Epub and Kindle?

It's a good sign that Amazon is working with, in some way, the competing epub ebook format. The key now is whether the formatting configured within the epub format maps exactly into the generated azw format. The difficulty for the ebook designer is that there is no way (yet) to test the azw format that will actually be published _before_ it is actually deployed ... This is why I focus so much on the Mobipocket tools. The azw format was developed from the prc format, and since MobiPocket is owned by Amazon there is an incentive to ensure that the prc maps well to the azw format. The dialect of HTML used within the Mobipocket context uses specialized tags (like the mbp page break) that I really love use all of the time. It is criical to my book designs.

Obviously, hyperlinks are paramount for good ebook design and that is where the design of an ebook can fall apart. I want to make sure that the ebooks published function and look exactly like the ebooks I have designed and tested. This is the primary reason that I am publishing public domain texts through the DTP. That way I can experiment with the designs without compromising the ebooks I design from my own books later. If you key in 'cyberpoet' on the Kindle store you will see the public domain books I have designed. I only charge .99, and they are texts that you can get for free elsewhere, but not with the hyperlinks imbedded (typically), unless I have put them on my cyberkindle.com site, which are also free. In short, most of this is experimentation. One of the nice things about publishing a book through DTP is that you can then use the wonderful notes feature, with web backup, that I use all of the time.

I will do some experimenting with the epub tools in this regard, but my work with it so far has demonstrated a great deal of inconsistency within the world of epub generating and reading tools, so I have proceeded with a great deal of caution. I have no doubt that Amazon is taking the same cautious approach. It will get there, but there is quite a way to go.

... Il Matto ...