11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Ebook Compilation...

by YP8
9 replies
Yes - us Newbies are are real pain in the ass - I know - but i've almost caught the ball...i'm getting there...

I'm going to put my ebook compilation up on Elance, as it's part text and part video, so I want a nice look/design to the whole thing.

Is ebook design separate from converting to a suitable PDF, or does the term 'compilation' include both? What's confusing me I think is the fact that videos need to be embedded in the book, so this will need to be done in Adobe.

If an elancer does my page design & PDF and I don't have the same PDF conversion softwear,will I lose control of issues such as setting security and accessing my book again?

Thank you for your time, and I hope to give some valuable time back here in the near future....
#compilation #ebook
  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    Originally Posted by YP8 View Post

    Yes - us Newbies are are real pain in the ass - I know - but i've almost caught the ball...i'm getting there...

    I'm going to put my ebook compilation up on Elance, as it's part text and part video, so I want a nice look/design to the whole thing.

    Is ebook design separate from converting to a suitable PDF, or does the term 'compilation' include both? What's confusing me I think is the fact that videos need to be embedded in the book, so this will need to be done in Adobe.

    If an elancer does my page design & PDF and I don't have the same PDF conversion softwear,will I lose control of issues such as setting security and accessing my book again?

    Thank you for your time, and I hope to give some valuable time back here in the near future....
    No worries, YP8....I was a newbie once...yesterday....lol

    Seriously...it took awhile and alot of research to figure these things out....

    For the actual eBook cover, you'll have to have someone who is into graphic design do it. Then, you would need to get that as a .PDF and mesh it up with your actual text .PDF using Adobe....you can combine the two, and place the .PDF front cover graphic on the front of the .PDF simply by combining the two files...

    "If an elancer does my page design & PDF and I don't have the same PDF conversion softwear,will I lose control of issues such as setting security and accessing my book again? "

    Never had this problem, but perhaps you could ask for them to do it in Adobe?....
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965015].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Tyson Faulkner
      I guess I'm a little confused about what you're asking.

      An ebook is simply a word document that you've converted into a .pdf file. Which you can easily do with Openoffice.org's free writer.

      You can design it however you want it to look, then hit the pdf button and out pops your ebook.

      As for putting videos into your ebook, I wasn't even aware you could do that, since they have to be hosted somewhere. Maybe you could just put an image in the ebook that links to the actual video. That way you have complete control over the video and can change it if needed (updates, adding new stuff, etc.)

      Hope this helps.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965036].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author aff_babe
    Yeh stick with Adobe.. and make sure you hire a trusted designer.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965032].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author craigbrown
    YP8, I'm glad to see someone else is making a self-contained multimedia ebook. They are powerful and convenient.

    If you keep with this game it's going to be worth your while to grab a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro. That way you can set whatever security you wish and updating multimedia content is simply a matter of deleting the page with the video and then inserting the new version.

    Open office or Word 2007/20010 are great for making pdfs, but they are not powerful enough for multimedia - although, I believe that powerpoint 2010 (and maybe 2007) has this capability along with export to PDF. Never tried it though. I crunch all of my multimedia PDFs in Acrobat Pro after creating content in a combination of Word, Powerpoint and Photoshop.

    If you need any pointers, I'll be happy to walk you through it or help you out via PM or email.

    If you are worried about it, I would specify that the e-lancer provide a "secured" copy and a non-secured copy for you. Although I'm pretty sure that PDF security would probably not be necessary for a hybrid text/multimedia ebook anyway. But hey, it's your book lol. In those rare cases where I am worried about my content being copied or printed, I've been known to convert each page of a PDF to a flash file and then embed it into a PDF as multimedia content. Can be read on screen, but cannot be printed out and then OCR'd. This is overkill IMO, but it's better than providing a password to the customer who will invariably lose it, leading to pains in the backside later on down the track.

    Tyson,

    Multimedia content can either be embedded in an e-book or you can easily create a version where the content links to a youtube or other online video. This reduces the file size dramatically, but the tradeoff is that the reader must have an active internet connection to view the multimedia content.

    If you can find that massive offline thread, I created a 600 page PDF of that thread and posted it. That PDF has live youtube content which plays from inside the PDF file.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965177].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author YP8
      Oh my god Craig - thank you so much for that post - that is amazing - I just had a mad panic attack wondering if the product I was creating was even possible!!!

      Thanks for ironing that out!!! Very kind of you to offer a bit of PM advice - I really appreciate that.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965687].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jaspry
    Does anyone know any places to find a person who could design an eBook cover for relatively cheap? I'm interested in promoting my eBook soon as well. Of course it'll be a free eBook to build a list, so it's going to be an investment
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965767].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      Originally Posted by Jaspry View Post

      Does anyone know any places to find a person who could design an eBook cover for relatively cheap? I'm interested in promoting my eBook soon as well. Of course it'll be a free eBook to build a list, so it's going to be an investment
      My brother's girlfriend did all mine, Jaspry....and she did a REALLY good job (IMHO)...

      Does $15 sound reasonable to you? I could shoot her an email (she is in college for graphic design and expanding her portfolio....
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965783].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      Originally Posted by Jaspry View Post

      Does anyone know any places to find a person who could design an eBook cover for relatively cheap? I'm interested in promoting my eBook soon as well. Of course it'll be a free eBook to build a list, so it's going to be an investment
      Oh, did you mean the eBook cover like shown on a Sales Page....or one that would actually go on a .PDF?....

      ....she did the one that actually was part of the front cover of the .PDF...not the one that is displayed on the sales page...
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1965787].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Michele Miller
        I think you'll find this a great and affordable solution and you can embed the videos yourself.

        http://pdfprinterpro.com/

        It's $19.97

        Now, If you wanted to say take a Youtube video and embed it, you would go to this link
        http://pdfprinterpro.com/download/install/create-your-custom-pdf-video-streamer/

        scroll down to bottom and give the url of the youtube video, it will then convert and store it to your hard drive. Then you just find it on your hard drive, and drag into the Word document, (pdf printer pro has to be launched from word if you want audios, videos and links to work within the pdf.)

        When you install the program, it's icon goes right into your Word program. (and probably Open Office, and Excel too though I'm not sure, cause I only use it for putting video into pdf's and I have to launch it from Word for the videos to work in the pdf so it's the only place I use it. When you're done creating your document in Word, you click on the little 'PDF Printer Pro" icon in the top left corner of your Word program. Then it will ask you for all kinds of information, keywords, meta data, etc... you can set margins, create profiles, etc... it's pretty darn cool. You input the data, click 'OK' and in a minute or so, you've got a pdf, with videos embedded right in it.

        Hope that helps.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1967297].message }}

Trending Topics