[Bf-education] The Blender 3D Cookbook is now available on the Kindle, Nook, and other mobile devices

Tue Oct 11 03:03:37 CEST 2011

Hey, Ira!! Just purchased your book on my iphone! Looking good so far!
I've purchased it from the USA iBook store.  It's listed for only $0.99. 

Greetings from Brazil.

Sent from my iPhone

On 10/10/2011, at 09:28 PM, Ira Krakow <ira.krakow at gmail.com> wrote:

> Juan,
> 
> Great to hear from you as well, from Massachusetts.  Yes, there is a different price on every platform, and it has definitely been an experience.  Unfortunately, I don't have much control over it.   The way it works is that I submit my document to the publishers - in this case there are two, Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing and Lulu.com - and then they do their magic.   For both, I submit a Word document and their conversion program converts it to their particular format.  Unfortunately, there are a number of different ebook formats, and the conversion programs are different.  Amazon uses the MOBI format and Lulu.com (which has a joint marketing agreement with Apple's iBookstore and Barnes and Noble's Nook) uses the EPUB format, which is quite different from MOBI..  Each conversion program has its particular quirks regarding things like creating an active table of contents, converting Word tables, supported fonts, image specifications for the text and the cover, etc.  I need to maintain two versions of the source text, one for Amazon's MOBI and the other for EPUB.   A bit of a pain, but eventually I came up with a workflow that seems satisfactory.
> 
> After that, there's a review process.  Amazon and Lulu have different criteria, which adds another layer of complexity.  Also, as part of the process, I can set a US price.  However, the price in other markets (UK, Germany, Italy, and France in the case of Amazon; whatever Apple and Barnes and Noble want in the case of Lulu) is not under my control.  Each publisher sets the price in pounds or Euros, or whatever country (I've sold ebooks in Australia, for example, through iBookstore).   They handle currency conversion, delivery costs, the VAT, and all the other details.  I have sold Cookbook copies in all the countries I mentioned, and both Amazon and Lulu break the sales out by country, so I know the process works.  Also, Lulu sells books directly, which generates another price variation.   Generally, books sold on European sites are more expensive than from US sites, even though I'm not sure the delivery costs justify that.  
> 
> As an example from today, Amazon just opened their France store.  People immediately complained that ebooks were selling for 15 to 25 Euros that sell for less than $10 in the USA.  Also there are issues with having accounts in amazon.uk, amazon.com, and amazon.fr all at the same time.  It makes a difference for the Kindle because ebooks are backed up to Amazon's servers, which are different depending on the country.  To some extent the price differences among countries exists for regular books.  Without a better understanding of international book accounting, I can't say whether this is solely due to cost factors or not.  In the US, Amazon sometimes sets the Kindle price for a book to be roughly the same as the price for the physical book, which I don't think can be justified solely on the basis of production costs.  Which Amazon Web site do you use in Colombia?
> 
> I guess we can chalk this up to the learning curve for ebooks.  It's been interesting to say the least, but I just roll with it.  The benefit is that that the Cookbook is now available on just about any smart phone or tablet device out there with any decent market share.  (The exceptions are for older formats, but their ebook readers are also outdated.)   That gives me a potential market of pretty much anyone with a modern tablet or smartphone (certainly any that support Android or iOS).  That's dozens of millions of potential customers, definitely worth the effort, with zero marketing cost.  Plus, I bypass the conventional publishers, which means that I can update my content any time I want and I don't have to deal with editors, cover designers, production delays, and the like.  I've written books the old way before, and I don't think the older way works well in the new environment.  As soon as a book is released, after about a 6 to 9 month delay, it's obsolete.  Certainly this is true for Blender books, which are based on all sorts of versions.  The development life cycle is too fast for the physical book world.
> 
> A bonus is that I don't have to target the ebook to a specific device.  As an example, the Cookbook has links to my Youtube videos.  Although the Kindle has a primitive Web browser, 
> it's not good enough to play the videos.  However, the iPad can.  Also, the Kindle doesn't support color images, but it can display in greyscale acceptably.  However, the Nook can.  I just submit the Word document with the links and color JPEGs and the device renders it as best it can.
> 
> Forgive me for rambling.  I hope I've answered your question.  Please stay in touch.
> 
> All the best,
> Ira
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 7:35 PM, Juan Dario Rodas M. <jdrodas at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi Ira! It's good to hear news from you!
> 
> Congratulations on this achievement!  You certainly want people to understand better Blender!
> 
> However, I find very strange the different price in every publishing platform... How is this possible? Can you tell us your experience on this journey?
> 
> Greetings from Colombia!
> 
> JuanD
> 
> From: Ira Krakow <ira.krakow at gmail.com>
> To: bf-education at blender.org
> Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 8:23 PM
> Subject: [Bf-education] The Blender 3D Cookbook is now available on the Kindle, Nook, and other mobile devices
> 
> Dear Blender Educators,
> 
> My Blender 3D Cookbook, which contains the scripts for 62 of my Youtube Blender videos, as well as links to the videos, is now available for the iPad  at:
> 
> http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-blender-3d-cookbook-volume/id443230381?mt=11
> 
> It is also available for the Kindle at:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Blender-3D-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B0056N73B0
> 
> You can also download it in EPUB format from:
> 
> http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/the-blender-3d-cookbook-volume-1/17387222
> 
> as well as the paperback version from:
> 
> http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-blender-3d-cookbook-volume-1/11777448
> 
> You can now get up to speed in Blender (versions 2.49 or 2.5) on your mobile devices.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Ira
> 
> 
> 
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> -- 
> Ira Krakow
> 36 Village Road, #415
> Middleton, MA 01949
> Telephone:  978-774-3382
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