Amazon has unveiled its new version of the Kindle e-reader device. I don't have a Kindle and haven't even ever seen one in person yet, but it really sounds like its catching on with at least some segment of the reading public. I have been investigating making the M-Brane zine available on it. I think I will, in fact, eventually do so but it's a bit harder than simply uploading it to their system. Just to see what happens, I tried that today and had their converter render my PDF of M-Brane #1 into Kindle-speak, and it made a fairly unreadable mess out of it. The converter turns it into HTML and--if I wanted to actually use the converted document that it produced--I would have to go through and painstakingly edit it with HTML markers to restore its formatting and styles. One problem with that is that I know frak-all about HTML coding, and another problem with it is that it would take hours and hours to do it. It seems that I will need either technical aid in making my own conversion or I will need to make a more simply designed version of the thing that I can make work with their system more easily. I read a customer review of the Kindle edition of Asimov's and it sounded like they are just putting up their text in a really simple fashion and dispensing with bells and whistles like interior illustrations. What's odd, however, is that the Kindle versions of Asimov's and Analog appear to be priced higher than the print magazines, whereas most Kindle stuff seems to be at least a bit (and often a lot) cheaper than the print versions. If anyone's got any experience using this thing--or publishing something with it--I'd be interested in hearing what y'all think about it.
4 comments:
Hey, Christopher,
Maybe one of these will be of use:
http://ireaderreview.com/2008/01/18/how-to-view-pdf-files-on-the-kindle/
And this one mentions specifically doing it on a Mac:
http://interface.puhala.com/2007/12/06/how-to-read-your-pdf-files-on-your-kindle/
I don't have any experience with the device, but I do think it is wise to try to get on this and Sony's platforms. And if you can keep the prettiness of the presentation, all the better. :)
Brandon
Cool. I will check this out. I'm really hoping that something will make it easier than it has appeared so far--and without having to totally redesign the thing.
Hey, also, consider getting a twitter account. It can feel like a lot to keep up with (blog, twitter, on top of everything else) but I think the potential eyes it can bring to M-BRANE SF is worth the effort. There's a link toward the bottom of the right side of my blog if you want to see what I've done on my twitter. bb
I will definitely investigate twitter. I don't fully get the concept of it yet, but that's just because I haven't looked much into yet. This morning I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show on the radio and she was reading comments received via twitter, and I've noticed that some of the other NPR shows that take listener comments and questions, like Science Friday, have been using it for a while as another way that people can communicate with them. One of my friends suggested that I could also set up shop in Second Life, but that kind of freaks me out: I could see it as being the biggest time-suck ever!
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