indie pub world of thomas wylde: May 2013

Thursday, May 30, 2013

TEMPLATES

I'm in the process of turning my Kindle-making posts into a short How-to ebook. As it turns out, some of that information is most useful when it's published on line—not in an ebook—because the reader can highlight the text of a particular item, then copy and paste the material directly into their Work in Progress.

To this end, I've created a section on this blog called Templates. You'll find it at the top of the right-hand sidebar.

Currently five items are listed.

First, the code of a short book containing all the front-end html needed to get you started, including anchors, copyright notice, and paragraph styles. You could copy and paste that chunk directly into Notepad++ (my preferred method of formatting ebooks). Delete paragraph or header styles you won't be needing, modify the remaining to suit.

There's also a "punctuation swap grid" revealing the Search and Replace items needed to convert your newly formed html file from straight quotes to smart quotes (and proper dashes and ellipses, too).

The other three items are generic copies of those special files KindleGen looks for when it creates the mobi of your new ebook: the html version of the Table of Contents, the navigation map version of your toc (ncx), and the ever popular "open packaging format" file (opf).

Again, you can copy and paste these items directly into Notepad++, modify them for your particular uses (book title, author, pub date, number of chapters, etc.), save them with the appropriate file extension, and you're practically ready to Kindle.

There are short instructions accompanying each file, plus a link to the original post, where more information is given. Create a folder called Kindle Creation Kit (or whatever) and put all the templates there for easy access.

Friday, May 24, 2013

OPF FILE

[Copy and paste into Notepad++. Fill in the Dublin Core <metadata> with "title," etc. If you call your book "book" and your cover image "cover.jpg" you need make no changes below <dc:description>. Save the file as "All types" and name it "content.opf." Put it in your Kindle Creation Kit. Get your own identifier code at this site. See the blog post OPF FILE for details.]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="BookId">

<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
    <dc:title>Your Title</dc:title>
    <dc:language>en-US</dc:language>
    <dc:identifier id="BookId" opf:scheme="UUID">268a4670-ca8a-11e2-8b8b-0800200c9a66</dc:identifier>
    <dc:creator opf:file-as="Lastname, Firstname" opf:role="aut">Your Name</dc:creator>
    <dc:publisher>Fake-out Publications</dc:publisher>
    <dc:subject>Type of book</dc:subject>
    <dc:date>YYYY-MM-DD</dc:date>
    <dc:description>Say a few words about your book.</dc:description>
    <meta name="cover" content="cover" />
</metadata>

<manifest>
    <item id="toc" href="toc.html" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
    <item id="book" href="book.html" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
    <item id="ncx" href="toc.ncx" media-type="application/x-dtbncx+xml" />
    <item id="cover" href="cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />
</manifest>

<spine toc="ncx">
    <itemref idref="toc" />
    <itemref idref="book" />
</spine>

<guide>
    <reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="toc.html" />
    <reference type="text" title="Beginning" href="book.html" />
</guide>

</package>

TOC - NCX VERSION

[Copy and paste this file into Notepad++. Fill in "docTitle" and "docAuthor." Add or subtract chapter listings to suit your book, etc. Adjust the name, if needed. Keep the "playOrder" in sequence. Save the file as "All types" and type "toc.ncx" in the "File name" window. Put the file in your Kindle Creation Kit. See the opf template for the link to obtain a unique identifier code. See the blog post TABLES OF CONTENT for details.]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ncx PUBLIC "-//NISO//DTD ncx 2005-1//EN"
"http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx-2005-1.dtd">

<ncx version="2005-1" xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx/">

<head>
<meta name="dtb:uid" content="268a4670-ca8a-11e2-8b8b-0800200c9a66" />
<meta name="dtb:depth" content="1" />
<meta name="dtb:totalPageCount" content="0" />
<meta name="dtb:maxPageNumber" content="0" />
</head>

<docTitle>
<text>Your Title</text>
</docTitle>

<docAuthor>
<text>Lastname, Firstname</text>
</docAuthor>

<navMap>

<navPoint id="cp" playOrder="1">
<navLabel><text>Copyright Page</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#copyright" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="toc" playOrder="2">
<navLabel><text>Table of Contents</text></navLabel>
<content src="toc.html" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c1" playOrder="3">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 1</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_1" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c2" playOrder="4">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 2</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_2" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c3" playOrder="5">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 3</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_3" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c4" playOrder="6">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 4</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_4" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c5" playOrder="7">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 5</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_5" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c6" playOrder="8">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 6</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_6" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c7" playOrder="9">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 7</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_7" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c8" playOrder="10">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 8</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_8" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c9" playOrder="11">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 9</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_9" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c10" playOrder="12">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 10</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_10" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c11" playOrder="13">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 11</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_11" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c12" playOrder="14">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 12</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_12" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c13" playOrder="15">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 13</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_13" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c14" playOrder="16">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 14</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_14" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c15" playOrder="17">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 15</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_15" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="c16" playOrder="18">
<navLabel><text>Chapter 16</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#chap_16" />
</navPoint>

<navPoint id="about" playOrder="19">
<navLabel><text>About the Author</text></navLabel>
<content src="book.html#about" />
</navPoint>

</navMap>

</ncx>

HTML TOC

[Copy and paste into Notepad++. Add or subtract chapter listings to match your book. Save as "Hyper Text Markup Language" with the name "toc." (the extension "html" will be added automatically. See the blog post TABLES OF CONTENT for details.]

<html>
<head>
<title>Table of Contents</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body>

<h2>Table of Contents</h2>

<div id="toc">
<div><a href="book.html#title_page">Title Page</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#copyright">Copyright Page</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_1">Chapter 1</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_2">Chapter 2</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_3">Chapter 3</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_4">Chapter 4</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_5">Chapter 5</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_6">Chapter 6</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_7">Chapter 7</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_8">Chapter 8</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_9">Chapter 9</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_10">Chapter 10</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_11">Chapter 11</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_12">Chapter 12</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_13">Chapter 13</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_14">Chapter 14</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_15">Chapter 15</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#chap_16">Chapter 16</a></div>
<div><a href="book.html#about">About the Author</a></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

PUNCTUATION SWAP GRID

[For best results, copy and paste to Notepad, select All, and change the font to Courier. Save in your Kindle Making Kit folder. Perform these punctuation swaps in this precise order! NEW: See note below.]

Punctuation Swap Grid

Search:              Action

"'    look for quote w/i quote, replace with    "‘

[ ]' look for quote w/i quote, replace with [ ]‘

>"            Replace All with                  >“

[ ]"          Replace All with                [ ]“

--            Replace All with             [ ]–[ ]

....          Replace All with    . . . .

..."          Replace All with     . . ."

...           Replace All with     [ ]. . .[ ]

"            Replace All with                 ”

'             Replace All with                   ’

Note: [ ] means a regular spacebar space.

Also, for the next-to-last search – " - uncheck "Wrap around" in
the Find/Replace window; Replace All, then put the check back in
"Wrap around." Visit the <meta> section at the top of the html
file to make sure no straight quotes were disturbed there.

Here's the image of this grid:

Note: There may be some unusual constructions in your book that require your attention. Using either single or double quotes following a dash or a left parenthesis will cause the Grid to send you astray. Nothing you wouldn't find during a good proof, though. Just to be sure, add these searches to the top:
   --'
and
   ('
for single quotes (quotes within quotes). Check each case to eliminate words that begin with an apostrophe, which take a right single quote mark. If quote within quote is found, replace with:
     --‘
or
     (‘

Also, add to the searches for left double quotes:
     --"
and
     ("
If found, Replace All with:
     --“
or
     (“

And remember, it's always easier to do a Find search by clicking Count before bothering to fill out the Replace window. Some of these searches may come up empty.

CODE OF A VERY SHORT BOOK

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

<title>HTML TITLE GOES HERE</title>

<style type="text/css">

p.body
{margin:0%;
text-indent:1.2em;}



p.start
{margin:0%;
margin-top:5%;
text-indent:0em;}

h1.title
{margin-top:18%;
margin-bottom:6%;
text-align:center;}

h4.by
{margin-top:7%;
margin-bottom:10%;
text-align:center;}

h2.author
{margin-top:10%;
margin-bottom:0%;
text-align:center;}

.break
{page-break-after:always;}

.center
{text-align:center;}

</style>
</head>
<body>

<div id="title_page"></div>

<h1 class="title">A SHORT BOOK</h1>
<h4 class="by">by</h4>
<h2 class="author">A. Writer</h2>



<div class="break"></div>

<div id="copyright"></div>
<hr />
<p class="start">Copyright © 20XX Your Name</p>

<p class="start">All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.</p>
<hr />



<div class="break"></div>

<div id="chap_1"></div>
<p class="center">1</p>
<hr />
<h1 class="title">A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN</h1>
<p class="start">This is where your story takes off. Use as much of the above code as you can. I suggest you keep the whole thing in your Kindle Making Kit, along with a shortened, customized version for starting new books. In the area below I'm going to put copies of code used in the various chapters of KINDLE CREATION FOR CONTROL FREAKS.</p>





<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<style type="text/css">
p.body
{margin:0%;
text-indent:1.2em;}
p.start
{margin:0%;
margin-top:5%;
text-indent:0em;}
</style>

<p style="font-size:150%;">Go figure.</p>





p
{margin:0in;
text-indent:1.2em;}



.center
{text-align:center;}

.bold
{font-weight:bold;}

.italic
{font-style:italic;}

.bi
{font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic;}

<p>This is the <span class="bi">crucial part</span> of the sentence.</p>



<p class="center">. . .</p>

<p class="center">*</p>

<p class="center">§</p>



<div id="chap_1"></div>

<div id="title_page"></div>



<p> </p>

<div><br /></div>





.break
{page-break-after:always;}

<div class="break"></div>



page-break-before:always

page-break-inside:avoid



<h1 class="title">Chapter 1</h1>



<div id="copyright"></div>

<p class="start">Copyright © 20XX Your Name</p>
<p class="start">All rights reserved</p>

<p class="start">Copyright © 20XX Your Name</p>
<p class="start">All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.</p>



p.front
{margin-top:2%;
margin-bottom:2%;
text-indent:0em;
font-size:75%;}





<p class="start"><b><big><big>T</big></big>he first few words</b> of the sentence[etc]</p>



span.small
{font-size:small;}

<p class="start"><span class="small">WE’VE GOT SMALL CAPS</span> for the first few [etc]</p>

<p class="start"><b><big><big>T</big></big>he first few words</b> of the sentence[etc]</p>

span.large
{font-size:large;}

span.x-large
{font-size:x-large;}

<p class="start"><span class="large">T</span>he first few words</b>[etc]</p>



@media amzn-kf8
{span.dropcaps
{font-weight:bold;
font-size:320%;
float:left;
padding-right:.1em;
margin-top:-0.35em;
margin-bottom:-0.35em;}
}

@media amzn-mobi
{span.dropcaps
{font-size:2em;
font-weight:bold;}
}

<p class="start"><b><span class="dropcaps">T</span>his particular morning</b>, ten-year-old Trevor Blake [etc]</p>



span.bigcaps
{font-weight:bold;
font-size:200%;
float:left;
padding-right:0.04em;
margin-top:-0.58em;
margin-bottom:-0.75em;}





img.wide
{width:100%;}

<p class="center"><img class="wide" src="title_page.gif" alt="title page" /></p>



<p class="center"><img class="wide" src="title_page.gif" width="525" height="645" alt="title page" /></p>



<p class="center"><img src="spacer.gif" width=".1" height="2" alt="spacer" /></p>





<p class="center"><img class="wide" src="cs-1.gif" alt="chapter one" /> </p>



<p class="center"><img src="msl.jpg" /><img src="1.gif" /> <img src="5.gif" /></p>

img.chap-start
{width:10%;}

<p class="center"><img class="chap-start" src="msl.gif" width="38" height="65" alt="missile" /><img class="chap-start" src="1.gif" width="25" height="60" alt="one" /><img class="chap-start" src="5.gif" width="25" height="60" alt="five" /></p>





<p class="start"><img src="rockwell ultrabold T.gif" width="30" height="30" alt="rockwell T" /><b>his is the first sentence</b> of the rest of [etc]</p>



img.letter
{width=12%;}

<p class="start"><img class="letter" src="rockwell ultrabold T.gif" width="30" height="30" alt="Rockwell T" /><b>his is the first sentence</b> of the rest of [etc]</p>



img.drop
{float:left;
margin:10px 8px 0px 0px;}

<img class="drop" src="rockwell ultrabold T.gif" width="12%" /><b>his particular morning</b>, ten-year-old [etc.]

img.drop
{float:left;
border:12px ridge yellow;
margin:10px 8px 0px 0px;}

img.drop
{width:12%;
float:left;
border:12px double blue;
margin:10px 8px 0px 0px;}





<img class="drop" src="rockwell ultrabold T.gif" width="32" height="32" /><b>his particular morning</b>, ten-year-old [etc.]



<item id="stylesheet" href="style.css" media-type="text/css" />

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />





<a href="#gallery">Photo Gallery</a>





h2.chap
{text-align:center;
margin-top:80px;
margin-bottom:55px;}

p.section
{margin:0in;
text-indent:0em;
font-weight:bold;
text-align:left;
margin-top:30px;
margin-bottom:20px;}

p.line
{margin-left:2.8em;
margin-top:8px;
margin-bottom:8px;
text-indent:0em;
font-weight:bold;
font-size:75%;}

p.body
{margin:0in;
margin-top:14px;
margin-bottom:14px;
text-indent:0em;}

p.front
{margin-top:8px;
margin-bottom:8px;
text-indent:0em;
font-size:75%;}

p.list
{margin-top:14px;
margin-bottom:14px;
margin-left:1em;}

.part
{margin-top:20px;
margin-bottom:0px;}



</body>
</html>

Thursday, May 23, 2013

GOING SELECT

Early this morning I enrolled all three of my Kindle books in Select. I'd been weighing this decision for a while. One thing in my favor, I have nothing listed on any other site. No fans to disappoint there.

I will admit, seeing J.A. Konrath go "all in" with Select had an influence. Although it's hard to understand why a guy with his impressive sales numbers would give books away. (He talks of a 100,000-download free day.)

But what really convinced me was the news that came in my email inbox: In April, the payment for a download from the Kindle Lending Library was $2.37.

Get this. Somebody takes your book for free, and you get as much as if you'd sold the thing for $3.49—WITH a ten cent delivery fee on top of it.

And my books are one at 99 cents and two at $2.99. Sell one each and I'd make a total royalty of $4.45 (after combined delivery fees of twelve cents). Have all three borrowed once for free and I'd make $7.11

I'd be better off if I NEVER sold a book!

Meanwhile, the library "customer" pays nothing, compared with spending $6.97 for the privilege of reading my three books.

We're BOTH better off!

Over a year ago Konrath released his Reports page (covering the first ten days in January, 2012). Roughly one fourth of his downloads come from the lending library. And this was long before he went Select, so there are no free books in there.

(At least, none listed. But the screen-print image is cropped before you get to the free columns.)

You CAN have free books while not in Select, of course, should Amazon choose to match a free book offer on another site.

(By the way, extending his library loans through the full month, and applying the rate for April 2013, he would have made nearly $25,000 that month for lending just his top-selling title.)

The engine that drives this whole process is the money Amazon puts aside for lending library downloads. For May they announced it would be one million dollars.

Can this go on indefinitely?

I don't know what their plans are, but there may actually be a valid business model in this:

A big company with a lot of different things to sell gives books away to customers who buy a minimum amount of stuff. The company skims off a chunk of their total revenue to pay authors and keep up the supply of new books.

Big name authors can command prices above $3.49, the price point where a lend is equal to a sale. On the other hand, they can't get the 70% royalty—unless they've gone indie.

More likely they get 35%, or even 25%, after settling up with their "trad" publishers. Their royalty will match the library rate at a sales price of $6.87 and $9.58, respectively (again, assuming a ten cent delivery fee).

If they can get more than that for a download, they're better off selling.

But the trend is toward lower prices for all. E-reading folks are getting used to buying at a steep discount.

Hard to know where this all will end.

But right now I guess I should be saying (with some trepidation): Please don't buy my books!

If you're Amazon Prime customers, borrow them for free instead!

I'll let you know when that changes....

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

NUMBER THREE

I put another new book up on Kindle yesterday. It's a children's book, a middle-grade chapter book called THE EXPLODING WIZARD'S RIGHT-HAND BOY. (The cover is on the left sidebar—it's also a link.)

Actually, the book went up the night before, but I took it down to change the categories and keywords.

It's a kid's book, but I couldn't find it in the category "children's fiction."

Here's a problem with Kindle (and Amazon): The categories you get to select from when you publish do not sync up with the search categories customers use.

I put the book in both "fiction" and "juvenile fiction." There is no category called "children's fiction."

After I amended the categories and adjusted keywords (I added "children's fiction" to the list), I tried the search again.

Now I can't even FIND the search category called "Children's Fiction."

I opened Shop by Department and clicked Children's Books under Books. In that category, I found my book.

Search: Books/Children's Books/SF & Fantasy/Fantasy & Magic with the keyword "alternate history" and you get 13 hits. I'm number 2 on that short list.

Search all of Children's Books with the keywords "wizard, los angeles" and you get 5 hits. I'm at the top of that page.

But you can't search "Juvenile Fiction" because that's not a category.

By the way, if you search Books with the keyword "fiction" you get 2,967,070 hits.

Search Books/Literature & Fiction with "fiction" as the keyword and the number goes down to 2,000,501.

So...good luck.

The hardest part of selling books on Kindle (unless you already have lots of fans from somewhere) is getting your work discovered.

With traditional publishing, your book sits on the shelf of a store for a few months. The selection is very limited, so you might stick out to a casual browser in your particular category. Especially if you have a good cover and the book is shelved with the cover showing.

The problem is the limited time you get. If the book doesn't start selling in a few months, it's a ghost—pretty much forever.

I've read of store owners who would rather order a new title than reorder something already on the shelf—even if your book sells every one of the four or five copies he was sent. About the only way to get the guy to reorder your book is if it sells out VERY fast. Otherwise, he'd rather take the chance the next book he orders will take off fast.

And if your publisher doesn't get reorders, your book is dead. And maybe your next one, too.

Even if you sell every copy they printed, you might get dropped.

If the publisher only printed a limited amount—but you sold every single one of them—you STILL didn't sell very well in raw numbers. That's the publisher's fault, but you'll take the hit for it.

Maybe in a few years of no activity you can get your publisher to revert the rights to you. Then you could try again—with a book tainted by past failure.

On the other hand, if your next book becomes a bestseller, you have a chance of re-releasing your backlist.

But nowadays, going with a trad publisher might mean having to sign a contract that will NEVER allow reversion of rights. All they have to do is keep an e-book version up on Amazon and the title remains "in print." That could be a big problem.

The three best things about indie publication are higher royalty rates, flexibility and control in marketing and pricing, and the "infinite" shelf life.

Traditional publishers gobble up the first two of those. Perhaps not that good of a deal, in the long run.

So how do you get visibility without a publisher?

I've got together a list of sites that promote Kindle books. My next move is to visit a number of them, put up a book posting, and see what happens.

I'll let you know.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

YO-YO PUBLICATIONS

In the early morning hours my two Kindle books (HOT STATUS and MAD MINUTE) came down and went back up again. For about the gazillionth time.

First, I wanted to make sure there was no mention of a publisher in the opf files of the books.

And I wanted to mess with the descriptions, adding the wordage and other information (i.e.: bonus material) at the bottom.

I was concerned that the file length supplied by Amazon gave an inaccurate perception of the two books. The one with the largest file (HOT STATUS is twice as big) is actually the shortest book—in fact, at 30,000 words, far from a full-sized novel.

I felt I needed to clear that up, especially since I'm trying to get $2.99 for the one with the short file (compared to 99 cents for the long one).

I also modified MAD MINUTE to reduce the delivery fee from eleven to nine cents.

The main way I did that was to remove images.

I still have the main title page image, which is based on an illustration from an old Army manual depicting the surface-to-air mission for the Nike Hercules system. It gave at least some idea of what the different types of radars look like.

(HOT STATUS has actual photos of the things. I can afford to do that because at the 35% royalty [necessary to get the 99 cent price point] there are NO delivery fees.)

But there were two text-only images in MAD MINUTE I could replace with html text.

I had originally given up on the idea of a text-based page because of the way non-breaking spaces are treated. (Or rather, how they are ignored.) It's easy enough to use a header tag (say h1) to get large text. But if you want to space that text away from other text, you need a way to tell some part of the page to remain blank.

Then I realized I could use a header style to create that space.

I added this to the <style> section at the top of the html file:

h1.top
    {margin-top:60;
    margin-bottom:40;
    text-align:center;}
h2.top
    {margin-top:60;
    margin-bottom:40;
    text-align:center;}
h4.middle
    {margin-top:100;
    margin-bottom:0;
    text-align:center;}

Now I could create both of text files that ran on their own pages, plus name the chapters in the bonus material. (I did it all with just the three header sizes—you could of course use more.)

Deploy header styles just like paragraph styles, for instance:

<h2 class="top">Chapter 1</h2>
<p class="start"><b><big><big>S</big></big>PECIAL AGENT FRANK HALBERT</b> kept his SIG Sauer in a two-handed shooting grip [etc]

The margin-top and -bottom specs put white space between elements (called out here in pixels). For the chapter titles, the bottom margin of the title combined with the margin-top spec for the first paragraph, allowing the name "Chapter 1" to be centered vertically above the text.

Earlier, I had used an image file of a piece of nothingness to create the spacing between lines. That looks fine on the typical white background. But if the reader should set his Kindle Fire to "sepia" or "night," those chunks of white would stand out rather badly.

Margins can also be manipulated left and right, to set off a body of text. I once used it for narrowing the margins of my copyright page—just for variety.

Then I noticed the iOS version of Kindle pays no attention to any attempt to alter the right-side margin. That put everything off center, which looked stupid.

So I stopped messing with left and right margins.

I also noticed a glitch with Kindle Fire and Paperwhite when it came to working with margin-top. Those guys seemed to need something to push off from in order to express the top spec. In other words, the first line of header text would sit higher up on the page in these two aps.

I found I could add a blank paragraph to the top of the page (<p></p>), but that only worked on pages named with an anchor tag—like a new chapter.

For an internal title page (i.e.: "Five Days Later...") that is not designed to be an anchor point, I needed to add something to my null paragraph (<p>.</p> or <p>___</p>) before Fire and Paperwhite would space the title the way I wanted.

More petty annoyances from the World of Kindle.

Also: Since I own no actual Kindle devices, there's the possibility this glitch resides only in the Previewer, not the machines themselves.

Nice...

Pages

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Thursday, May 2, 2013