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.

Related posts

• 23.03.2011 -- Polskie książki na iPada
• 22.07.2010 -- iBooks 1.1.1 – słownik i treści multimedialne
• 23.06.2010 -- Jak dodać polskie książki do iBooks?
• 29.11.2010 -- iPad jako e-czytnik – lista przydatnych artykułów
• 02.09.2010 -- Jak pisać i mówić o e-książkach

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

This is the most exciting part of the series, as it opens infinity of possibilities.

Starting point: book cover doesn’t have to be rectangular any more. In this post I’ll explain why.

I’ve designed a cover for Water’s Edge by Robert Whitlow to show my point of view. The jpeg image placed into the post is square, but you don’t see the edges. This image doesn’t seem to be rectangular.

The cover of a print book is determined – and limited – by the edges of the physical object a print book is. The cover on a screen is determined by the edges of the screen. The thing is that the book cover rarely fills the screen completely. It grabs only a part of a space, it’s usually surrounded by other elements of the web page or ereading application.

When somebody makes an ebook version of a print book cover, there is not that much to invent. But if you design a cover specifically for ebook – don’t put yourself into a rectangular box, if you don’t have to.

There are three values to play with: background, visualization and transparency.

Background

Select for your ebook cover the background color of the destination web page and you’ll get rid of the rectangular border. Let me show you the example. Most of ebookstores use white background. Below there is a mock-up design of the book cover. On the left you see it placed against white background. On the right it’s visualized on a paper book.

As you see, if there are no indications of the border, you see a round image. Circle – this is the shape of your ebook. It’s different in print. What you see is a round design on a rectangular cover of the book.

Circle is just one of billions of two-dimensional shapes you could imagine – if you only borrow a background from a destination web page. It’s as easy as that.

We have to be aware of the additional elements of the ebookstores’ web pages, which can bring the feel of the border. For instance, in Kindle Store they are placed on top (Look Inside arrow) and bottom (Kindle Edition bar).

2D shape is a part of the story, as there are also visualizations.

Visualization

Visualizations are popular already. They are designed to resemble paper book, or more precisely – a physical object the print book is. Many readers are looking for tangible proofs they made a good choice by purchasing the ebook. They need a proof that ebook is a book. It’s hard to imagine a file, backed up at Amazon servers, right?

Unfortunately, most of the visualizations are not good. And sometimes you just don’t need them, especially if they contradict the idea of the cover. I wouldn’t do a print visualization of Water’s Edge. The idea is to show that there are no borders, edges and limits and that water flows freely. Print book visualization would kill this idea.

Visualizations of print books are just one of directions to follow. If we miss the tangible look of the ebook, why don’t we make visualizations on a screen of a device this ebook is designed to be read?

Next idea: playing with context. The context is the screen and its content. You can visualize an object hanging above it, you can show a damaged screen, you can play with other elements of the web page.

There are a lot of beautiful examples of print books covers playing with context. There are absolutely no barriers to do the same with ebook covers.

Transparency

Transparency is different from background, although it can be used the same way.

First a simple tip how to make a transparent file. You can save it as png, instead of jpg or gif. If in your design there is no background, usually the website’s background will fill the space.

One more step forward is using transparency in advanced, iTunes-like interfaces, sliders and carousels. Such interface, a slide animation of book covers from your library was used in Stanza application. The carousel is also one of the most prominent elements of the user interface of Kindle Fire.

It’s worth checking the possibilities transparency creates, because it can bring amazing results. Here is how our circle cover would look in Stanza’s slider (and now imagine how would it look like if the cover was a visualization of a broken dark glass):

Transparent covers in unlimited number of shapes, in view of popularity of Amazon tablets may become a totally new form of art. I wish it happened. What covers need to show is that the same old good books are now refreshed for the challenges of the digital environment.

* * *

It’s a very important issue whether the lack of classic, rectangular shape will move associations away from a book.

I think we do not need frames for everything. I don’t feel neither better nor safer when I see a rectangle, bordered cover of something which should be limitless. If the border doesn’t help the idea of openness come through, we don’t have to limit ourselves and use it.

When you leave the rectangular shape, when you stop thinking of 6″ x 9″ standard cover proportions, you’ll feel like leaving the box. Leave the box – it’s what books teach us.

* * *

There are three more posts in a series: color, animation and finally, some examples (it’s good to visualize what I write about). Stay tuned, get free updates here – and share what you think in the comments.

Images used in this post: Water – by Irochka/Fotolia, Book cover – by Mckee/Fotolia

Related posts

• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

A cover of Joel Friedlander's ebook is a great example of maximizing the use of space in a product image field

In a third post about ebook cover design I’d like to focus on proportions.

A digital book is immaterial. It’s a file, not an object. If you open it on your device, it would most probably fit to the proportions of the screen.

So, what proportions should the ebook cover have? The simple answer to inspire your imagination is: “every possible proportions”.

Ebook cover is a screen area which represents a book. It’s a visualization of what the book is about. It’s not wrapping a physical object, so it doesn’t need to have proportions of that object.

But going creative is just one of few possible directions to follow. Actually the more I think about the topic, the more challenging it is. It’s not about picking up one of popular print book formats, not any more. It’s about making well thought decisions.

You should think of where you are going to publish a book, on which devices it will be read and how you plan to promote it.

Let’s discuss four factors which can influence proportions of the ebook cover.

1. Product image field

Just as print book is placed on a shelf in a bookstore (the fact it’s tall should be good for shelf space, right?), the ebook’s cover image is placed on a page of the online shop. That’s why it’s reasonable to maximize the pixel area your cover can use.

Most of online shops use square proportions for product images. This is self-explanatory – both tall and wide products are given similar chances. So, you’ll get maximum exposure for your book if you design a square cover – as Joel Friedlander did for his great guide for writers, A Self-Publisher’s Companion.

Check below how this book is highlighted in a list view at Kindle Store. In a previous post from a series I discussed size. People see thumbnail covers when they make decisions about which book to click. Having that in mind, the square is also a good move. In a list view your cover takes 100% of given space – that is 115 px by 115 px.

Use square proportions to maximize the impact of the cover when displayed in thumbnail size

The factor to keep in mind is that proportions may be affected by elements added to cover image by the ebookstore itself. For instance in Kindle Store there are the Kindle Edition bar at the bottom and, recently added, Click to Look Inside! arrow on top of the cover.

2. Screen of the device

Another direction is to consider destination devices of your ebook. As you see in a table below, in different devices there are different height/width ratios. The most common one is 4:3, but choosing 4:3 just because of that is not enough.

I’d suggest to pick-up a proportion of the device, if you’re publishing a book on a specific platform. Obviously I’m thinking about iOS. If your book is going to be sold via iBookstore or as an app via AppStore, use iPhone or iPad proportions. In an app you can have both. The 4:3 cover could load on the iPad, 3:2 on iPhone or iPod Touch. In other words: it’s really bad if you design a book application specifically for the iPad and the moment one opens it the cover does not perfectly fit the screen.

So, which one, iPhone or iPad? Think of what device you’ll use to visualize your book. For instance, I’m devoted to reach mobile phone users with my geek fiction stories, so I use iPhone visualizations since I self-published my first book in October 2008.

Cover visualization on a device screen is something you should pay a lot of attention. What people miss in an electronic book is materiality. This materiality, the width, height, depth, is conveyed by the device – and that’s why so many people still confuse ebooks with ereaders.

It’s always worth making visualizations on color screens of tablets and smartphones. They make the book looking highly attractive, but most importantly, potential readers won’t see only a cover. They’ll see a book on a screen of their own device.

Screen sizes and proportions

3. Popular web formats

When thinking of the cover of your ebook, you can also keep in mind how would it fit into one of popular web formats – like banners, widgets or application icons.

You may think it’s too far, but if you’ll be promoting your book by exchanging links with other bloggers, you may want to give them a cover in a format and size which fits into one of slots they already use.

Google AdSense offers many sizes, including 200×200 px or 250×250 px – which may be another reason to choose square proportions.

4. Creative approach

The dimensions of a screen are a completely different world than the ones of a print book. For the latter one, if the book is 6″ by 9″ that means the cover is 6″ by 9″ and you can’t change it. If your device is 800px by 600px it doesn’t mean your cover can’t be any bigger. On the screen two very important factors join the game: scroll and zoom. They open a lot of opportunities to create unusual, provocative and creative covers.

Imagine you can design the cover the same way as Internet infographics – like this one. It’s extremely long, but it doesn’t matter as you can scroll along it. It’s just an idea, but I’d like to stress that such a cover, which is extremely long or extremely wide, is still viewable. You can use it as a teaser of your book, or make it a form of a prologue.

How to use creative covers? You can always place them on your blog. Versions with typical proportions can be used everywhere else. But don’t do it just for the sake of being first. You’ll need to have a reason for that. Let’s say your book is about the history of written word. Your book cover could show the detailed timeline and it could be as long as it needs.

If technology allows for viewing images with extreme proportion ratios, why not benefit from it?

* * *

Major issue with unusual proportions you may have is whether readers will decode images as books covers. For instance a square cover is more resembling a CD than a book.

Non-book proportions are not an issue for me. If you’re on a book’s page you know it’s the book as there are title and description next to the cover. The places where ebook covers are defenseless are image search engines, but you can always fix the issue by properly naming your files (example: yourbooktitle_novel_cover.jpg).

Most importantly, however, is how the cover is designed. If you do it properly, the cover itself will be saying: “you are looking at the book”.

Next post in a series is about shape. Stay tuned, get free updates.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

A picture from Sarah E Melville's self-published book "Beautiful Things That Happen to Ugly People"

I’m honored to share an interview with Sarah E Melville. Sarah is an extremely talented graphic designer and award-winning artist.

Recently she launched a new site, Your Cover Uncovered, where you can submit your book’s cover for review – as well as learn from reviews of other books.

Designing covers specifically for ebooks is a challenge and the more we talk about it the better. Here’s what Sarah tells us. Enjoy!

Is the role of a book cover changing in digital times? In which direction?

It definitely is changing. With the advent and increasing popularity of ebooks, cover design has been pared down significantly. A lot of work I do is for front covers only–back covers, spines, and French flaps are all extras now, which is a pity, I think, as they allow the design of the front cover to carry on and get played around with.  And it goes without saying that you lose the tactile elements with ebook covers–no more glossy vs. matte, no embossing, foiling, inlays.

The actual design style has changed a bit, too, with ebooks, as they’re so often viewed at a thumbnail size.  There’s a greater emphasis on readability, and nuances, fine details, get swept aside.

Designing covers for print books and e-books – what differences should designers be aware of?

Print or ebook, your cover should be a very strong piece of art, but I think there’s more pressure on ebook covers for this. Print covers have back covers and spines to continue working on the design theme, creating more of a concentration of images instead of a stand-alone piece, and in the end, a lot of covers just look better in print. There’s something about a velvety, matte book jacket that enhances a cover design–it can fool you, making a design look more sophisticated than it really is.

Because the tactile aspect is gone from ebook covers, flat colour and design that looks really two-dimensional isn’t very successful. Subtle textures are important to include, to give them the depth we’re used to having with a real book.

How would you assess the general level of the cover design of self-published ebooks?

Overall, the design seen in self-published ebooks isn’t where it should be. Because book covers are an art form, they need to be handled by professionals. It’s a shame to see people putting so much work into their novel and then not having a suitable image to represent it. Spending money on a good cover is the best investment you can make–it’ll do more for you, especially in the long-run, than blog tours, endless tweeting and re-tweeting, and whatever other marketing ploy out there. People like nice-looking things, and they’re always ready to assume that if the cover is good, the book will be too.

What advice would you give to self-publishers, who would want to create a book cover on their own?

You need to know your book very well, and have the ability to look at it in themes and metaphors, at big picture stuff. Forget specific scenes and characters. You need to figure out first what it’s really about, what’s lurking under the surface. That is what you put on your cover. Your typefaces, images, colours all have to work under this central theme. Don’t try and show two sides to the same novel; it won’t work. You can only have one subject, theme, idea. If you try to put too much of the small-picture stuff on the cover, it won’t work.

As for actually using this info and making it into that alluring, must-buy cover, you need to be familiar with art and design theory.  Look online for rules of composition and how to combine typefaces (remember, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Party LET and Bleeding Cowboys are never, ever acceptable typefaces). Look into basic colour theory, which colours and colour combinations elicit different moods. Familiarise yourself with design theory and use what you’ve learned. Find blogs and tumblrs dedicated to book cover design and find out what everyone’s drooling over.

The advice could go on, but the bottom line is–work with one idea. Don’t overcomplicate it. Try to stay away from using stock photos, and don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box!

Your Cover Uncovered is a fantastic example of a service authors and designers can use to improve their books. What tips would you give to them before they submit a cover for your professional review?

Read some of the critiques that have already been posted and see if your cover is repeating any of the same mistakes (if it is, change it!). Make sure it’s in top form–really, as excellent and amazing as your two little hands can make it. Read the submission requirements carefully, and make sure to send me info I ask for.  And, as a little luxury for me and the readers, give us an elevator pitch so smart you could brush your teeth with it.

One sentence tip for book designers?

Keep it simple.

Sarah E Melville is an artist, graphic designer, author, and all around creative-type from California. She’s an award-winning fine artist, and had her first design commission at the age of fifteen. Her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, most recently in Sex Scene: An Anthology (she also made its book trailer), and she has done readings on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the self-published author of Beautiful Things that Happen to Ugly People, a synthesis of art and literature, a modern-day illuminated manuscript, about a simple soul named Paulie.  She is currently seeking representation for her fifth completed work, This is Paulie, a novella about two people who do not fall in love.

She tweets @sarahemelville and blogs at S-Melville. She is twenty-one years old.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 22.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context

"Ebook Design: Interview with Sarah E Melville" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

You'll see a Look Inside logo over the cover of a Kindle Book | The cover of Mortal Pursuit - a bestselling title from Michael Prescott

Recently Amazon added to Kindle Store a new, very useful feature – Look Inside. It is the same feature as Look Inside for printed editions but it’s showing the content of the relevant Kindle book. More details about the this functionality you can find in this post and now I’d like to focus on how writers can benefit from it.

First of all, Look Inside is conveying for Kindle books the same task as a free sample. In fact it is a free sample. Comparing to the older method (sending to the device) it is much better – as the reader can immediately make a decision to buy the book. The decision is therefore not delayed and that’s why this is so important to take care about the details.

It’s much easier to read the first paragraphs of the books immediately rather than send a free sample to a device and clutter it – in case the reader wouldn’t like the book at all.

There are three areas you can improve the beginning of your book to maximize the impact of Look Inside feature – which could help you sell more ebooks. They are: description, links and formatting.

Description

An average book page in Kindle Store is highly cluttered. Before the readers find what the author of the book would like to say (in a Product Description field), they have to go through many prices, formats, technical details and similar items. Actually you have to scroll the page to reveal the description.

I’m sure many users will use Look Inside to jump directly to the content of the book and check what is it about.

This is an opportunity – as you can treat the beginning of the book as an extension of the product description. Maybe you’ve noticed that a product description field is positioned within Editorial Reviews section. It could be a nice idea to place reviews on a book page, under Editorial Reviews and describe a plot at the beginning of the book, at the next page after the title and author.

You can also use the beginning of the book to add your bio and list other books.

No matter how you split a message, just keep in mind that the beginning of your book is now visible in a web page and you have a lot of space to draw reader’s attention.

Links

The major benefit of Look Inside is that the links are clickable. Opposite to free samples, where you have to leave the ereading application, the links here just open another page in the same web browser.

My prediction is that users may use links to a much wider extend from within Look Inside rather than from Kindle devices or apps.

It looks like a very effective, but you have to be very careful with it. Definitely don’t place too much links at the beginning of the book. Clicking on such a link is moving the user away from buying a book at Kindle Store. You may use the links to your blog, where you sell books by yourself.

Or even simpler. Place only those links which move to your other books, electronic or print, at Amazon.

Formatting

With Look Inside available for your Kindle book, a bad formatting becomes a real issue. If your book has formatting errors, your potential readers will see it before they buy a book. Also, this would be very good to include a working table of content, so that users would see that they’ll buy a quality product.

I wouldn’t add an image of the cover at the beginning of the file. It’s placed as a metadata anyway and your book will always display cover on a Kindle device or in the application. If you add a cover as an image you waste space

* * *

I love to write about important things and tools which look small and not useful. I think Look Inside is a very good way to improve the sales of your book. All you have to to is to improve the beginning… of this book.

Related posts

• 19.08.2011 -- Now “Look Inside” Feature Is Available for Kindle Ebooks!
• 13.10.2011 -- 6 Sites Where You Can Find Non-English Kindle Books
• 14.09.2011 -- Get Updates of Kindle Daily Deal via RSS or E-mail
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 07.05.2011 -- Kindle for the Web – How It Can Be Used by Authors

"“Look Inside” for Kindle Books – 3 Tips for Authors" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

The cover of currently bestselling self-published book in Kindle Store - Caribbean Moon by Rick Murcer

Recently, somewhere around the launch of Kindle Cloud Reader, I’ve noticed another new functionality for Kindle users – and in my opinion this is big. Now Look Inside, the feature you well know from printed editions of books sold on Amazon, works also for Kindle ebooks!

Already in late May some Kindle authors were reporting at Kindle Boards having this feature on their books’ pages. KDP explained in an e-mail:

“We’re currently testing our Look Inside the Book feature for various Kindle titles.”

I’ve checked several titles and all of them were displaying the Look Inside logo above the cover. It seems that the feature is being currently implemented, also in UK and German Kindle Stores.

When you click on the cover, a window opens with the same interface as in printed edition. You can easily switch between editions (if print is available, otherwise the Print Book tab is dimmed), so that you can compare the content. However, opposite to print version, you can’t search through the content of the Kindle edition.

I’ve checked how the feature works in Safari on an iPad and I don’t recommend to use it. The book’s content box is behaving oddly. The feature is clearly not formatted for mobile browsers yet.

I’ve also compared a couple of free samples downloaded to Kindle for iOS with the content displayed in Look Inside. Both length and formatting are similar. In other words, Look Inside is a free sample of the book you can read in a web browser before downloading it to a device.

When it comes to minimizing the harm from Apple’s new in-app purchase rules, Look Inside is a much smarter solution than Cloud Reader. I’ll hardly use the web-based reader as it never will be as fast as seamless as a native app. The whole Apple-Amazon fight was about Buy Now links at the end of free samples. Instead of creating a possibility of having them at all (Cloud Reader), it’s much better to reduce the number of downloads of free samples to Kindle for iOS (Look Inside).

One more thing. Look Inside is not the same as Kindle for the Web. The second one, described in more detail here, can be found on pages with print edition and is displaying its content – but linking to Kindle version.

Related posts

• 26.08.2011 -- “Look Inside” for Kindle Books – 3 Tips for Authors
• 13.10.2011 -- 6 Sites Where You Can Find Non-English Kindle Books
• 14.09.2011 -- Get Updates of Kindle Daily Deal via RSS or E-mail
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 07.05.2011 -- Kindle for the Web – How It Can Be Used by Authors

"Now “Look Inside” Feature Is Available for Kindle Ebooks!" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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  Do the safeguards of traditional publishing offer significant advantages over DIY? By Edward Nawotka As author Bob Mayer discusses in today’s feature story, digital self-publishing has shortened the distance between reader and writer, both literally, figuratively and temporally. Previously, fans...
• 7 Steps to Successfully Market Your Book!
  July 13, 2011
  Guest Author: Rebecca Hamilton A lot of articles focus on how to market your book once you’ve published. Admittedly, I haven’t gotten there yet. I have some interested publishers, but also an open to the new trend of self-publishing. I’ve started putting thought into marketing early on. In thi...
• Is E-book Innovation at a Standstill?
  July 11, 2011
  Digital publishing promised innovation, but you can still count the number of breakthrough projects on one hand. By Edward Nawotka E-readers at the Tokyo Book Fair 2011 If you go back 12 to 18 months, the publishing world was in love with the promise of enhanced e-books, transmedia storytelling pla...
• Self-Publishing, Yes and No — The Book Designer
  July 18, 2011
  Self-Publishing, Yes and No, or what authors should be thinking about today.
• Amazon To Launch Tablet By October [REPORT]
  July 13, 2011
  Amazon’s rumored tablet computer will be introduced before October, according to a report.The tablet, which would vie with Apple’s iPad 2, among other products, will be one of three new hardware products from Amazon coming in the third quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal.The other d...
• How-to: Preview Kindle Ebooks in a Web Browser
  July 5, 2011
  Sometimes, if you are on your computer and visit Kindle Store, you’d like to start reading a book immediately – before making a decision to buy.You can obviously send a free sample to a device connected with your account, but some people just don’t want to clutter their Kindles or Kindle apps...
• Plugin by C. Murray Consulting

Related posts

• 10.07.2011 -- Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 10.07.2011
• 19.06.2011 -- Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 19.06.2011
• 05.06.2011 -- Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 05.06.2011
• 22.05.2011 -- Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 22.05.2011
• 08.05.2011 -- Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 08.05.2011

"Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 07.08.2011" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Kindle for iOS has just been updated to version 2.8 (iTunes link), which complies with Apple’s new in-app purchase rules.

Kindle Store button was removed from home page – it was obvious. I’ve also checked endings of free samples to see what Amazon did with their Buy Now link, which in older versions was switching to book’s Kindle Store page in Safari. Buy Now button is still there (as well as See details for this book in the Kindle Store). However, both links show an alert: “We’re sorry. This operation is not currently supported.”

Apple and Amazon are playing games, which are more and more annoying. Status for today: Apple won’t earn money, Amazon won’t lose money. The only losing part is the reader.

Below you’ll find tips on how to make the most of Kindle on your device – especially after making our lives harder by removing any option to buy a book from within the app. A good thing to do is to change attitude: Kindle on iPad or iPhone is not only about using a Kindle application.

1. Browse Kindle Store in Safari

After 2.8 update it will be reasonable more than ever to browse and buy books right away from Safari browser (without bothering to open Kindle app). Never tried it? Don’t worry. Amazon mobile site looks really well on iPhone/iPod Touch. On the iPad a regular site is displayed, works well, I haven’t noticed any flaws.

2. Add Kindle Store to your Home Screen

Add Kindle Store to your Home Screen

It’s good to add Kindle Store either to a list of bookmarks in Safari or to a Home Screen. On the iPad just go to Amazon site and select Kindle Store from a drop list.

If you’re on the iPhone/iPod Touch, go in Safari directly to this address http://amzn.to/fW2ffk. It’s Kindle Store’s site optimized for small screens – not the same as regular one. You can add it as a bookmark to Home Screen (see picture on the right) and a nice icon will show up.

Find more information about it here.

3. Browse free Kindle books in Safari

In fact, you can use the browser to add books from other sources than Kindle Store. What’s very important, you can add them directly to Kindle for iOS. This is possible since 2.5 update.

What you have to look for is books in mobi format, without DRM. To add a book to Kindle app, tap on a link to a book file, ending with .mobi.

Best sites with free Kindle books, optimized for mobile reading, are: Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, Smashwords and ManyBooks.

Read more about this topic here.

4. Add books to your Kindle for iOS – not only via iTunes

iTunes is a default way to add content to applications, but happily it’s not the only one. As I’ve written above, you can add books from Safari.

There are two more options available: via e-mail (just send a file to yourself and open it with a native Mail app) and via cloud storage apps like Dropbox.

Find out more about the topic here.

5. Discover books on Twitter and add them instantly to Kindle app

It’s my favorite topic. If you spend a lot of time on Twitter, using Twitter iOS applications, why don’t you try to find Kindle books there? It’s actually pretty easy. Just look for a keyword Kindle or a tag #kindle and you’ll find out a lot of tweets with amzn.to links.

Or if one of Twitter friends is recommending a Kindle book, just tap on a link and you’ll be redirected to mobile Safari (either within Twitter app or outside it) and you’ll decide whether to download a free sample or buy a book.

For more information read this post.

6. Use Kindle application as a free dictionary

Finally, Kindle for iOS can also work as a great dictionary application, so there is no need to buy another one. This is possible thanks to the The New Oxford American Dictionary installed.

You’ll find more information about it here.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the tips. Please share in the comments what’s missing. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with Kindle on iOS devices, get free updates of Ebook Friendly Tips (via RSS or e-mail) where I focus on sharing simple Kindle tips.

Related posts

• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 20.01.2011 -- Now Users Can Download Your Book Directly From a Tweet to Kindle for iOS
• 30.07.2010 -- Kindle for iOS: Use It As a Free Dictionary App
• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users

"6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

In digital environment the book's cover rarely fills the display (cover image from "Robocalypse" by Daniel H. Wilson)

When you make a decision to publish your book only in digital format, you are also making essential change in how you approach cover design. You no longer have to deal with dots per inch in a high-quality print.

The goal is not 9 × 6 inch, 300 dpi any more. It’s 1024 x 600 px, 118 ppi of a typical netbook’s screen or 800 x 600 px, 167 ppi of a Kindle 3 display.

We also have to keep in mind that the readers very seldom will have a chance to see the cover in full screen. If yes, it’s going to be after the book is purchased.

Resolution of electronic screens as well as sizes of images displayed on them are changing the way we should look at book covers. It’s limiting on one side, but it’s good to focus on finding benefits – and that’s what I’m trying to do with this series of posts.

Size

People judge books by their covers. It’s still true, but while designing for the web we have to switch the perspective. In my opinion: totally.

Let’s use the example. Someone wants to buy a technothriller. In a bookstore, when you look at the shelves, you just see the covers, nothing else. The cover is using 100% of space devoted to a book – because this is a book.

Things change dramatically when you browse for the same book on the web. Check the screenshot below from Kindle Store. The cover of a single book has an average size of 80 x 115 pixels! This is the size of the book at a very important moment – the moment when the reader makes a decision which book to click and possibly buy.

Typical search page in a Kindle Store

If we treat browser window as a bookstore’s shelf, the four book covers you see above take no more than 5% of the total display space.

Obviously, this applies not only to ebooks but to print books as well. It’s a pity that you spend long hours to design a beautiful cover, worked out and retouched in every tiny detail and afterwards what you see is 80 x 115 px thumb.

It gets a bit better when you open a page with a single book. A size of the book cover area is set to 300 x 300 px – and this includes the margin and Kindle bar at the bottom. That makes 9% of the display – at best.

A book cover takes up to 9% of the total space devoted to a book

Not looking good, right? What can we do about, then?

There are a couple of solutions.

1. Make it look good when it’s small

One thing every cover artist has to keep in mind, is that a book cover should look good not only when it’s enlarged, but also when it’s reduced. Before finding a general concept it’s good to have in mind that a cover could be communicative also when it’s in a thumbnail size.

Think of what is the most important part of the cover – and try to make it more visible. What would be seen as dirt when a cover is small? Try to remove it.

2. Remove some elements of the cover

As I wrote in an previous post, all elements of the cover which convey text information are duplicated by other parts of the web page, so it’s not mandatory to keep them in the layout. Instead, it would be great to focus on finding a relevant, convincing key visual, which works well in both big and small size.

3. Test check different sizes

When designing a cover you can check from time to time how it looks in a medium size (f.e. 300 px in height) and a thumbnail size (100 px in height).

4. Optimize the cover for a specific destination

This is the thing you can always do. If you want the cover to be displayed at your blog and the width of the post area is 500 px, save your cover specifically with that width. While doing so, you’ll have opportunity to enhance and adjust the elements which don’t look good enough at this size.

Another example: if you plan to publish a book only at a certain self-publishing platform and this platform is optimizing the look of the covers to specific size and proportions – prepare a version exactly with the maximum dimensions of both width and height.

5. Think of a cut-out area

When you’ll plan the layout it’s good to think of what you could cut out of the cover that would represent most of its values. Think of a square area like a title or a main illustration, which you can use at web sites which display small book covers. Why square? Because it’s the proportions many web stores use to display their products. Both vertical and horizontal images have chances to be equally visible.

Check below how the cover I’ve already used in this post, J.A. Konrath’s Origin, looks when displayed in 115 px height: regular vs. cut-out:

Resolution

Designing for screen means designing in smaller resolution – and this is a big opportunity. You don’t need to have a super powerful desktop computer to create the ebook cover. It’s very probable that a laptop you own can do the job. Additionally, you don’t have to use dtp programs like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. You can create everything in a photo editing application.

The maximum resolution to think of could be the one of displays used for reading. As I wrote above, before the purchase the chances to see a full size are small. Assuming that the image would exactly fit the screen, the cover tailored for iPad should have 1024 x 768 pixels at 132 ppi.

There is another opportunity – you can use a camera in your smartphone to shoot pictures to be used in a cover. A photo taken with an iPhone has a resolution of 2592 x 1936 px. This is especially exciting as you can design a cool cover solely on the smartphone using one or a few applications. Take Instagram. You can apply one of cool vintage filters to your photo. If you’re using the app frequently, just think of it as a tool to grab ideas for your next book covers.

If you want to add a title, you can use another great app, Picture Show. It allows you not only to apply several filters and effects, but offers a simple type tool. You can design the whole cover just with this one application.

If you write a non-fiction book, you can get a professional look by using a Phoster application. It provides as much as 72 design templates and they all are fabulous. Read more about this fantastic app here.

Smaller resolution means also that you’ll have to spend less money for images. Many services, naming only iStockphoto ot Fotolia, charge different fees depending on the file size.

For example for this vintage photo from Fotolia you’ll have to pay:
- $0.75 if you buy a 375 x 320 px file with 72 dpi resolution
- $6 if you buy 3124 x 2664 px file with 300 dpi resolution

* * *

The issue of a size applies also to print books as it comes with a question where for a first time we get in touch with a book or/and make a decision to buy it. Is it a bookstore where I can take in my hands a beautifully printed copy of a book – or is it a web site, where the book is represented by 80 x 115 px part of a screen?

Make it look good on a screen and when it’s small – this is my general advice on size and resolution.

Related posts

• 30.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #4 – Shape
• 09.09.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #3 – Proportions
• 15.07.2011 -- Ebook Specific Cover Design: #1 – Context
• 20.07.2011 -- How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
• 06.04.2011 -- E-book Covers With E-reading Application Look

"Ebook Specific Cover Design: #2 – Size and Resolution" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Phoster offers 72 free design templates to choose from

Phoster is a fantastic application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, perfect to create posters, cards, invitations and, yes, ebook covers.

I’ve used the word “create” instead of “design” because it better describes what you’ll be doing.

You don’t need to design a layout, it’s already done by the developers of the application, folks from Bucket Labs – Phoster comes equipped with as much as 72 layout templates. All of them are top-level design. Thanks to that the application can be a very powerful tool to create professionally looking ebook covers.

Below I’ll show you how easy it is to create a cover. The general advise is to keep things simple and not to change the layouts too much. They are perfect as they are and there is no need to improve them.

4 steps of creating a cover with Phoster

I’ll create a cover for a book about mobile natives (I hope one day I’ll write this book).

1. Choose a template

I’m sure you’ll find a template which is closest to your needs. Layouts differ in selection of fonts, position of text boxes and a general style. For each of the template, in a next step you can add a picture. You can also leave a background as it is or just change its color – this would make a nice non-fiction book cover.

When you’ll be selecting a template just keep in mind that you can’t add any more text boxes. So, pick up the template, which is closest to what you want and has enough number of text fields positioned where you want them to be.

For my book I’ve chosen the template below. I like simple design and I want to use a picture which will work best with the title aligned to right. I also need only three text boxes – two for the title and one for the author.

After choosing a template, tap on a Next button at the bottom right.

2. Insert a photo or choose a color of the background

Use an icon of a camera to add a picture, either directly taken or from a photo library. You can make basic color adjustments within the application (brightness, contrast and saturation) by tapping on a slider icon.

Remember, you can always use one of the photo applications, which can give a stylish look to your picture. I’m sure you have one of them: Instagram, PictureShow, Camera+ or Hipstamatic.

Second option is not to add a picture, but only change a background’s color. To do that, tap again on a slider icon – you’ll see at the top a set of predefined colors to pick up from.

I’ll be using for my cover a photo previously edited in PictureShow (by the way, you can see a #1picstory made with it). As you see it’s dark enough to use against white letters and there is a lot of space in the upper right corner. That’s where I’ll place the title.

3. Type the text

To change text tap on a “T” icon. An edit box will appear, where you can replace the existing text with your own title. Use Previous and Next buttons to switch between text boxes. Alternatively you can open the edit box if you quickly tap on the text.

You can change the color, the size and the font style of the text. There is a plenty of typefaces to choose from, but I recommend to keep the predefined style. Any major change may break the original design idea of the template.

If you want to move a text box, tap and hold it until you see a shadow.

I moved the title a bit to the right and higher. As you see, I didn’t change anything else.

4. Choose the effect

After you’re finished with texts and pictures, tap Next to move to the last step – applying the effect.

This is the most enjoyable part of the work. There are 19 style available. You can select one of the vintage styles, including paper and dust textures, or you can decide to use color stripes or patterns (see picture below).

I’ve selected a simple pattern and the cover looks like this. What do you think?

Although Phoster is positioned as a tool to create posters, cards, invitations, I think it’s an awesome way to create professionally looking ebook covers. It’s one of those mobile applications which redefine our approach to creation. You can focus solely on finding a concept and big picture, leaving the craft to the application itself.

Phoster costs $1.99 (iTunes link). Consider it as a money spent for a professional cover artist, who gives you 72 proposals of the layout.

Remember to include credits to Phoster in your ebook. Write down a link to both the application at iTunes and the developer’s webpage: http://www.bucketlabs.net.

Read also about another great tool, Wordle. You can use it to create great-looking covers based on a word cloud from your book.

Related posts

• 03.06.2011 -- How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users
• 22.01.2011 -- How You Can Sell E-books to Mobile Twitter Users
• 25.07.2011 -- 6 Tips and Tricks to Use Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• 02.02.2011 -- Use Mobile Twitter to Discover and Instantly Buy Kindle E-books
• 23.01.2011 -- What Are Enhanced E-books and How to Find Them?

"How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.