Transformation: making a ruckus
Last week I attended the very affordable one day Responsive Day out in Brighton. It was on the subject of emerging practices within the web industry on responsive web design. I really enjoyed the day and think the format of 3x 30min talks per block is really good and I didn’t miss any of the pricey conference “things” they skipped out on to keep the cost down – more of this please!
All of the sessions were recorded and are now available to listen to, enjoy.
On my ebook publishing journey I have begun to stumble across processes, stages and phrases that use traditional print terminology. I will note them here for my own sanity and maybe that of others as I figure where it makes sense we should use existing and established phrases.
Another year, another list of the long form books I have read. 2013 is the first year that I have my own personal Kindle (dedicated digital book reader for anybody reading this after about 2015) and it will be interesting to see if I get more read and also “where” I read. I also have a stack of print books that could see me through the next couple of years.
When you first load a kindle file it may start on any number of pages as set by the book designer. I am not sure if an ebook should start on the cover as this is visible in the library.
Anyway, a problem I had today was that my book kept starting on the first chapter and bypassing the frontmatter, foreword and introduction.
After various wimperings on the #eprdctn hashtag I stumbled across the solution and am documenting it before I forget.
To control/force the kindle to start on your page of choice you need to do the following it seems:
Setting the reference to type fixed the problem. I had read that you need to use “start” but that seemed to be where I failed.
It is interesting to think about what page should be first, would a reader care about frontmatter or just the author and publisher?…. a post for the future me thinks.
Thanks to Tom for leading me to the correct path.
One of my favourite people Matt Jukes is taking a blogging hiatus (like the Black album I hope). It was Matt who first encouraged me to blog about the ‘digital stuff’ I do. So over the past year or so I have been writing bits and pieces and one of the issues I still have is that of ‘voice and direction’. Am I writing for myself as a diary? is it to give back to the community? do i have to write long form? can I just point to things I think are interesting with/without adding a comment? should it always be digital focused or can I just take a moment to post my thoughts on my travels?
Now we are at the top of the year I think I have finally grown comfortable in what my blog is: MY place to do as I please for myself, much like an independent artist. One day it may be posting something epic about digital books and the next it will be a photo of me and my brothers because I can. I will never top anybody’s top e-learning lists nor ever ‘break through’ to the mainstream and I think I am now comfortable with that. Numbers don’t mean much around here. A few posts that I really took my time over have led to bits of work and praise from people who THANKED ME for writing them. My blog has helped me and a few others which is enough for me.
Keeping on the music theme I guess my blog is more of a ‘freestyle’ (…”I record on duct tape so that my words stick…”) and I’d like to thank Mr Jukes for the encouragement and I look forward to the new you in the 2013 and beyond.
Brian O’Leary has some further thoughts on Craig Mod’s subcompact publishing which I covered last month.
Whenever you make an EPUB ebook you should check that it validates (required to convert to kindle too). You can use the web upload or download epubcheck which has just hit version 3.0.
Get it now and join me in tearing your hair out at 1am when you can’t interpret the error code!
The most exciting change in digital textbooks, I would argue, comes with efforts like these hackathons, where teachers and learners are the creators not just the consumers of OER. (At that point, I think the word “textbook” will be entirely the wrong way to describe things. And amen to that, I say.)
Book covers are likely to be copyright-protected works in themselves, and also often contain third party ‘artistic works’. So, for example, Amazon reflects this in its terms and conditions. Copying these digital images and making them available to the public (such as pinning them onto Pinterest), without permission will be an infringement.
JISC Legal
Seeing as I constantly lose track of the comments I make on other peoples websites I think I may try and make a note here.
Read about how Phil Wood and Terese Bird from the University of Leicester are getting on with an interesting ebook student programme and then feel free to read my comments.