Getting books out the door • 1 February 2011 • The SnowBlog
Getting books out the door
I'll tell you one area in which an e-book might have an advantage over a paperback: when you're trying to rush something topical out the door. I'm thinking in particular of the WikiLeaks book that the Guardian have just published. What with them being the lead newspaper behind the publication of the largest leak in history, it's an obvious story to reprise at length in book form. And as of today, you can buy a copy. But I can't see any sign of an e-book. Presumably the manuscript was signed off a few weeks ago. Why weren't Kindle readers able to grab themselves a copy in mid-January? Isn't time-sensitive publishing an obvious use of e-book technology? I think I might have to suggest that Em drive down there and explain to them how to turn an InDesign document into a Kindle book. update: Ha ha. That'll teach me to be haughty. As commenter Adam points out, there actually is a Kindle version available. I couldn't find it before, but that may be my own incompetence (though you might have thought Amazon would make it obvious.)
Rob
I'll tell you one area in which an e-book might have an advantage over a paperback: when you're trying to rush something topical out the door. I'm thinking in particular of the WikiLeaks book that the Guardian have just published. What with them being the lead newspaper behind the publication of the largest leak in history, it's an obvious story to reprise at length in book form. And as of today, you can buy a copy. But I can't see any sign of an e-book. Presumably the manuscript was signed off a few weeks ago. Why weren't Kindle readers able to grab themselves a copy in mid-January? Isn't time-sensitive publishing an obvious use of e-book technology? I think I might have to suggest that Em drive down there and explain to them how to turn an InDesign document into a Kindle book. update: Ha ha. That'll teach me to be haughty. As commenter Adam points out, there actually is a Kindle version available. I couldn't find it before, but that may be my own incompetence (though you might have thought Amazon would make it obvious.)