Re: Rethinking Ebooks for Web Browsers

I appreciate the benefit of increasing the font size, but my issue with the ebook formats and Kindle as the leader in that group is the destruction of a book as a work of art. Imagine standing before the Mona Lisa and saying “Boy, I wish I could push button and make it bigger.” I’ve stood before the grand lady, and I can say that art needs to stand by itself.

I create an enhanced ebook with iBook author to get the benefits of both. In landscape I can format the book the way I want, with the presentation just as important as the prose. In portrait I get the benefits of a generic ebook. Compared to my Kindle version - which I have professionally produced to try and undue the amateurish format - this is like the Mona Lisa compared to a middle school newsletter. It’s too bad the exposure and platforms for the iBook enhanced are more limited, but if we approach the future with a demand for more than a generic product, a product that appeals to the wants and needs of our readers, a product that can replicate the inherent power of the look and feel of a printed book, we will deserve our place as independent publishers.

Author of "The Juno Letters" - available from all major eBook retailers and Oysterbooks.com.
Published by California Times Publishing, Los Angeles
Kindle, paperback, and audio versions from Amazon

L.W. Hewitt, MBM
larryh-Hp5s/[email protected]
junoletters.com
amazon.com/author/lwhewitt
360.623.3090
360.623.3090




On Oct 15, 2014, at 2:53 AM, Marcia Yudkin yudkinyudkin-/[email protected] [ebook-community] <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> >>When I saw my first Kindle I was astonished at how dinky it was. I was accustomed to the way Adobe PDF documents looked and couldn't believe that a Kindle document wasn't allowed to look like your typical page from a slick magazine. PDF documents are so easy to produce and you can have pictures and videos as opposed to something that looks like an etch-a-sketch drawing. Someone needs to get on the stick and do better. <<
> 
> It's not a question of better or worse.  It's a question of "different."  A main advantage of the Kindle approach is that the reader can with a single click change the size of the font for their convenience.  This can't happen with a PDF.  I recently read half of "Moby Dick" comfortably on my smartphone during a long train ride.  This could never happen with a PDF.
> 
> Marcia Yudkin
> www.yudkin.com
>  
> 
>