Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Using Pictures and Images in Kindle Books - Review of Aaron Shepard's New Guide

Aaron Shepard is still one of the leading authorities on the physical design aspects of self-publishing. As a result of rewriting his guide on creating Kindle books from Word, Aaron realized he had expanded the project beyond it's original scope. 

The result, a new Kindle book on how to use images in Kindle books! 

Since most of my non-fiction books have photos, line drawings and graphics, I quickly purchased a copy Pictures on Kindle.

I am going to have to read this book multiple times and sit down with a project file and play with inserting images before I attempt to do this for real.

Please note, the reason for the above statement is NOT because Aaron does not do a good job of explaining things. Aaron writes in a clear and easy to understand style and provides plenty of information to accomplish the task of using photographs and images into a Kindle manuscript for digital publication.

The only other self-publishing authority I am aware of who understands the design and production aspects of crafting a self-published book, I am talking about the nuts and bolts of the process, is Joel Friedlander.

Aaron covers the basics of photos in detail including color photographs. There are a wide range of ways to "measure" color in a photograph for publishing and Aaron covers them all.

Also covered:
  • selecting photographs
  • editing photographs
  • photo file formats
  • scanning
  • design aspects of placing photographs
  • testing your final version by previewing
  • HTML and photographs in Kindle books
This is a great book for authors who need, or want, to produce their own files for their self-published Kindle books. It is understandable for a layman like me but has the info a technogeek will enjoy.

The price is right as well, just .99 cents for now.

All I need to do now is finish my current project with one of the Book Designers new Word templates, use the one of the new Kindle templates to convert work, and then with the help of the info in Pictures on Kindle, insert all my diagrams and photographs. I have my first week of vacation from school all planned.


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