There’s an excellent article today on Site Pro News called How to Create Shareable, Likable, and Organic Content. Of course, as a writer it bothers me a little that there are two typos in the headline. But the points made by Julia are dead on for all of us who are forced to do marketing. The amount of advice available is staggering. After all, what is more obvious for a marketer to do than write a book, about what … Continue reading →
I sent my new book (see the cover to the left) to Kindle KDP. I exported it as ePUB2 with embedded fonts and so on. I converted it with Kindle Previewer.My first reader complained that all the graphics were destroyed. (A graphic 600 px wide by 35 px tall was displaying 600 px wide by 500 px tall.) Plus, the embedded fonts were gone. Plus, nested styles were gone. The custom dingbat bullets were gone from the lists. … Continue reading →
Ebooks have been a mess until now. Actually, they still are in many ways. However, InDesign CC 2014 has truly solved most of the problems. It always did export the best PDFs. Now it exports very good ePUB FXL (fixed layout), reflowable ePUBs, and because Kindle will upload the reflowables converting easily, the Kindle problem is solved also. Wonderful that all our problems are solved, right? Well, you know better than that. Each format requires a redesign … Continue reading →
I was talking to a friend a couple days ago. He mentioned the primary trouble he has in using InDesign to format his books: when he gets into InDesign he can’t remember how to use it. Suddenly, it dawned on me that this is a primary reason why writing in InDesign is so effective. Not only is writing fully formatted in InDesign the best method of communicating clearly with your readers [outside of excellent content], the simple act … Continue reading →
CC 2014 virtually redid ePUB export—adding fixed layout & radically improving reflowable ePUBs Indesign has always been the best software for publishing: print & ebook. I have already posted quite a bit about the new software. Most of the improvements seemed to be focused on we self-publishers. But my book is also redone— in places quite radically. A review by Mary Campagna Findley for the CS6 version “David Bergland has challenged me to think beyond the writing, editing, and cover design … Continue reading →
Dave Bricker posted a long article today about the dangers of publishing without knowing the expenses and requirements of book production. You need to read the article if you are ignorant of the scams perpetrated on authors. Most publishers you run across with a quick Google search as you start your hunt for help will be vanity houses seeking to scam the author. There are countless people lusting after your production money This is where you need … Continue reading →
This one almost slipped past me. Bob Levine wrote about it at InDesign secrets. Adobe’s now giving away licenses to the .folio format. This could be huge! Magazines were dying because .folio was so expensive Now maybe we’ll see some more folio readers. Maybe tablet reader apps will be able to handle folio also. Maybe PDF will finally go the way of the dodo. The ability to offer books with multiple columns and portrait/landscape versions gives technical … Continue reading →
I regularly provide production help to Christian authors, as led by the Spirit. Feel free to contact me. What I want to do below is give you some idea of the options I offer. We can also negotiate custom relationships. Radiqx Press Production Charges Most of my books are done as a whole, so editing, proofing, formatting, exporting for upload are all part of the same process. I normally charge $60/hour for my billable time. To prepare a … Continue reading →
As typographers and book designers, we need a minimum three-font family—regular, italic, and bold: Italic is necessary for periodical names and emphasis. Bold is used for proper names and headers. As you saw at the start of this paragraph I used a bold through the colon to emphasize an important point. In my books I use my Bold Sans Serif. But regardless of which font family you choose it must satisfy several basic requirements of book design. … Continue reading →
I’ve been working on the third edition of Writing In InDesign due out around the first of the year. As usual, I am writing a lot, rearranging everything, doing everything I can to make it more helpful and uplifting to my readers. It will also include the exciting new advances in ebook design and formatting now possible with InDesign CC. But this is just a quote about why we do what we do: ♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦ So, I’m a writer … Continue reading →