» ePublishing http://electrosmart.com/Blog Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:55:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Calibre – What A Dream Piece of Software http://electrosmart.com/Blog/calibre-what-a-dream-piece-of-software/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/calibre-what-a-dream-piece-of-software/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:29:40 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=172 Continue reading →]]> I am eternally grateful for the many open-source software products made available – most of which are well design and elegant to use. However, now and then one comes along and blows my socks off…this is how I felt when I watched the demo of Calibre.

Calibre acts as both a ebook format converter and a library management system. It is not just the amazing diversity of the software that made my day, but the beauty of the design. I just had to share it with you all.

I highly recommend you download Calibre and see for yourself.

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/calibre-what-a-dream-piece-of-software/feed/ 0 New Ebook Publishing Tool http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-ebook-publishing-tool/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-ebook-publishing-tool/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:22:35 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=161 Continue reading →]]> Barnes & Noble has just released a new tool for publishing ebooks through thier BN.com website.

PubIt! allows self publishing authors to upload Word, txt, rtf, html and other files. PubIt! converts the files into e-books. The e-book will be available within 72 hours.

The sales deal for selling the ebook at Barnes & Noble is:

  • Books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 – 35%
  • Books priced below $2.98 and over $10 – 60% [pretty hefty fee]

I would be interested from hearing from any readers who have tried out this service.

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-ebook-publishing-tool/feed/ 0 NYTimes on Interoperatiblity of Ebook Readers and Ebook Copyright http://electrosmart.com/Blog/nytimes-on-interoperatiblity-of-ebook-readers-and-ebook-copyright/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/nytimes-on-interoperatiblity-of-ebook-readers-and-ebook-copyright/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:07:18 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=143 Right on cue from the last post – this NYTimes article on interoperability of ebook readers and copyright protection for ebooks – check it out

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/nytimes-on-interoperatiblity-of-ebook-readers-and-ebook-copyright/feed/ 1 Finally – A Tool To Help Protect PDF Ebooks From Scammers http://electrosmart.com/Blog/finally-a-tool-to-help-protect-pdf-ebooks-from-scammers/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/finally-a-tool-to-help-protect-pdf-ebooks-from-scammers/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:39:38 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=137 Continue reading →]]>

Every now and then one comes across a product that is a no brainer – and I
believe PDF Marker is one of those. For any digital publisher of ebooks, maintaining
the pdf format for ease of use for your cusotmers, exposes you to unethical
scammers who can purchase your ebook, then share it free with the world. Next
minute you find it on multiple free ebook download sites and the months of work
you just invested in is rapidly diluted to a low commercial ROI.

I have just downloaded this product to try for the next 30 days – for only
$USD37. [That's for a limited 50 downloads only]. So if you are looking for
a way around this ongoing issue – this just may be it. Well worth checking it
out. Let me know what you think?

Click Here to Check Out PDF Marker

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/finally-a-tool-to-help-protect-pdf-ebooks-from-scammers/feed/ 0 Google Hug Feels More Like a Squeeze http://electrosmart.com/Blog/google-hug-feels-more-like-a-squeeze/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/google-hug-feels-more-like-a-squeeze/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:38:16 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=135 Continue reading →]]> As Google continues to roll out free services to lure its market, behind the scenes it is tightening the screws to help publishers restrict access to articles on their online news sites.

Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google. I expect this will be a welcome, and fair move, enabling online publishers more control over access to the assets that are essentially their core business. As print ad revenues continue to decline, most newspaper publishers are now seeking new ways to make money from their online content.

The ‘First Click Free’ program is in response to claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from their online news pages.

After five clicks in a single day, the user may be routed to payment or registration pages. This will only affect websites that currently charge for content.

Thus, the squeeze between old print subscription media and online subscription media is getting tighter.

Prior to this program, readers could avoid paying subscription fees by routing to the pages via Google. It seems Google searches could link directly to newspaper articles, bypassing subscription systems. Now just two lines of code on the server, and Google will back off. It will be interesting to see how this program impacts subscription rates.

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/google-hug-feels-more-like-a-squeeze/feed/ 0 Designing Interactive Learning http://electrosmart.com/Blog/131/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/131/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:11:44 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=131 Continue reading →]]> Designing effective business improvement programs can be difficult, especially when faced with too many technology options. Many of the more effective presentation methods are actually more traditional style, rather than the animated build so commonly overused in PowerPoint. And of course there is the content – how much is too much, or too little. Check out this simple, yet powerful presentation on how to create more effective business improvement training programs. By Cathy Moore.


For a comprehensive list of free and paid screencasting and authoring tools

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/131/feed/ 0 Amazon Kindle Like Application for PC http://electrosmart.com/Blog/amazon-kindle-like-application-for-pc/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/amazon-kindle-like-application-for-pc/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:45:10 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=128 Continue reading →]]> Amazon have released a free PC application to allow access to books normally only accessible via its Kindle ebook reader.. This allows customers easier access to over 360,000 books [depending on country of access].

The application has core features synchronisation features to keep your reading in synch with Kindle, such as:

  • Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
  • Create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle
]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/amazon-kindle-like-application-for-pc/feed/ 0 New Review Guidelines by FTC Confusing at Best http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-review-guidelines-by-ftc-confusing-at-best/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-review-guidelines-by-ftc-confusing-at-best/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:46:49 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=121 Continue reading →]]> The Federal Trade Commission [FTC] has revised its guidelines around endorsements and testimonials – online and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Bloggers - Their statement appears to judge statements by bloggers, even on person blogs as an ‘endorsement,’ or sponsored message – if the blogger has received any merchandise and been asked to review by an advertiser. In such instances, the connection must be disclosed.

Amazon Reviews – “reviewers” posting to sites like Amazon after receiving a free review copy also need to disclose that information.

Publishers - who “sponsor endorsers either by providing free products [ either directly or through an agent to generate positive word of mouth and drive sales need to advise endorsers to make the necessary disclosures and to monitor their conduct in respect of these endorsements.

The FTC admits its “guides” are “interpretations of the law aimed at helping advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act” rather than binding law, and the burden of proof is on the Commission. Fines of up to $11,000 per violation.

IMO – I can’t see that monitoring the Web and enforcing these new guides will be easy, and at best the new rules are confusing, ambiguous and likely unenforceable.

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-review-guidelines-by-ftc-confusing-at-best/feed/ 0 Should Publishers Support DRM-free Ebooks? http://electrosmart.com/Blog/should-publishers-support-drm-free-ebooks/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/should-publishers-support-drm-free-ebooks/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:44:45 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=116 Continue reading →]]> It seems authors and publishers are often at opposite ends of the tug of war between DRM ebooks and Open [DRM-free] Ebooks.
One such author struggled with his publisher over several months to have his books published DRM free. His reasons were typical of the two major hurdles faccing many other ebook authors:

Cost - this is largely a legacy issue through years of rather irrational pricing in the print publishing industry. Books seem to be largely priced on type of cover [hard or soft] and the number of page, and only then by the value of the content [if at all]. This same logic is being applied to ebooks – seen by many as having less intrinsic value than printed books. What nonsense – just because we have been doing it wrong for years, why should we continue now. Look at it this way. If we hire a professional or consultant to do some work for us, we evaluate their fees based on their knowledge and expertise, and the value we will derive from that. We don’t just evaluate them as one person per hour. Yet this is exactly how most people value books. All books are NOT equal. For example, the knowledge contained in a book like ‘The Logical Organization’. It’s a soft cover, 365 page book that retails at $USD79.95, but the content equates to hundreds of hours of consulting time and tens of thousands of dollars. Whether it is received as a print book or ebook is a personal preference of the reader. Myself, I am busy and travel a lot – I wouldn’t want to be lugging around TLO in my brief case. It wouldn’t fit anyway. But I can readily access it on my PDA or Kindle – and since it is a reference style book I can access it whenever I need to, wherever I am.

DRM - when you encrypt an e-book, DVD or computer game, you are immediately creating a relationship with your customer based on distrust. You don’t trust them. In reality – you don’t trust the low copyright laws of China or the fraudsters in Russia and Korea. Again, the logic is flawed. The normal customer is not going to rip off your ebook any more than lending a print book to a few friends. Copyright pirates and ebook theives will find a way to downloaded pirated copies anyway – they are much smarter at it than publishers, authors and readers combined. So the only people you are irritating are your so-called trusted paying public.

I hate DRM books – I can’t use them as I want, take notes out of them easily to reference quickly. Often, I can’t access it through more than one computer – yet I use 3 networked laptops at home, an ebook reader, PDA, PC and laptop at work. And I have to make sure I publish the password everywhere I go otherwise I forget it and can’t get back in!!! DRM-locked e-books will generally work with only one device, or one particular piece of software. No wonder print books are still preferred!!

]]> http://electrosmart.com/Blog/should-publishers-support-drm-free-ebooks/feed/ 2 New Wave of Real Time IP Collaboration http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-wave-of-real-time-ip-collaboration/ http://electrosmart.com/Blog/new-wave-of-real-time-ip-collaboration/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 05:24:17 +0000 Esmart http://electrosmart.com/Blog/?p=101 Continue reading →]]> Google has come down from the cloud and is now skimming the waves in a new, higher level of collaboration for publishing online.

Announced yesterday, the Wave service will allow multiple users to chat and work together in real time within a window Google is calling a ‘wave’. Wave facilitates real time exchange of documents, photos, videos, maps and IM. The speed is supposedly down to the character level, but as yet, there is no VoIP facility.

On the document side, concurrent text editing, even on image lables, will incorporate a rather nifty playback feature to show how the image and content has evolved.

Wave is merely the next line of IP communication. Find more about Wave in this

The company demonstrated the service at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Thursday, to several thousand developers attending the conference. It is asking developers to give feedback on the service and to participate by creating further applications on Wave’s open platform.

The code will be open source, and developers intending to build on the platform are being given access to APIs, according to a post on the official Google blog.

Read more about Wave in the news.zdnet article

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