to learn. In the "real" book business, there are dedicated cover designers since we know that a well designed cover sells books. A good general Art Director can master the basics, and there are a number of good rules that have stood the test of time, but the difference between a very good cover and a great one takes a bit of additional skill and some inspiration. As an assistant art director myself, I help approve the four different pencil cover sketches we get in and I'm expected to explain my choice in 5 minutes or less. Once a sketch is approved, it has to go through review again as a color rough, and my comments have to cover all the bases quickly and succinctly.
With our latest book cover, we had the artist at our office, and the head art director and myself provided additional minor corrections and fine tuning before the piece was fully completed. This was done on a graphics tablet hooked up to one of our computers. Then the front and back cover text was composited onto the finished cover.
I think PDFs are the way to go if you want that, but there are two problems: piracy and "sharing." As the copyright holder, only my company decides how the book is distributed, so if we add copy protection, it's there for that reason.
Ed