Scot's Blog

Goodreads Review of "I" by Nettie

2017-07-03T19:02:00.001-06:00

This is a non-stop, compulsively readable, brilliant, powerful book. Visit a world of heartache, honor and hope and discover what you owe your brother, how to begin to think for yourself, and find the meaning of freedom.

This book grabs you from the beginning and brings you from the shadows into the light as you meet new heroes. An incredible accomplishment from R. Scot Johns and yes, I did tremendously enjoy the journey.

Thanks to R. Scot and Goodreads Giveaways for the signed copy and the opportunity to read this novel.

- Nettie - July 3, 2017

Independence 4-8818

2017-06-30T09:38:00.000-06:00

We were happy once. We were filled with laughter, for we loved our brothers. We looked upon the world and saw that it was beautiful. Our life was good, for it was orderly. We had a place where we belonged, and therefore we were blessed.

The City Leaders are wise and know all things. But we are wrong.

We wished to be an Artist, before our Day of Choosing. We drew pictures in the Home of Students when we should have studied, which is a sin. We painted on the walls without permission, for which we were chastised many times. Of all our brothers we were chained in the basement most, and left there with no light.

When we received our Life Mandate on the first day of our fifteenth year we were not sent to the Home of the Artists as we had wished, but were punished for our crime. The Council of Vocations made of us instead a Street Sweeper, and we died that day, for our joy and hope were taken from us.

But the Council knows all things, and they are wise. Our body is upon this earth only to serve our brothers. Therefore, we raised our right hand before the Council and said: “The will of our brothers be done.”

We are guilty of the great Transgression of Preference, and now we must do penance for our sin, for all the days of our life.

Yet we know that we were fortunate, for this is how we came to work with Equality 7-2521, they who were our friend. The Council knows all things!

But our gladness did not last.

Curse Equality 7-2521! They have taken our contentment from us. Curse them and have mercy on their body, for they are lost.

Equality 7-2521 was our friend, whom we loved above all others, though it is forbidden us to say these words. The Great Doctrine that is carved upon the Hall of Justice tells us All Men Are Created Equal, and thus we must love our brothers equally, putting none above the others.

Even so, Equality 7-2521 was our dearest friend.

But now our friend is dead.

The 1st Review of "I"

2017-06-29T13:49:00.000-06:00

"A Magical Sequel To Anthem!" ★★★★★
- Dr. Ellen K. Rudolph - June 29, 2017

One day I found something magical in my mailbox. It was a review copy of R. Scot Johns' spellbinding novel, I: A Sequel to Ayn Rand's “Anthem.” The author sent it to me for consideration, aware that I had previously reviewed ANTHEM, Rand’s 1938 (52-page) dystopian novella.

Truth: At age 71, I am a long-time student of Ayn Rand’s rational philosophy.
Truth: Secretly I often puzzled over Rand’s novella and wondered what untold stories lingered between the lines of her sparse but tantalizing and powerful prose.
Truth: I like sequels for that very reason, but only of very thought-provoking literary tales.
Truth: The uncertain future of our own time and place begs for philosophical insight.

So when I opened the pages of this sequel I did so with an historically honed distaste for Collectivism and the travesty it inflicts on the human condition.

True to Ayn Rand’s use of the third person “we” when referring to the self of any character, “I” carries through with that theme and forges ever greater implications. It becomes increasingly clear that constantly intoning the word “we” literally extinguishes all sense of one's own individuality and personal liberty under totalitarianism.

Indeed, the end product of any totalitarian state is exactly this, where:
“We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE,
One, indivisible and forever.”

Such haunting words remind the reader that, even today, maybe especially today, there are those who intone similar notions about gender, sexuality, race, political correctness and, above all, economic equality. And we perceive the mantra of wealth distribution as an overriding feature of collective rule. “We are one together. We are never alone.” say the wealth distributors; after all, we do nothing and are nothing by ourselves.

R. Scot Johns masterfully but gently invokes Rand’s notions of Objectivism by SHOWING US how Collectivism works in extremis, instead of just TELLING US about it. We can see and feel for ourselves how it must be to live where self is not only banished but its expression is forbidden. Things become ever more clear when the Council of Scholars proclaims creativity as treasonous transgressions against the state; when the Council of Eugenics cleanses us of race impurities by terminating the lives of those who lack the requisite genetic purity; and when tongues are cut out and speakers of unspeakable words are burned at the stake. There is much more that will captivate and also cause your muscles to writhe with tension.

Those who know of Ayn Rand’s work are, of course, familiar with such things but the masses are not, nor are our children even though the future is theirs to make of as they will.

I loved this book and I think even Ms. Rand would smile upon it knowingly. It gives depth to her rational concepts without sacrificing their integrity in any way. Even more importantly, it evokes a sense of urgency about the ever-looming perils of totalitarian rule and what we as individuals can and must do to counter it.

PS. This is also a triumphant love story. Sh-hhhhhh!

Rush & I

2017-06-24T17:54:00.001-06:00

Thanks to RUSH for kind permission to use the lyrics to 2112 in "I".

amzn.to/2q4lGxA

It was the album "2112" that first introduced me to Ayn Rand in my early teens, via the reference in the album's liner notes to the genius of the great Objectivist philosopher. So it is wholly appropriate that it comes around now to the inclusion of several excerpts and references to that seminal prog-rock record in my sequel to Ayn Rand's Anthem, on which (at least in part) 2112 was based.

While the ending of the musical version of the story was problematic at best, being fraught with nihilistic pessimism and leaving many questions unanswered (one might imagine Rush penning a sequel to 2112 in which the protagonist emerges from death into a Hemispheres-like realm of continued existence) - not to mention its inherent elements of mysticism being entirely opposed to Rand's rational outlook - Anthem itself ends on a note of hopeful optimism, albeit one that is left unsettled, with the world still fully ensnared in the throes of totalitarian collectivism. Therefore, neither version of the tale felt entirely conclusive.

It was my intention in writing "I", therefore, to provide a more suitable ending with a sense of closure. After all, the idea that a single man could overthrow an entire world government begged many questions of its own. How does one free a people who do not even know they are enslaved? What means and methods does he use to break those chains? What is their response, and how does the World Council react? Surely they would not sit idly by while one by one the unhappy citizens depart for greener pastures, ala Atlas Shrugged? Does the world devolve into a fourth war of widespread violence and fire? Or is it something more clandestine and subversive in nature?

These are the questions I sought to answer when setting out to develop the story of Anthem (and 2112 by extrapolation) further. While the specific details of 2112 are distinct from Anthem, the story arc and structure are much the same, and consequently I found myself referring to (and quite often listening to) the album again and again for inspiration, even though the characters and events of I are those of Anthem - that is, discovery of electricity and light rather than music. Yet many of the lyrics suited so well that I found I wanted to include a few to bring the whole full circle, as it were.

Consequently, I sought - and ultimately received - permission from Rush's music publishers to do so. Thus, you will find three snippets of lyrics and a handful of subtle references to 2112 scattered throughout I, some more and some less obvious than others. I wish to thank the band (and Neil Peart as lyricist specifically) for kind permission to use their work. I can only hope I did them justice.

(Incidentally, the lyrics in the meme above are taken from The Fountain of Lamneth, Part VI, from the Caress of Steel album, not 2112, but are equally apropos.)

Happiness

2017-06-24T10:10:00.002-06:00

amzn.to/2q4lGxA

Dreams

2017-06-23T00:21:00.001-06:00

Read the sequel now at amzn.to/2q4lGxA

The Annotated Anthem - FREE eBook

2017-06-07T15:00:00.000-06:00

Click to download free ebook

"It is a sin to write this..."

These immortal words form one of the finest opening sentences in all of literature. They are simple, direct, compelling, immediately prompting many questions. Why is it a sin to write? What are we about to read that is considered so egregious as to be a sin? Who is writing it, and why? What prompted this immoral action, and what will be its consequences?

Ayn Rand wrote Anthem in 1937 as a warning against totalitarian oppression and the dangers of collectivism - the ultimate result of extreme socialism in which all are made equal regardless of merits. She saw the results of this firsthand in her Russian homeland before fleeing to the U.S. This short dystopian novella presents a world where all live only for their brothers and the singular pronoun has been removed from human language.

I first read Anthem in my early teens, and have read it many times since. It was a formative influence on my deeply ingrained sense of independence and self-reliance. It was an influence on George Orwell and Neal Peart as well.

In writing my sequel to Anthem I re-read it again a dozen or more times, gleaning details and making copious notes on everything from social structure to population count. How many people live in the City? How long has it been since the Great Rebirth? What technologies are available? How many Vocations are there and what do they produce? How do the Councils function and how are they selected? The more important question in the end, of course, what "how does it all turn out?" That is the question I attempted to answer in the writing of I.

In gathering together all these details I compiled a number of lists and charts, many of which can now be found in the Archives section of my website. However, in order to facilitate a quick and easy reference I also produced what I now call "The Annotated Anthem" (complete with matching cover), an ebook edition containing 577 interlinear hyperlinked end-notes and running commentary addressing a broad range of issues, such as:

analysis of plot details and structure
character traits and motivations
detailed breakdown of socio-political structure
population count based on numbers given
Homes, Departments and Councils evaluated
technologies present or inferred in the City, as well as what is absent
inconsistencies and contradictions in the narrative or details
aspects of Objectivist philosophy considered in context
differences between the 1938 and 1946 editions, along with selected quotes of deleted lines

You can download the ebook free in three formats (Kindle, ePub, PDF) by clicking the image above and signing up for my mailing list (I hardly ever send out anything, so you won't be spammed, and you can always unsubscribe). If you're interested in dystopian fiction of this sort I am in the formative planning stages of an original apocalyptic fiction novel that I hope to start this summer. The mailing list will allow me to keep you posted on my progress. It may or may not be a graphic novel.

Either way, this is a chance to get a critical edition of Anthem free of charge. Rand's book is in the public domain in the U.S. where I live, but most free editions are poorly formatted or taken directly from Project Gutenburg. This edition is derived from the revised corrected text of the 1946 edition, of which I have several versions, including an original Pamphleteers edition from Caxton Press in Caldwell, Idaho.

I: Print Edition Cover Final

2017-05-27T10:45:00.000-06:00

I meant to post this earlier, but have been quite busy getting ready for the launch of "I" next Wednesday. This is the final "grunged-up" layout for the print edition cover, as opposed to the "clean" version posted earlier.

The image is intended to depict the "Brotherhood of Men" mural painted on the walls of the Hall of Justice by the Home of Artists, a propaganda wing of the City Council. As such, I felt the shapeless, faceless "men's room" emblem was the ideal choice to represent the mindless mass of automatons that populate the City of Ayn Rand's Anthem. "I" is the story of their liberation.

The first shipment of print editions arrived this week:

These will mainly be used as review copies and giveaways on Goodreads and LibraryThing for promotion purposes. If you would like to receive a review copy you can contact me through the link above. It is highly recommended, though not required, that you have read Anthem first. Review copies will be distributed at my sole discretion.

The print edition of "I" is distributed through Ingram, and therefore is available to order at any bookstore. It runs 251 pages (266 with front and back matter), at just around 122,000 words. Suggested retail is $12.95.

Print edition pre-orders at Amazon: http://amzn.to/2r7fUM2

"I" Kindle Edition Available for Pre-Order

2017-04-02T22:03:00.000-06:00

Click Image to view Product Page

I - A Sequel to Ayn Rand's "Anthem"

Fantasy Castle Books
ISBN: 978-0-9821538-8-8
ASIN: B06XZC2GH7251 pages
$7.95

Release Date: May 31, 2017

Available for pre-order today in Kindle format on Amazon. Print edition pre-orders forthcoming.

Stay tuned for additional content to be posted on my website, including an exclusive "Annotated Anthem" as a free download in the coming weeks.

Note also that the cover art has now been finalized. Print edition jacket art will be posted when the print pre-order page is live (this will take some weeks, as I go through Lightning Source for print on demand, and their process is somewhat cumbersome).

There will also be a free Matchbook bundle so that those who purchase the print edition will also get the ebook free.

There may also be an ePub edition at some point, but for now it will be exclusive to Amazon. This enrolls it in Kindle Unlimited, so those of you who subscribe or have Prime will be able to borrow it after its release.

I - Full Jacket Wrap (Clean)

2016-11-29T19:16:00.002-07:00

NOTE: This is the initial "clean" copy before final grunge and touch-ups were applied.

Full cover mock-up, pending final page count and size. Projected page count after editorial revisions is 175 pages. The first rough draft is complete at 162 pages, barring a half dozen scenes which still need to be inserted at various points in order to tie up loose ends and provide additional back story. Editing will likely reduce the page count to some degree, although I tend to add rather than subtract with each revision.

I is a continuation of Ayn Rand's 1937 novella Anthem, first published in England in 1938, and in revised edition in the U.S. in 1946, where it is now in the public domain. This sequel begins the day after Equality 7-2521 flees into the Uncharted Forest, and explores the repercussions and subsequent effects of that event.

Since first reading Anthem as a teenager, I have long pondered what might happen after the events depicted in the novella, several hints for which are provided in its final chapters. Among the relevant passages that have motivated and inspired this sequel are the following:

"We heard that you had gone to the Uncharted Forest, for the whole City is speaking of it."
- Liberty 5-3000, upon following Equality 7-2521 into the Forest (Part 9)

"When I shall have read all the books and learned my new way, when my home will be ready and my earth tilled, I shall steal one day, for the last time, into the cursed City of my birth. I shall call to me my friend who has no name save International 4-8818, and all those like him, Fraternity 2-5503, who cries without reason, and Solidarity 9-6347 who calls for help in the night, and a few others. I shall call to me all the men and the women whose spirit has not been killed within them and who suffer under the yoke of their brothers. They will follow me and I shall lead them to my fortress. And here, in this uncharted wilderness, I and they, my chosen friends, my fellow-builders, shall write the first chapter in the new history of man."
- Equality 7-2521, in the house from the Unmentionable Times (Part 12)

Of course, it is never quite that easy to free a people who have long been subjugated. Even more so when they do not even know they are enslaved - and in this case when they have so little sense of self that they have lost the first person pronoun from their language. How one goes about achieving freedom from oppression is a question that has haunted many nations throughout mankind's history.

The only proper answer is education. For it is knowledge that frees the mind. But man by his very nature as an individual has an independent spirit that tends to chafe at constraints upon his liberty. And that spirit is both enduring and indomitable.

"Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through."
- Equality 7-2521

I - Cover Art Reveal

2016-11-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Details forthcoming...

"How To Make Kindle Comics & Children's Books" Version 3.0 Released

2015-09-23T19:18:00.000-06:00

A new "3.0" edition of my Kindle fixed layout formatting guide has been released, and is available for download either from my website or from Amazon. The new edition includes both editorial revisions and content updates throughout to bring it into line with the current state of Kindle operating systems across devices and apps, based on the latest round of testing I have done.

Both the data and discussions of features and functionality have been revised, most noticeably in the Fixed Layout Functionality Chart that makes up Appendix A, where each function has been broken out into its own section so that the table data, footnotes, and commentary are all together, and inclusive of just one feature at a time, making it much easier to get a comprehensive overview of where that function stands. Moreover, the antiquated Kindle 3 has been removed and its place give over to data gleaned from recent testing of the Kindle for iOS app. The chart on the website is still in one piece as before, although I may change it at some point as well.

If you have purchased the bundle from Fantasy Castle Books you can download the updated files using the original link you were given. If you need to have the link resent please send a note via the contact form on the website and I'll get it to you. All three files in the bundle have been revised, and even if you bought the book before the PDF or EPUB versions were added, all three are now included in your download for no extra charge.

If you bought the book through Amazon you can get the update from the link provided on your "Manage Your Content & Devices" page. Amazon will not automatically send the updated version to you if you simply delete the title from your device or app and re-download it; you must do this from the Manage Your Content page in order to approve the update, since it will remove any bookmarks, highlights, or annotations you have added.

New Kindle Sample Files

2015-08-28T08:51:00.000-06:00

Two new Kindle sample files have been added to the free downloads over on my main website. All of the sample and template files have been collected together on the Tutorial Index & Resources page for easier access, and I've made all of them free now, rather than requiring a download code.

The two new files are based on the Simple and Advanced templates, but both been slightly revised with new content and notes to augment and illustrate the features available in that particular format.

The 8-page "Basic Layout" sample uses the "comic" book-type with the auto-orientation function enabled to showcase the fact that it includes both single and two-page spreads, with and without an inner margin between them. It has no active text, no hyperlinks, and no text or image pop-ups, which cannot be added if you want these two-page layouts. It also illustrates how the Virtual Panels feature works to zoom a page, or page spread, in equally divided sections that can be swiped in sequence.

The 16-page "Zoom Features" sample is based on the Advanced template, but with the orientation locked to portrait, since in order to have region magnification you cannot have page spreads, so there's little point in making landscape available (unless the pages themselves are landscape, which these aren't). This sample showcases all of the more complex features that are currently available in Kindle fixed layouts with no book-type value added. These include both text and image hyperlinks, a linked Table of Contents page (as well a menu TOC), live text with full functionality, several methods of switching text and images for "interactive" animations, a new bilingual text example, comic panel zoom with live text in both the default and magnified regions, and "lightbox" shading both within and outside zoom areas, as well as others. Note that the interactive features do not work well on the Kindle for PC app due to its incorrect positioning of active links, so this sample must be read on an actual Kindle device.

While the companion templates have previously included both the epub source code file as well as a pre-converted mobi for reference, they will henceforth only contain the template epub file itself. Since it can be converted easily into a mobi file itself there's little reason to waste the bandwidth. And while I make these available for free, I still have to pay for file hosting and delivery, which is why I had previously charged a minor fee to those who have not purchased my formatting manual. Splitting the epub and mobi files into two separate downloads will allow me to better track what is being used and what not to waste my time updating further.

My ulterior rationale for doing this is to make these sample files more readily available for potential ebook formatting clients, to whom I send the file if they're unsure what features they want included in their project. It's often just easier to show than to explain how something works.

Finally, for those who have purchased my Kindle formatting book, there will be a new revised edition released shortly, with several updates due to the changes caused by the latest Kindle firmware upgrades, as well as some editorial revision for clarification and the elimination of a few sections that are no longer relevant. I will post when the new edition is available, and send out an email to those who have purchased though my website. Those of you who have bought the book on Amazon will have to deal with their tedious file replacement process, which has not gotten better. But more on that when the time comes.

Kindle Fixed Layout Functionality Chart Update 2015.2

2015-08-24T08:57:00.000-06:00

For the second time this year the Kindle Fixed Layout Functionality Chart has been updated due to changes in the various Kindle reading systems. I've just completed another round of testing to determine how the latest system updates have affected functionality in fixed layouts, and some of those changes are significant, whether for good or ill.

I've also added a Change Log just above the chart to make it easier to see what's happened since the last updates, as well as adding a row denoting the latest OS version tested for each device or app.

These tests involve loading a minimum of nine different Kindle test files (more if some new variable needs testing) - each of which contain over a dozen pages that have been created specifically for this purpose - onto the seven different Kindle apps and devices I currently own. This creates a series of 72 iterations of a Kindle fixed layout file on a Kindle reading system, requiring a total of 1044 page loads (if each page is only viewed once on each system), and countless orientation changes of each device (which for the Paperwhite is a pain, to say the least), each page of which must be run through a battery of tests to determine what is working and what is not, pursuant to the ten items listed on the chart (only 8 of which I now test), and carefully noting any anomalies that occur. This tends to get somewhat confusing if one is not quite awake, and thus requires a lot of coffee (donations gratefully accepted).

The primary variables involved are the three "book-type" values (comic, children, or none), and the inclusion or absence of region magnification code in a given file. In addition, the orientation-lock variables have generally been included in the testing, with respect to page-spread functionality, which in any case has made no difference, but still has to be tested to determine that this is still true. This, of course, as with the book-type, requires a change in the metadata value, and thus the creation and conversion of a separate Kindle file for just that instance (delineated by titles such as Kindle-FXL-Comic-NoRegMag-Landscape.mobi). Region Magnification itself is dependent on its inclusion or absence within the publication itself rather than the metadata value entered, which is entirely irrelevant.

As mentioned in the notes, and obvious by the data included, I am still only testing these seven Kindle reading systems, due to lack of resources to procure more, or time to deal with it in any event. I plan eventually to get at least one HDX device, but at present just can't justify the investment, not only due to the financial expense, but as much because it frustrates me to no end how poorly the software is designed, and I'd almost rather not know what features are unsupported - or flat out broken - on yet another version of the Kindle OS. If just one feature worked the same on all devices it would make things so much easier.

UPDATE: The 'layout-blank' property has now been tested thoroughly, and the results noted.

Kindle Publishing Guidelines 2015.2

2015-07-11T09:02:00.000-06:00

Just a few quick notes on this latest update to the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. Most of it covers minor details, but there are a couple of interesting items. All the sections containing changes are listed in the Revision History shown above (highlights mine). Those three highlighted sections are all deletions relating to Adobe products, and along with the removal of InDesign from the list of means by which "publishers can create Kindle books in-house...using Kindle Publisher tools" in Section 2.2, expunges all prior references to Adobe in the Guidelines, save for one mention of InDesign in Section 2.3 Third-Party Conversion Services, where it's listed as a "typical input format" for outside conversions (i.e. non-Amazon related).

2.2.1 Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign

The deletion of this section removes any mention of the Kindle Plugin for InDesign in theGuidelines, along with the link to its web page. That page still exists, and is linked to from the side menu of the other Kindle Publishing Tools pages, but is still marked as "Beta." The removal of it here from the section on "Paths to Getting Your Content on Kindle" implies that Amazon are giving up on support for this plugin, and no longer consider it a valid path to publication.

This is not wholly surprising, given that they haven't updated the plugin (or the corresponding Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign Publishing Guidelines) since version 0.973 in September of 2013. In fact, they've never updated the plugin for InDesign CC, and still list CS6 as the latest version supported. But then, they still list Windows 7 as the newest PC operating system too. Until now I just presumed they were being negligent, but the intentional removal of this section says otherwise. Were they preparing to release an update they would not have done this.

2.2.1.3 Using KindleGen

Removed the "C:>" root element from the command line example.

Added a note that "zip formats are supported for XMDF and FB2 sources" and "directory formats are supported for XMDF sources."

Changed/added the following -locale element references:

zh: Chinese (from ch:Chinese)
pt: Portuguese (from bp: Brazilian Portuguese)
ru: Russian (added)

3.1.1 Text Guideline #1: Body Text Must Use Defaults

A new paragraph has been inserted to the third bullet item (detailing the range of gray-scale colors acceptable for text elements with a forced color), giving specific directions on how to determine what the gray value is for a given color. See the Guidelines for details.

3.1.4 Text Guideline #4: Other Encodings Are Supported

Some editorial clarification here simplifies a previously convoluted and unnecessarily redundant sentence structure, while a second method for specifying HTML encoding by an XML declaration has been added:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

In addition, the first method (using the <meta> tag in the head element) has had its character set reference altered from the previous "iso-8859-1" to the more standard "UTF-8".

3.1.5 Text Guideline #5: Use Supported Characters and Spaces

Previously titled "Spaces and Unicode Characters," this section adds two new paragraphs stating that plain text UTF-8 should be used to represent characters (hence the change in the preceding section), except where XML entities are required. The second paragraph specifies the three instances where XML entities are strictly required, these being:

< (<)> (>)& (&)

where the values in parentheses are required in order to avoid misinterpretation of the code by the reading system. For example, if ampersands are used in the opf metadata it will result in a failed conversion.

The example is provided here that the © symbol should be used rather than the © named reference.

3.6.5 Image Guideline #5: Use GIF or PNG for Line-Art and Text

Removed the previous reference to the 127 kb image file size restriction. Now it just says "...fit the image size limit."

3.7.3 Table Guideline #3: Create Simple HTML Tables

Removed all the references to specific Kindle iterations, including the Kindle 1 with its particular issue in dealing with tables. Now it just says that <table> tags "can be displayed on Kindle devices and applications." Period. Not sure if this means the ancient K1 can now handle simple tables, or that they no longer care. The only person I knew who had one got rid of it years ago.

3.8.3 Styling Guideline #3: Design for a Good eBook Experience

A new section that adds a lengthy paragraph that is essentially useless, and includes this utterly unenforceable guideline:

Using fixed-layout format just to replicate print layout is not allowed in Kindle books because customers report this as a bad user experience.

As if they could know what your intention was. Maybe you intended to replicate the print experience, results be damned. Or maybe you just suck at formatting. Hard to say. But I guess Amazon intends to try. Does this mean they plan to start pulling poorly formatting fixed layouts? One can only hope. On that note, however, see the next section.

4.1 Metadata Fields Supporting Fixed-Layout Books

Okay, so now we come to the crux of the matter. Amazon has made a crucial change to the Region Magnification metadata description which, oddly, not only does not remove it (even though it's non-functional, and thus, irrelevant), but essentially makes it mandatory. Not the element itself, mind you, but Region Magnification itself. Here is how it now describes this element:

An optional tag for enabling the Kindle Panel View and Kindle Text Pop-Up features that are required for comics and children's books (italics mine).

I employ the italics to point out the seeming discrepancy in the statement. In essence, the tag itself is option only because it doesn't work; i.e. it makes no difference if you add it or what value to assign to it. As I have discussed both in my Kindle tutorial series and my formatting manual, KindleGen will add the RegionMagnification entity itself (and the correct value of true) if Region Mag is, in fact, present in the publication, regardless of whether you put it in the metadata or not, and will remove it otherwise, even if you enter it with a value of false. Thus, there is no point in adding it at all. The tag is truly optional.

However, according to the latter half of this statement - which is the portion added in this update - Panel View and Text Pop-Ups are now required for Kindle comics and children's books (respectively, one must presume, since Panel View is only available in comics). This is not a critical distinction for comics, however, since the Virtual Panels feature is present by default where custom panels are not provided by the content creator. Still, this statement technically makes is a requirement to include your own "Region Magnification" elements, a term the Guidelines uses interchangeably for Panel View (i.e. in the heading for section 5.4).

The real dilemma here, though, is with regard to children's books. Many Kindle ebooks of both types consist of full page images with the text included in the image. This is a poor design decision, as I have often stated, due to the loss of many crucial features, but one that is unavoidable for many ebook creators due to the cost and complexity of adding pop-up elements. According to this new addition, that is no longer an option.

Now, granted, this has technically been the case all along. Section 4.2.2 which follows this has always listed as "Requirement #2" the use of Region Magnification in children's books, rather than adding it to the later "Recommendations" section. But it has not been strongly enforced.

Does the addition of this clause imply that Amazon intends to begin enforcing this rule more diligently, and start refusing children's books with no Text Pop-Ups? Or is it just a strongly suggestive guideline that has been added in order to be more consistent with the section that follows?

Curiously, where this metadata element chart is repeated in Section 5.1 for comics the change has not been carried over. Editorial oversight or intentional omission?

8.1 Media Query Guidelines (and subsections 8.1.1—8.1.5)

Incidentally, I did not do a post when the 2015.1 version of the Guidelinse was released, as it included only this one change, although it was quite useful. This new "Media Query Guidelines" section was added which is fairly extensive and contains a lot of very helpful notes for handling backwards compatibility. This is, of course, primarily of use for reflowing ebooks, and so not as much of interest for my purposes, as fixed layouts are another beast entirely.

Amazon Changes Kindle Unlimited Payout Method

2015-06-15T09:09:00.000-06:00

Amazon has just announced a critically important change to the way authors are paid for titles borrowed through both the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Online Lending Library programs. The former is Amazon's successful $9.99/month ebook subscription service, while the latter is the one-book-per-month benefit Prime subscription members receive, but both reward the authors of the borrowed books with royalties paid on a monthly basis.

In either case, the authors of the borrowed titles have previously been paid a percentage of a "global" fund each month, divided equally between the total number of titles borrowed, regardless of their length, or whether those books were ever read. This is a crucially important distinction, as it has given and enormous financial advantage to authors of shorter works, since the payout has always been the same for, say, a 20-page children's ebook as it is for a 600-page historical novel: they each count as one borrow, and thus impart the same payment.

This, along with the general downward push of ebook pricing by consumers who feel ebooks should be cheap due to their lack of physical substance (as if the content does not matter), has lent great emphasis to the proliferation of shorter works which can be produced (and consumed) much faster. The continuing trend of children's ebooks to top the sales charts in percent of growth year-on-year bears witness to this trend. And while I am not an advocate of exclusivity in general, there has been very little incentive for authors of longer works to enroll their titles in Kindle Select, Amazon's exclusive distribution program that is required for all titles to be included in the lending programs.

However, today Amazon announced that beginning on July 1st, they will radically change the way that payouts are distributed to authors of borrowed content. Rather than dividing the funds on a per borrow basis, the payments will now be allotted on a per page read calculation. That is, the total global fund for each month will be divided by the total number of pages read of each author's work during that period, and doled out accordingly.

This has significant implications, both with regard to the benefit of enrolling in the lending programs, as well as to the creation of new content. It will now be vastly more advantageous to add pages to your work (as far as Amazon's program is concerned, at any rate), rather than releasing shorter pieces in order to get more titles borrowed. And while we all would like to think that book content is produced solely by authors who care only about the work itself and not the monetary benefits, one truth I've learned during my years of successes and failures as an author is that writing books is a business, and the authors who are most successful approach it that way, producing content calculated to bring the greatest return on their investment of time and energy. The Kindle lending programs have become a pivotal part of that return for many, dispensing tens of millions of dollars to authors every year - many of whom have been utterly ignored by the traditional publishing machine.

The key factor in this change is that a single ebook that is borrowed now returns an investment more in line with the amount of work it took to create it. A short novella of 100 pages will be paid a rate one third of that received by the author of a full length 300-page novel, and 1/6th the royalty allotted to the author of a 600 page book that likely took an equally longer time to write - assuming, of course, the whole book is read from start to finish.

And that is the other crucial component of this change.

Just borrowing and sampling a book is now no longer enough to trigger a full payment to the author of that work; instead, Amazon's "Big Brother" ability to monitor the status of all content on the Whispersync web (created ostensibly to allow a user's account to sync a title across all of their devices and reading apps) gives them the data required to make this change, since they know exactly how many pages have been read in every ebook ever bought or borrowed from them (assuming it has not been hacked and side-loaded by the reader, which at best is a small percentage of the total number). This is one case in which this admittedly creepy surveillance capacity turns out to work in the content creator's favor. If a reader borrows five books, say, but only reads 10% of each (the minimum required to trigger the payout previously), while another reader borrows just one book but reads the whole thing, the authors of those works will receive due compensation equal to what the readers actually consumed.

And as far as I can see, that is as it should be.

One factor that I will be highly interested to see as a result of this is how it affects the per-unit payout. That is, given an equal number of total ebook borrows month to month, with at least some of these now receiving less compensation due not being read completely, logically speaking the remaining titles that are read clear through will receive a higher payout overall than they would have otherwise, since it is based on a total pool of funds that is established by Amazon each month (and drawn at least in part from subscription fees for Prime and Unlimited membership).

This amount has always varied month-to-month, due to seasonal trends in reading, but has ranged anywhere between $1-10 million, give or take, generally averaging something like $2-3 million (this month's being $10.8 million due to a huge $7.8 million bonus). With the establishment of Kindle Unlimited in July of 2014, the per-unit payouts have rapidly declined - dropping from $2.20 per borrow in June of last year (just prior to the KU rollout) to a low of $1.33 in October - due to the increasing number of borrows among which the pool must be shared. My guess is that this is Amazon's attempt to rectify that problem, as well as the dilemma presented by the steadily increasing number of subscription members overall.

The ultimate question is: Will Amazon increase or decrease the monthly payout based on these factors? And more importantly, will authors feel they are being compensated more fairly as a result, or less, and how will they respond?

Kindle Textbook Creator Updated

2015-04-16T09:11:00.000-06:00

Amazon released a major upgrade (1.5.14.0) to the fledgling Textbook Creator app this afternoon that adds two significant improvements: support for embedded audio and video (as well as popup images), and simple table of contents creation. There are also new rulers and guides to help you align the inserted content.

You can find the official announcement here, and download the updated application here. The User Guide has also been updated from edition 1.1 to 2.0, and can be downloaded from the link on the lower-right of the application page.

A quick look at the Revision Notes shows several new sections have been added to the User Guide:

Before looking at the specifics of these changes (and several others that are curiously not listed), I should point out that the files created with KTC are currently only readable on newer HDX Fire tablets, since they are by nature higher resolution fixed layout files that the older (and smaller) Kindle readers are not well suited to view without some means to magnify the text, which KTC does not yet provide - unless you use the new image pop-ups to do so; but this is cumbersome at best, as it employs a clunky icon rather than actual interactive text as in the standard KF8 fixed format. The program outputs the unique Kindle Package Format (KPF) file type, rather than the standard AZW3 or other fixed mobi formats that are supported on nearly all Kindle devices and apps. Note, however, the following detail from today's announcement:

Access to the interactive features in these textbooks...will soon be available on other free Kindle reading apps for iPhone, iPad, Android phones, and Android tablets, as well as Mac and PC computers.

Notice that they do not include any additional Kindle devices, only Kindle mobile or desktop apps. Still, this will greatly broaden the usability of these files, and bring them to the majority of screens most readers of digital textbooks are likely to use. Textbooks are, of course, the intended purpose of this file format, although in the KDP Help Topics the listing for KTC is found under the somewhat ambiguous heading Publishing Illustrated Content. Even more confusingly, this page has long had interactive content listed as available in this format, even though it has not been until today. But then, this is hardly the first time Amazon has gotten ahead of themselves: note that the KTC Beta page already states that the KPF format can be read on all of the Kindle free reading apps, which is dramatically enforced by the included promo video. Note, though, that the page still lists the app as being in Beta.

In addition to the output format issue, your source input file for the page layout can still only be PDF, either as single or multiple page files. Individual pages can be added or deleted, but you cannot change the page layout from within the program; it is solely used to compile the source files into a Kindle-compliant output format - though now, of course, you can also embed multimedia content in those pages. And that is the big news here today, as outside of reflowable ebooks in the Kindle for iOS app, this is the first time that media files have been supported on the Kindle platform. So let's take a closer look at some of those details.

1.1 Import Format

Kindle Textbook Creator now supports the addition of the following multimedia file formats:

Video: .mp4
Audio: .mp3
Images: .jpeg or .png

Images can now be embedded as "figure pop-ups" to supplement whatever graphic content is already designed into the PDF source file. These and the audio/video content are displayed as icons that can be placed wherever you would like them on them page by simple drag and drop. Tapping on the icon in the published ebook will activate an internal plug-in that will play the content. Additionally, when previewing the packaged content, the interface provides you with a preview of the currently selected file in its native plug-in. But more on this in a minute.

1.2 Export Format

Even though it is not listed in the Revision Notes, a new paragraph has been added to this section that could use a bit more explanation. In essence, it says that you can update a KPF file on your KDP content page, so long as it was initiallyt created using KTC - presumably you would want to do this if you go back and add new interactive content to a title you have already published - but, if you create a new version of a title published in a different Kindle format you will have to publish it as a new title.

Unfortunately, that is all the information that the User Guide provides. However, if you go to the Help page for this topic you will find some additional (and rather critical) details, including a link to the KDP Customer Support contact page that you can use to have them link that new edition of your work to the previously published version, so that you do not lose accumulated reviews, etc. But as it states on the Help page, sales rankings for the two editions will still be calculated separately for each.

1.3.2.1 Rulers and Guide Lines

As mentioned, there are now guide items to help you align your embedded content on the page. There is a Show/Hide check-box on the View menu that surrounds the Document Window with rulers, and if you hover your mouse over one of these you can click and drag out guide lines for horizontal and vertical alignment. A tool tip tells you the current position of your cursor. Units are in Points, which unfortunately I can see no way to change. Grab a guide line with your mouse and drag it to the ruler to remove it.

1.3.3 Properties Panel (Previously titled "Right Panel")

The newly renamed Properties Panel on the right is where you'll find the new option to add a page as a linked location in the Table of Contents, as well as all the functions for adding and editing your interactive content. A couple of screenshots give examples, which we'll look at further in the sections below. The panel content here changes depending on what is selected in the windows on the left.

1.4 Keyboard Shortcuts

Rather than listing "Delete Page" as the Action for the Delete keyboard command, the new edition of the User Guide gives it as "Delete Plug-in" instead. This means you can no longer use the keyboard shortcut to delete unwanted pages from your project by highlighting them in the Pages Panel on the left and simply hitting the delete key, but must now use the option in the Edit menu drop-down instead, or right-click on the page thumbnail on the left to bring up a context menu that contains a Delete Selected Page option. In a way this is really best, since it keeps you from deleting a page by mistake when you meant to delete a plug-in that you thought was selected instead!

2.3 Building Your Table of Contents

This new section details the fairly simple and straightforward task of adding pages to a Table of Contents. As mentioned earlier, a new check-box in the Properties Panel provides the option to "Include Page in Table of Contents" whenever a page is selected, along with a box in which you can include a Page Title label of up to 100 characters for each entry.

Bear in mind that this does not create an actual TOC page, but only produces the Kindle device menu links. These can be seen (and tested) when you preview your project by selecting a new icon at the bottom of the Inspector. Select the little device icon on the left to return to the Preview options tab.

2.7-2.11 Plug-ins

Five new sections have been added that go into all the gritty details of adding and editing the three new media types that KPF supports. I won't go into all the specifics here, since that is the purpose of the User Guide, and it's all a fairly intuitive process. Amazon has provided new options for adding media files in a couple of places: from the Edit > Insert Plugin menu drop-down (where there is also a Delete Plug-in option), or from the Insert icon in the menu bar next to the Undo/Reco icons. As mentioned earlier, you can also delete the plug-in by selecting its icon and either hitting the delete key or right-clicking to get the option from the context menu.

When you add a media file you will get a suitable file type icon which you can drag around the page to a suitable location. In Amazon's delightfully annoying editorial style, they have provided an entire new section (2.8) of nearly a page in length to state (in four numbered steps) that you can change the location of an icon at any time if you change your mind.

Once you have added a media file icon to your page (or selected one already there), the Properties Panel on the right will provide you with a number of options, as well as a bit of info about the file, including its size. An important note on this point is that the KDP file upload size is limited to 650 MB (a restriction that was recently increased substantially from its previous 50 MB limit), and should you attempt to insert a file larger than this you will receive a warning that the file exceeds the allowed size. However, you will not receive a warning should two or more files exceed this size! It will, in fact, actually package the project and produce a file that will not be accepted for upload to the KDP portal.

Below the file info is a Replace button that allows you to exchange the current file with another, and below this there are several text entry boxes for adding a title and descriptive content to your media. Again, this is all very simple and straightforward, and does not even require reading the User Guide.

3.1 Previewing Your Book

Just a slight bit of elaboration has been added here to explain the new TOC and Device icons and their respective tabs, as mentioned above.

3.3 Uploading Your Book to KDP

Another reiteration of the KPF file replacement protocol has been added here, which adds nothing new to what was said above. The hyperlink to the KDP webpage has been removed from the Properties Panel (as has all of the previous Help text found there) and moved to the Help drop-down menu instead. The remainder of this section is the same.

Conclusion

While KTC is still clearly a Beta program with few frills and even fewer customization options, this first update makes a very significant leap in terms of content. The possibilities of what can be done with interactive media in a Kindle fixed format file have improved three-fold at one fell swoop, although it would be far more useful were it also available in the far more developed, and EPUB-based, KF8 format, rather than the PDF clone stamp that it is. But most average content creators don't have the time or interest in learning HTML/CSS coding, so the PDF input is a plus for them, making it easy to create print and ebook editions from a single file - one that can now quite easily have bonus content added in its digital incarnation. The icon-driven UI leaves a lot to be desired - particularly when held against the graceful interface produced by iBooks Author. KTC is clunky and old-school in many ways, but it's simple and it's easy, and for many users simple is best.

Kindle Textbook Creator Breakdown

2015-01-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

An astonishing new app was released by Amazon today called the Kindle Textbook Creator that creates yet another entirely new ebook format for the Kindle with these astounding "enhanced" features:

* You can add notes
* You can add charts!
* You can use the dictionary!
* You can search Wikipedia!
* You can sync across devices!

But wait, doesn't the old Kindle format do all that? Ah, but there's more!

You can also add "flashcards" (well, not yet, but someday...), and columns (just like PDF), and math equations (from the font embedded in the PDF), and graphs (copied as an image from the PDF) and all you have to do is load in a PDF! So, basically, the "new" .kpf (Kindle Package Format) is a .pdf file with the file extension changed. You put in a PDF, and out comes a PDF clone that can only be read on a Kindle.

So now let's look at what the new format cannot do, or is restricted to:

The input can only be a PDF
The output file is not reflowable
There are no text or image overlays
There is no MathML support (since ePub3 is not a valid import format)
Output file cannot be read or opened directly in a Fire device or Kindle app
Output file can only be uploaded to KDP for publishing
The file created can only be sold on Amazon, per terms of service

At present there is no way to actually add the "flashcards" that I can find. There are, in fact, only four options available at all. Two of these exist on the Edit menu, and consist of "Insert Page(s)" and "Delete Pages". The other two options are available from the File menu or from little icons in the upper right corner:
The Preview option brings up the built-in Inspector, which is a variation of Previewer, with basic set of menu options:

On the right the Device drop-down menu shows that there are currently four available preview modes: Fire HDX & HDX 8.9, iPad, and Android Tablet. Curiously, the Kindle Voyage and DX are also listed (though greyed out), even though the release notes specifically state that these "e-Textbooks" will not be available on the Kindle eInk devices.

The Package option outputs your file to the .kpf format for upload to KDP. You can also save your project as a .kcb file for later editing (make sure you do this as you cannot re-open the packaged .kpf file in KTC, and will have to start over if you did not save a project file!). Both of these files can be opened and viewed using a zip extractor and/or a text editor, but most of the content is encrypted gibberish, and what can be read is essentially useless - the "book.kcb" file contains a handful of lines with some obscure metadata and path reference elements.

Also, the file that is output from KTC is virtually the same size as the input PDF (5.64 Mb > 5.62 Mb in my test), showing again that essentially it is still more or less the same file, except that now your "PDF" can only be read on a Kindle and nowhere else (and only on someKindles, at that).

The Inspector does not actually allow you to "preview" any of the features touted in the press release as benefits of this new format (i.e highlighting, dictionaries, etc.). In fact, the only "interactivity" in the Inspector is to change the page zoom in increments from 100% to 400% - which is essentially irrelevant. The live text layers I created in the PDF were not active in the Inspector, though I must presume they would be in the published file.

Unfortunately there is no way to know this, since after actually uploading the file to KDP you can only preview it in the online previewer - there is no download button or link to save the file for manual preview on a device or app as there is with all other Kindle formats. Therefore, I cannot speak to the quality or functionality of the final published content, as I have no intention of ever using this to produce an actual book that I would want someone to read. You are free to do so if you like, but I can see no good reason to bother with it at this point. Bear in mind that KTC is still technically in beta, although since this is a public release that more or less overrides its beta status.

There is a User's Guide available to download from the KTC page, but it tells you very little (since there is, in fact, very little to be told). The FAQ, however, is fairly lengthy this time, and includes a few important bits of information, such as:

Q10: Can I sell books I create using Kindle Textbook Creator outside of the Kindle store?

To which the answer is "no" - followed by a link to the license agreement that says so in perfect legalese.

On the positive side, Amazon learned from the Kids Book Creator debacle and added an Undo button, so that's something I suppose (there is also a "redo" button in case you change your mind again, but I recommend the "uninstall" option instead).

KDP List Price Requirements

2015-01-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Authors distributing their works through Kindle Direct Publishing should be aware that Amazon has recently altered their ebook pricing structure for the 35% royalty option to include restrictions based on file size. As you can see from the screen cap above there are now three divisions within the 35% option, requiring new minimum prices for files over 3Mb in size, with $1.99 as the new minimum list for those between 3 and 10 megs, and $2.99 as the lowest allowable price for files over 10 megabytes in size.

Until now there were no conditions set on the size of an ebook file in the 35% margin and no delivery charge associated with the file delivery, so that for a .99 cent title an author receives .35 cents, regardless of the file size. Ebooks receiving the 70% royalty have always been subjected to a .15 cents per megabyte bandwidth fee for the initial download, which is one reason the minimum price for this option has been $2.99 from the start. By comparison, at .15 cents per megabyte a .99 cent title at the 35% royalty would cost more to deliver than its profit margin affords at sizes over 2.3 megs. As a practical example, the file for The Saga of Beowulf is 2.31 Mb (640 pages in print, with a half dozen images), which deducts exactly .35 cents from my profit for each purchase.

With ebook files beginning to increase in size (often dramatically) as multimedia content is added, the logic here is obvious: Amazon is looking to a future when ebooks sold in KF8's more content-rich format will frequently contain enhanced audio-visual content, and thus require greater bandwidth to deliver - the addition of a single video, for example, can swell the file size to 50 megs or better depending on its length and compression ratio, and even shorter graphic novels will be hard pressed to come in at much less than that and keep the image quality decent. But since Whispersync delivery is free to users, the added cost must come from somewhere. Consequently, Amazon is making something of a preemptive move here as it eyes the future.

The most obvious and practical result of this new policy is that for titles with files larger than 3 Mb the .99 cent price point is now no longer an option. Amazon is essentially stating that going forward .99 cent titles are restricted to basic text-only ebooks of a reasonable length (or very short works with a handful of images). In essence, there will be no such thing as a .99 cent enhanced ebook on Amazon. For larger books, prices must be higher.

But the most interesting thing about this structure change is that while at first glance it appears to put a heavy limitation on the 35% option, in fact the 35% rate is by far the more profitable for larger files. A 10 Mb file at 70% will cost the author $1.50 in delivery fees, leaving only .59 cents on a $2.99 title after Amazon deducts their 30% share, whereas the same ebook at the 35% rate would net the author $1.05 - .46 cents more! And of course, the difference only goes up as file size increases: a 50 meg file at 70% will cost the author a whopping $7.50 for delivery alone! This effectively eliminates the 70% royalty as a possibility for enhanced ebooks, which is why Amazon has just raised the bottom line for the other option.

As you can see from the table I made above, in practical terms 7 Mb is the dividing line for a $2.99 list title. At that size the 70% royalty nets $1.04 after delivery fee is charged, a penny less than the same $2.99 title with the 35% margin chosen. One can always raise the price, but that has drawbacks of its own each author will have to justify for themselves. For an ebook listed at $4.99 the dividing line increases to a 12 Mb file, with the 70% royalty netting six cents less at that point than the 35% option, but sales will also likely drop by half due to the higher price, depending on your popularity as an author, so you'll have to take that into consideration as well. Of course, if you're a well known author none of this will matter to you much, as you're probably charging $15 or better for your books, and unlikely to be reading this anyway.

Kindle Publishing Guidelines 2014.3

2014-12-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

The latest update to the Kindle Publishing Guidelines is out, with a lengthy change log that includes a few important changes. While consisting primarily of editorial revisions to specify which Kindle device a given formatting recommendation applies to, there are two specific changes to Kindle content production that are significant, these being sections 4.3.7 and 4.3.9 as given in the Revision Notes shown above.

4.3.7 Recommendation #7: Do Not Include an HTML Front Cover

The first of these reverses a long-standing error in Amazon's Kindle production policy. Until now this section heading read Include an HTML Front Cover, while it now emphatically says not to (as I have long advocated). Including one has always resulted in two cover images appearing, causing reader confusion due to the apparent unresponsiveness of the first page turn. Moreover, there has never been a good reason to include an HTML cover page, since all Kindle devices and apps render the jpeg cover image correctly, as well as using it for the bookshelf image.

As the Kindle Publishing Guidelines itself now states:

While Amazon previously recommended an HTML front cover page for fixed-format books, this is no longer necessary.

Kindle books should only have one visible JPEG cover. This cover should be a high-resolution JPEG image that has the same level of quality as the subsequent pages. Any instances of HTML cover pages should be deleted to avoid a repetition of the cover image.

Presumably the HTML cover page was originally included in order for the Guide to point to the cover as the first page the reader sees, if this was so desired (since it could not point directly to an image at that point, as it now can). But since the implementation has been inconsistent, opening to the jpeg image in many cases, as well as the reader being able to swipe back to the cover image anyway, this has caused confusion and frustration for many readers.

The recommendation to include a high resolution cover image is now all the more important, since it will be rendered as a full page image on first opening.

4.3.9 Recommendation #9: Do Not Include Start Reading Location

This is an entirely new addition which addresses an ongoing issue with the first page to which a Kindle ebook opens on first reading. This has been erratic and seemingly random, since the same ebook would open to different pages on different Kindle iterations, depending on a number of confusing factors (including, among other things, the appearance or absence of a "toc" entry in the Guide, as detailed on pages 74-5 of my Kindle formatting manual).

While Amazon has repaired several of these errant instances, some have continued to persist (such as the perplexing inability of the "Go to Beginning" entry to open at Page 1). This issue is now eliminated with the newest Guideline recommendation:

In Kindle fixed-format books, the OPF file should not include the start reading location (”Go to Beginning”) guide item. Amazon now sets this guide item to the JPEG cover for Kindle fixed-format books.

All fixed layout Kindle ebooks will now open to the cover image (which should now only be a jpeg image), rather than to the title page, the table of contents, the first page after the table of contents, or any other random location in the publication. This provides for a consistent user experience across devices and platforms, as should have been the case all along.

Note that Section 3.5.1 on "Recommended Guide Items" still lists the "Go To Beginning" entry as a valid item. This is likely an editorial oversight, but since the removal of the start reading Guide item is only a recommendation, the entry is technically still valid, though not advised.

Note also that you can still include a "bodymatter" element for the start reading location in the Landmarks section of a nav doc, though this will not affect the page to which the book first opens, but only create a linked menu entry to the chosen page.

2.2.2.3 Using KindleGen

Among the other changes made in this edition is the inclusion of Dutch as an optional language in KindleGen (using the locale option nl during conversion).

3.6.3 Image Guideline #3: Use Color Images

Removed the line describing the difference between eInk and color tablet devices, and added a statement that photographs must be in the jpeg format. Specifically, the line removed stated that:

The Kindle e Ink devices currently have a black and white screen, but color is available on the Kindle Fire, Kindle for iPhone, and Kindle for PC.

This is curious, since the removal of the reference to a greyscale display hints at the coming of a color eInk screen. Although this has long been awaited, to date there is no evidence that a reflective color display is forthcoming, and we have already missed this year's pre-holiday release window, so presumably it won't appear for at least another year.

The appended statement that photos must be formatted as jpegs is followed by further image clarifications in the next section.

3.6.5 Image Guideline #5: Use GIF or PNG for Line-Art and Text

This entry has been extensively revised to make it adamantly clear that line-art and text images should not be formatted as jpegs, which blur sharp edges when adding compression, but should instead be embedded as either gifs or png files, which preserve crisp edges - and even enhance them, in the case of gifs, by reducing color values and grayscale contrast (as the added line "including black-and-white drawings" makes clear).

One line has been removed here that bears comment:

The automatic conversions applied by KindleGen are best avoided.

This statement was always inaccurate in this context, since all supported image formats are converted to jpegs during the KindleGen conversion, and therefore cannot be avoided. What was meant instead was that the cleanest possible image should be input in order for KindleGen to apply the best conversion possible. If an already compressed jpeg is embedded, its quality will only get further reduced by the additional compression applied by KindleGen when converting to the low Mobi 7 image standards.

This requirement is emphatically repeatedly in this section several times, culminating in the conclusion that

Amazon insists on GIF or PNG file formats for line-art.

Finally, a lengthy section has been added to the description of the MINIMUM size requirements for lines of text contained in images (which is 6 pixels for a lowercase "a"), including the addition of a new example image:

The added text states that the image should be taller than the 6 pixel text itself, such that

the image should be at least 45 pixels in height so that it displays proportional to surrounding text content.

This assumes, of course, that the surrounding text content has not been modified by the user's font size and line height settings, but the intention is clear: make your text images big enough that they can be clearly seen, and leave some margin space around them so they preserve the line height and don't encroach upon surrounding text.

6 Audio and Video Guidelines

Several additions have been included to reiterate the fact that, no, audio and video is not supported on eInk devices, and KDP does not accept Kindle Editions with audio/video content included. Still.

This is simply a shortcoming of the slow refresh rates of eInk screens (and one of the primary reasons reflective color displays have not been adopted), although why audio is forbidden is beyond me. Probably for the same reason Amazon stopped bothering to include speakers, or even a headphone jack, on the eInk devices. Or perhaps because of it.

9 Kindle Best Practices

Here again some lines have been removed, and the terms "e Ink" and "tablet" inserted to more clearly differentiate between the two. There is also a revision of the formats supported for viewing on devices and in Previewer, via the removal of two lines.

The Kindle Fire device view displays the content in Kindle Format 8.

This applies to Previewer, and was probably removed due to the fact that it is no longer relevant, since virtually all Kindle devices now support KF8, and Previewer displays content as such.

You can test Mobi 7 content on a Kindle e Ink device and on Kindle applications for PC/Mac/Android.

This line was made more or less redundant by the fact that Mobi 7 content is now only sent to the oldest of the old Kindle devices, and is very likely soon to be eliminated. Moreover, there is no way to actually chose which version of the converted file is being tested, since the device reads whichever one it has support for. Again, virtually all Kindle devices now read KF8, so the distinction is no longer relevant.

The subsequent line that stated KF8 could only be tested on the Kindle Fire has also been appended to include the eInk devices, but interestingly not the apps. This implies that you can no longer use (or rely on using) the desktop and mobile apps for testing files, which is sound advice, since they are the least consistent in rendering content correctly, or supporting features. Best Practice is, and has always been, to test on an actual Kindle device, followed by Previewer, and only as a last resort to use a desktop or mobile app (although the Android app is better than the other apps by far, as far as feature support goes).

All in all, these updates pave the way for future moves away from the outdated Mobi 7 format and into feature-rich KF8 support across the board (more or less), and address some outstanding issues with the format itself in order to make the reading experience more consistent.

iBooks Image Size Increased

2014-12-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Although they have not yet updated their iBooks Asset Guide to reflect the change, Apple has just announced an increase to the total pixel limit allowed for interior images in ebook files published through iTunes Connect, upgrading it from 3.2 to 4 million pixels.

This follows the increase in August of last year from 2 to 3.2 million pixels, and at long last brings the overall image size allowed more in line with the actual size of the device on which they are intended to be viewed.

The increase to 3.2 million from 2 million pixels was itself, of course, a long overdue attempt to address a contradiction in Apple's recommended image size as given in the iBooks Asset Guide. With a resolution of 2048 x 1536 since the 3rd generation iteration of the full-size iPad (giving it a total pixel count of 3,145,728), the long-standing limit of 2 million pixels was nowhere near enough to fill the screen with a full bleed image in portrait orientation, let alone to zoom in for greater detail, as the Asset Guide somewhat ironically recommends:

Apple recommends providing images that are at least 1.5 times the intended viewing size up to a maximum of 3.2 million pixels.

A quick bit of math will show that 1.5 times the standard iPad display resolution is 4,718,592 pixels. So while the new 4 million pixel limit does not provide for quite that much leeway, it gets us very nearly there, and at least allows for full bleed images that can be zoomed to some degree without completely losing fidelity. The official announcement for the newest update reads as follows:

Increased Pixel Limit for Book Images

The pixel limit for all images within a book has been increased to 4 million pixels. This limit does not apply to images delivered separately from the book, such as cover art or screenshots.

Amazon, of course, has also recently increased the allowed image size in Kindle ebooks, although they use an overall image file size in megabytes rather than a pixel dimension limit. This allows for a much higher image resolution to fill the bigger 2560 x 1600 HDX 8.9 device, which boasts over 4 million pixels, before zooming (4,096,000 to be precise). By comparison, that would require an image containing 6,144,000 pixels in order to zoom to 1.5 times without interpolation! This is why the individual image limit in Kindle files has been increased to 5 MB. Converted mobi files for upload to KDP, however, are limited to an overall file size of 650 MB, which puts something of a practical limitation on the included image files (130 5Mb files to be precise, which is admittedly more than ample for most projects).

Conversely, by employing a pixel limit, Apple are restricting the total image dimensions, but not the image quality itself, which can be embedded with no compression whatsoever, if so desired, up to a total ebook file size limit of 2 GB (which is a limit imposed by the zip format itself). So while the new 4 million pixel limit does not quite allow for full 1.5 times zooming with pixel-perfect accuracy, it does come very close, and the absence of a file size limit for individual images allows for the highest quality setting possible, which might be of great benefit for art books and photography collections (in case you want to see those brush strokes on the Mona Lisa, for example).

By the way, for those wanting to know, 2309 x 1732 would be the largest dimension image you can now insert into an iBooks file at the standard 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad display. That gives you an image containing 3,999,188 pixels. Just one pixel bigger at 2310 x 1733 puts you over at 4,003,230 pixels. A nice round numbered 2300 x 1725 gives you an image with 3,967,500 pixels.

Why I Don't Use eBook Creation Apps

2014-10-11T16:13:00.000-06:00

Many years ago I built my first website, using Dreamweaver. It was Version 8, I believe, back when it was still by Macromedia. The website was very basic, the program very complex. It suited my needs at the time, and had plenty of potential for expansion... if I wanted to learn how to code a complex website, that is. I didn't.

So instead, when it came time to add a store with shopping options for buying print and ebooks to my site I switched to Yahoo SiteBuilder, since Yahoo were the top web hosting service at the time, and offered a simple add-on shopping cart package (for a fee, of course). But since Yahoo used their own proprietary code for web page layout and functionality, I had to rebuild the site from scratch, being unable to import the current site and build on that. However, after much tedious effort (not to mention learning an entirely new software interface) it resulted in a nice website that filled my current needs...for a while.

But web technology moved on and Yahoo did not. Eventually I wanted to upgrade my site to include some of the nifty new features made available by HTML5 and CSS3. But that could not be done in Yahoo. So I moved my site to another 3rd party web platform...and built it all again from scratch, since Yahoo's super secret code matrix could not be transferred to another platform.

That new 3rd party service went out of business within a year (Yahoo has fared only slightly better treading water). So once again I started over and rebuilt the site from scratch (that's four for those keeping track). This time I decided to use the popular "open" platform Wordpress, with its highly customizable theme-based structure, thinking it would be more "universal," since there were seemingly endless theme and expansion packages available for it.

But Wordpress proved to be slow and balky, crashing frequently and losing data with nearly every update. And because all but the basic layout functions are handled by adding third party plug-ins for each new feature, these tended to conflict with one other more often than not (not being tested for compatibility with anything but the base platform), causing features or entire sections of the site to malfunction (or not function at all), and crashing the site when any one of them were updated, even locking it up in a perpetual feedback loop on more than one occasion - a cycle which could only be broken by deleting one or more of the expansions, which naturally took all of my data with it.

Moreover, due to the very nature of this "plug-in" methodology, the site was once again not exportable to any other platform. So yet again I was faced with the seemingly inevitable task of rebuilding my site from scratch.

So after building the same site five times, I am now back to where I started, using Dreamweaver to build all my site content with universally recognized web code based on standard HTML and CSS. It is infinitely expandable, limited only by my time and willingness to learn, and can be transferred from one hosting service to another as I see fit. And it's the best site I've built yet. More importantly, the underlying code can be read and edited using any standard text editor. I can fix it if it breaks, and add new features as I learn to implement new code. If I see something I like on another website I can view the source code in my browser and see how it was done. I'm not limited by what the software can do, but what I can do.

You might be asking yourself at this point what this has to do with ebooks. An ebook is, in essence, simply a portable website, designed as fixed or responsive page layouts, and based on a subset of the very same HTML and CSS that websites use. In general, if you know how to make a basic web page you can make an ebook too. You just need to learn the specific bits of code that makes the ebook work, and the rest is left to your imagination. And best of all, the only thing you really need is a text editor.

The very same issues that plagued my web building experience for so many years also apply to building ebooks, so take heed. Programs that build your ebook for you do so by using their own proprietary code that often can't be understood by mere mortals such as we (unless you have the patience of a saint, or the wisdom of a god, which I most definitely do not). For example, they tend to change the names of all your input source files, so that rather than having page123overlay2.jpg, you might find img000172.jpg instead, in your new HTML page called split0000159.xhtml. Good luck finding the correct file for page 123. Or the images it contains, if you happen to want to change one.

This is made all the worse by the fact that all of your carefully labelled CSS entries will have been changed in just the same manner, so that your styling instructions for #page23panel1 is now called data-app-amzn-ke-created-style0126, or some such nonsense. And more than likely all of your neatly organized HTML will be run together in an endless stream of code. Needless to say, this is not helpful in the least.

Unless you're a machine. And a very specific machine at that.

This applies not just to Amazon's proprietary Comic and Kids ebook creator tools, but also in varying degrees to iBooks Author, InDesign's ebook export function, and ebook editors such as Calibre and Sigil. The code they create can only be effectively read by them, thus locking you into using that same platform for all future updates to that file, until such time as their usefulness runs out, they become incompatible with your now-outdated file (or operating system) after an update, another software offers better features, or the company goes out of business.

Then you'll face the same dilemma I did building websites. You'll have to build your ebooks all over. From scratch. Again.

For more in-depth reviews of Amazon's Kindle Comic Creator and the newer Kindle Kids Book Creator (for those still intent on using them), follow those links to my posts on the subject. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Kindle Kids' Book Creator - An Analysis

2014-09-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

Amazon today released something of a companion to their Kindle Comic Creator application that, like its predecessor, allows for relatively easy graphic layout of Kindle illustrated ebooks, this time geared toward producing children's content rather than comics. Like Kindle Comic Creator (KCC), the new Kindle Kids' Book Creator (or KBC for short) presents a very stripped down interface with a rather limited array of tools. However, this is somewhat deceptive, since users also have access (in both programs) to direct HTML/CSS editing within the application, which makes it useful both for those with some coding skills and those who only want a basic drag-and-drop style interface. For those without, however, the options for styling are somewhat slim, though they should suffice for most cases.

A companion User's Guide is available from the KKBC home page, which details in the usual sketchy technical outlines how to use the program, so I won't go through that here, but suffice it to say that the user guide isn't really necessary, since there's very little that you'll need to learn to use this thing, and most of it is fairly self-explanatory from a cursory glance at the menu bars and buttons; a half dozen random clicks will teach you all you need to know in fifteen minutes.

I ran a quick and dirty test to see how the program fared, and for the most part I was pleasantly surprised, although not without a healthy handful of caveats. Foremost of these right from the get-go is the lack of support for epub as an input source: KBC only accepts PDFs and image files, which means that if you have a nice layout to export from InDesign your only option is to make a PDF and start over from there. You can import pages with text embedded and create text pop-ups to cover them up, or import image-only pages and create both the base text and magnified text from scratch, and then move it around and size it all to fit. If you cut and paste text from another document any styles applied in the original will not transfer, since the underlying CSS will not be copied as well, but any tags you've added to the code still will be in the HTML, so you can manually add the CSS rules to the KBC file easily enough. This, of course, implies the need to delve into the underlying code, which somewhat defeats the point of using a program such as this. But that's the last we'll see of that necessity if you actually want to add some style to your work.

Unfortunately, even though you can add text as a separate layer in KBC, the "childrens" book-type that is automatically added to the output OPF renders the text inactive in the Kindle readers, so that dictionaries, highlights and word search will not work, rendering it essentially the same as text embedded in the image. This is why I discourage the use of a book-type value in fixed layout files as a general rule, but that's a choice each content creator must make for themselves. You can, however, delete the book-type entry from the OPF manually and all the text will then be active. Why Amazon has crippled this ability in children's books and comics is beyond me.

If you create the base text from scratch KBC will automatically add it to the pop-up at 150% magnification (if you add a pop-up, that is, since you don't have to), but you can "unlink" the pop-up from the base text and add any other content to the magnified region that you want. It will still be magnified at 150% of the base text, however, so if you simply want to have the base text change you'll have to learn to do some custom coding in the HTML/CSS editors to make it work (for example, if you want to produce a bi-lingual ebook, or use the pop-up like a question/answer flashcard). Unfortunately, KBC's behind-the-scenes code is a little balky, so unless you already know your way around a KF8 fixed layout file archive pretty well you'll be looking at a lot of gibberish, and even for those of us who do it's pretty messy in there. Also, to create clever tricks like using mag regions to replace one image with another isn't something that can easily by done in KBC. If you're wanting to add that kind of interactivity into your project, KBC is not the tool for you.

Other detracting factors against using KBC for anything but very simple projects are its lack of an Undo button (!), so you better be sure you want to make a change before you do, because there's no way to get it back once it is gone. You can "re-link" a base text box to a pop-up, but this deletes any other custom changes that you've made to the pop-up, replacing them with the default text, and that change cannot be undone, so whatever you had created will be lost. This is a horrendous oversight on the programmers' part, and truly unforgivable in this day and age.

Even though you import images of a given size (that you have no doubt chosen for a reason), KBC will automatically re-size them to a seemingly random dimension of its own choosing, over which you have no control. In my sample test file, for example, all my images were 1118 by 1788 in size. This was chosen as the largest size for which I could achieve the highest quality setting in Photoshop and still come in at just under the "standard resolution" image file size limits the Kindle has in place for older devices (which KBC apparently does not support - only the Fire devices are listed as supported, and available for previewing). At any rate, KBC arbitrarily assigned a landscape layout page size of 1920 wide by 1535 high for my test project, making each half page image only 959 by 1535 rather than 1118 by 1788.

Curiously, however, the auto-generated "scaled-images" folder contained both the original, unchanged images, as well as "thumbnail" versions scaled to 625x1000 pixels and compressed to down around 100 kb in size, rendering them utterly atrocious in quality. Which ones the reader will see is anyone's guess, but since KBC files are apparently not compatible with the eInk devices (even though those devices do support fixed layout KF8 files) my guess is that the larger ones will be delivered to the Fire devices and the smaller ones to Android and iOS apps for phones. But I'm only guessing there, so don't quote me.

You can add single pages in portrait or landscape orientation, or two-page spreads in landscape using either two image stitched together or one image spanned across both pages. This is very nice feature made very easy during the image import stage. However, auto-orientation is unfortunately not an option here; you must choose one or the other. I should also mention that you can add or create additional pages at any point in the process, and insert them anywhere in the page sequence, and even re-sequence pages already added simply by dragging them to a new location. You can also delete pages, but once you do they are gone for good along with any content you included in them, and again this cannot be undone.

You cannot open mobi files that were not created using KBC, even if they're KF8 format children's book-type files. So KBC can import a PDF but not it's own native KF8 format. Go figure.

Above is a snapshot of the formatting toolbar available in KBC, and as you can see the options are somewhat limited. The "Add Pop-Up" button creates a mag region with no underlying text, while the "Add Text option creates both at one go. Just add your text to the base layer text box and it is automagically magnified at 150% in the pop-up box, both of which can be moved around and re-sized to your liking. You can embed custom fonts easily enough using an Add Font menu option, with any added fonts appearing in the drop down menu here. You can also change their size and color very easily here, which is a plus. There is also the slightly unexpected line height and character spacing options to help you make your text fill up the page just right, but be aware that these apply to all text in a single given text box and no others, so if you want all the text throughout the book to look the same you'll once again need to dive into the code and create a custom CSS rule for your base text. It's also not possible, of course, to only change the character spacing for just one line without embedding that line in a separate text box, thereby breaking any pop-up windows into pieces also.

Other than that you have the basic bold, italic, underline, and four standard text alignment options to choose from, and nothing else. There is no way to wrap text around images as in iBooks Author, or even to automatically align text boxes to a standard margin without resorting to advanced CSS editing. Text boxes can be moved and re-sized easily enough by dragging on their corners or edges, but there is no ruler or grid system by which to align them. Also, unless I'm blind I'm finding no color picker to alter the background color in the magnified text boxes, so again you'll need to learn some CSS to use this tool that Amazon is hyping in their promos as being designed for those who don't know any HTML or CSS, and theoretically don't need to learn. In other words, KBC is fairly dismal as a graphic design tool, and if you're used to using Adobe products or iBA for your layout work you'll feel as if you've been drugged and had your arms chopped off while trying to produce something genuinely inventive here.

There is a Console panel available that shows the log file which Kindlegen produces during conversion, but if you're advanced enough to understand that you don't need to be using this kid's toy. Honestly, I was hoping for an adult app at some point from Amazon that can create advanced layouts and complex motion graphics, but all they've given us so far are simple widgets only good for making very basic layouts. And that's probably good enough for beginners, but it's not something professional ebook formatters will ever use.

So to summarize:

PROS:

Easy user interface for a quick and simple learning curve
Easily create magnified text pop-ups from base text
Text layers isolated from background art (for potential live text upgrades)
Editable CSS/HTML code from within the program
Two-page spreads with facing pages made super simple
PDF / image input for really simple import most users can manage
Generates the necessary file structure, including OPF & NCX, which can be edited externally

CONS:

No epub or mobi file input
Cannot edit mobi files not originally created with KBC
Very limited layout and formatting tools
Only basic text interactivity (pop-ups) without advanced HTML/CSS coding skills
No support for eInk devices (exports only to "Fire-compatible" KF8 according to the guide)
Auto-Orientation not available (locked to landscape or portrait)
Auto-resizes images without your input (cannot select your own "original-resolution" value)
No Undo!
Previews only available for Kindle Fire devices currently
Did I say No Undo?

A few notes for the more advanced users:

There are a couple of new "ke-" prefixed entries in the metadata section of the OPF that are interesting:

<meta content="doublepagespread" name="ke-layout-type"/>
<meta content="start-right" name="ke-start-side"/>
<meta content="true" name="ke-hd-images"/>

The first is what allows two pages to be knit together into one page spread or a single image to be spanned across two pages, but I haven't had the chance to dive into the generated CSS to see what's being done just yet to know what all the options are, or why this is necessary when the KF8 code already has the ability to create facing pages from two images. In this case it's a two-page spread consisting of two individual images, so "doublepagespread" is the value. The value is for a two-page spread made from a single image is, not surprisingly, "singlepage".

Second up we have the "start-side" which for the first time allows a Kindle fixed layout file to have a single standing first page on the right side (or presumably left in rl-horizontal writing mode ebooks). Previously this was attempted with the page-id "layout-blank" value, which never worked correctly, and single pages always appeared centered in the viewport rather than to one side or the other.

Finally, we have an "hd-images" entity that I presume is part of the new "standard resolution" versus "high resolution" image distribution for old model versus HD devices. Here the value "true" tells me that only the HD images are going to be transferred to whatever device the file is destined for, regardless of the model. Or perhaps it means that only HD devices are supported for this file, as implied by the absence of any mention of eInk screens in the documentation. But if "false" is also a legitimate value for this entity it begs the question of just what the heck is going on here. Of course, each of these is generated automatically by KBC, so you really aren't intended to alter them outside of the settings found in the program menus, and there isn't one for this third entry. But here they are for what it's worth.

Incidentally, KBC only produces a toc.ncx rather than a nav doc with landmarks, and the OPF contains none of the EPUB3 additions that had previously been implemented in KF8.

Well, that's all I've got for now after a quick first look. I'll ponder on it more and maybe play with it a bit tomorrow. But I doubt I'll ever use it much, except for previewing my HTML/CSS code on the fly. And honestly, that's the best use I can see right now for this thing.

Kindlegen "-dont_append_source" Option

2014-05-25T16:42:00.000-06:00

I discovered this week that there is a command line option for Kindlegen that keeps the source file zip from being added to the compiled mobi archive. It was hidden in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines under the "Building Dictionaries" section (7.5), appearing first in Version 2014.1 back in January, and was not specifically listed in the Revision History, where it simply said "Dictionary Overview (and all subsections of same)." I went through that section, noting all the changes but this one. Go figure.

At any rate, if you add this option to your kindlegen command it will bypass the addition of the source file archive to your output file:

-dont_append_source

Kindlegen will output this message as the first line in the conversion log:

Info:I9018:option: -donotaddsource: Source files will not be added

I tested a fixed layout file to be sure it worked, and what I found was that a 19.6 Mb source epub which normally converts to a 44.9 Mb file, resulted in a 25.2 Mb mobi when appending this conversion option. Extracting the contents using KindleUnpack showed that the source zip file was indeed absent.

So for those who have been using KindleStrip to remove the bulky source files from your files, you can now just add this option during conversion instead. KindleStrip is no longer necessary.

Bear in mind, however, that with the larger image file size allowance, if you're including higher resolution images for HD devices that are over the standard definition limits (i.e. 127/256/800 kb), these source files may be required by Amazon in order to send them to the end user's HD device.

Kindle Image File Size Increase Confirmed

2014-05-17T11:44:00.000-06:00

After a lengthy wait, I finally received confirmation from Amazon this week regarding the increase in allowed image files sizes for Kindle ebooks listed in the newest version of the Kindle Publishing Guidelines, as discussed in recent posts.

While the image size limit is now stated to be 5 Mbper image, rather than the previous 127 kb for reflowable files and 256 or 800 kb for children's and comic fixed layouts respectively, there has been no official announcement from Amazon on the matter. Moreover, there has been no release of an update to Kindlegen that might incorporate this change, and files converted via Kindlegen or Previewer still compress the images to the previous levels, as revealed by extracting the contents using KindleUnpack.

How, then, is it possible for the higher 5 Mb image limit listed in the Guidelines to be true? Is this just a future upgrade waiting to be made? A simple typographic error? Or is there some unwritten information hidden between the lines?

In an email response to my query on the matter received this week, an Amazon rep said:

From Version 2.9 of Kindlegen, images up to 5MB are retained for High Definition devices. For Standard Definition devices, however, the images will be compressed.

The answer, then, is different images for different devices! In fact, Amazon has apparently been doing this for some time already without telling anyone. Since the converted mobi file contains both the compressed images and an untouched source file zip archive, Amazon is able to send alternate versions of each ebook to different devices, depending on their resolution.

Of course, I wanted to know for certain if, and how, this worked in practice, so I did some tests this morning to determine if it was, in fact, the case. To do this I created a fixed layout, comic book-type test file with 6 pages, each containing just one full page image, ranging in file size from 1.8 to 4.94 megabytes. This created a source file of 22.2 Mb in size, which Previewer converted into a mobi file of 48.6 megs. I also uploaded the source file to KDP, which resulted in a download preview file of an only slightly smaller 45.5 Mb. In addition, I tested variations with the children's book-type, and as a reflowable file, all of which resulted in visible artifacting in the compressed images when extracted. However, when these same files were side-loaded to my HD 8.9" Kindle, every image looked crystal clear, showing that the reading system was accessing not the compressed images, but the high definition source files instead!

Here is a screen-cap comparison of the high quality image file being rendered on the HD 8.9 (left) and the compression employed on the same image for the standard definition file (on the right):

The HD device is clearly accessing the uncompressed image from the source archive file, rather than the highly compressed version found in the mobi8 image folder. Now, bear in mind that this is a 127 kb image that has been compressed down from one nearly 5 mb in size, so an incredible amount of compression has occurred. Moreover, Kindlegen will shrink the actual resolution of the image in reflowable files and fixed layouts with the children's book-type, although not in ones with the comic book-type, so this comparison is between the two extremes and probably not a common occurrence. But you should know that this can happen, and is, in fact, happening to your ebooks already.

One more important note must be mentioned here with regard to including very high resolution images, which is that it severely bogged down the device response, causing delays in page turns, sluggish response to scrolling and zooming, and in general behaving in a most unpleasant way, much like the old days of eInk displays (oh, wait, they still have those, don't they!). What this means in practical terms is that, although you can now include very large images in your Kindle ebooks, you will want to carefully manage the ultimate file size at which each image can be delivered, since you can no longer assume Amazon will do this for you. If you include 5 Mb image files, they will now send those full size images to the end user's HD device, for good or ill.

Which brings me to my final point, and that concerns Amazon's delivery fees. One major concern with image file size increasing has been the prohibitive cost of a .15 cent per megabyte bandwidth charge incurred under the 70% royalty option, since a single 5 Mb image would therefore cost .75 cents to send! But surprisingly, this does not prove to be the case.

While the KDP preview file I downloaded today weighed in a 45.5 Mb, the "book size after conversion" listed on the product pricing page was only 3.36 Mb - the size Previewer's log listed as the "deliverable file size" after conversion. This makes the total download fee just .50 cents for the full size HD ebook, leaving $1.74 profit for a $2.99 list price title. Amazon has essentially decided to subsidize content for the HD devices by only charging for the lower file size. This makes perfect sense, since you cannot rightly charge the higher fee for files sent to lower resolution devices, and charging different rates for different devices is simply impractical (not to mention a bookkeeping nightmare). It's also probably why they haven't bothered to publicize this much. Or at all.