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

Ira Krakow ira.krakow at gmail.com
Tue Oct 11 03:54:50 CEST 2011


Hey Sergio!

Thanks!  It's amazing that a book can be read on a telephone.  I grew up
going to the movies, watching moves in Cinemascope, on a huge screen, films
like Lawrence of Arabia or The Ten Commandments.  Now we watch movies on a 6
inch screen.  I guess that's progress :-).

Ira


On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 9:03 PM, Sergio Moura <sergio at icetempest.com> wrote:

> 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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>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Ira Krakow
> 36 Village Road, #415
> Middleton, MA 01949
> Telephone:  978-774-3382
> Cell:  978-882-2904
>
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>
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>


-- 
Ira Krakow
36 Village Road, #415
Middleton, MA 01949
Telephone:  978-774-3382
Cell:  978-882-2904
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