Input Request: My e-Book, and Some General Publishing Matters

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Bruce Keener

I have a couple of input requests for you. One deals with my e-book and the other with some more general publishing matters. I sure would appreciate it if you can take the time to respond.

An Update to My e-Book

The existing version of my e-book on Time Management for Technology Users has a lot of examples that are related to the use of Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mobile devices (Pocket PCs and Smartphones), and Palm devices. I have decided to update the existing material to include use of web services, such as Google Calendar and Toodledo, and other devices, such as the iPhone.

I also plan to add some of the best posts from this blog into the e-book. I plan on going back through all 700+ posts and hand-picking 10-30 articles, or so, but would appreciate knowing if you recall any favorites that you think should be included.

Also, if the e-book has been helpful to you, I sure would appreciate receiving a testimonial from you … just a paragraph summarizing what was helpful to you would be nice. Many of you have told me that you appreciated the book, but having some testimonials could help others decide whether they want to download it or not.

I am planning on publishing the update e-book in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats, and bundling all the formats together for $4.99 or so. I will continue to make the original version available for free.

Other Publishing Considerations

A few days ago, I switched my blogs appearance [ again :) ] to provide a wide content area (700 pixels) so I could show pictures without having to shrink them down to the point that are hard to read. (I was particularly influenced by the styles of Paul Stamatiou’s and Matt Cutts’ sites, two admirable technical experts who make very good use of pictures in their posts.)

I would appreciate your reaction to that. Do you like this format better than the one I used last week (which had a content width of 500 pixels), or do you like it less? Is it less readable or more readable now than it was? As an alternative to having a wider than normal content area (500 is typical), I could stick with 500 pixels and then use reduced images that can be clicked for full-sized views. That might be the best of both worlds … I don’t know. Your opinion on this matters to me.

In the two days that this new format has been in place, I have seen the average time spent on the site drop by about 30 seconds. I cannot tell if that is due to the design, or if it is just because people are so busy on Monday’s and Tuesday’s that they spend little time on each page they visit. Anyway, your input is appreciated, as always.

In experimenting with publishing in the ePub format, and viewing my original e-book on an iPhone, I have noticed that some of the images are just too small on the iPhone to be viewed well. So, for the e-book, I will try to size images so that they are viewable on the iPhone. [As an aside, for those of you who are interested in publishing using the ePub format, my lifestream blog has a post on my initial experiences with it.

However, there are a few cases where a larger picture is worth a thousand words. My thought is to go ahead and use large pictures where they are needed, and then when an iPhone user cannot see the picture very well, they can print out the particular page using the PDF version that they will also be provided with. Does this seem like a good solution to you?

Again, I will really appreciate having your feedback. Thank you.

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  • http://anxietypanichealth.com/ Mike Nichols

    One of my Thesis sites, Thesis Theme Tools, has the content column scaled to 600px. I use PhotoShop to crop the images to the best visible dimensions. But still, some of the illustrations are awfully small.

    Concerning your 700px content column: Due to the font you use, it’s still easily readable, but the length of the lines is bordering on being too long for easy reading. Just sayin’

    I don’t think your change of format has influenced your readership, in my opinion, at least. Personally, I like its clean, open appearance. But it bears watching…

    Can’t speak to the iPhone issue, because I live in the age of dial-up phones and don’t have one! But it seems your reasoning is sound.

    Wishing the best for your new ebook!

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Thanks for the input, Mike. Much appreciated. Maybe backing off from 700 pixels to 680 or even 666 :) might be better. I can experiment with it. You validated my thinking that the 700 might be just a tad wide for easy reading.

  • http://www.diogoazevedo.com/ Diogo Azevedo

    I think a design with a content width of 500 pixels is better for reading.

    The line in your design is too long and sometimes we miss the line that we were reading. But I’m sure it’s better for pictures.

    That’s my opinion! ;-)

    Keep your good work with great post content (that’s what matters).

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Thank you very much, Diogo. This is exactly the kind of input I need to make sure I give you the best reading experience I can give. Thank you also for the very nice compliment!