Publishing and E-Publishing

Second-Class Formatting?

by

Yes, once again I'm going to talk about my Amazon Kindle. No, this is not a case of me going on how great it is, how much I love it, ad nauseum. You've probably had enough of that as it is. Instead, I want to share an insight on the nature of e-books that I didn't notice until I began using the Kindle so much.

What have I noticed? I've noticed that, despite many of the e-books I'm reading coming from professional print sources, some of them have distinct formatting errors on the Kindle. I'd say easily two thirds of the books I've read on the Kindle have noticeable formatting problems, some of them quite distinct and incredibly annoying, such as unclear graphics, oddly placed titles, mashed words, and more.

It's as if Kindle books get a kind of "second-class" formatting.

Somehow, I don't think I'm alone in experiencing odd, strange, and outright painful formatting problems on books I'm reading on the Kindle. I'm quite sure other people are experiencing this as well; all those people on my daily trains reading Kindles doubtlessly are experiencing questionably–formatted books too.

So unless I'm the unluckiest reader in Amazon–land, everyone is experiencing formatting problems with their Kindle books now and then. So why aren't we complaining?

Read more

Speculation on ‘Content Farms’

by

And what's the word in media today my fellow geeks? Two words actually, "Content Farms".

Yes, suddenly Content Farms are in the news, in the wake of AOL's acquisition of the Huffington Post (and AOLs own strategies), search engine loading, and more. I'm concerned that "Content Farm" is going to become a big new buzzword–so in short I'm concerned about how people are concerned.

Don't get me wrong, Content Farming in its worst manifestations is pretty freaking annoying. I understand the need to generate content (after all I'm a content myself), and I do believe some companies, industries, and so forth may go too far. Making low-quality or no-quality content just to get hits and drive up advertising is something I have a problem with.

Read more

Further Thoughts On The Kindle

by

So I've been using my Kindle for about a month or so.  What have I found?

Well first, sorry, no major revelations about it or the Kobo or whatever.  I'm enjoying it and it works and it's pretty slick.  No real massive changes here.

Now that being said, I have had a few revelations about eBook readers and other devices that take media that we once used physically and can now be had in bits and streams.  I'd say a few of these surprised me or were unexpected.

Read more