My first eBook self published

[Klaus Hoefs]

(This no TVP-content, sorry if this sounds too much as a self-promotion.)


I just put my first e-book at amazon online, which is self published.
I am surprised how easy this is, I converted my pics of older drawings to mobi-format, put the preface by Eugen Blume in it and -voila- there it is.
Available for kindle-Readers on Win, Mac, iPad, iPhone and of course all the Kindle Fire up there.
The publishing part just took 10 h to make available to customers.
I am really happy that everything worked out so well with this book, that I am planning to publish more in the next months, and I hope I can do it also with mobi-ebooks including animation content. Well one is already finished (called "Ruth", which wips I showed here).

at amazon.com and all the other amazon-shops.

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The ebook is in landscape-modus, including two series of drawings, Prince William Sound (about the Exxon Valdez disaster) and Icebergs (graphite drawings about icebergs and Scott, Wegener etc.).

[Paul Fierlinger]

Congratulations, Klaus! This is important news indeed and actually does have significance for many of us here, no matter which technique one uses to create content. Would you mind letting us in on your plans with promotions and some followup posts along the way to see how the book(s) are doing? I'm going on Amazon to order the Kindle Fire version right away!

[Fabrice]

Available for kindle-Readers on Win, Mac, iPad, iPhone and of course all the Kindle Fire up there.

Does it work with Android ?

[Klaus Hoefs]

@Fabrice,
There is a free App, Kindle Reader.
Although I have not tested it, I think it works like The one for iPhone and iPad.

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[Klaus Hoefs]

@Paul

Thank you so much, Paul.
I already started little promotion on Facebook.
As far as this is in the field of art, I can promote it also along my future exhibitions, masterclasses and drawing classes at my University.
Amazon also offers some help: because it is only available on Amazon it has qualified for KPD Select, where it is listed now. It also will be promoted through their upcoming Newsletters.

In the next days I will start an "author's page" on Amazon with additional informations about the book. And this is another service by Amazon for free.

The only thing that I am not happy with is the fact that Amazon-mobi-format doesn't support video and animation-content by now. But I think and hope this will change soon, already the newer Kindle-devices are able to display videos.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Bummer. We are poised to release Slocum in the spring as an animated novel through Amazon books instead of a video or film. I have to keep an eye on that.

So your book isn't in English, as I found out. Do you have plans to release an English version?

Anyway, I find your book a strange format for the Kindle Fire because it's only about 20 pages but also your art, all B&W comes out poorly on such a small screen. I would accept these readily if they were to be illustrations within a book, but this being a book of art pieces with two pages of text in German, it comes off as a bit meager to be called a book -- more like a booklet as part of an an exhibit... but an exhibit of very beautifully rendered drawings. The texture of the paper is completely lost of course, and the drawings don't even expand to full screen and I don't even know if the text is a story and how it all comes together for a German speaking reader, so I am clearly not in the position of giving a review, just my first observations.

[Klaus Hoefs]

Paul, which Kindle Fire do you have ?
Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HD 8.9'' ?

I am just doing some tests again with the simulator, as far by now I can see 24 pages (including 3 pages of text) on all three types of kindle simulators.

With my simulator/previewer I can scale up the pages and pics, don't you have any similar function on your kindle ?

---
Concerning the english-version of the text I will try to find some translator.
I can update the file then to German and English -versions and I think you can download it again for free.

Kindle Fire previewer active

[Paul Fierlinger]

I have the plain Kindle Fire which came out first. Now I see it actually has 24 pages (before, I was just guessing) but I can view only in panorama tilt-- which is OK, because I wouldn't want to look at it in any other tilt-- just strange that turning the book doesn't change anything, which is something I have never come across with my Kindle. The picture you show here is 6 x 9 cm on my 15 x 9 cm screen and this is the largest picture of your collection -- most of the others, as you know, are smaller. Again, it is strange that there is no way for me to zoom in or out. All the pictures with human figures are 5 x 5 cm, making the characters in some case less than 3 cm tall. The page with 4 drawings are pictures literally the size of postage stamps. Lots and lots of white on these pages... which doesn't help matters either. I can see this as being a very elegant book as a coffee table book, but clearly not suitable for this Kindle.

[Klaus Hoefs]

You are right, no zoom-function is not acceptable. I couldn't imagine, that this is disabled. With the producer's simulators it isn't.
Of course I will go into it. Maybe, easy workaround would be to come with full-page-pics.

[Paul Fierlinger]

full-page pics is what it really needs.

[Fabrice]

@Fabrice,
There is a free App, Kindle Reader.
Although I have not tested it, I think it works like The one for iPhone and iPad.

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Thanks Klaus, it's interesting

[Klaus Hoefs]

So I updated the ebook and it's already online.
Now it has pics of 40 drawings (almost all full-page-sized) and 48 pages. I added series of "Exxon"(printed linocuts), "Pilgrims" (drawings) and "Pilots (excerpts from sketchbook)".
The zoom-option is not available for kindle devices, but I don't think that it is necessary because of the full-page-pics.
For the moment the preface by Eugen Blume (director of the Nationalgalerie Berlin) is only in German,
but I will have a translated version soon and then go for another update.

Content:
Prince William Sound (page 2-11)
Preface by Eugen Blume (page (12-14)
Icebergs (page 15-26)
Exxon (page 27-31)
Pigrims (page 32-36)
Pilots (page 37-48)

Prince William Sound

Iceberg

Exxon

Pilgrims

Pilots

[Paul Fierlinger]

Interesting that you are allowed to update after the book has been publicized. There mus be a limitation to this, or can you keep doing it forever? What happens on the customer's end? Hmmm... I must take a look.... nope, no update yet.

[Klaus Hoefs]

Mhm.
Maybe that takes a little time.
But I think it should work, if you delete it from your device and then download it again.

[Fabrice]

Interesting that you are allowed to update after the book has been publicized. There mus be a limitation to this, or can you keep doing it forever? What happens on the customer's end? Hmmm... I must take a look.... nope, no update yet.

Interesting question indeed.
An evolutive book would be a smart concept.