E-Book Conversions, vol 2

Jun 28, 2012 by

E-Book Conversions, vol 2

As it turns out, I can’t just convert a book to epub format and be done. No, no, no, that’d be too easy. And if I use InDesign the cover art won’t work correctly with the Nook or iPad bookshelves, though the Kindle seems to read it just fine and the cover shows up, but the pagination doesn’t work correctly and everything’s skip-lined like I’d forwarded an email eighty times and it was still 1998. This really is more of a rant than an article. The fact is, this is my own fault. If I’d been smart, I’d have simply hired someone to do this. We did in fact discuss that idea, and we rejected it for the simple reasons that we wanted to keep our hands on the project from start to finish....

read more

“Don’t cry but I’m dying”...

Jun 25, 2012 by

“Don’t cry but I’m dying”

Over in the U.K, there’s a bit of an uproar over a school assignment – specifically, a “creative writing” project that could have doubled as a suicide note. Apparently the students were told to “imagine they had a terminal illness and express thanks to loved ones.” As a ghostwriter, I understand both sides of this particular issue – on the side of the school, it does indeed teach creativity and helps the student think outside the box and in ways they have likely not actually, seriously thought before. On the parent’s side, it’s scary as hell. You can read the entire article...

read more

The iWorld

Jun 19, 2012 by

The iWorld

So I just posted about how I’m not getting a Kindle, despite my overall love for Amazon and all it’s lovely features. This leads me to confessing that I do already own an e-reader-like device. I own an iPad. Now, this is very recent. Until April, I used a Sony E-Reader, and I loved it. I still have it, and as far as basic portability and carrying around dozens of books all at once and reading them anywhere I am, it’s awesome. It really is. But the world, she is a-changin’. And I don’t just need to carry books. For years I’ve carried a briefcase full of contracts in various forms, client examples, my one-pager, business cards, note-taking materials, thumb-drives and a netbook, and an Android phone. I’m on T-mobile, and I’m grandfathered into...

read more

Kindle?

Jun 14, 2012 by

Kindle?

I love Amazon.com. I really do. I’m a Prime member, and I probably buy a lot more there than I should. With Prime free shipping and my hatred of leaving my desk because I know when I come back I’ll have completely lost my place and will have no idea what I was doing when I left, I do quite a bit of Amazon shopping. I like their DRM-Free MP3s, I like their streaming service, I like their cloud storage, I use their wish list plugin for my browser kind of constantly. But I will never own a Kindle. The thing about Amazon’s Kindle system is that you never actually own your books. You don’t download them, you can’t really back them up – I’ve heard rumors that they’ve basically/mostly fixed that problem, but it’s...

read more

E-Book Conversions, vol 1

Jun 11, 2012 by

E-Book Conversions, vol 1

I’ve been working on converting a manuscript into an e-book for a client. Mind you, not really my area of expertise, but I am learning an awful lot about the process. Mostly, that I am not very good at it. OK, in my defense, though, I am actually fully trained in Photoshop and while I can’t bill myself as an expert, I’m definitely in the advanced group. That said, I’ve never touched InDesign before in my life. And that’s a bit of a problem here. I’ve worked with Illustrator, and hell, way back in the day, I worked with PageMaker. (Oy, my age is showing.) But I’ve never worked with InDesign before. Not once. This is making for an interesting project. Obviously, the internet is my best friend in this situation, and I’m learning as I go,...

read more