Entries tagged with “pdf” from Tools of Change for Publishing

Amazon Dropping Non-Amazon Ebook Formats (Sort of)

Andrew Savikas
January 27, 2009 | | Comments (12) | Listen Speech Icon

Via Publishers Weekly, Amazon announced Monday it will stop offering ebooks in formats other than Kindle and Mobipocket:

In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon.

A contact at Amazon has clarified that apparently this change only applies to the Kindle:

This does not apply to eDocs because they are not DRM-protected. This only applies to DRM-protected eBooks.

A follow-up question about Kindle support of EPUB resulted in a polite but firm redirect to "the Kindle team."

I know Amazon is a big company, and I know all too well how difficult intra-office communication can be even at a much smaller company like O'Reilly, but with Amazon in particular it's really easy to get the sense that the left hand has very little idea what the right hand is doing (or perhaps "third left tentacle doesn't know what the right tentacle is doing" is more appropriate).

Related Stories:

Tags:

Format Comparison: PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Downloads from Ebook Bundles

Andrew Savikas
January 12, 2009 | | Comments (5) | Listen Speech Icon

We've been selling PDFs of our books on oreilly.com for several years, but this summer began selling "ebook bundles" of many titles, which include PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions. Here's some weekly data (I can't share the vertical scale) on the relative breakdown of actual downloads from those bundles (PDF, Mobi, and EPUB are Light, Medium, and Dark respectively). PDF is still the format of choice for most people, though EPUB is getting respectable usage, with Mobi in third:

The numbers at the bottom are weeks (200901 is the first week of 2009). This is only among titles offered in all three formats -- the majority of our ebooks are currently still only available as PDF, though we expect to release several hundred more in bundle form over the next few months (not that you should wait to buy of course -- you'll get all the formats as they come available ...).

An important point to note, via Allen Noren, our VP who runs oreilly.com, is that a substantial portion of our electronic sales come from overseas, where getting a print version is often difficult or cost-prohibitive:

I know you've heard me say it before, but we became an international publisher, in a way we were not previously, when we started selling books in digital format. We're in a unique position vs most publishers, who only have US or NA rights, but it's worth nothing.

Duly noted.

Related Stories:

Tags:

O'Reilly Ebooks: 130 Top Titles Now Available, Plus an iPhone App and Head First PDFs

Andrew Savikas
December 19, 2008 | | Comments (27) | Listen Speech Icon

While there will always be a demand for printed books, few of those books will have a life entirely disconnected from the wider digital Web. In that sense, all publishing is becoming digital publishing, and all writing is writing for the Web. That's a big shift, and it will take time for the existing players to make the transition (and we'll almost certainly lose some along the way). For now, here's a roundup of where things stand for us at O'Reilly on the ebook front:

In the coming months we'll be working to make more of our new book content mobile-friendly, better integrate our book content with the Web, and continue exploring how to deliver our content in ways that take advantage of all that being digital has to offer.

If you're a publisher trying to figure out how to deal with digital, registration is open for our 2009 Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. Lexcycle's Marc Prud'hommeaux and Neelan Choksi will both be speaking. New York area publishers should also check out StartWithXML, our one-day forum deep-diving into how and why to move to flexible formats for more nimble book content.

Questions? Comments? Drop us a line through Get Satisfaction

Tags:

[TOC Webcast] Tomorrow: What Publishers Need to Know About Digitization

Mac Slocum
November 11, 2008 | | Comments (1) | Listen Speech Icon

Webcast: What Publishers Need to Know about Digitization, with Liza DalyTools of Change for Publishing will host a free webcast tomorrow at 1 p.m. eastern (10 a.m. pacific). Digitization expert Liza Daly will discuss "What Publishers Need to Know About Digitization."

No prior experience is assumed in this overview of the conversion process. Topics will include:

  • What's XML and do you need it?
  • What's the cost-benefit analysis versus PDF or other formats?
  • What should you consider when selecting a vendor?
  • Should you use a centralized platform or go on your own?
  • How can you monetize your digital offerings?

Slots are limited, so register for free today.

Tags:

First Frontlist O'Reilly Ebook Bundle (Including EPUB) Now Available

Andrew Savikas
October 9, 2008 | | Comments (4) | Listen Speech Icon

iPod: The Missing Manual, seventh editionWith today's release of iPod: The Missing Manual, Seventh Edition, by J.D. Biersdorfer and David Pogue, we're beginning the release of nearly all new (frontlist) titles as ebook bundles. SharePoint for Project Management, by Dux Raymond Sy, will be available tomorrow, and Web Security Testing Cookbook, by Paco Hope and Ben Walther, will be available next Tuesday (Oct. 14)

As with our pilot program, each bundle will include Web-optimized PDF, EPUB (for your Sony Reader or iPhone), and .mobi (for your Kindle) files. These ebook bundles will generally be available up to two weeks before the printed book is on store shelves (most of our books are also available on Safari Books Online before they're in stores).

As always, these files are DRM-free, and customers receive free updates to reflect any published changes in the book (more info on the bundles here). There are several other ebook projects and experiments in the works that I can't talk about just yet, but stay tuned between now and February's TOC Conference for updates (I can say that we'll be rolling out bundles for most of our backlist titles during that time frame).

Related Stories:

Tags:

How to Read any Type of Document on the Kindle (Almost)

Liza Daly
August 26, 2008 | | Comments (7) | Listen Speech Icon

There are a few options for readers who want to convert PDFs or other non-supported files to the Kindle's AZW format. Amazon's recommended method is to email the file to your personal Kindle email address. It's also possible for users to convert PDFs and other document types themselves using Mobipocket Creator or Stanza.

All of the above methods have the same flaw: AZW does not support the kind of advanced layout available in formats like PDF, and non-Latin fonts aren't easy to convert. What if you need to review a complex legal form, or read a graphic novel, or one in Chinese? A hidden feature can help.

screen_shot-50087.gif The Kindle has an undocumented picture-viewing mode that was first uncovered by Igor Skochinsky. Although the black and white E Ink screen is not especially good at displaying actual photographs, it is quite good at rendering line art and text.

Here's how to do it, using PDF as an example. Note that unofficial features may be buggy and could damage your Kindle; proceed at your own risk.

  1. Convert the PDF to a series of images. Commercial versions of Acrobat should be able to do this in batch, but users of free readers may have to convert a page at a time. The Kindle can read JPEG, PNG and GIF; the latter two will work best. Because the picture-viewing application doesn't support a table of contents, you'll need to name the image files in ascending alphabetical or numeric order (e.g. "0001.jpg," "0002.jpg," etc.) For best results, resize the image to 600 x 800, the resolution of the Kindle screen.
  2. Connect the Kindle to your computer using the USB cable. Once connected, browse to the Kindle's drive. If you have an SD card installed that will appear on your computer as well. The following procedure works on either the Kindle or the SD card. I prefer to do everything on the SD card -- it feels safer.
  3. Create a folder called "pictures," and a folder inside of that with the name of your "document." Put the images in the document folder. Disconnect the Kindle from the PC. When you go to the Kindle's home screen, nothing will have changed. This is where the secret feature comes in:
  4. Press Alt-Z from the home screen. Your book title should appear in the list.
  5. Click on the book title. It will open the first image. Use the normal Kindle next/previous buttons to page through the "book." The picture viewer has menu options of its own to control the size of the image and how it's rendered.

screen_shot-50096.gif

Credit: octopus pie

Of course because the "PDF" is really an image it's not possible to search the document or rescale the fonts. Text-heavy PDFs should be converted in one of the recommended ways.

This same technique can be used to load image-based documents directly, such as comics. (Peeking inside the "pictures" folder after it's been read by the Kindle reveals a file with the extension manga, suggesting that the picture viewer was intended to be used for this purpose).

It's also possible to convert documents in Russian, Chinese or other non-Latin scripts this way. The Kindle does have support for embedded non-Latin fonts as part of its "Topaz" file format, but there are no tools for end-users that output Topaz.

(Screenshots courtesy the undocumented Alt-Shift-G feature, which saves to the root of the SD card.)

Related Stories:

Tags:

Tech Publisher Asks "Are Ebooks Ready for Technical Content?"

Andrew Savikas
July 29, 2008 | | Comments (4) | Listen Speech Icon

Dave Thomas from the Pragmatic Programmers is mulling whether to make their books available on the Kindle, and encountering many of the same issues we faced here at O'Reilly regarding technical content and the limitations of current ebook devices:

In fact, we've had a prototype form of that capability for a while now, but we've always held back. Frankly, we didn't think the devices worked well with our kind of content. Basically, the .mobi format used by the Kindle is optimized for books that contain just galleys of text with the occasional heading. Throw in tables, monospaced code listings, sidebars and the like, and things start to get messy.

Dave's post has sparked a great conversation within the comments, including one from Shelly Powers, whose book Painting the Web was among those included in our pilot program:

I think that providing the package deal that O'Reilly does (with PDF, epub, and mobi), in addition to downloadable code is the way to go. If you sell Kindle books, you definitely need to make both your figures and your source available, separately. For instance, I have my Painting the Web figures in an online gallery and the examples are available at O'Reilly--takes care of a lot of issues related to Kindle. Another approach could be to make available (for no additional cost) a PDF of just the figures, or the figures and code.

Preparing a book for the ebook market may seem like a lot of work, but you have the potential to reach a new audience of book buyers. Buyers used to the internet and having access to immediate information; who may not want to order a book and wait a week for it to arrive, but who will buy a book if it means they can have access to it now. I wouldn't have considered myself an "impulse buyer" when it comes to books, but I have probably at least a dozen books I bought because the ebook format was cheaper (that's a key element), and I could get the book _right now_.

On one hand, merely working to replicate a print experience isn't the right way to exploit the benefits of the new platform; on the other hand, publishers (and as usual, I use that term quite loosely) should be able to expect at least minimal rendering of common elements like tables, along with support for at least the same core 14 fonts available in Acrobat (speaking of fonts, if you're looking for a laugh check out this mock "font conference").

Related Stories:

Tags:

Tor.com Woos Sci-Fi Fans with Free Ebooks

Mac Slocum
July 23, 2008 | | Comments (0) | Listen Speech Icon

Taking a page from the Baen playbook, Tor.com, a division of Macmillan, is giving away 24 science fiction ebook titles through July 27. The ebooks are available in PDF, HTML and Mobi formats.

(Via News.com)

30 O'Reilly Titles Now Available as Ebook Bundles; Many In Kindle Store Later Today

Andrew Savikas
July 15, 2008 | | Comments (36) | Listen Speech Icon

Update: According to Amazon, the O'Reilly Kindle books can now be pre-ordered, but won't be available for download until Friday. The 12 titles listed below are now available in the Kindle store.

O'Reilly Ebook BundlesAs promised last month, O'Reilly has released 30 titles as DRM-free downloadable ebook bundles. The bundles include three ebook formats (EPUB, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket) for a single price -- at or below the book's cover price. And for a bit more than the cover price, you can get the print version too along with the ebook bundles.

Since we began selling PDFs directly some time ago, we've given those customers free updates to the PDFs to reflect published changes in the books; the same will apply to the ebook bundle, which will replace the PDF option on those titles. These files (like all our PDFs currently for sale) do not include any DRM, though we continue to experiment with custom watermarking options.

With these three formats, customers should be able to read the books with most current ebook software and devices, including Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle, Blackberries, and Sony Reader (Sony announced in May that EPUB support is forthcoming in a firmware update for their Reader).

Twelve of those 30 titles will also be available through the Kindle store later today are now available.

Ebook Bundles Now Available

The titles now available as ebook bundles are:

Tags:
Read more…

Select O'Reilly Books Soon on Kindle, and as DRM-free Digital Bundles (Including EPUB)

Andrew Savikas
June 18, 2008 | | Comments (26) | Listen Speech Icon

Update (7/15): 30 O'Reilly titles are now available as ebook bundles. Full information is available here.

Update (6/19): On his New York Times blog, David Pogue has noted O'Reilly's pilot in the context of the recent discussion prompted his column on ebooks and piracy (which brought insightful responses from Adam Engst and  Mike Masnick, along with a follow up from David).

Ebooks are certainly nothing new for us at O'Reilly. We've offered PDFs of hundreds of our titles for some time now, and until quite recently Safari Books Online, our online-publishing joint venture with Pearson, generated more revenue than was typically associated with the entire downloadable ebook business.

But it's clear that things are changing in the ebook market (though precise numbers are proving hard to come by), so we've decided to officially announce two new e-publishing programs that have been in the works for some time:

  • First, through oreilly.com we will offer a select number of books as a bundle of three ebook formats (EPUB, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket) for a single price -- at or below the book's cover price -- starting in early July. Since we began selling PDFs directly some time ago, we've given those customers free updates to the PDFs to reflect published changes in the books; the same will apply to the ebook bundle, which will replace the PDF option on those titles. That also means that although the ebooks aren't yet available, if you buy the PDF now, you'll receive the EPUB and Mobipocket versions as a free update once they're available in early July. These files (like all our PDFs currently for sale) will be released without any DRM, though we are exploring some custom watermarking options. With these three formats, customers should be able to read the books with most current ebook software and devices, including Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle, Blackberries, and Sony Reader (Sony announced in May that EPUB support is forthcoming in a firmware update for their Reader).
  • Second, O'Reilly has agreed to sell select ebooks for the Kindle through Amazon. We hope to see those ebooks available for sale through the Kindle store in the near future.
Tags:
Read more…

Ebook Format Primer

Liza Daly
April 21, 2008 | | Comments (7) | Listen Speech Icon

Amid all the recent ebook news, many publishers may still be unclear about the different formats and devices. How do ebooks actually get made? What changes need to be made to existing workflows to enable content distribution to ebook devices? We've put together this primer to help clear things up.

The simplest solution, of course, is to partner directly with the ebook manufacturers and let them take care of the details. These partnerships must be drawn up for each new platform and publishers are at the whims of the device-makers' terms of use. Innovative publishers may want to first experiment on their own and be prepared to shift platforms strategically: this means ebook distribution must fit into existing workflows. Although some of the formats below support digital rights management, consider eschewing DRM in favor of flexibility and cross-platform support.

Let's start with the major devices first:

  1. The Sony Reader primarily uses Sony's proprietary Broadband eBooks (BBeB) format for documents with DRM but also supports RTF and non-DRM PDF. Sony does not provide any official tools for end users to convert to BBeB although at least one unofficial open source tool can convert HTML to BBeB. The most flexible non-DRM formats are RTF and PDF. Microsoft Word can readily save to RTF and Microsoft offers detailed instructions on converting from XML to RTF, but pure open-source alternatives are not mature. XML to PDF conversion has stronger open source support but files may need to be specially tweaked for optimum display on the Reader.
  2. The Amazon Kindle uses Amazon's proprietary AZW format, which supports DRM. There are no tools available to directly convert to AZW, but AZW is a wrapper around the Mobipocket format and DRM-free Mobipocket files can be read on the device. Mobipocket documents can be created using a free (but not open-source) tool called Mobipocket Creator. As if the format wars weren't confusing enough already, "Mobipocket DRM" is not the same as AZW, and files created as Mobipocket DRM cannot be read on the Kindle. Mobipocket Creator does have a "batch" creation mode which could be integrated into an existing workflow, but the software is Windows-only. The Kindle also supports HTML and Word documents, but not PDF.

Specialized readers aren't the only way consumers may be viewing ebook content. Ultra-portable laptops like the Eee PC and OLPC XO are price-competitive with standalone readers. (I have an OLPC and reading by the pool in bright sunlight is quite a joy.) The next version of the iPhone is expected soon, and while the first edition was already a serviceable reader, the next version is likely to be more so, and to reach a wider audience.

All the devices listed above, except the Sony Reader, can read a common format: HTML. If XML is already a part of your workflow, converting to HTML is trivial.  If not, HTML is a worthwhile investment for a number of reasons:

  1. XHTML is the standard markup for book content in OPS/.epub. .epub support is just getting off the ground but is expected to become widespread.
  2. If your publishing workflow includes HTML, your organization is able to distribute content to dozens of devices in addition to the open Web.

HTML is also the lingua franca of online search engines, and inclusion of partial or full HTML books will attract casual surfers and can drive community engagement with your content. Whether it's BBeB or AZW that becomes the Betamax of the next decade (and one, if not both, will be obsolete by then), HTML conversion is guaranteed to pay off in the foreseeable future.

Related Stories:

Tags:

A Q&A on O'Reilly’s "Up-to-Date" Publishing Experiment

Mac Slocum
April 2, 2008 | | Comments (0) | Listen Speech Icon

There's a common conundrum in the computer book world: software companies often release updates on a monthly or weekly basis, yet many programmers rely on printed references that can take months to write and produce. There are online options, but we also know that many readers still want something printed.

To try and tackle the problem, O'Reilly has launched a new experiment with the just-released Essential Silverlight 2 "Up-to-Date" edition (Silverlight is a new technology platform from Microsoft). Readers get a book that's current when they purchase it, but also get access to updates that can be physically inserted into the book.

I recently spoke with four members of the Essential Silverlight 2 project team to get their take on the development of this book as well as their view on the broader "updateable" concept.

Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date editionQ: How is Essential Silverlight 2 different from traditional books?

Laurel R.T. Ruma, co-editor: The book is in a durable plastic binder that has three hole punches with metal pins. The binder can hold 425 pages, so there's room to grow.

Q: How does the update process work?

Ruma: You buy the book through a bookstore or online and then you register it through O'Reilly. When Microsoft releases a new beta, Christian [Wenz, the author] starts writing. Around 6 to 8 weeks later, a PDF of the update will be posted online and you'll be notified because you're registered. You can download the PDF for free and print and trim it yourself, or you can purchase printed and punched copies for an additional cost.

Q: When will the first update be available?

Ruma: Updates will be available online April 21 and in print the first week of May.

Q: What were the challenges in developing this book?

John Osborn, co-editor: There are unique challenges because it's a retail product -- security, display, etc. We needed to work with the binder vendor to create a security seal so people don't steal pages.

Laurel Ackerman, Director of Marketing, O'Reilly Open Tech Exchange: We needed to consider how it would integrate into a bookshelf. The dimensions of the book [7 inches x 9 inches] are designed for a retail shelf.

Christian Wenz, author: It was quite a challenge to plan the whole book structure. When writing a regular book, you can change the structure until very late in the process. Here, we had to create a flexible structure that would allow us to add content later without having to ship a whole new book with every update.

Ruma: We had to think about things like page numbering, because different pages and sections can be updated. We used a system that goes by section, chapter, and page number [e.g., 1.3.1]. We also had to shift all the templates because of the pins. Really, we wanted to make it so the reader will have to replace as few pages as possible. We want them to replace in a thorough way, but not a wasteful way.

Q: Was the production process different for the Up-to-Date edition?

Ruma: A standard book takes 6 to 9 months to write and 12 weeks to produce. We did this one in a little more than a month.

Christian and John had worked on a Silverlight 1.0 PDF. Christian incorporated his book updates into his 1.0 document within two weeks. Production on the book took another two weeks. And then it went to the printer for two weeks.

The book had to be done for the Microsoft MIX conference in March [2008]. We knew we would have an audience that is extremely interested in the subject matter and would give us unbiased and honest feedback.

[Editor’s note: authoring and production for this title was done using DocBook XML and a customized version of the open source DocBook XSL stylesheets.]

Q: What has the feedback been like?

Osborn: Generally the first reaction was 'Wow, this is a great idea." From there it was tons of feedback, most of it really good.

Ackerman: All of the feedback we've gotten from programmers is relief and delight. There's a lot of frustration out there with people waiting for books between releases. They're thrilled to be getting the content so they can start working.

Q: What type of content is best suited an Up-to-Date book?

Osborn: I see two scenarios: One is like Silverlight, which is a product in beta. Knowing the software release sequence and knowing the end point works well. In the second scenario, I could see something where you pick a core technology, like Visual Basic, and then offer updates. If anything new comes along, we'll provide it.

Q: Do you think other publishers will move toward updateable books?

Ackerman: I think it's inevitable that publishers will be going this way. At TOC, the two big topics were on-demand publishing and the value that publishers bring to information. Both of those things are in this book.

Tags:

Roundup: New B&N Site Taps Digital Revenue, Magazine Goes High-End with Production

Mac Slocum
March 24, 2008 | | Comments (0) | Listen Speech Icon

B&N Opens Digital Revenue Streams with How-To Site
Barnes & Noble's just-launched how-to site, Quamut.com, offers edited guides on more than 1,000 topics (it's a diverse roster; everything from iPods to beagles). According to Publishers Weekly, Quamut's free online guides are supported by display advertising and the sale of downloadable PDFs ($2.95 each) and laminated charts ($5.95). Some charts will also be sold through B&N stores.

Magazine Courts High-End with Price and Production
As publishers look to cut costs and go digital, Monocle magazine is choosing a different route -- it's using high-end production and big prices to differentiate itself: "We’ve demonstrated that format (trim size, paper stock) is more important than ever in a digital age. At the same time we’ve challenged the subscription model and convinced readers to pay more for quality -- Monocle’s subscription is 50% higher than its cover price," says Monocle editor-in-chief/chairman Tyler Brule.

Tags:
Stay Connected
RSS TOC RSS Feeds
 News Posts
 Commentary Posts
 Combined Feed
 New to RSS?
Newsletter Subscribe to the TOC newsletter.
Tarsier Icon Follow TOC on Twitter.
Newsletter Join the TOC Facebook group.
Newsletter Join the TOC LinkedIn group.
TOC Widget Get the TOC Headline Widget.
Search
Tag Cloud