Password Incorrect Blog http://www.passwordincorrect.com Mobile Ebooks, Self-publishing, Digital Storytelling Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:36:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Short Stories for Geeks For Free Till the End of Read an Ebook Week! http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/03/08/short-stories-for-geeks-are-free-till-the-end-of-read-an-ebook-week/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/03/08/short-stories-for-geeks-are-free-till-the-end-of-read-an-ebook-week/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:29:37 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26516 I’m a big fan of Read an Ebook Week and have waited with this Kindle Store promotion until this year’s edition starts. If you’re into tech-related, fast-paced stories, which remind of Kurt Vonnegut or Stanisław Lem, you may be interested in the two collections of flash-fiction I wrote, Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed. The titles [...]

"Short Stories for Geeks For Free Till the End of Read an Ebook Week!" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> I’m a big fan of Read an Ebook Week and have waited with this Kindle Store promotion until this year’s edition starts.

If you’re into tech-related, fast-paced stories, which remind of Kurt Vonnegut or Stanisław Lem, you may be interested in the two collections of flash-fiction I wrote, Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed. The titles and covers say all about the books: technology makes us fail, and we have to, actually, start enjoying it. 

The books are free till Sunday, March 11th, 2012. It would be absolutely amazing, if you left a short review and share the information about the books with your friends – but only if you really like the stories:-)

I was surprised that after just a couple of hours, the books are doing so good in Kindle Store. They’re actually in Top 20 Free in Short Stories category!

Password Incorrect (Geek Fiction Stories Vol. 1/2)

Nick Name

A first volume of a tech-fiction short story collection. Designed to be a perfect mobile reading for geeks, who sometimes feel the need to recover from tech-related stress. In a book you’ll find 20 stories, which can help you redefine “absurd” from “being ridiculous” to “being funny”. Bonus: 10 best hashtagstories – author’s original Twitter microfiction format.

These stories serve as a reminder.  Issued up from the heart of Poland by a wired writer in translated English making absurd light of situations unimaginable even a decade ago, ones fraught with the danger of banality.  But this nimble writer deftly zigzags to humor and sheer wackiness.  It has been suggested that multimedia “books” could be literature’s future, and that may well be.  But I think more likely candidates are the sort of short stories you’ll find in Password Incorrect, which exploits the networked world’s novelties while remaining true to the universal commonalities of the human experience.
You not likely come across anything quite like Password Incorrect any time soon. Unless this work receives the wide audience it deserves and imitators spring up.
– Court Merrigan

Get the book for free from Kindle Store!

Failure Confirmed (Geek Fiction Stories Vol. 2/2)

Nick Name

Volume 2 of a geek-fiction collection for mobile readers. All of them proving that life can be exciting even if you’re not taking part in an expedition to North Pole or dying every night at the parties on Ibiza. A full adrenaline is guaranteed if you have a shiny laptop which is about to say: “Fatal error: Call to a member function loadObject() on line 666″.

I love how these stories show an understanding of the nuanced relationship between human beings and technology, which is often belied by the absurdity of the humor. Technology is presented not as a boogey-man, but rather as the tools human beings create to fill real needs.  The problem, of course, arises from humans’ preternatural abilities to epically eff up even the best intentions.
– Moxie Mezcal

Get the book for free from Kindle Store!

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"Short Stories for Geeks For Free Till the End of Read an Ebook Week!" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/03/08/short-stories-for-geeks-are-free-till-the-end-of-read-an-ebook-week/feed/ 0 Customize the Look of Hootsuite Dashboard & Hootlet with This Simple Tip http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/02/20/customize-the-look-of-hootsuite-dashboard-hootlet-with-this-simple-tip/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/02/20/customize-the-look-of-hootsuite-dashboard-hootlet-with-this-simple-tip/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:22:25 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26499 I’m a heavy Hootsuite user. This powerful social media management tool gives everything I need. However, if you’re using something terribly intensively, certain things start to bother you. In my case it’s about the design of the dashboard. Eventually I found some time to customize the look. You can do it as well. The only [...]

"Customize the Look of Hootsuite Dashboard & Hootlet with This Simple Tip" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> I’m a heavy Hootsuite user. This powerful social media management tool gives everything I need. However, if you’re using something terribly intensively, certain things start to bother you. In my case it’s about the design of the dashboard.

Eventually I found some time to customize the look. You can do it as well. The only thing you need, if you use Chrome browser, is to get from Chrome Web Store an extension called Stylish. It’s also available for Firefox. This extension lets you apply your personal CSS styles to web pages.

First let me show how I styled the Hootsuite dashboard. It’s based on a couple of good Hoostuite themes found on Userstyles.org. Click on images to enlarge. 

Default Look

Hootsuite default CSS

Improved Look

Hootsuite dashboard improved CSS

Things that have changed:

- bigger font in the text area, bigger padding – now the window  stands out as it should be; it works both in the dashboard and Hootlet,
- redesigned scroll bars (now they are not so overwhelming),
- added light grey background to messages and text area with a white text shadow – it’s easier on the eyes and looks cooler,
- removed intensive colors and borders from Select profiles panel
- some minor changes

What to do

1. Once you install Stylish, go to Extensions, and click on the Options.
2. Click on Write New Style button located on the left.
3. In the first field, Code, paste the text from below. You can further modify it, according to what you want to achieve:

::-webkit-scrollbar {
width: 5px;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar:horizontal {
height:7px;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
margin-top: -10px;
margin-bottom: -10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
background:#ffffff;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-track:disabled {
display: none;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
border-width: 19px 0;
min-height: 20px;
background:#CCCCCC;
opacity: 0.4;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
}
.message {
background:#efefef !important;
background-image:none !important;
border-bottom: 1px solid #dedede !important;
border-top: 1px solid #ffffff !important;
text-shadow: 0 1px #ffffff;
}
.message .networkName {
font-size: 11px !important;
font-family: arial, helvetica !important;
}
.message p {
font-size:13px;
color: #555555 !important;
}
.message p a:hover {
color: #AAAAAA !important;
}
.composerWidget {
border-bottom:0px solid #EFEFEF !important;
}
.composerBox {
border-bottom:0px solid #EFEFEF !important;
}
textarea {
width:96% !important;
background:none !important;
padding:5px !important;
font-size:14px;
color:#555555;
position:relative;
text-shadow:0 1px #ffffff;
}
.newCount new {
display:none !important;
}
.new {
display:none !important;
}
.messageOptions {
background: none !important;
background-image:none !important;
}
#streamsContainer {
background:#efefef !important;
background-image:none !important;
}
.messageBox {
margin-top:-1px;
border:#aaaaaa 1px solid !important;
padding-top:2px;
background:#efefef !important;
}
.selectedList {
border:#aaaaaa 1px solid !important;
}
.snList {
background:#fff;
}
.profileSelectorWidget .avatar {
width:20px;height:20px;
}
.profileSelectorWidget .selectedList .item {
margin:0 0 2px 3px;
border:1px solid #CCCCCC !important;
-moz-border-radius:2px;-webkit-border-radius:2px;border-radius:2px;
-moz-box-shadow:0 1px #fff !important;
-webkit-box-shadow:0 1px #fff !important;
box-shadow:0 1px #fff !important;
background-color:#FFFFFF;
}
.profileSelectorWidget .selectedList .item:hover{
background-color:#EFEFEF;
}
.profileSelectorWidget .picker .snList .row.active {
border:1px solid #FFFFFF;
background-color:#EFEFEF;
}
div.content.trim._content {
display:none !important;
}

4. Underneath, next to Applies to, click on Add button, select URLs starting with, and type the address http://www.hootsuite.com/dashboard
5. Add a new field. Select URLs on the domain, and type hootsuite.com

6. Click on Save button on the left.

Done! You can make changes and see what happens, if you have Hootsuite dashboard opened in the next tab.

Sorry, that I use a simple language here, I’m not a web developer. Hope you found it helpful.

If you liked this article, please share it with your friends. Get free updates by e-mail or RSS, powered by FeedBurner. Let's meet on Twitter and Facebook. Check also my geek fiction stories: Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed.

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"Customize the Look of Hootsuite Dashboard & Hootlet with This Simple Tip" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/02/20/customize-the-look-of-hootsuite-dashboard-hootlet-with-this-simple-tip/feed/ 0 Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/01/20/pricing-of-self-published-books-to-international-readers/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/01/20/pricing-of-self-published-books-to-international-readers/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:22:30 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26469 Self-publishing is changing. I think that in 2012 indie authors should go global. One of the important topics to raise is how to price books for international customers. My advice is simple: keep them low. The report on top self-published Kindle books of 2011, which I’ve recently released, shows a downward trend in both the [...]

"Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]>

Go to Kindle Store, log out of your account, and you'll be able to see the price of your book in different regions

Self-publishing is changing. I think that in 2012 indie authors should go global. One of the important topics to raise is how to price books for international customers. My advice is simple: keep them low.

The report on top self-published Kindle books of 2011, which I’ve recently released, shows a downward trend in both the number of self-published books in Top 100 and the average price. One of the major reasons is the growing price competition.

The perception of $0.99 is not only affected by Kindle Daily Deal, but also by the fact that more and more legacy publishers offer their titles for $1.99 or less. Those books easier become popular, because they convince price-sensitive users not only with a price, but also with a reputation of the publisher.

This means that tagging the book with $0.99 price is not as effective as it was a year ago, when there were $0.99 self-published books and $5.99+ books from legacy publishers.

There is also one more factor, which encourages self-publishers to increase prices. If they enroll their books in KDP Select, they sooner or later come to the conclusion, that for a Prime member, who is eligible to borrow from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library only one book per month, getting for free the book with a regular price of $0.99 is not a deal at all.

Authors who sell books at $0.99 earn $0.35. They were able to earn $1.70 in December from a single KOLL borrow. The fund Amazon gives to support KDP Select is raised in January from $500,000 to $700,000. It doesn’t mean that a single borrow can give a royalty higher than $1.70 as there are more books in KOLL and more people who can borrow them. But it means that the deal is still encouraging enough to sacrifice regular sales.

So, where is the pricing for international ebook users? I think, that even if you decided to raise prices of your books for US customers, keep them low for readers from abroad. 

There are a few extra factors to keep in mind, when it comes to prices for users from different countries:
1. Many books from big publishers are not available outside US – for more details check this report on international availability and prices of Kindle bestsellers,
2. Many books are priced by publishers higher that in US – what this comparison of prices of Steve Jobs biography shows,
3. Prices are higher due to taxes,
4. Prices are higher because of international fees (in case of books from Kindle Store US).

Readers from abroad are aware that they have to pay more for the books. In fact, they hardly experienced $0.99 price shock from the beginning of 2011. So, the low price strategy which worked so well in US, seems to have chances in other countries.

How to keep prices low? There are two things you can do:
1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores,
2. Get rid of international fee.

1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores

In the KDP dashboard the author can set up prices for Kindle Stores in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain either automatically (based on a price from US) or manually. If you increase the price in US, it doesn’t mean you have to do it in other Kindle Stores.

Here’s what I did. My flash-fiction geek stories, Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed are a very narrow niche, but they were doing unexpectedly well in KOLL in December. It’s probably because of the fact that they’re addressed to geeks, like the ones who have bought/received Kindle Fire. New owners of this device have one month of Prime/KOLL free.

I’ve increased the price of books to $5.99 (bargain for KOLL users), but in other Kindle Stores kept prices with $0.99 tag in respective currencies. To do that I had to select 35% royalty option – there is no possibility to choose different royalties for different locations.

Set different prices in different Kindle Stores

2. Get rid of international fee

International fees applied by Amazon to Kindle ebooks sold to users from abroad are a serious issue. They influence the way international readers buy the books. Therefore they should also influence the way authors price their books.

Kindle ebooks are being sold to over 170 countries and destinations. If you set up in KDP the rights for your book to “all territories”, readers from those 170+ locations will be able to buy it.

The fees are different for different regions, but they are usually up to $4. For example, the $0.99 book costs usually $3.44 in Poland, where I live.

You can check how much your books cost by going to Kindle Store US, selecting a region and searching for your book. Read this post if you need a detailed tip on how to do it.

Is there a way to get rid of the fee? Looks like it is. What I’ve observed is that the charge is applied only until the certain amount of books is being sold. I sell my books from Kindle Store, also the ones written in Polish, so I’m determined to keep their prices low in Poland. I’ve counted that if you sold around 100 copies, the price of the book goes down to the level set up in KDP dashboard.

What you can do is to raise the price of the book in Kindle Store US only after there are no or little fees in other territories.

I wonder whether giving books for free within KDP Select affect the international fees. If anyone has noticed that, please share it in the comments. If this works, the easy way to get rid of the charges it to run a 5-day promo and raise prices afterwards.

What is also good to keep in mind is that Kindle Daily Deal books cost the same in all countries – there is no international charge applied, no matter how many books were sold to different regions. This means that $0.99 KDD book costs $0.99 (and it’s a one-day deal), while your book, supposed to be a constant deal, costs $3.44.

* * *

When thinking about international readers it’s also very good to analyze other distribution channels. Kobo and Smashwords are best picks. First, their offer is available without territorial restrictions. Secondly, they don’t apply fees like Amazon does.

If you want me to write how the distribution could look from a perspective of a European self-publisher, please let me know in the comments.

Hope it was a helpful post.

If you liked this article, please share it with your friends. Get free updates by e-mail or RSS, powered by FeedBurner. Let's meet on Twitter and Facebook. Check also my geek fiction stories: Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed.

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"Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2012/01/20/pricing-of-self-published-books-to-international-readers/feed/ 6 Quick Note: Adding Most Useful Posts from Ebook Friendly to This Blog’s Feed http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/22/quick-note-adding-most-useful-posts-from-ebook-friendly-to-this-blogs-feed/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/22/quick-note-adding-most-useful-posts-from-ebook-friendly-to-this-blogs-feed/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:34:27 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26422 If you check this blog’s feed from time to time you may have realized there are not many new posts coming in. It’s because I now focus more to giving tips for readers of electronic books – and the better place to share them is my ebook discovery site, Ebook Friendly. As I don’t want [...]

"Quick Note: Adding Most Useful Posts from Ebook Friendly to This Blog’s Feed" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Ebook Friendly logoIf you check this blog’s feed from time to time you may have realized there are not many new posts coming in. It’s because I now focus more to giving tips for readers of electronic books – and the better place to share them is my ebook discovery site, Ebook Friendly.

As I don’t want to republish every interesting article from there, I’ve managed to add articles from Ebook Friendly to this feed (Yahoo Pipes work fine for this).

I hope you’ll enjoy tips and workarounds for users of ereaders and ereading apps as well as posts and reports promoting self-published books. And make sure to benefit, too.

Recent posts from Ebook Friendly’s Tips & More feed are listed below. Don’t worry, they’ll be filtered and only the best articles will appear in your feed.

Wishing you a quiet, distraction-free Christmas! 

Related posts

"Quick Note: Adding Most Useful Posts from Ebook Friendly to This Blog’s Feed" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/22/quick-note-adding-most-useful-posts-from-ebook-friendly-to-this-blogs-feed/feed/ 0 What’s New With EPUB 3? http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/02/whats-new-with-epub-3/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/02/whats-new-with-epub-3/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:54:35 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/02/whats-new-with-epub-3/ I’m very pleased to share a new post by Paul Salvette. This time Paul will be talking about ePub 3 and how the new version of this popular file format can be used by authors and publishers. For more helpful tips on ebook formatting, check Paul’s book How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, [...]

"What’s New With EPUB 3?" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> I’m very pleased to share a new post by Paul Salvette. This time Paul will be talking about ePub 3 and how the new version of this popular file format can be used by authors and publishers.

For more helpful tips on ebook formatting, check Paul’s book How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else.

What the Heck is EPUB?


The EPUB format is an open source standard that defines how the content and metadata of an eBook should be packaged and how eReading devices and software should render the format to the reader. EPUB is the most widely-adopted standard for eBooks and is the format utilized by the Barnes & Noble NOOK store, iBookstore, Sony eBook store, and many others. The notable exception is the Amazon Kindle store, which is discussed below. The open source philosophy of web design and development has fostered a culture of sharing best practices and lessons learned online, and this has allowed developers to write new software and iron out bugs for web browsers that have greatly enhanced the internet in the last 15 years–making web pages evolve from the dull designs of the 1990s to the new digital reality of the 21st century. It is reassuring that eBook design and development is following a similar trend of openness and cooperation, and this will greatly benefit the reader’s experience and adoption of eBooks on an international scale.

Since eReaders and rendering software comes in so many shapes and sizes, an eBook cannot be organized like a fixed-layout print book. It needs to have reflowable content to accommodate differently-sized viewing windows on the reader’s screen (from a big desktop monitor to a tiny iPhone). That is why the EPUB format looks more like the source code of a website rather than an actual manuscript. You can head on over to my eBook formatting tutorial or buy my How-To guide if you’re looking for help on turning your manuscript into an eBook. Essentially, the entire EPUB format is a collection of XHTML and XML files (plus images) that defines the content, reading order, and metadata of an eBook. Alright, so what the heck is XML and XHTML? eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a way to transport and store data, while XHTML is a specification for the language used for web pages based on XML that is being phased out in favor of HTML5.  Using this type of code allows eReading software and devices to render data on a wide variety of screens, and it’s great for standard fiction or non-fiction eBooks. This is what is widely used today – the EPUB 2.0.1 specification.

However, many readers want more than just the standard content that would be similarly available in a print book. Comic books, text books with complicated mathematical formulas, and the ability to read foreign languages that are nothing like English (Korean, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, etc.) are just a few features that the EPUB format being utilized today has trouble with. Also, the next evolution of the internet is HTML5/CSS3, which is slowly replacing XHTML and plug-ins like Adobe Flash. This will facilitate a better system to embed audio, video, and other media content. That is why the International Digital Publishing Forum endeavored to come up with a revised standard – the EPUB 3 specification.

What’s Can the New EPUB 3 Do for Me as an Author/Publisher?

The EPUB 3 specification was finalized in October 2011, and new software and eReaders that support this format will hopefully be out in 2012. Azardi has an EPUB 3 reader that is available for free if you are interested. The EPUB 3 specification allows for a variety of new features that EPUB 2.0.1 does not support, and they will provide great enhancements to the eBook experience. Here is a brief snapshot of some of the new things to expect:

  1. Audio/Video Support – Support of embedded audio and video using HTML5 tags is a feature that will make eBooks really stand out from print books. While the file sizes of the eBook itself will obviously become larger with embedded audio and video files, this will hopefully be offset by improved storage capacity of tablets and improved communications/cellular infrastructure to allow quick file transfer. Also, another benefit of embedded audio and video means better support for text-to-speech for readers with disabilities.  [spec]
  2. Mathematical Equations – For the huge textbook market, the current version of EPUB does not allow for representation of complex mathematical equations. Generally, an eBook designer has to embed the equation as an image inside the eBook, which bloats the size of the file and can make for a somewhat clunky reading experience. The new EPUB 3 supports MathML which is a way to encode equations in a similar fashion that web pages are encoded. This will help eBooks gain wider acceptability in the textbook market. [spec]
  3. Headers and Footers – It is standard practice for print books and PDFs to have headers and footers on every page outside of the body content (e.g. the author’s name, book title, page number, etc.) With eBooks, you often only see headers and footers based on what the eReader decides to put there (usually it’s some piece of information extracted from the eBook’s metadata). With the current EPUB format in use today, you can’t really define what should be a header and footer, because you have no idea what the size of the page will be for the reader. However, for the new EPUB 3 specification, there are new tags where the designer can actually define what should be in the header and footer of every page. [spec]
  4. JavaScript – JavaScript is a simple programming language that was designed for web pages in the 1990s. While the technology has been around for a while, the only place where it can be used inside an eBook is on the iBookstore. Even then it’s sort of confusing about how the current EPUB format is supposed to process it. With the new EPUB 3 specification, it defines how the eReading device is supposed to render it and what to do if there is no support for JavaScript. This will allow for all sorts of neat features in eBooks, which we have taken for granted on the internet, such as pop-up footnotes, rotating pictures, dynamic color changes, and everything else. This will provide a whole new level of interactivity and help give the children’s book market a much-needed jump into the digital world. [spec]
  5. Embedding Fonts and Advanced Text Styling – While you can embed fonts in the current version of EPUB, the new EPUB 3 specification dictates better support for this feature. This is critical for eBooks to gain acceptance in foreign languages. The EPUB 3 specification makes use of the advanced CSS 3 properties to allow better control of how text is displayed (note: CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are a specification for styling how content should be presented, and they are generally used in web design and eBook design). For instance, you can decide whether text should be hyphenated at line breaks or not. It should be noted that there is a lot of hand-wringing over how licensing and legalities for fonts works in eBooks, so embed fonts with caution. [spec]
  6. Better Graphics and Perhaps Animation – The new EPUB 3 specification allows for better use of SVG-type images. Scalable Vector Graphics are useful, because the quality doesn’t change as the image is made bigger. This is in contrast to bitmap graphics (like JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.), which degrade in quality as the image is expanded or zoomed in on, since they are a grid of pixels. Additionally, the new CSS3 specification has support for creating animation, and you can see an example here (note: recommend not viewing with Internet Explorer). Hopefully, developers will create EPUB 3 rendering software that can recognize the powerful animation features of CSS 3.

It will be exciting to see what kind of software developers come up with to read eBooks written in the EPUB 3 format, and we will hopefully start seeing some this new generation of eBooks soon. More interactivity will allow eBooks to gain even further market share over print books.

How Does This Tie in with the Amazon Kindle store?

Amazon owns and still utilizes the MOBI/AZW/PRC format in their Kindle store, which is somewhat similar to the EPUB format. There are some very serious downsides to MOBI as opposed to EPUB, but Amazon continues to utilize their own proprietary file type, probably for various business reasons as opposed to technical. With the release of the Kindle Fire, Amazon announced a new “Kindle Format 8″, which boasts similar functionality to some of the new EPUB 3 features. Amazon has not informed the public of how this format will work yet besides a quick press release, but it appears that, like EPUB 3, it will support a lot of the things that HTML5 and CSS3 can handle. Luckily, Amazon provides their own software, KindleGen, which easily converts the EPUB format into MOBI for upload to the Kindle store. Hopefully, the conversion process from EPUB 3 to Kindle Format 8 will be equally as simple, but we have to wait and see.

Paul Salvette is an author who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, with his wife, Lisa, and newborn daughter, Monica. He grew up in the United States and served in the Navy from 2002 to 2009, with some time in Iraq. His day job involves working at a Thai foundation that focuses on poverty eradication, philanthropy, and education. He hopes to stay in Thailand until he is deported or dies of natural causes, whichever comes first.

Learn more about Paul at http://paulsalvette.com or follow him on Twitter @PaulSalvette.

Related posts

"What’s New With EPUB 3?" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/12/02/whats-new-with-epub-3/feed/ 2 Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #3 – Images, Metadata, TOC, Finalization http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/11/04/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-3-images-metadata-toc-finalization/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/11/04/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-3-images-metadata-toc-finalization/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:11:31 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/11/04/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-3-images-metadata-toc-finalization/ This is a last part of the Sigil tutorial by Paul Salvette. You’ll read about how to add images and metadata to an ebook, how to deal with table of contents, and finally – how to convert epub file to mobi format, if you want to make it available for Kindle devices. You can read [...]

"Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #3 – Images, Metadata, TOC, Finalization" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> This is a last part of the Sigil tutorial by Paul Salvette. You’ll read about how to add images and metadata to an ebook, how to deal with table of contents, and finally – how to convert epub file to mobi format, if you want to make it available for Kindle devices.

You can read two previous articles here and here. For more helpful tips on ebook formatting, check Paul’s book How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else.

Adding images

The EPUB format supports JPG, GIF, PNG, and SVG images. The JPG format is good for photographs and has a small file size, the GIF format is good for text, line art, and tables, and the PNG format has a large file size that is good for images you want to look sharp (like a company logo). To add an image click on this button in the menu:

Adding metadata and a table of contents

Metadata is information about the eBook that is embedded into the EPUB file. This includes the eBook’s title, author name, publishing date, etc. You can even add relatively obscure data like the name of your photographer. This metadata is important for search engine optimization (SEO) for potential readers to locate your eBook, so do not neglect it. To access the Metadata editor, click on “Tools” and then “Meta Editor”.

Many eBook retailers (like NOOK and iBookstore) require certain information in the metadata. As a best practice, you should add the following meta as a minimum: title, author, language, description (the back jacket blurb), date of publication, date of creation, and subject (you can add multiple subjects and they function like keywords). Some sample metadata is as follows:

The next step is to add a meta Table of Contents (also called the NCX Table of Contents). To do this, you simply pull up the Table of Contents under “View” or press Alt+F3. Then, you click on “Generate TOC from headings”. Sigil will look for anywhere that you defined text as “Heading X” and incorporate that into the Table of Contents.

Finalizing your EPUB and a trick to make a file for Kindle

Now you simply click “Save” and you will have a valid EPUB file. Try opening it on your PC using a program such as Adobe Digital Editions or NOOK for PC and see how it looks. If you aren’t happy with it, you can always adjust it in Sigil or learn about XHTML and CSS coding to accomplish more fine tuning of your eBook.

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You may be disheartened that the Amazon.com Kindle Store does not accept the EPUB format. Amazon.com uses the proprietary AZW/PRC/MOBI formats for their eBooks rather than the open standard EPUB. However, it is a relatively simple process to convert and EPUB to MOBI, because they are quite similar formats. If you unzip your EPUB file using a program like 7-zip, you can open the content.opf file with MobiPocket Creator, which is free. Alternatively, you can use a command line program from Amazon.com called KindleGen to easily convert the EPUB format to MOBI format. If that is not working for you, try using the open source eBook management system Calibre.

* * *

Thank you very much to Piotr for allowing me to guest post, and I hope that this quick tutorial on Sigil will be helpful for the self-publishing community. If you want to learn more about eBook formatting, please visit my website at http://PaulSalvette.com or say hello on Twitter @PaulSalvette.

Paul Salvette is an author who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, with his wife, Lisa, and newborn daughter, Monica. He grew up in the United States and served in the Navy from 2002 to 2009, with some time in Iraq. His day job involves working at a Thai foundation that focuses on poverty eradication, philanthropy, and education. He hopes to stay in Thailand until he is deported or dies of natural causes, whichever comes first.

Learn more about Paul at http://paulsalvette.com or follow him on Twitter @PaulSalvette.

Related posts

"Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #3 – Images, Metadata, TOC, Finalization" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/11/04/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-3-images-metadata-toc-finalization/feed/ 4 Polskie książki w iBookstore http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/25/polskie-ksiazki-w-ibookstore/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/25/polskie-ksiazki-w-ibookstore/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:23:39 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26370 Kilkanaście dni temu iBookstore oficjalnie wystartował w 26 nowych krajach, w tym również w Polsce. Księgarnia dostępna jest przez iTunes Store (pasek górny » Books), a także z aplikacji iBooks (przycisk Store). Od razu uprzedzam, że jest słabo. Polskich książek jest kilkadziesiąt i wcale nie jest łatwo je znaleźć. Apple, otwierając e-księgarnie w kolejnych krajach [...]

"Polskie książki w iBookstore" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]>

iBookstore w iTunes - kliknij, by powiększyć

Kilkanaście dni temu iBookstore oficjalnie wystartował w 26 nowych krajach, w tym również w Polsce. Księgarnia dostępna jest przez iTunes Store (pasek górny » Books), a także z aplikacji iBooks (przycisk Store).

Od razu uprzedzam, że jest słabo. Polskich książek jest kilkadziesiąt i wcale nie jest łatwo je znaleźć. Apple, otwierając e-księgarnie w kolejnych krajach ewidentnie nie ma ochoty starać się o książki w obcych językach – na przykład w językach krajów, w których iBookstore wystartował.

Jak znaleźć polskie książki

Większość tytułów polskich wydana została przez wydawnictwo O-press. Są to książki dla dzieci i poradniki.

Wyszukiwania według języka niestety nie ma – to wielki minus. Wpisanie w oknie wyszukiwania słowa Polish nic nie daje. Pojawiają się tytuły angielskie, w których tytuł lub opis zawiera to słowo. Oczywiście można wyszukiwać według tytułu lub autora, ale bestsellerów nie ma co szukać, przynajmniej nie teraz.

Żeby sprawdzić listę polskich książek znajdź – zarówno w iTunes jak i w iBooks – baner Bestsellers by Language (jak na obrazku poniżej) i kliknij w niego.

O nie, nie spodziewaj się, że od razu zobaczysz polskie tytuły. Najpierw będzie lista książek po angielsku, potem jeszcze portugalski, grecki, turecki, słowacki i wreszcie jest -język polski. Jest to lista tytułów płatnych. Tytuły darmowe są jeszcze gorzej dostępne. Zacznij od banera Free Books.

Alternatywną metodą jest przeszukanie polskiego iBookstore w Google. W oknie Google web search wklej poniższy tekst:

site:itunes.apple.com/pl/book/ "Language: Polish"

Żadna z tych metod nie jest idealna. Myślę, że Apple zdaje sobie sprawę, że książek w językach obcych nie jest dużo i promuje tytuły anglojęzyczne. Zresztą przeszukiwanie iTunes Store zawsze było związane z przechodzeniem przez niezliczoną liczbę różnego rodzaju list typu New&Noteworthy, a wyszukiwarka kulała.

* * *

Premiera iBooks/iBookstore w czasie, gdy wchodził iPad była dla mnie dużym rozczarowaniem. Użytkownicy z Polski korzystający z aplikacji iBooks mieli dostęp jedynie do darmowych publikacji z iBookstore US. Wśród nich było kilkanaście książek po polsku – klasyka z domeny publicznej wciągnięta do iBookstore z Project Gutenberg. Dla porównania – polskich książek w domenie publicznej, dostępnych w formacie ePub jest około 3 tysięcy.

Czy sytuacja zmieni się na lepsze? Nie sądzę, żeby nastąpiło to szybko. Po pierwsze dlatego, że wydawcy i autorzy z Polski nie mają łatwego życia. Żeby opublikować książkę w iBookstore trzeba mieć Maca i amerykański numer identyfikacji podatkowej. Apple chce sprzedawać urządzenia, a kanały dostępu do treści, takie jak iBookstore, mają uzasadniać wydatek.

Podejrzewam, że Apple, w przeciwieństwie do polskich dystrybutorów e-książek, nie będzie usilnie starał się o nowe publikacje. Raczej inicjatywa będzie należeć do wydawców i autorów, ale nie mają łatwego życia, więc koło się zamyka.

Co więcj, od czasu premiery iPada (i braku polskiego iBookstore) polscy wydawcy publikowali przez App Store. W applowskim sklepie z aplikacjami można znaleźć więcej książek po polsku niż w applowskim sklepie z e-książkami.

A najlepiej będzie pobrać polską aplikację e-książkową – Virtualo, Woblink lub Bezkartek. Tutaj przeczytasz o polskich książkach dostępnych w iOS, jeśli przestaniesz liczyć wyłącznie na iBooks/iBookstore.

Jeśli podobał ci się artykuł, prześlij go swoim znajomym. Otrzymuj nowe wpisy przez RSS albo na skrzynkę mailową. Spotkajmy się na Twitterze i Facebooku. Zapraszam również do pobierania E-opowiadań z Kindle Store.

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"Polskie książki w iBookstore" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/25/polskie-ksiazki-w-ibookstore/feed/ 2 Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #2 – Styling and Chapters http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/21/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-2-styling/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/21/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-2-styling/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:54:14 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/21/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-2-styling/ In a second part of the Sigil tutorial Paul Salvette gives tips on how to style the document. What is especially interesting is how to deal with headings and how to split an ebook into chapters. Read a first post here and get free updates of the blog, if you don’t want to miss the [...]

"Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #2 – Styling and Chapters" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> In a second part of the Sigil tutorial Paul Salvette gives tips on how to style the document. What is especially interesting is how to deal with headings and how to split an ebook into chapters.

Read a first post here and get free updates of the blog, if you don’t want to miss the next part, where Paul will explain how to add images, metadata and table of contents as well as share tips on finalizing a file and converting it to Kindle format. Check also Paul’s book How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else.

Styling text

Content with all the same font and characteristics is probably not how you want your finalized eBook to look. For instance, you probably want to add some italics, bold, or underlined text. To do that you simply select the text and then click on the appropriate button in the top menu:

Some self-publishers might prefer the paragraphs to be justified, which is when the text aligns vertically on both the left and right side. Also, for your title and chapter headings, you probably want them centered. You can click the cursor in any paragraph and then click one of the justification buttons in the top menu to align your paragraph left, center, right, or justified:

The next step is to declare your title and chapter headings as “Heading X”. Headings have a larger font size than the regular content and are bold. When you generate the meta Table of Contents, it will find any text that you have defined as “Heading X” and include that in the Table of Content. Click your cursor inside the paragraph of any text and make it a heading with this button:

Here is an example of how your eBook might look in the WYSIWYG pane after adding some styles:

Splitting up into chapters

When eReaders first came around, they were very primitive devices that had trouble reading large files. That is why splitting your single HTML file into many smaller ones, or “parsing”, is continued as a best practice today. Additionally, everywhere you split your HTML file, the eReading device will recognize it as a page break. It is advisable to split your HTML file before each chapter. So if you have 13 chapters in your novel, you probably want to have 1 HTML file for the title page, and 13 more for each chapter (14 total). To split the HTML file, you simply press Ctrl+Enter or press the Chapter Break button in the top menu:

Paul Salvette is an author who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, with his wife, Lisa, and newborn daughter, Monica. He grew up in the United States and served in the Navy from 2002 to 2009, with some time in Iraq. His day job involves working at a Thai foundation that focuses on poverty eradication, philanthropy, and education. He hopes to stay in Thailand until he is deported or dies of natural causes, whichever comes first.

Learn more about Paul at http://paulsalvette.com or follow him on Twitter @PaulSalvette.

Related posts

"Creating Epub Ebooks with Sigil: #2 – Styling and Chapters" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/21/creating-epub-ebooks-with-sigil-2-styling/feed/ 1 E-książki i self-publishing: to już trzy lata http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/20/e-ksiazki-i-self-publishing-to-juz-trzy-lata/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/20/e-ksiazki-i-self-publishing-to-juz-trzy-lata/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:00:42 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=26280 Ten wpis będzie trochę w stylu tekstów “moje życie z modelami samolotów w skali 1:72″, ale o to właśnie mi chodzi. Każdy ma swoją pasję i warto o niej pisać bez względu na to, jak zabawnie by ona nie brzmiała. Nie wiem, jakby się to wszystko potoczyło, może dalej pracowałbym w reklamie, gdyby nie moja [...]

"E-książki i self-publishing: to już trzy lata" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Ten wpis będzie trochę w stylu tekstów “moje życie z modelami samolotów w skali 1:72″, ale o to właśnie mi chodzi. Każdy ma swoją pasję i warto o niej pisać bez względu na to, jak zabawnie by ona nie brzmiała.

Nie wiem, jakby się to wszystko potoczyło, może dalej pracowałbym w reklamie, gdyby nie moja pierwsza e-książka.

W październiku 2008 roku opublikowałem w Feedbooks Hasło niepoprawne, kolekcję 25 opowiadań dla geeków. Przygotowanie materiału do publikacji cyfrowej zajęło mi 40 minut. Do tego zaprojektowałem okładkę, napisałem notkę prasową o pierwszej polskiej książce na iPhona i zrobiłem ładnego jpega (patrz obok).

Liczyłem na to, że wieść się rozniesie, bo w tym czasie iPhone wchodził do Polski, ale nie spodziewałem się aż takiego efektu. W kilka dni książka została pobrana ponad tysiąc razy. Jednak dużo większy wpływa na moje podejście i zaangażowanie miała wydana w tym samym dniu i w ten sam sposób anglojęzyczna wersja książki – Password Incorrect.

Hasło niepoprawne, gdy już informacja o nim zniknęła ze stron Gazety.pl, Wirtualnej Polski i Newsweeka, przestało cieszyć się powodzeniem. Za to wersja angielska zaczęła żyć własnym życiem i to bez żadnej promocji. Książka trafiła na pierwszą stronę Feedbooks, Will Wheaton dodał ją do ulubionych i niespodziewanie szybko dorobiła się zagranicznych recenzji.

Było w tym coś, co idealnie odpowiada mojemu podejściu: jeśli masz naprawdę ciekawą propozycję, to prędzej czy później chwyci, bez żadnego wspomagania w postaci znajomości, dojść lub też zwykłego narzucania się. Pierwsza polska książka na iPhona chwyciła, Hasło niepoprawne nie. Mogę to z perspektywy czasu bez żadnego wstydu powiedzieć. Nie zależy mi na budowaniu atmosfery sukcesu, ale na uczciwym przedstawieniu sytuacji.

Oprócz kilku wyjątków, Hasło niepoprawne, podobnie jak wszystkie książki drukowne oraz nowa seria, E-opowiadania, spotkały się z mocno średnim przyjęciem. Bardzo możliwe, że oprócz swojego charakteru (opowiadania i w dodatku absurdalne) traktowane są przez swoją formę (cyfrowa), autora (nieznany) i cenę (za darmo lub po 2,99zł) za niewarte uwagi. Niejeden powiedziałby “nie poddawaj się”, ale nie o poddawanie tu chodzi, tylko o realną ocenę sytuacji, uczciwość i pokorę.

Zupełnie inaczej jest z Password Incorrect. To dzięki tej książce i wydatkowi na tłumaczenie (który dawno się już zwrócił) robię to, co robię – zajmuję się e-książkami i self-publishingiem. Co najważniejsze – nie wyobrażam sobie, żebym w swoim życiu mógł robić cokolwiek innego.

Angielska wersja, żeby było to jasne, wcale nie jest wielkim bestsellerem. Zarabiam na niej dzięki skali. Niszowa lektura w Polsce to zupełnie innym poziom popularności niż ta sama niszowa lektura dostępna po angielsku na całym świecie. Więcej pobrań i więcej opinii. Opinie są i dobre i złe, ale to dzięki nim dowiedziałem się, że piszę jak Lem lub “Vonnegut z ADHD”. Żeby było ciekawiej, kiedyś wysyłałem książki do polskich wydawnictw (bez skutku), a wydawnictwa z Anglii czy USA znajdują mnie same.

Każdy woli wracać do miejsca gdzie go chcą i potrzebują. A self-publishera z Polski widocznie potrzebują. Dzięki temu publikuję artykuły w TeleRead, Digital Book World, BookBuzzr czy FutureBook i jestem polskim partnerem Read an Ebook Week.

Najważniejsze jest jednak co innego. Internet powoduje, że w jednej chwili możesz uczestniczyć w działaniach, które cię inspirują, fascynują i powodują, że się rozwijasz. Tak jest z fenomemem self-publishingu i literaturą cyfrową. Część swojej wiedzy starałem się przekazać na blogu, czy to w postaci artykułów dla self-publisherów, czy też dzieląc się swoimi projektami literackimi, jak chociażby historie tworzone na komórce.

Z perspektywy trzech lat, wiele rzeczy nie wyszło, wiele straciłem dlatego, że nie jestem przebojowy, ale też wiele zyskałem tylko dlatego, że to co myślę trafiało na serwery Google a nie do szuflady. Świat pędzi, zapętla się w multitaskingu i ryczy wpisami na ścianie na Facebooku. Nie ma co czekać, aż ktoś przyjdze i powie “fajne”.

Jeśli masz pasję, pozwól jej zaistnieć. Ja już mam – takie samoloty w skali 1:72. Z tym że nie z papieru.

Related posts

"E-książki i self-publishing: to już trzy lata" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/20/e-ksiazki-i-self-publishing-to-juz-trzy-lata/feed/ 16 6 Sites Where You Can Find Non-English Kindle Books http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/13/6-sites-where-you-can-find-non-english-kindle-books/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/13/6-sites-where-you-can-find-non-english-kindle-books/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:38:20 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/10/13/6-sites-where-you-can-find-non-english-kindle-books/ If you can’t find books in your mother tongue at Kindle Store, you can try other legal sources. Here’s a list I’ve prepared for Ebook Friendly – with tips how to find books, if search by language is unavailable. Two sites, Smashwords and Feedbooks, can be a great source of contemporary books from self-published authors [...]

"6 Sites Where You Can Find Non-English Kindle Books" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> If you can’t find books in your mother tongue at Kindle Store, you can try other legal sources. Here’s a list I’ve prepared for Ebook Friendly – with tips how to find books, if search by language is unavailable. Two sites, Smashwords and Feedbooks, can be a great source of contemporary books from self-published authors from your country.

Photo: © vectorine | Fotolia.com

Browsing for non-English books at Kindle Store is not easy. You can follow these tips to get most of it. However if you don’t find books in the categories of your interest, you can try to get them from other legal sources.

Remember, for your Kindle ereader or application, third-party books have to be:
- in prc/mobi format (also described as mobipocket or kindle),
- without DRM (unprotected).

Before you’ll buy a Kindle, check whether in your country there are any legal sources of DRM-free prc/mobi books. Some local ebook distributors may be selling books in this format, knowing that Kindle is the most popular ereader in the world – it ships to over 170 countries and is probably cheaper than ereaders officially sold by local ebookstores.

There are a couple of great services which can be a valuable source of non-English books for your Kindle.

Smashwords

The catalog contains over 60,000 books from contemporary authors. It’s one of the most popular self-publishing services in the world. Not only English-speaking authors use it to publish their books.

Description of every book includes also a language. But don’t get disappointed – if you click on a language it returns no results. Apparently, there is apparently a bug which prevents language search at Smashwords.

A good way is to type in a search box your language pronounced in English (f.e. Finnish or Portuguese). You can also browse Smashwords via Google. Go to Google web search page and paste into the search box (replacing Spanish with your language):

site:smashwords.com "Language: Spanish"

You can also go directly to Smashwords satellite sites for language-specific ebook collections:
Spanish – approx. 750 titles
French – approx. 550 titles

Feedbooks

Feedbooks is a great source of free ebooks from self-published authors (apart from public domain classics). Search by language is available for 5 languages: English, German, French, Russian, Spanish. To reveal it, find in the left panel a section called Language and click on More options (see picture below).

Direct links to supported languages:
German
French
Spanish
Russian

If your language is not supported, you can replace two last letters in the address bar – they are the language tag:

http://www.feedbooks.com/userbooks?lang=es

Tag es stand for Spanish. If you want to find, for instance, Polish books, replace es with pl. A full list of two-letter language tags is available here.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a mother of all public domain books in digital format. Books from PG can be found at Feedbooks, Manybooks or Internet Archive. The great thing about this service is that you can search by language easily and comfortably – just go to this page.

You can search for language, sort languages by popularity or alphabetically. What’s important, next to each language there is a number of books available.

Most popular languages are French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Portuguese and Chinese.

Internet Archive

The site lists public domain books, but it’s also open for the contribution of free Creative Commons texts.

Currently, Internet Archive collects almost 3,000,000 titles. You can search for books in your language using advanced search. From a Custom field drop-down menu select language, then in a field next to contains type a two-letter tag of your language (see picture below).

Open Library

Open Library is a community-driven ebook resource. Over 1,000,000 titles are available. Search doesn’t give an option to select language. You have to paste into the address bar the text below:

http://openlibrary.org/search?language=spa

The site is using three-letter language codes (different from Feedbooks and Internet Archive). You can find them here.

Scribd

Scribd is a YouTube for texts. 10 million files are shared here, majority for free. Available file formats are “only” pdf and plain text (txt), but if you’re really looking for a wider choice of books, you should try browsing this site.

Language search is easy. You can first select a category you’re interested in. On a list of result look for a bar with options (see picture) and choose your language from a drop-down menu.

* * *

Note, that you can’t use third-party books in your account the same way as books bought at Kindle Store. For instance you can’t sync them between devices associated with your account.

Originally published at Ebook Friendly

If you liked this article, please share it with your friends. Get free updates by e-mail or RSS, powered by FeedBurner. Let's meet on Twitter and Facebook. Check also my geek fiction stories: Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed.

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"6 Sites Where You Can Find Non-English Kindle Books" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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