tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88517770163430850292024-02-18T18:08:04.994-08:00GW PublishingThis is a blog by the students in the GWU MPS Publishing program. If you like this, you might also want to check our portal at http://netvibes.com/gwpubsArniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034210147728130984noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-72373112525140890112011-09-26T22:55:00.000-07:002011-09-26T22:57:13.729-07:00XKCDSaw Monday's XKCD and thought of you all.<br /><br /><a href="http://xkcd.com/956/">http://xkcd.com/956/</A><br /><br />Hope you're well!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-84915521072659313382011-06-22T06:33:00.000-07:002011-06-22T06:39:26.955-07:00Google Plans to Digitize Out-of-Copyright Books of British LibraryInteresting read, especially with the ongoing chaos of the Google Books litigation! <br /><br />http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-20/google-digitises-250-000-out-of-copyright-british-library-books.htmlAdey Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17325021178666442708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-34027335670250159262011-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:002011-05-25T10:06:02.542-07:00Hmm, Interesting POVAre Publishers, Not Technology, To Blame For The Decline Of Books?<br /><br /><a href="http://con.st/10019109">http://con.st/10019109</a><br /><br />Interesting concept, not sure they back it up as well as they should but it's an interesting question to be asking ourselves as publishers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-64803640288044528892011-05-09T11:52:00.000-07:002011-05-09T11:52:03.804-07:00Leadership Lessons from the SaddleGood afternoon,<br /><br />This article provides a great analogy for leadership. Enjoy!<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/05/leadership-lessons-from-the-sa.html">Leadership Lessons from the Saddle</a><br /><br />(Sorry this post is so short. Blogger has been having technical issues all day!)<br />-RandyR. Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11533177468267792671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-67337861551532018502011-05-07T14:53:00.000-07:002011-05-07T14:54:03.516-07:00Self PublishingLengthy article about the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/novel-rejected-theres-an-e-book-gold-rush/2011/04/09/AFZdqb9F_story.html?hpid=z5">"E-book gold rush."</a>Eileen Cavanaghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11771706633447024144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-60080329427139598692011-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:002011-03-30T11:00:16.658-07:00The New York Review of Books on Google SettlementCheck out the "6 Reasons the Google Settlement Failed" from the words of the New York Book Review <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/mar/28/six-reasons-google-books-failed/">blo</a>g. The author, Robert Darnton's point? Screw Google Book Search, hail to the Digital Public Library of America.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07725728764068178990noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-19244374441591168422011-03-26T18:21:00.000-07:002011-03-26T18:28:05.849-07:00Independent Bookseller SurvivalFound a <a href="http://www.studio360.org/2011/mar/25/survival-strategies-booksellers/">story about independent booksellers and their attempts at survival</A> on Studio 360.<br /><br />It's not all new stuff (in fact, several things we've talked about in class pop up), but worth knowing this stuff is part of the discussion out there.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-71829659169830568102011-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:002011-02-22T08:48:41.647-08:00MarginaliaInteresting article from the Times this morning: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/books/21margin.html?_r=2&ref=books">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/books/21margin.html?_r=2&ref=books</a>Eileen Cavanaghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11771706633447024144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-11054198547739390462011-02-08T07:35:00.001-08:002011-02-08T07:36:38.804-08:00The Cost of e-booksA brief breakdown of the costs of e-publishing a book by a GW MBA student. (From <span style="font-style: italic;">The Washington Post</span> on Saturday.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/05/AR2011020504712.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/05/AR2011020504712.html</a>Gray Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14319052568544866528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-16963288643684240742011-01-27T09:58:00.001-08:002011-01-27T10:03:25.758-08:00DODOcases for Kindles & iPadsI saw someone using one of <a href="http://www.dodocase.com/">these</A> on the Metro on my way to class on Monday.<br /><br />Perusing the site, I think it's an interesting way to keep traditional bookbinding methods alive while still finding a way to serve readers....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-41896271848644063882011-01-12T19:26:00.000-08:002011-01-12T19:28:46.723-08:00Torrenting and the fiction-publishing marketIn this LJ post (which I saw on FB), an author sounds off on the impact that illegal downloads can have on her career. Food for thought?<br /><br /><a href="http://anywherebeyond.livejournal.com/342581.html">http://anywherebeyond.livejournal.com/342581.html</a>Rob Truhnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11069562623739281895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-3822353835447889062011-01-12T11:01:00.000-08:002011-01-12T11:07:26.473-08:00Literacy Isn't DeadApparently a new study lists D.C. as the nation's most literate (based on soft- and hard-copy resources available and used).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-01-10-literary10_ST_N.htm"><i>USA Today</I> article here</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=8227">Original study here</A>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-55972651436983575642011-01-04T12:43:00.000-08:002011-01-04T12:54:46.155-08:00An interesting case study (though sadly short on detail) from Kaplan Publishing on the print-to-digital paradigm, from the user-experience (UX) perspective:<br /><br /><em>Portraits of an Industry in Flux: Digital Publishing and UX</em> (UX Magazine, 1/3/2011) - <a href="http://uxmag.com/strategy/portraits-of-an-industry-in-flux">http://uxmag.com/strategy/portraits-of-an-industry-in-flux</a><br /><br />I suppose one lesson is that times of great change also provide the opportunity to refocus resources, revise goals, and identify new tools in creating an improved product type.Rob Truhnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11069562623739281895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-79609055895056611372010-12-27T07:48:00.000-08:002010-12-27T07:52:10.307-08:00Amazon StudentIn case anyone else out there is buying some books today, I just learned you can get a year of Amazon Prime free if you have a .edu address. It took me about thirty seconds to register, and now I get free two day shipping. <div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Eileen Cavanaghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11771706633447024144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-89121056886675608662010-11-26T15:48:00.001-08:002010-11-28T09:18:45.677-08:00Tales from the Self-Publisher<span style="font-style:italic;">As professionals, it is helpful to know our industry and the people we serve (i.e., readers, and sometimes authors). As publishers, it is helpful to be aware of the entities competing for our respective niches. Self-publishing has in recent years become a more viable competitor to traditional publishing, especially for trade books, and the number of reasons behind the decision to self-publish is as high as the number of authors turning to self-publishing to realize their goals. Perhaps in learning these reasons lies the way to help publishers survive the sea change and come out intact on the other side.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Fgfn5QtNa0VC27K26O3AETQQIpbdbB2NSoECmmpnqBNdiN6m8K-YhF3QyJEwmtwSe_T9MKc55rWl4W1YdjQDWmgbTJ-oL3m4e9ngm1se3Wic4D0NlK7Hs5hbBQqE-s2rTgg8j-8uuTA/s1600/sandel_and_books.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Fgfn5QtNa0VC27K26O3AETQQIpbdbB2NSoECmmpnqBNdiN6m8K-YhF3QyJEwmtwSe_T9MKc55rWl4W1YdjQDWmgbTJ-oL3m4e9ngm1se3Wic4D0NlK7Hs5hbBQqE-s2rTgg8j-8uuTA/s200/sandel_and_books.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544010998080904338" /></a>Last April, Colin Sandel self-published <i>Tales from the Securemarket(tm)</i>, a sci-fi/fantasy romantic comedy novel. This in and of itself is not terribly unusual; after all, the decentralization of the publishing market has made such a thing almost commonplace. However, less commonly, Sandel has enjoyed a bit of success in his venture; while he claims that he has sold "a statistically insignificant number of books," as of this writing he has personally sold over 100 print copies of <i>Tales</I> in person, and has reached more readers by making the entire work available online, for free.<br /><br />Sandel's <i>Tales</i> actually began through a blog he keeps for a series of short stories written in the same universe as <i>Tales</i>, the Age of Corporations. As he kept writing in that environment, responding to requests to portray the lives of everyday people in it, he eventually realized that "[he] had written half a novel and still had plenty of plot arc left to resolve."<br /><br />Once the novel was written, the author decided he wanted to share it with more than just the blog's readers. However, as Sandel explains, he didn't trust himself to have the patience to go through the traditional publishing process: "I had written a book. I wanted it out there.... I saw (after my first round of rejection letters from agents) that there was a very real danger that receiving a second round of such letters would put me in danger of losing so much momentum that I never picked up the project again. Self-publishing was a route by which I could actualize my project without the danger of losing momentum while waiting for someone to notice it."<br /><br />This taking-notice seems to be a guiding principle for him: "it's more important to me that my work be read and experienced than that I make a living off of having written it." To this end, Sandel and a few volunteers (in particular Dani Church, cited as patron and publisher) have made the entire 300-page book available in HTML and PDF formats online.<br /><br />"A lot of people don’t like to read on a screen, but won’t buy a book without knowing a little bit about what it's like. Having the book available in full on the site means that they can get a taste of the book, then have a physical copy when they’re willing to commit to reading it," says Sandel.<br /><br />The biggest driver of sales, however, has been of the person-to-person variety. Far and away, the biggest sales have come from author-hosted events and bigger convention events related to the book. Sandel ran a live-action role-playing game (LARP) at <a href="http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL/25years.html">Intercon J</A> set in a Securemarket like the one in <i>Tales</i>, and "even though the LARP didn't go as well as I wanted, I sold 35 books." Most of the marketing for <i>Tales</I> has come from word-of-mouth, and by publicly planning parties; people outside of the author’s personal network have bought the book because he mentioned it on a blog and people followed his link.<br /><br />The blogosphere's role in this is rather unsurprising: "My initial target audience was somewhat geeky, the critical intersection of sci-fi/fantasy nerds with fans of Kevin Smith movies," Sandel explains. "In truth, my real audience for the book seems much wider. Something about 'sci-fi/fantasy romantic comedy' seems like it should scream 'niche market,' but some of my best compliments have come from the parents of my little brother’s high school friends, and one from a lady in her sixties, who called the book 'so realistic.'"<br /><br />When asked about what he might do differently now that the book has been out for several months, Sandel replied, "Not a whole lot. I think it went very well. As a publisher, Dani did an amazing job. I worked really hard on editing and so did my volunteer friends. I guess the only other thing I can think of is that I probably would have done well to push harder on advertising. Getting on the reading list for <a href="http://2010.arisia.org/">Arisia 2010</a> would have been very valuable. I plan on doing so for <a href="http://2011.arisia.org/">Arisia 2011</a>, and hopefully other cons too."<br /><br />Having learned a few lessons from this process, it's no surprise that Sandel has several plans for future projects. Right now he's working to expand exposure for Tales through further marketing and cons, as well as adding formats:<br /><br />"I've been meaning to convert [<i>Tales</I>] to ePub for a while now, and have that available too. There’s a PDF version available on the site right now....I also plan on recording an audiobook, although I haven’t yet decided how exactly I want to handle distribution. It'll take up a lot of my time and it'd probably be wise to charge for it somehow." He's considering a "ransom" model to monetize the audiobook effort. In a "ransom" model, an author solicits donations for a work in progress on the premise that once donations reach a certain threshold, a new installment will be released, usually free of charge. The concept as previously been successful for some webcomic artists, as well as some independent role-playing game publishers.<br /><br />Sandel is not against the idea of publishing future projects in the traditional way, although he says he would be very wary about losing creative rights: "I’ve heard some serious horror stories. But I have no real problems with the idea, and it certainly wouldn’t pay me <i>less</I>." <br /><br /><i>Tales from the Securemarket (tm)</i> is available through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Securemarket-Colin-Sandel/dp/1449971709/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290026131&sr=8-1">Amazon</A> and through <a href="http://www.talesfromthesecuremarket.com/">the book's website</a>. The website also has a link at the bottom to contact Colin Sandel directly.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwmjIr7lg4h2Uvst-oBKdTe7QjSfSJ1W0IwF7ykZI7MAu00P8uZm-s_dP86IRW793NQqqoUeD5oCjS93zBPE5Cu-PhzjtBTyxYVJQJNEyanZtMe-XEYoSra7nV77UDFvYt9Hqp5_AteU/s1600/talescover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwmjIr7lg4h2Uvst-oBKdTe7QjSfSJ1W0IwF7ykZI7MAu00P8uZm-s_dP86IRW793NQqqoUeD5oCjS93zBPE5Cu-PhzjtBTyxYVJQJNEyanZtMe-XEYoSra7nV77UDFvYt9Hqp5_AteU/s200/talescover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544014160986509410" /></a><br /><i>Author's Note, in the interest of transparency: Colin is a friend of mine, and has been for a few years. I attended one of the aforementioned author events last summer, and I own a copy of his book. Many thanks to Colin for taking the time to let me pick his brain on the process behind the publication.</I>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-63700750299021918302010-11-21T20:10:00.000-08:002010-11-21T20:17:53.551-08:00Get Your Fashion On...For this project, team Epsilon decided to create a website based on what most ladies love--fashion--and so Capitol Style was born. Next, it was decided that our site should focus on the fashion scene here in Washington, D.C. After looking at a variety of fashion websites like style.com and refinery29.com, we decided on a basic layout for our site based on these sites. Our team liked how easy these sites were to navigate and how the layout showcased the fashion. <br /><br />Our next task was to divide the pages among the members our team. We took a look at various stories, photos, and blog posts and used what we thought was significant to our site. In some cases we developed our own stories based on trends and events we thought we worth covering. We decided on a basic format, and made the formatting of text and content on each page similar. Overall, the largest hurdle was making the formatting of each page identical. We hope you enjoy our website (and get some fashion inspiration!).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-41112179676439286042010-11-12T11:21:00.000-08:002010-11-12T11:21:15.615-08:00And Now For Something Completely Different...and by that I mean not an ePub file... but rather this hilarious proposal to a potential publisher on <a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/">McSweeney's</a>.<br />
<br />
Have a good weekend folks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07725728764068178990noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-31791135947308881212010-11-09T10:34:00.000-08:002010-11-09T11:04:07.300-08:00EPUB editors - a recipe for consternationSeason and Debbie did a ton of work over the last couple of days to perfect our chocolate cookbook in the EPUB format. It's continually astounding to realize how much variance exists within a "standard" applied by so many platforms! As a group, we had devoted significant energy to determining how we wanted our content to present, and following through on that promise took a significant amount of back-end tinkering as well. After coming up with a lot of workarounds, we're up, fucntioning, validated, and looking good on a few platforms. Looking forward to seeing everyone's product tonight!<br /><br />-Rob (for the ePUB Bees)Rob Truhnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11069562623739281895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-47469969298468175682010-11-09T09:16:00.000-08:002010-11-09T09:17:32.560-08:00Old Mr. Toad Wasn’t the Only One Who Had an Adventure...During the final stage of production, we focused on the completion of our product through the validation, proofreading, and packaging phases. Much like the previous week, we divided the work among the team members to complete tasks more quickly and efficiently. The first step was to finish the HTML coding and the accompanying CSS. We incorporated a variety of different design elements so that are final product would be easy to read as well as aesthetically pleasing to our audience. We also block displayed the images to ensure that they did not run over any of the text. Next, we cleaned up the HTML files to ensure that our document was well-formed. Once this task was completed, two team members tackled the validation of the HTML file. In the final phase of production, we packaged our files and tested them across different programs.<br /><br />Overall, the production process ran smoothly, though we did experience a few problems during validation, particularly with the images. Once we were able to put the images in the correct class and replace all quotation marks and special characters throughout the text to display properly, we were able to package our eBook; however, problems still arose. We are able to view our ebook through various eReaders, but our CSS shows up inconsistently. We are unsure as to why this is occurring, but believe it is rooted in our CSS selections and their compatibility with different readers. <br /><br />Although somewhat tedious and challenging at times, we feel that this project enabled us to evaluate errors and problem solve in the creation of a successful Epub file.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-69701147079240755932010-11-07T14:26:00.000-08:002010-11-07T14:26:57.061-08:00Fallen Down the Rabbit Hole!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Luckily, we have had more success than Poor Alice. We have successfully uploaded an</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> epub file (created in SIGIL/valid on threepress epub validator), a basic CSS file, and a cover image created by Corey that we have all made comments on. Prateeksha t</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ested the epub file on Google Chrome eReader and Calibre and it works, so we are optimistic that our team work will lend itself to success on Yelba's iPad and Kindle.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The challenges we have had to face while creating this epub file have luckily been few, and we were able to address a lot of them in class as a group and by sending messages through BaseCamp. I am going to run through a final edit read before Tuesday's class to make sure our coding didn't go wonky as we noticed in earlier versions. The CSS looks good, thanks to Randy and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">Yelba's mad skills and has changed the look and feel of the original copy we pulled from Authorama making this particular edition feel more like a new and awesome work created by Team E. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">We are all looking forward to hearing feedback from the other teams about our ePublication of <i>Alice in Wonderland </i>as well as seeing what you've been able to create. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07725728764068178990noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-90341914472308335152010-11-05T05:57:00.000-07:002010-11-05T06:39:32.187-07:00Chocolate Recipe E-Book!Currently, our e-book team (Season, Rob, Debbie, and myself) is working on editing/proofing the structure of the e-book's content i.e. reformatting recipes and so on (Rob has taken the lead on editing). We have completed our CSS, but will also make a final edit and then match it to our edited XHTML file to make sure it validates properly. Once this is done, we will again convert the edited pieces into the Epub and revalidate. We are also commencing our e-book device testing this weekend as well (test on Ipad, Kindle, etc.). As many of you may have noticed, everytime we place any changes to our CSS and XHTML files, we know revalidating is extremely necessary to continue any portion of the project to just note. Lastly, BaseCamp has been a useful communicative tool for our team thus far, and we are also using Campfire as a chat tool so we may collectively work via chat this weekend.Adey Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17325021178666442708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-52214750928773992982010-11-02T16:14:00.001-07:002010-11-02T16:24:51.611-07:00Question/Survey for the CohortsSo since at least some of you are in STM publishing and/or are involved in operations where there are telecommuters (or off-site reviewers, or other people not physically in your work space) involved, I figured I would attempt to pick the collective brain about ways of going about tracking edits to content from many collaborators:<br /><br />How do your places of work handle the workflow, especially with lots of collaborators/editors? Is there particular software in place on your servers (that is preferably less unwieldy than Word/Excel)? <br /><br />Does your workplace's method rely on in-person/on-site contact? How well does your method work as far as the users are concerned? <br /><br />I've been temping (mostly copyediting and proofing work) for the last month or so and I've been to several sites over that time, and there seem to be quite a few publications departments out there that are looking to streamline their content systems so that they aren't anywhere near as chaotic in tracking multiple editing passes and the like; does anyone's workplace have a particularly <i>good</i> way to manage this?<br /><br />Like I said, I'm particularly interested in the STM folks and the telecommuters (my background is in directories where we did a lot of our work and content generation on-site), but if anyone's got something that works, I'd be interested to hear about it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-53748528652227713492010-11-01T18:54:00.000-07:002010-11-01T18:57:40.552-07:00The Dubliners<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So, The Dead is actually a story within the Dubliners... but you get the picture. We are working on this ebook of all the stories, and I think it's getting kind of confusing. Although, it might just be me. I am having problems with the CSS! Also, I really do not know what files need to be included. When we looked through the zipped folder of an epub a few weeks ago in class, there were all these elements that I remember each epub had to have... certain file extensions and containers telling the ereader the type of content, etc. However, I do not know what all those elements are, nor do I understand how to create those elements! My group is going to talk about it more tomorrow night in class. Nevertheless, I can actually view our ebook in Calibre, and that's pretty neat!</span></span>catherineabbotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07151230374953034901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-19754989802549576432010-11-01T17:00:00.000-07:002010-11-01T17:10:12.584-07:00Oh, Alice!Great minds think alike! Group D, "The Dementors," (Amy, Elizabeth, Kat, and Lindsey) chose Lewis Carroll, as Shelby's group did. We chose the <i>Through the Looking Glass </i>portion of his classic book though. We chose this book because both the text and the original illustrations are in the public domain. We also got our html from authorama.<div><br /></div><div>We've had a lot of success using zoho for our project management. As you will hear again in class tomorrow... we have compiled all the html chapters into one file and are currently working on validating it. We have been having lots of problems with the "pre" tag, which the validator doesn't seem to like. The "pre" tag is quite important though, as it allows us to retain the line breaks and white spaces in the various poems that are in <i>Through the Looking Glass</i>. Currently the poems appear exactly as they do in the printed books, and we would like to keep them this way if possible. So we will need to find out how to replace the "pre" tags with something that validates.</div><div><br /></div><div>Additionally, we've got a preliminary CSS design and a cover image chosen. All that's left is to finish validating, link to the images, design the cover image, and test the ebook on two different readers.</div>Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11195967319761396661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8851777016343085029.post-79929481799355826672010-11-01T16:14:00.000-07:002010-11-01T16:21:25.304-07:00The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-size: medium; "><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9887347298208624" style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ></span></span><span><span></span></span><span><span>Group A (Devon Carter, Brooke Morris, Heather Norton, Ryan Reeh, and Sarah Weisse)<br /><br />Our group began by developing a project plan based on specific goals and division of responsibilities.<br /><br />We first determined our criteria for selecting a title. We agreed by vote that we would like to work with a book that contained images, dialogue, block quotes, and chapter divisions. We decided to develop the CSS based on classes for styling chapter names, chapter numbers, chapter introductions (block quotes), and illustration presentation. Further, as a group we made the basic style decisions regarding fonts, colors, and location of images in relation to text.<br /><br />We then listed the tasks involved and split up the chapters among group members, giving each member four to five chapters to create according to the style decisions. As a group, we decided that the best way to organize our work and share ideas with each other would be to use Google Docs.<br /><br />We divided the project plan into four stages: file development, file packaging, proofreading, and validation.<br /><br />At this point, we have completed the first stage, and we are working to combine our work in order to package the files for the next stage. We will then move into the proofreading and validation stages.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0