Edgarv's blog

Emily and I have been working on our presentation portion for our digital versions of two Parlor Press Books. We have decided to go with a "science fair" type display with information about the different type of file formats and the different types of e-readers (the most popular ones). We will also have examples of e-readers there with a Nook, iPad, and Kindle (which are the most popular). In addition we will have handouts that include "how to's" and useful websites where people can find out more information about the entire e-book process.

Great strides were made this past week in class and out of class. I did a lot of research in iBooks specifically, that is ePubs specifically on the iPad. The iPad allows for a few more features than other eReaders and I am hoping to examine those so that I can optimize all platforms. I am still hoping to explore extra content at this stage. Hopefully to include some "original" content in something like this would enhance the reading experience beyond the convenience of the device. Still working to clean up my work in Indesign.

Well here we are at week 6 or post 6 whatever you want to call it. This past week during our class time I successfully created a Kindle book for the novel Camera Phone. The funny thing about this is that Kindle books are supposedly the most difficult to make. But with this handy little plugin by Amazon for Indesign. Also when I created it through the Kindle plugin and then tried to export to ePub there were a lot of changes that I did not make that stopped the epub from being "show" ready.

SO, here we are with another project log. I am currently reading the text that I will be transferring from print to EPUB format. I have, Like Emily, been looking at lynda.com for a lot of tutorials as well as Youtube and other sites to learn the ins and outs of EPUB documents in indesign. I have also downloaded the Kindle plugin for InDesign as well. (which is really helpful) I am almost done with the easy 90% of the work that takes little time, and now its on to the last 10% that takes hours.

This past week I have been reading up on how to make ebooks (using our assigned text). I have also been reading the actual novel in order to find possible places where additional content would be applicable. With a text entitled Camera Phone it lends itself nicely to additional multimedia content.

I have also played around with the inDesign file just on a trial and error basis. It has been a fun experience, however I am really interesting in meeting the author and getting his thoughts on possible addition content.

I will have to say that this was the most interesting and most frustrating part of this text yet. I am speaking mainly of the portion on the digital revolution. It was the most frustrating also because I could not help but notice the author's negative opinion of the digital revolution, at least form a philosophical perspective.

I will admit, as I read the chapter entitled "Shrinking Windows" I could not help but envision the countless hours I spent in Barnes & Noble, or Books-a-Million look through these front tables, the so called "step ladders" of dollar signs for publishers. Little did I know that tiny wars in publishing houses all over the country ensued daily in order to capitalize on such "commodified" space. Prior to reading this I just assumed, naively of course, that the books at the front were either best-sellers or very new books just release.

This week I have done mostly research/reading for my individual project. I have read over the content provided by Dr. Blakesley. I have read several of the documents on this site that relate to epub formats, such as the iPas, Nook, and kindle formats. In addition I have freshened up on indesign, using the content of the text. I myself have explored a few websites that touch on HTML 5 and specifically mobile technology and tagging.

Well it is official I am going to develop a novel (from print) for use across multiple digital platforms (web, epub, Kindle). The book is a novel entitled Camera Phone by Brooke Biaz. I am really excited about this project. Not only because of the technology that I will using but also the content. A book like this lends itself to digital production. It is a book about college students using camera phones to develop movies. I am not quite sure of a suggested timeline for this project.

This next portion of merchants of culture highlighhts publishing corporations and these large organizations and small independent house make up the modern polarized field of publishing. Interestingly enough this lines up with many similar portions of the economy across America. Specifically the wealth ratio. There is a saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. However in the publishing sense there are huge economic differences between the two, but according to the publishers themselves this is not what defines them.