Obstacles

Ok, before i post some more writing that i have been working on (it's at least a little bit more exciting, i promise.) I thought i would go over some of the hurdles i've been dealing with.

First: Publishing something on a Kindle. It is, at the same time, a bit more complicated and a bit easier than i had at first thought. Let me explain. Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP) makes it easy for someone who has already formatted their material to publish. All you need is an Amazon login and you can go about uploading your work. (see this quickguide)

The difficult part comes when you have to format it. Amazon recommends using the HTML format, claiming it has the best conversion results, but not everyone knows how to use HTML to format their stuff. (a list of common HTML tags for those who need a refresher or are just starting: introductory HTML formatting.) Personally, i havn't looked at HTML code in detail in a few years, so i had to do a refresher of my own. (Pro Tip: If you have acquired or can acquire a copy of DreamWeaver HTML formatting is made quite a bit easier. You will still need to know HTML, but the bulk of the work can be done by DreamWeaver).

The next problem i ran into with formatting stemmed from the fact that i don't own a Kindle. While HTML can be viewed in a browser, getting an idea of how it will look on a 6 or 9 inch screen is a different story. Ideally, after formatting some work, one would just upload it to the kindle to see if the formatting looks correct. Not having this option, i had to search for a while to find a way to preview my formatted HTML. After an hour or so of searching, i found that it was right under my nose. One can view their formatted work right after they upload it (but before publishing) by clicking the preview button right next to the upload button (fantastically easy, but frustrating to find after an hour of googleing)

Second: The music doesn't seem to be working. I only have a few swatches, and since they were created before the writing was created, the music and the text aren't lining up the way that i had hoped they would. The solution to this problem will be to create the music after the text has been completed. This has proven to be a set back :(

Below are a few of the resources i have been using for formatting and publishing on the Kindle:

http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/23/the-digitizers-josh-tallent-the-kindle-e-book-designer-to-beat-all-kindle-e-book-designers/

http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=23&categoryID=10

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478161