Putting Vegan Freak on Amazon’s Kindle (or, this could be okay)
Wed, Dec 5th, 2007
Much hype and even more hand-wringing has been thrust in the direction of Amazon’s new ebook reader, the Kindle. In case you’ve been too busy blowing money on holiday shopping to know, the Kindle is a kind of ugly, 80s-looking little device that uses an ink-based technology to provide what many see as a more readable medium than conventional electronic screens. This idea is not terribly new; Sony has an ebook reader that uses the same display technology, and there are others on the market as well. Reviews of the kindle range from sweaty and angry to relatively positive.
What is different with the Amazon model, however, is that it includes a cogent and interesting model for distribution. When you buy a Kindle, you get free access to Sprint’s EVDO network, the ether upon which the books and other goodies (blog entries; newspapers) that you purchase are delivered. Tied into Amazon’s entire store, you can send things to your Kindle from the web, or order them directly on the Kindle itself. Considering that a significant part of the complexity of publishing is a dilemma of distribution, I actually think this device could be a revolutionary package for delivering content, if it doesn’t get too sucked into corporate hype. It offers the possibility for even resource-poor publishers and authors to have their work delivered in the exact same setting as the industry heavy-weights, and for no or little upfront investment. If the Kindle improves in both design and price, and can be widely adopted, it could really be a compelling system for publishing, and encouraging a more diverse media ecosystem. I also think it has interesting possibilities down the road to transform how non-fiction and possibly even fiction works.
Given that, I spent a few hours last Saturday getting Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World prepared for distribution on the Kindle. Amazon’s DTP (Digital Text Platform) web-app converts your content from .pdf or m$ word .doc to html, with varying degrees of success. The PDF of Vegan Freak, converted by Amazon’s system, turned out pretty piss-poor. Most of the formatting was destroyed, page breaks were non-existent for the most part, and everything was essentially a massive jumble. I was able to export the book chapter by chapter as HTML from the originals, and then format it correctly by hand with some custom tags that Amazon supplies for things like page breaks, and generous use of non-breaking space elements. I was even able to embed the dingbats from the chapter headers in the original into each Kindle page. Overall, the export was surprisingly easy once I stopped counting on Amazon to do the translation for me. 12 hours after submission, Vegan Freak for the Kindle was ready, and it is now available for purchase. (I’m going to chat with AK Press about getting Making a Killing up there, too. Eventually, I’ll probably add most Tofu Hound Press titles myself, except the cookbooks, which really aren’t right for the medium — yet.)
What occurred to me as I was working up the book for the Kindle was that Amazon could make it super easy to create non-fiction books that had updated contents. For example, we wrote Vegan Freak more than 2 years ago. Since then, some of our ideas have changed, and some of the resources in the book have changed as well. In print, someone who buys the book is obviously stuck with what got printed. But on the Kindle, updating the book is as simple as changing some HTML, uploading it to Amazon, and hitting “publish.” This could really change how books are consumed and used; instead of buying a book outright, you could pay a book fee or subscription for which you’d receive updates as well, almost as with software. Thus, you could buy Vegan Freak version 1.0, with free “upgrades” until the next full-point version, edition 2.0. Both major and minor updates could be wirelessly and effortlessly “pushed” to your ebook reader, even while you were sleeping. Since the files are small (194k for Vegan Freak) you could even retain previous versions easily if you wanted.
Perhaps I’m too optimistic about this. I’m kind of a gadget head, and I tend to underestimate the barriers to the adoption of a device like the Kindle. But in the long run, I suspect the convenience, simplicity, and unique features of such a device will change the way authors and writers interact. That, I think, could be very, very powerful.
# Comment by Rob on Thu, Dec 6th, 2007 at 12:39 pm:
The Kindle is a great device for reading newspapers (the two best selling items so far are monthly subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, respectively). It beams today’s edition directly to your hand with no big mess of paper.
However, when it comes to reading an actual book, there’s nothing like, well, reading an actual book. I understand the desire to save money ($10 a book, dependent upon the book, may be a bargain…though an initial $400 certainly is not), which is why I subscribe to BookSwim - www.BookSwim.com - (it’s like Netflix, but with books). I’m on the 5-at-a-time plan (they have anywhere from 2 to 11), so I’m reading at my own pace (no due dates or late fees) and saving money hand over fist (my monthly subscription costs about as much as one hardcover new release). Oh, and they carry Vegan Freak.
# Comment by Cathy on Thu, Dec 6th, 2007 at 12:59 pm:
I love that you are making the book available in electronic format. I have never heard of Kindle, but it sounds interesting. I tend to prefer ereader as its free and it seems to work better on my Palm Pilot. Also, I can download free ebooks from www.manybooks.net.
In response to Rob’s previous comment, I used to think I preferred paper also. But on the palm flipping the “pages” is really much easier and I can read in the dark. Plus I can carry several books with me without adding weight or extra bulk in my purse or pocket. It’s just really, really convenient, so now I PREFER electronic format. I never thought I would say that, but I do.
Anyway, Great job, Bob! Way to go!
—Cathy aka ganymeder on the VFR Forums
# Comment by Eric on Thu, Dec 6th, 2007 at 7:29 pm:
I like that the number of titles currently available is such that Vegan Freak is more prominent on Kindle than most other current veg titles, I’d imagine.
# Comment by Charles Wilkes on Tue, Dec 11th, 2007 at 10:49 pm:
Since I am a vegan also, your pub caught my eye. I have my Kindle, and really love it more and more each day. But one thing I thing would be good on it are cookbook recipies — properly formatted for the Kindle of course. I hate to have big big cookbooks open next to me when cooking (or raw vegan style), and the Kindle does this job much better.
And I’m going to try as hard as I can to never buy an analog book again (I know I will fail, but i’m trying). I’ve got way too many. But I’ve also got a lot of ebooks on my hard drive, and I think I can put all of these on my Kindle, especially since I also have a 4 GB SDHC card installed, which gives me the capacity for thousands of books.
Incidentally, the Kindle is really really deep in features — I have been studying everything I can find about it for a month, and using it for more than one week, but I seem to learn something new about it each and every day.
I’m also a writer, and love the idea that I can now get my writings published for free, no hassle, and receive 35% of all that people pay for them (if any do).
# Comment by Alanna on Mon, Dec 17th, 2007 at 2:45 pm:
When I first saw it I thought that it was a really neat idea, but wow is that thing fugly… I think that it would be neat for cookbooks, but I don’t know how I feel about having a four hundred dollar investment lurking around mixing bowls and pots of things. I can just see it gummed up with flour already…
I’m actually more interested in the Magazine and Newspaper functions, it seems like a good way to minimize paper waste, though I’m not sure how that evens out with all of the toxins invariably part of electronics.
# Comment by Ida on Thu, Dec 27th, 2007 at 5:11 pm:
I’ve always been mixed on electronic versus print. The eco-friendly vegan side of me cheers on electronic text and readers. The designer in me kind of pouts because that would put me out of a job since I mostly do print design (ha!).
But seriously, I am looking forward to the day when e-readers is considered another “normal” and viable distribution method. I used to read e-books on my Palm Pilot back in the day on the commute to work. It takes a little getting used to at first but it’s a great alternative to lugging around books.
You bring up great points about being able to update and distribute the content which is especially important for books that are used as resources.
# Comment by Bob Torres on Tue, Jan 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm:
@ida: Yeah, the design aspect is very limited on the Kindle at this point; essentially, book design gets relegated to HTML, which has its limits as you well know. That’s a big concern for me, and I tried as hard as I could to create content that would, at the least, not be offensive to look at.
I suspect that as readers grow in importance (if they do) we’ll see better support for layout that reflects the importance of fonts, white space, total composition, and the like. Or, at least I hope we’ll see that.
# Comment by Adam on Mon, Jan 7th, 2008 at 4:45 pm:
@Bob: Yeah, HTML (as it is currently supported by MSReader, Mobipocket and others) is limiting. The upshot is that with CSS, there is quite a bit of goodness there for those dealing with the realm of laying out an HTML document for print or e-paper. The downside is that none of the formats yet support some of the CSS required to do this.
I wouldn’t bet on HTML leaving the scene for eBooks, but I would bet on readers getting better and better CSS support, especially around the print-oriented properties that CSS provides.