Comments on: Amazon’s Digital Text Platform: Why You Should Sign-up NOW! http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/ Daily News about Amazon's new e-book reader Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:01:45 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: kenneth opiyoajwang http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/comment-page-1/#comment-1146 kenneth opiyoajwang Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:45:33 +0000 http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/#comment-1146 hi amazon i'd like to get my poetry published and distributed by you. please tell me the procedure required for me to start being published. hi amazon i’d like to get my poetry published and distributed by you. please tell me the procedure required for me to start being published.

]]> By: Kelli Jae Baeli http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/comment-page-1/#comment-350 Kelli Jae Baeli Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:29:36 +0000 http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/#comment-350 All this is all very well and good, but there is little information for the authors themselves, aside from a forum on the DTP site wherein authors like me post about all the issues, but don't seem to get a solution...oddly, there is no customer service to speak of--no one who seems knowledgeable about solutions to the many issues DTP presents to the AUTHOR. CreateSpace, (Amazon's POD publishing arm) on the contrary, has outstanding customer service, efficient and competent reps and their finished product is professional and high-quality. Why can't the Kindle/DTP folks follow their example? There are inherent and prohibitive problems with the DTP format. I am the author of 13 books with more on the way--I still have my kindle/DTP account on a holding pattern, because I am not satisfied with the way the conversion MASTICATES the manuscript. Novels and books aren't just text files. They have a format, typographical elements, and often, images as well. These DO NOT translate well to DTP. In the case of one of my non-fiction books, if the images don't land where they are supposed to, or if they are not included, the text then makes no sense. I'm simply not okay with the fact that an image lands in the middle of a sentence and looks like it was taken with a toy pinhole camera made from a shoebox. The standard for publishing is the .pdf file. It keeps the layout, formatting and typography as-is, and prevents alteration of the text when used in e-book form. This is the obvious format for DTP/Kindle/e-books of all kinds. Perhaps the Kindle was premature. Ever heard of getting the cart before the horse? To the Kindle-Developers, et al: First, make sure the horse can maneuver the cart properly, before hooking them up together. Until then, I suppose we authors will have to offer .pdf versions of our books on our websites, but without the benefit of the traffic Amazon has. Kelli Jae Baeli http://jaebaeli.com http://SynapticCircus.blogspot.com All this is all very well and good, but there is little information for the authors themselves, aside from a forum on the DTP site wherein authors like me post about all the issues, but don’t seem to get a solution…oddly, there is no customer service to speak of–no one who seems knowledgeable about solutions to the many issues DTP presents to the AUTHOR. CreateSpace, (Amazon’s POD publishing arm) on the contrary, has outstanding customer service, efficient and competent reps and their finished product is professional and high-quality. Why can’t the Kindle/DTP folks follow their example?

There are inherent and prohibitive problems with the DTP format. I am the author of 13 books with more on the way–I still have my kindle/DTP account on a holding pattern, because I am not satisfied with the way the conversion MASTICATES the manuscript. Novels and books aren’t just text files. They have a format, typographical elements, and often, images as well. These DO NOT translate well to DTP. In the case of one of my non-fiction books, if the images don’t land where they are supposed to, or if they are not included, the text then makes no sense. I’m simply not okay with the fact that an image lands in the middle of a sentence and looks like it was taken with a toy pinhole camera made from a shoebox.

The standard for publishing is the .pdf file. It keeps the layout, formatting and typography as-is, and prevents alteration of the text when used in e-book form. This is the obvious format for DTP/Kindle/e-books of all kinds. Perhaps the Kindle was premature. Ever heard of getting the cart before the horse? To the Kindle-Developers, et al: First, make sure the horse can maneuver the cart properly, before hooking them up together.

Until then, I suppose we authors will have to offer .pdf versions of our books on our websites, but without the benefit of the traffic Amazon has.

Kelli Jae Baeli
http://jaebaeli.com
http://SynapticCircus.blogspot.com

]]> By: Alice http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Alice Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:46:17 +0000 http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/#comment-14 Exciting stuff indeed, as a writer I am most excited about Amazon's DTP service. It will give me the freedom to write and distribute my content on my terms not the publishers. Exciting stuff indeed, as a writer I am most excited about Amazon’s DTP service. It will give me the freedom to write and distribute my content on my terms not the publishers.

]]> By: Rick http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Rick Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:01:24 +0000 http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/#comment-12 I think the DTP service may do for writers what a lot of Internet music sites have done for unsigned bands; it is essentially a way to distribute content to a small party of interested individuals with the potential upside of capturing a large audience (going "viral") via word-of-mouth and social networking sites. This isn't much different from what a writer could possibly accomplish (however remote the chances) simply by putting up a web page...except there's the ready-made prospect of a revenue stream (complete with a transaction processing system the writer doesn't have to worry about or arrange for) and better target marketing built-in! --Yet another example of "the long tail" in action. Exciting stuff! I think the DTP service may do for writers what a lot of Internet music sites have done for unsigned bands; it is essentially a way to distribute content to a small party of interested individuals with the potential upside of capturing a large audience (going “viral”) via word-of-mouth and social networking sites. This isn’t much different from what a writer could possibly accomplish (however remote the chances) simply by putting up a web page…except there’s the ready-made prospect of a revenue stream (complete with a transaction processing system the writer doesn’t have to worry about or arrange for) and better target marketing built-in! –Yet another example of “the long tail” in action. Exciting stuff!

]]> By: Amazon’s Digital Text Platform: Why You Should Sign-up NOW! | The Kindle Report http://blogkindle.com/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Amazon’s Digital Text Platform: Why You Should Sign-up NOW! | The Kindle Report Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:32:17 +0000 http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2007/12/amazons-digital-text-platform-why-you-should-sign-up-now/#comment-5 [...] More: continued here [...] [...] More: continued here [...]

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