eBook Creation and Conversion
There is a wide range of complexity to what an ebook or an app can be and there is an equally wide range of resources available to get the work done. This session is intended to help attendees at eBooks for Everyone Else identify the difficulty of their challenge and to find the right solution to address it.
Making Simple eBooks and Making eBooks Simple
Presented by Mark Coker, Founder & CEO, Smashwords
There is a wide range of complexity to what an ebook or an app can be and there is an equally wide range of resources available to get the work done. Mark Coker of Smashwords really “invented” web-based simple ebook creation when he launched Smashwords. Using his online tools, any author can convert a Microsoft Word file into an ebook suitable for widespread distribution. (Smashwords’s system also includes attaching vital metadata to the book and putting it into distribution.) And it can be done for free.
Choosing Between Automation and Professional eBook Design
Presented by Joshua Tallent, eBook Architects
As an author or small publisher looking into the creation of ebooks, you will usually find more questions than answers. There is a lot of misinformation and marketing talk in the world of ebook production, but Joshua Tallent cuts through the clutter to clear up a few of the biggest misconceptions that authors and publishers have about automated ebook conversion, its limitations, and the mistakes that professional ebook designers can help you avoid.
App, Meet eBook: The ebook platform evolves
Presented by Ron Martinez, Founder, Aerbook
Entire classes of books, like illustrated non-fiction, children’s books, culinary titles, how-to and special interest books, have until recently had to sit out the ebook revolution, because the first-generation, text-centric, re-flowable ebook platform has been incapable of delivering the capabilities these books require. Books like these have had to go outside the ebook format to another that is more capable: the app. But now it’s the ebook’s turn to get advanced capabilities, and books designed from the outset to take the most advantage of these evolved capabilities will flourish.
In this presentation, Ron Martinez tackles the complex world of illustrated and enhanced ebooks, apps, multimedia, and interactivity. He explains the difference between ebooks and apps — book-like apps and app-like ebooks — and examines the options and approaches to get them made (and whether to make them at all).
Mark Coker
Founder & CEO, Smashwords
Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords, an ebook distributor. He’s also an author, entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor to technology startups.
Mark and his wife Lesleyann co-authored Boob Tube, a satire on daytime television soap operas. Their book was rejected by every major New York publisher of commercial women’s fiction, despite representation by a top NYC literary agency. The experience inspired him to start Smashwords, a free publishing platform that allows authors to instantly publish their work online.
Joshua Tallent
eBook Architects
Joshua Tallent has been an eBook developer since 2002. He is an acknowledged expert on the Kindle and ePub formats, and his book, Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide, has been praised as the most thorough explanation of the Kindle format available. Joshua founded eBook Architects, his eBook design and consulting business, in 2008, providing services to both publishers and authors, with a focus on complex projects and enhanced eBooks. He regularly teaches at conferences and workshops about building and designing eBooks, and he is a vocal advocate for beautiful, functional, accessible eBooks.
Ron Martinez
Founder, Aerbook
Ron Martinez is the founder of Aerbook, an eBook design and development company and publisher. He’s authored, designed, or developed entertainment, educational, and information titles in formats ranging from paperback book to massively multiplayer online game, and also spent a number of years heading up the global IP Innovation group at Yahoo!
