Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "comparing-print-books-and-ebooks"
Printed Book or Ebook?
I love to read. GR has this Read bookshelf. My tally on the shelf is so paltry and a fraction of what it should be.
More of the books I’ve read in the past could be added to the shelf. That would take days or weeks, if I can remember them all.
These books were printed books. The feel of a printed book is special to me. Settling into a spot and flipping open the cover of a printed book is so satisfying.
When I publish a book, I want to hold it in my hand and flip open the cover. This is a book to me.
Times have changed. Books come in so many forms now. Many readers prefer reading books as ebooks or listening to them as audiobooks. These formats suit their lives in the same ways a printed books suits mine.
As an author, I want to present my books in formats to suit readers of these formats as well as my favorite printed books. I know my books won’t appeal to everyone, but I want them available to all those who will enjoy them.
Novels are no problem. These are easy to present as print or ebook. Audiobook is not possible for me right now.
Nonfiction books, at least mine, present challenges. I now have completed four of these. All four are filled with images, both drawings and photographs. They are set up for print, not ebook.
An ebook has several differences from a print book. The absence of page numbers and addition of hyperlinks are a couple of them. Images present challenges too. In an ebook an image needs to be centered, in line with the text and not surrounded by text. The ebook goes text, image, text, image etc.
None of my nonfiction books really work this way. “My Ozark Home” is the closest. It has an additional problem with one essay.
Frost flowers are a favorite photography subject in the fall. They are delicate, fleeting ice sculptures and each is unique. In choosing a picture for the book, I couldn’t narrow down to one.
A horseshoe of photographs surround a short commentary on finding these fragile flowers. These images float or can be moved around the text. This works for print, not ebook. I had to turn the entire page into an image.
Another factor comes with the ereaders themselves. Photographs do not show up well on some of them. Landscape photographs don’t show well as thumbnail size images.
The final factor is the size of the ebook. My nonfiction books are around 68MB in the print versions. “My Ozark Home” finally made it down below the 15MB limit for an ebook and is available as a pdf only. You can find out more on my website.
More of the books I’ve read in the past could be added to the shelf. That would take days or weeks, if I can remember them all.
These books were printed books. The feel of a printed book is special to me. Settling into a spot and flipping open the cover of a printed book is so satisfying.
When I publish a book, I want to hold it in my hand and flip open the cover. This is a book to me.
Times have changed. Books come in so many forms now. Many readers prefer reading books as ebooks or listening to them as audiobooks. These formats suit their lives in the same ways a printed books suits mine.
As an author, I want to present my books in formats to suit readers of these formats as well as my favorite printed books. I know my books won’t appeal to everyone, but I want them available to all those who will enjoy them.
Novels are no problem. These are easy to present as print or ebook. Audiobook is not possible for me right now.
Nonfiction books, at least mine, present challenges. I now have completed four of these. All four are filled with images, both drawings and photographs. They are set up for print, not ebook.
An ebook has several differences from a print book. The absence of page numbers and addition of hyperlinks are a couple of them. Images present challenges too. In an ebook an image needs to be centered, in line with the text and not surrounded by text. The ebook goes text, image, text, image etc.
None of my nonfiction books really work this way. “My Ozark Home” is the closest. It has an additional problem with one essay.
Frost flowers are a favorite photography subject in the fall. They are delicate, fleeting ice sculptures and each is unique. In choosing a picture for the book, I couldn’t narrow down to one.
A horseshoe of photographs surround a short commentary on finding these fragile flowers. These images float or can be moved around the text. This works for print, not ebook. I had to turn the entire page into an image.
Another factor comes with the ereaders themselves. Photographs do not show up well on some of them. Landscape photographs don’t show well as thumbnail size images.
The final factor is the size of the ebook. My nonfiction books are around 68MB in the print versions. “My Ozark Home” finally made it down below the 15MB limit for an ebook and is available as a pdf only. You can find out more on my website.
