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Let’s Talk about eBooks, And…

Let’s Talk about eBooks, And…. Accessibility: Display & Voice Publishing: Starting With the Right Tool!. Accessibility. Screen Readers: It’s all about the eReader ! Voice Over: ePub , (X)HTML, & PDF: No native support; They rely on the program you’re using.

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Let’s Talk about eBooks, And…

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  1. Let’s Talk about eBooks, And… Accessibility: Display & Voice Publishing: Starting With the Right Tool!

  2. Accessibility • Screen Readers: It’s all about the eReader! • Voice Over: • ePub, (X)HTML, & PDF: No native support; They rely on the program you’re using. • Remember best practices by including Alt text in links & images! • iPad: Voice over is building into the device, supporting all major formats (iBooks, Kindle, etc)

  3. Accessibility • Writing: • Use high contrast; not high color! • PDFs: Embed fonts or use common fonts • Speaking of fonts, don’t use • If you can’t read it squinting, it’s not accessible! • Colors & Design: • Don’t use patterned backgrounds! • Don’t use color for the sake of color (less is more) • Avoid using highlighter colors • Avoid similar colors in similar hues: Like this 

  4. When in doubt, simplicity is best!

  5. So You Want to Write an eTextbook Robert Sprague Associate Professor of Legal Studies in Business Department of Management & Marketing

  6. Electronic Formats Ignoring smart phones

  7. What You’ll Need • Authoring Platform • Conversion Capabilities • Reader • Distribution Strategy

  8. Authoring Platforms & Conversion Formats Kindle Conversion Trick: Send blank e-mail to your @Kindle.com account with pdf as attachment and subject line: convert

  9. Readers

  10. Accessing Files in Readers

  11. My eTextbook Project • Law for Entrepreneurs and Owners of Small Businesses • Undergraduate focus • With Advanced topics • 30 chapters • Very text based

  12. Approach • iBooks Author • For iPad-only iBooks version • Free, but available only in Mac OS • Imports Word documents very cleanly • Limited template options • Limited user support • Too new to easily find answers for advanced issues

  13. Approach • Using Adobe inDesign for epub & mobi versions, and for pdf print-on-demand • Professional desktop publishing software • Fairly clean conversion to epub, mobi, and pdf • Designed to handle multi-chapter books • Available through UW campus license • Will cost your department $250 to $300 • IT offers training options

  14. Approach • InDesign and iBooks Author not good for heavy-duty word processing • But they import Word documents fairly cleanly, including formatting • However, Word is not an easy platform for working with large documents • Not the best platform for multi-chapter books • No direct export to epub • Scrivener is an excellent platform for large, text-based documents • But “troublesome” exporting to epub and mobi

  15. Approach • Writing initial drafts in Scrivener • Excellent organizational granularity • Excellent exporting into Word documents • Polish in Word • Transfer Word documents into InDesign • Export InDesign book to epub, mobi, and pdf • Transfer Word documents into iBooks Author • Publish in iBooks format

  16. Distribution • Before you start: • Where do you want your book to go? • What media will you want to use? • Will your book be free? • These considerations matter! • If you choose incorrectly, you can always change later, but it’s extra work 

  17. Distribution • Before you start: • Where do you want your book to go? • What media will you want to use? • Will your book be free? • These considerations matter! • If you choose incorrectly, you can always change later, but it’s extra work 

  18. Distribution Simplified! • Plain Text: • The pinnacle of compatibility! • Also the pinnacle of boring! • PDF: • The most compatible format that allows for rich text, images, hyperlinks, and embedded info • Not always the easiest to produce & somewhat difficult to update

  19. Distribution Simplified! • ePub & (x)HTML: • Most compatible eBook specific format • Does Word Wrap, so be careful formatting • Pretty simple updating • iBooks: • The most powerful for delivering rich media (including video, motion graphics, and audio) • Easily created, updated, and distributed via iTunes • Can be used with iTunes U: • Embedded quizzes, tests, or check-ins • Allows team work & comments are sent to the teacher!

  20. Distributing! • ePub, (x)HTML, & PDF: • Can be put up on a website, LMS, or any host • Dropbox.com > Public (free) • iBooks Author Books (Requires a Mac) • Can be distributed freely on any website / LMS • Can be published to iTunes Bookstore: • 1. As free download in addition to web / LMS / etc • 2. As paid download – if paid, can’t be given away elsewhere (Apple’s EULA), max price $14.99

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