Typesetting is a visual art. And, ironically, the best typeset books are ones where the art gets out of the way.

Berkley Books published my 2009 award winning historical Indiscreet. They did a fantastic job on the cover (Paul Marron!!!) and I love my editor. The entire Berkley team did a great job on editing, copy editing and proofreading. Berkley also eventually did an eBook. Since Berkley only has North American rights, I just recently issued an eBook outside the US where I have rights. And that means I have a case study about why eBook formatting matters and where the Berkley eBook falls very, very short. I heard from readers months ago that the eBook was practically unreadable. A while back I purchased the Kindle eBook and discovered it was true.

Some of you may know that I used to be a web developer in a previous job. That means I am very good with hmtl and css and, compared to the average author, quite knowledgeable about the guts of eBook technology. Am I bang up good at it? Not anymore, though I probably will be again shortly as there are lots of good reasons for me to brush up on my skills with respect to eBook formatting.

Here’s a screen cap of page 1 of Chapter 26 of the Berkley eBook for Indiscreet:

This looks OK, at first. But there are two HUGE typographic issues, one of which is better illustrated in the next image. The typographic errors are caused by the underlying html and css by the way, so to be accurate it’s not so much typography errors as coding errors that result in a poor reading experience. But typography gives us language that describes the problems.

In Indiscreet, I made the choice of opening many chapters with text that is descriptive of the chapter contents. It’s meta-text, in a way. Above, you can tell that first paragraph is indented text. You can tell that because there is text below that is not indented.

But this is an iPad screen that’s bigger than a lot of others. You can see more of the text per screen page. But what if you were reading this on an iPhone or other smaller screen? What visual clues exist to tell you that this is meta-text and not the actual writing? The indents are kind of a clue, but the white space issues make those indents less effective as a signifier. Notice the large spaces between paragraphs.

On the iPhone, the problem is even worse. You can only see a portion of any given paragraph.

So, the bad hmtl/css creates too much white space and that lessens the visual clue of indented text. Pages need white space. Too little white space is as serious a problem as too much.

Look at this image and you’ll get a better idea of the problem:

Landscape mode shows what happens with smaller screen real estate. On the left column, the indenting more or less vanishes. There’s no other text to show that this is an indented passage. What if your reading screen consisted ONLY of what you see in the left column?

The meta-text becomes indistinguishable from the actual text. The fact that the actual chapter text begins with CAPS isn’t a sufficient signifier, because, again, it signifies only when you can compare it to something else. A good typographical solution would embed the signification in the text itself. A different font entirely, for example.

Since this is the digital world where color doesn’t cost the publisher money, we should all be thinking about whether color might ever be of assistance. But that’s a digression. I’m just saying that in eBooks, black and white thinking might be limiting us in arriving at elegant solutions. Not that I don’t also recognize the peril of color in the hands of people who don’t understand color theory.

Anyway, if you are trying to read Indiscreet on a smaller screen, you will spend time dropping in and out of the story as the poor typography makes you struggle to figure out what is meta-text and what is regular text. As another aside, my meta-text authorial decision itself pulls the reader slightly out of the story flow and, boy, the bad presentation only exacerbates that problem.

Here’s what I did in my version:

Typography solved this issue centuries ago.

Notice the italics. It’s obvious that the italicized text is meta-text. In fact, this is a standard reason to use italics. With italics, it doesn’t matter if the reader sees only the meta-text. Italics alone tells the reader that they are not in the actual text.

Here’s an interior page from the Berkley eBook that shows why the formatting errors make their version of Indiscreet a chore to read:

Even on the iPad, with its bigger screen real estate, all that white space between paragraphs destroys the reading flow of the story. As you can see, it’s particularly bad when there are short paragraphs.

Here’s my version:

It makes a difference to the reader. A big difference. Page after page of paragraphs sitting in an ocean of white makes reading a chore.

You’ll notice that I don’t fully justify the text. I’m open to persuasion on this issue, but my current position is that when text flows to fit a changing container (landscape vs. portrait, iPad vs iPhone vs. Kindle Fire etc…) full justification will inevitably and unpredictably lead to lines of text that stretch in ways that slow down the eye and therefore the reading because of the insertion of white space. So, I left justify.

I also don’t include those pretty dingbatty things that start out chapters, even though it would be dead easy to do. Why? Mostly because the iPad background is actually not completely white and the dingbats show up on a whiter rectangular background and that bugs me. You can see the issue in the Berkley Chapter 26 image. That pretty sideways spade shows up on a whiter background. And it STILL bugs me. I’ve been mulling over various solutions to the problem, but I haven’t reached the point where no-dingbat vs. time to create perfectly invisible dingbat background has driven me to set aside time for a solution. I have a few ideas.

So. There you go.

I worked very hard to write a book readers would enjoy. And in the case of this eBook, it’s too much of a chore for many readers. They can’t read the story because of the presentation and that makes me sad.

Carolyn Talks Techie

Both P and DIV are block level elements that include padding by default. You must create and apply a style to control that padding if you don’t want that white space to appear.

p {
font-size: 100%;
margin: 0em 0em 0em 0em;
text-indent: 1.5em;
text-align: left;
}

Will create paragraphs that don’t include space before or after and that indents the first line

<p>Your fantastic text.</p>

Will look more like a book page than

<DIV>Your fantastic text.</DIV>

Which will actually render really badly.

DIV has more padding than P and when you stack a bunch of DIVs you get white space below the first div, then white space above the following div. Double the white space. The default padding for P is smaller than for div.

Therefore, if your program to convert your Word doc or PDF to html is creating DIV tags instead of P tags to contain your paragraphs of text it is breaking the html specification. If it also doesn’t even create a style sheet to fix the problem, your eBooks will suck.

And Now I Call Publishers out

Why are publishers using tools that create CRAP eBooks?
Why haven’t they hired anyone to fix it?
If they are out-sourcing this work and paying for it from the gross income, they’re getting ripped off. So is the author.

C-Level employees of publishers can be found all over the place talking about the ART of publishing and how much they care about the physical beauty of their product and how much they care about the reading experience.

Really?

As most of you probably know, the US Department of Justice has filed a suit against several NY publishers for anti-trust violations. The essential allegation is that these publishers colluded with each other and Apple to artificially increase the price of eBooks.

The response from NY has been more or less some flavor of “Amazon is Evil!” so it’s OK!!!!

Except it’s not OK. Under US law a business cannot call up its competitors and mutually agree that everyone will charge the same, higher, price for their products. It doesn’t matter if Amazon is Satan himself. Period.

Mike Shatzkin blogged this:

Indeed, only by eliminating price as a basis of competition can we ultimately have balanced competition in the real world of publishing as digital change has remade it.

As a consumer, I can only say,  are you fecking kidding me?

I more or less commented to that effect on his post. His reply:

Carolyn, have you bought a Macintosh computer at a discount lately?

You should take your indignation at people using their Intellectual Property protection to raise prices on consumers to the pharmaceutical industry. It would do society a lot more good.

1. I think it’s fair for consumers to be indignant when businesses conspire to charge higher prices than the free market would bear.

2. What the hell does a Mac computer have to do with books and colluding over price setting? It’s Apple’s decision not to license its OS. Apple owns the OSX operating system and they have made a business decision not to do OEM.  Apple hasn’t called up Microsoft or Ubuntu or what have you and asked them to all charge $XXX for all the OS’s. And guess what:

Apple MacBook Pro – Core i7 2.2 GHz – 4 GB Ram

$1,339 online, $1,799 nearby

Lookie there. a $400 price difference for the SAME apple product.

2. As a former employee of a bio-tech company, I think I have a pretty good handle on the pharmaceutical industry. Here’s a few facts for you. Pharma gets a PATENT on their drugs and patents are NOT the same thing as copyright. The laws are different. Patent law grants a limited monopoly for that patented drug in order to encourage the R&D. And then the patent expires and generics come into the market.

3. There is no evidence whatever that Pharma companies have colluded with their competitors to keep prices artificially high. Because they have a patent that grants them a monopoly in a given drug and they get to charge as much as they want for the life of the patent. Because there is no competition for that drug.

There may indeed be issues with Big Pharma, but that has ZERO relevance here.

As an author and a reader I stand by my belief that “Legacy” publishers are not doing ANY of the things that would allow them to compete effectively.

If you live in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, India, South Africa and select other countries, you can buy the eBook of Indiscreet from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com IF you’re from one of the territories where I have rights. I’ve uploaded to Apple as well, but I don’t have a link yet, though if you prefer iBooks, then do look for the book there as well. I’m limited in where I can upload since B&N does not yet sell eBooks outside the US and, to my knowledge, none of the other vendors can accommodate geo-restrictions.

Some reasons to Buy Indiscreet

Some books, some blessed books, grab you with the first page, with language so lyrical and hooked you’re excited to keep reading even before you’re entirely sure what you’re reading, with settings so vivid and intricately described, yet never so vivid and intricately described as the characters.

Indiscreet is one of them. It has the plot of an Italian opera, the theme of a fairy tale, and a writing style as rich, textured and gorgeous as only romances can be.
Gossamer Obsessions

Indiscreet has the perfect balance of intrigue, action, romance and desire to keep the reader hooked from page one to conclusion. Readers will find themselves rooting for Foye and Sabine and hopeful that they can overcome the odds to find the true love they each so deserve. Indiscreet is deliciously sensual and suspenseful in turn, a perfect formula for a wonderful romance novel.
By: Joyce Greenfield, ReaderToReader.com

Indiscreet is a beautifully written, almost epic type romance. The exotic setting adds to the luscious story between these two stoic and breathtaking characters. Edward, at first, comes across as cold and a bit egotistical. Sabine is shown as a woman who seems so lost because of a false indiscretion that has almost ruined her life. When these two enter each other’s world, they are changed forever.
. . .
Carolyn Jewel is one author of the historical romance genre that you can always count on to deliver a book with an amazing story and a romance that will blow you away. Indiscreet is such a book.
Babbling About Books

Ms. Jewel has written a wonderfully emotional story. The characters are interesting and engaging. Their pasts have formed them as they are in this book. The story is packed with adventure and danger. Over every other emotion, the reader will experience the depth of the love between Edward and Sabine. This is one of the best books I’ve read all year. I would highly recommend it to others.
Leanne Davis – Fresh Fiction

There is just so much to admire about Indiscreet, from the restrained but lyrical prose to the depth of the protagonists’ characterizations, to the lovely surprises placed throughout the novel that challenged and shifted my expectations subtly but effectively.
For the reader who wants fresh settings, for the reader who likes traditional Regencies, for the reader who likes character-driven stories, and for the reader who likes adventure and a larger scope in Romance, Indiscreet is a wonderfully satisfying read.
Dear Author

I think that’s just marvelous writing, the kind that makes me want to savor every word. There is such a smoothness to the language here and yet it doesn’t call attention to itself because it directs all of our attention to the characters and what they are feeling. The result is some powerful emotion in the reader.
Also at Dear Author

Jewel places strong, likable characters in a part of the world where they’re challenged at every turn. –Linda Roberts – Romantic Times

But Wait, there’s MORE!

Sadly, the eBook from Berkley has severe formatting issues and is unreadable on many devices. I’ve so far not had any luck getting Berkley to upload a corrected file.

People outside the US are, therefore, in luck. My file should be readable, and if you find it’s not, drop me a line and I’ll get it fixed!

I’ll be working on a POD version and hope to have that available where I have rights as well.

She reached my car about the time I had my son in my arms. And she stopped and I said hello. And then she asked me for a ride. She had a doctor’s appointment on the other side of two hills and she was walking up those steep, steep hills. My first thought was, but don’t you see this parking place I got? RIGHT BY MY BUILDING? But I said yes, of course, because no one should make a 70 or 80 year old woman walk up two more steep hills to her doctor’s appointment.

I like to attribute all my subsequent experiences with parking mojo to giving an old woman a ride to her doctor’s appointment.

Some years later, when we’d moved north and my son was about ten, I think, we were driving from wherever to home. And I notice, as I am driving, that there is a woman who — well, if you’ve seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, imagine the 50 or 60 year old Greek matriarchs in that movie, plump and dark and a bit, well, blowsy, and that’s what this woman looked like. She was wearing business appropriate clothes, though. She was obviously in a hurry. She was practically running along the sidewalk.

We stopped at a light and the woman reached the corner and then ran across two lanes of traffic to my car and bent down to the front passenger window. She looked harried and flustered and I opened the window and she asked me, begged really, for a ride to the bus stop. My first thought was, Hell no! You look like a crazy lady with your hair flying all around and you are accosting complete strangers. But of course her ink black hair was flying all around, she was not dressed for running yet had been running because she was going to miss her bus and she was pretty far from the stop, to be honest.

So I gave her a ride and made her wear her seatbelt even though she didn’t want to. I dropped her at the bus stop and my son and I went home.

The reason I gave two complete strangers rides was for more than just the obvious. I did it because when I was a teenager, my mother was a volunteer who drove cancer patients to their chemo treatments. And one lovely lady, who was dying of cancer, came to live with us for four months because none of her children would take her in.

And I have never, ever forgotten that.

Here’s what my publishing schedule looks like for 2011-2012 — not necessarily in order, by the way:

2011

• Traditionally published My Immortal Assassin (Grand Central)
• Self-published Lord Ruin (Backlist)
• Traditionally published digital-only short story The King’s Dragon (Macmillan, was paid an advance that earned out)
• Self-published The Spare (Backlist)
• Self-published Stolen Love (Backlist)
• Self-published Future Tense (original, a short story set in the My Immortals series, was previously given away free by Grand Central)
• Self-published Moonlight (a short story originally published in Mammoth Book of Regency Romance, I retained digital rights)
• Traditionally published My Dangerous Pleasure (Grand Central)
• Self-published DX A Crimson City Novella (Backlist)
• Self-published A Darker Crimson (Backlist)

2012

• Traditionally published Not Wicked Enough (Berkley)
• Self-published Free Fall (Original, a novella set in the My Immortals series)
• Self-published Not Wicked Enough in the UK and selected territories (See above, Berkley has North American rights only)
• Self-publish novella in anthology Midnight Scandals (original, with authors Courtney Milan and Sherry Thomas, August 2012)
• Traditionally publish Not Proper Enough (Berkley) September 2012
• Self-publish Not Proper Enough in the UK and selected territories (See above, Berkley has North American rights only)
• Self-publish Scandal in UK and selected territories (Berkley has North American rights only) Still in print in North America
• Self-publish Indiscreet in UK and selected territories (Berkley has North American rights only) To be reprinted in North America
• Self-publish Passion’s Song (Backlist)
• Self-publish Book 5 of the My Immortals series (original)

Before self-publishing I would have just about ZERO chance of finding a traditional publisher interested in taking on Scandal (a RITA finalist), Indiscreet (Bookseller’s Best Award winner), Not Wicked Enough and Not Proper Enough. ZERO. Because if it were possible, my agent or her sub-agent would likely have done so. Instead, I can DIY and start making money 60 days after the books go on sale.

Before self-publishing I would have had ZERO chance of finishing out the My Immortals series. Maybe, you’re thinking, the series sucks. Well, Book 2, My Forbidden Desire, was a RITA finalist. Book 3, My Immortal Assassin, was an RT top pick. Those two things don’t typically happen to books that suck. Not only that, books 1 and 2 have earned out. Book 3 nearly so (release date was January 2011). Book 4 hasn’t been out even a year yet so I haven’t had the statement with returns on it, but it’s on a respectable pace.

Some figures

In 2010, my writing income was 17,000.00
In 2011, my writing income was 62,000.00
In 2012, through May 1, my writing income is $17,000.00

My Question

So where the HELL do the Authors Guild and the AAR get off with their bullshit about self-publishing destroying publishing? Maybe it’s true that it’s destroying the publishing business. But it’s sure as hell not destroying the writing business. And BOTH those organizations are supposed to care more about the writing business.

Edited to add: When I was originally drafting this post, I specifically mentioned Amazon and then edited it out. But I think Amazon needs to be mentioned to make the link between the AAR and AG’s stance, Amazon and authors really clear. What publishers seem to have missed is that authors like me who were doing poorly in terms of money in are now in the position of doing very well indeed. Amazon is the test bed that proves low prices drive sales and that the business model for eBooks is NOT and should not be the same model as for print.

I mean that seriously. Both those organizations are supposed to my representing MY interests, as a professional writer. Take a good look at my writing schedule and my income and tell me where my interests lie. I would like to know why the Author’s Guild and the AAR don’t support a publishing endeavor that does that to my gross writing income.

1. I would like to know who is responsible for cutting 2 hours out of my day. That’s the only way it’s possible that by the time I finish all the stuff I have to do, or decide what I’m going to ignore, it’s time for bed and I got no where near enough writing done.

2. Why, WHY, when I have a sign on my door that says “DO NO DISTURB unless you’re bleeding, maybe” do people think that means “HEY CAROLYN WANTS TO TALK!”

3. I have the cutest shoes ever in the world. They have sparkles! But I think they’re making my feet hurt. ::cries inconsolably::

4. Who put all this junk in my room? And WHY, after I spend an hour throwing a bunch of it away, is there MORE of it? Why?

5. My email is breeding. Great. Because that means it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the bits and bytes start doing the same thing. Don’t turn your back on your computer for a minute.

Some good news

1. Page proofs came for Not Proper Enough. I finished them in a day. I think it came out good.

2. Arjun Rampal tweeted a link to video of him doing a shoot for Men’s Health Magazine. Oh my. You can watch the video on my Arjun fan page. Scroll down a bit to the videos. Probably safe for work, except it will be blazingly obvious that you’re not working so wait till you get home or watch on your phone.

Leave your best whine in the comments.

P.S. I just put in tags for the post and there was already one for whining.

I have 7 more review copies of Free Fall available . . . I will gift an Amazon copy. If you need an ePub, let me know.

Demons and witches. You know you want to read and review this.

A century passes and I get a letter that says they didn’t get the statement under penalty of perjury. I thought about asking “WTF?” but decided it would be better to just type out the language from the form, sign it and resend it. Which I did.

Half a century passes…

Today I got two documents in the mail from the IRS. One was my certification that I am a US tax payer and the other was a letter informing me my additional documentation had not been received and if they didn’t get it pronto, they wouldn’t be able to provide my certification.

I’m glad they arrived on the same day.

Devonshire Cream is not readily available in the US, though you can certainly buy it. This yummy spread is especially good on freshly baked scones. It’s supposed to be easy to make so I went in search of recipes. My first attempt was an utter failure. All subsequent attempts have been a resounding success.

There are two methods, the oven method and the frying-pan method. The oven method is probably the least work, but technology may conspire against your success. Basically, what you do is heat the whipping cream in a covered oven-proof bowl at a very very low temperature for a long time. For the oven, you need 180 F, and some ovens, it seems, turn off after several hours of being on. You’re supposed to leave the oven on for 8-12 hours and then come along and scrape all the delicious Devonshire cream from the top.

In my case, I didn’t get the opportunity to find out if our oven would shut off because someone came along, ignored my note to leave the oven alone, and turned it off. Damn. But my whipped cream in that attempt was also only 18% fat. Total fail.

The frying pan method takes more attention, but it is less vulnerable to someone turning off the oven because the frying pan method looks like something is going on. Which it is. If you’re home for several hours anyway, this method works great.

Ingredients

• The very highest fat whipping cream you can find. Shoot for the high 20′s. Anything less will disappoint. Not the ultra-pasturized kind either. To find out the total fat content, check the nutrition label for fat contact percentage, saturated and unsaturated. Add them together and make sure you get a number in the high 20′s. The higher the better.

Hardware

• Big frying pan
• Heat diffuser (this thing you stuck UNDER the frying pan so it’s not sitting directly over the fire.)
• Slotted spoon
• Container for the cream you scrape off

Pour 1-2 pints of whipping cream in the frying pan. Put it on low over heat diffuser. Cover. Every hour or so scrape off the top layer with slotted spoon. The recipe I looked at said not to use a slotted spoon but that was a frustrating failure. Slotted spoon. Put the stuff into a container. Repeat until the cream is gone or you’re tired of it. Cover the stuff in the container and let rest in the fridge.

You’re done.