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These are events Joshua Tallent will be speaking at or attending.
SPEAKING:
Publishers Launch New York
September 26, 2011
New York City
SPEAKING:
Publishers Launch San Francisco
November 2, 2011
San Francisco, CA
SPEAKING:
Publishing App Expo
December 7-8, 2011
New York City
As the eBook market expands we are seeing a surge in the demand for "Enhanced eBooks." Most authors and publishers only think of video or audio as enhancements, but there are many more things that we can do to make your eBook stand out from the crowd. Because of inconsistent progress in eBook technologies over the last few years, some of these enhancements are limited to specific eBook apps or devices.
The most prominent candidate for eBook enhancements is Apple's iBooks application. We can create great-looking ePub files with features that are unique to the iBooks platform, some of which will not even be valid in the current ePub specification. Please be aware that an ePub file with enhancements will require a new ISBN, one that is different than the print file and different than the standard ePub file built without the enhancements.
Additional Internal Hyperlinks
Additional External Hyperlinks
Some other eBook companies might try to tell you that endnotes that link both directions or linked subject indexes are enhancements to eBooks. At eBook Architects, we do not consider those to be "enhancements" because we see them as integral to the very concept of an eBook. eBooks should not just be flat digital versions of print books. The basic functionality of linking within an eBook, linking to outside resources, implementing good design work, etc. are what makes eBooks so great. We believe that those elements should be included in every eBook, so that is what we do.
Enhancements are extras that most eBooks do not have, functions that go beyond the "lowest common denominator" formatting that most eBooks must have because of device limitations, or new content that is added to the eBook that would not be possible in the print book.
When most people think of "Enhanced eBooks" they think of video and audio added to an eBook file. Because of limitations in the current formats, devices, and retailers, video and audio are not features that can be added to standard eBook files. Only three of the major retailers currently support media content in eBook files: Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble.
Amazon's Kindle Editions with Audio and Video is a closed beta system. You can submit your business idea to Amazon and they will consider accepting the content into the program. If it is accepted, the media will only work on the Kindle Apps on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Users reading the books on other devices will see this message:
Here is an example of how these books look on the iPad:
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If you are interested in participating in this program, you will need to contact Amazon at dtp-av-beta@amazon.com. Let them know, specific to your content, how you and your readers would benefit from embedded video and audio. Be as detailed as possible. If your business case is accepted, Amazon may invite you to participate in the private beta to further explore expanding this feature. You can view their press release here.
Apple's system is a little bit easier to work with. They do not require that you sign up for a specific program; you can just submit your eBook through the normal channels. Apple may take a little bit longer than normal to approve your ePub file, but once they do that the book will become active in the iBookstore. It can then be purchased by readers using iBooks on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Here is an example of how a video and audio look in iBooks:
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Barnes & Noble's new video and audio embedding system is limited to publishers who have a direct relationship with B&N. Anyone using the PubIt! system to upload their files cannot currently include embedded media. We will post more information on this page as the details of their system become more available.
If you have video or audio content you would like us to add to your eBook, we can certainly help you. The cost for these enhancements is a flat fee of $200 when adding up to 20 media files to eBooks we have developed, or $400 when adding up to 20 media files to ePub files created by other companies. We will have to give you a specific quote if your project contains more than 20 embedded media files. Also, be aware that these charges do not cover the base eBook development or the creation/editing of your media files. Please contact us to get instructions on how to create your media files according to the proper specifications for Amazon and Apple.
One of the difficulties with eBooks is that the small screens on eBook devices sometimes make it hard to see large, detailed data that would normally be easy to see in a print book. Apple has created a great feature in iBooks that allows us to embed a single-page PDF file into an ePub document. The standard use for this feature is to embed large, detailed tables, timelines, and forms into eBooks, but it could be used for any single-page PDF file. It is important to note that these embedded PDF files will not work in Adobe Digital Editions or on any device that uses the Adobe software, and the embedding makes the ePub invalid; it can only be uploaded to Apple's iBookstore.
Here are some screenshots from the iBooks app showing how these PDFs look:
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You can also download this sample ePub with the embedded PDF of the New York subway system here.
If you have content that would work well as an embedded PDF file, please let us know. The cost to add these features is a flat fee of $10 per single-page PDF file. If we have to extract, crop, or do any other work to your book PDF to create the single-page PDF files, the cost will be $25 per PDF file, but we will need to discuss your project and whether that is even possible with the content you want to include in this manner. Be aware that PDF files with large file sizes can be slow to respond in the iBooks window (you will see this with the NY subway map). Take that into consideration when making the single-page PDF files for your eBook.
Tables are one of the main problem areas in eBook design. Some eBook formats and devices do not have very good support for HTML-based table layouts (especially the Kindle). Even with the industry-standard ePub format, the support for beautifully-designed tables in the different software applications and devices is inconsistent at best. With this lack of consistent formatting, we typically insert all tables into our clients' eBooks as images. (These images are created by taking a screenshot of the table in the source file.) This design process ensures that your tables will be displayed as you designed them regardless of the format or device.
What do you do if you have large tables that are not really going to be readable or usable as images in the eBook, such as tables with more than four columns, whole paragraphs of text, or just a large number of small cells? Typically, we suggest that you make large tables (or forms/worksheets) available as a PDF download on your website and provide a link to that download in the eBook. Many readers will welcome the opportunity to see the table in its original state without any of the difficulties of viewing it in an eBook format or on a small screen. We do not charge anything to include these extra links, we just need to know where to place them in your eBook.
However, there are some other options and recent innovations that allow the inclusion of large, text-based tables into your eBook files, giving your readers the ability to see the entire table text without being limited to a small and sometimes unreadable image. You may want to take advantage of some of the following options in eBook table design if you have large or complex tables in your book.
1. Inline XHTML Tables: Some of our clients do not prefer to have their tables inserted as images, but would rather that we insert them using XHTML into the eBook files. This is certainly an option, but the varying size and formatting capabilities of different devices and software applications can sometimes be an impediment to readable XHTML tables.
The process of converting your tables into XHMTL and designing them with CSS to make them resemble your print book design while keeping them compatible with the different devices can be very time-consuming. We charge $20 per table to cover the cost of this extra development work. Usually, large tables like this look pretty good in Adobe Digital Editions, but they can be squashed and harder to read in other platforms like Apple iBooks, the B&N NOOK, and the Sony Reader (as these screen shots from ADE and iBooks show).
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2. Non-Linear XHTML Tables: Apple's iBooks application takes advantage of a great feature built into the ePub format: the ability to have content that is not displayed as part of the regular flow of the eBook, but that is still designed in XHTML. Unlike inline tables (see above), which load within the limitations of iBooks' regular interface, these "non-linear" pieces of the eBook load in a full-screen "pop-up" window much like the one used in embedded PDFs described above, allowing the reader to scroll the content like a web page and zoom in/out as they wish. When the reader closes the window they are taken back to their original position in the eBook. Here are some screenshots from iBooks showing how this feature can be used quite effectively with tables:
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Another great thing about this table option is that, while it works better in iBooks because of that application's use of the non-linear ePub function, the same ePub file can still be used for devices and distribution channels that use the Adobe software. Adobe Digital Editions and the Adobe mobile eBook software used on the B&N Nook, Sony Reader, etc. will just insert the "non-linear" tables at the end of the book as inline tables (see above). When the reader clicks on the link under the table image inside the regular flow of the book, they will be taken to the back of the book where the equivalent XHTML table can be viewed. We also add links below each XHTML table in the ePub that will allow users on any device to return to the image of the table within the book's regular flow.
You can download the ePub shown in the screenshots above, which has examples of both inline and non-linear tables, here. It can be loaded into in iBooks, opened in ADE, or read in any other ePub-supporting device or software.
The process of converting your tables into XHMTL and designing them with CSS to make them resemble your print book design while keeping them compatible with the different devices can be very time-consuming. We charge $20 per table to cover the cost of this extra development work (whether the tables are inline or non-linear).
Please note: While table formatting in the Kindle format have been getting better in recent years, we do not recommend placing HTML tables in Kindle eBooks because of the lack of fine-grain control we have over the table design, and because of limitations the user will experience when they try to interact with the table contents. However we are happy to insert them into your Kindle version if you prefer. Here are some screenshots from the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 showing how tables look and function on those devices:
(hover for description, click to enlarge)
You can download the Kindle file shown in the screenshots above here.
3. Embedded PDF in iBooks: If you are targeting the Apple iBooks platform only, we can make a specific ePub file that has embedded PDFs of the tables that users can then open in iBooks with zoom and pan capabilities. Please see above for more information.
4. Non-tabular text: If you want the data to be included in the eBook as text, but not in HTML, we can convert the table contents into a paragraph layout that gets the information across to the reader without requiring a tabular structure. If you have ideas for how this would work best for your contents, please let us know. The cost for this re-formatting is $10 per table.
One of the more important advantages an eBook has over a print book is the ability to link within itself. In addition to tables of contents, footnotes, and subject indexes (all of which we link be default within every eBook), there are sometimes other sections of a book that would benefit from being linked to other parts of the text. Some examples are:
If you have linkable sections like this, the cost to link them is usually a flat fee between $25 and $100. Please contact us to get a quote.
In addition to internal hyperlinks, some eBooks benefit from the addition of external hyperlinks to other resources. We activate all hyperlinks within the text of your book as part of the base conversion package, so you don't need to worry about website links located in footnotes or other places in your book. However, there are some cases when an additional external hyperlink adds a lot to the eBook's value. The most prominent example of this is adding links to other books in a series or other books by the same author.
In standard ePub and Kindle files we can add links to your own website's product pages, Amazon product pages, B&N product pages, and similar online locations. In iBooks-specific ePub files, we can link to the iBookstore product pages of other books, and that product page will open in the iBookstore automatically (not in a Safari window).
If you would like to add additional external hyperlinks like this, the cost is usually a flat fee between $25 and $100. Please contact us to get a quote.
At eBook Architects we are always looking for new ways to enhance our clients' eBooks and to push the boundaries of eBook design. We will add more options for enhancements here as they become available.
