Vendor conversion notes for ePub files.

1. ePub:
Post-­‐Produc.on
Vendor
Conversions
Kenneth
Reed
Princeton
University
Press
21
June
2013

2. Vendors
as
Middlemen
• Post-­‐produc:on
conversions:
lower
impact
for
the
press
– Marke:ng
managed
the
conversions
– Digital
Asset
Distribu:on
provider
took
care
of
everything
– No
requirements/conversion
instruc:ons
requested
– No
descrip:on
of
services,
or
feedback
other
than
per-­‐
page
costs
for
simple
and
complex
:tles

3. Indexes:
Unwanted
Vendor
Interven.on
“The
index
that
appeared
in
the
print
version
of
this
2tle
does
not
match
the
pages
in
your
eBook.
Please
use
the
search
func2on
on
your
eReading
device
to
search
for
terms
of
interest.
For
your
reference,
the
terms
that
appear
in
the
print
index
are
listed
below.”

4. Vendors
as
Partners
• Standard
conversion
instruc:ons
– QA
process
to
ensure
standards
and
help
develop
more
detailed
instruc:ons
• Service
level
agreement:
descrip:on
of
services

5. Standard
ePub
Conversion
Instruc.ons
• Naviga:on
elements
• Cover
• Cross
references
• Special
characters/diacri:cs/foreign
languages
• Image
specifica:ons
(placement,
resolu:on,
etc.)
• Page
anchors
for
index
cross
linking

6. Service
Level
Agreement
• File
submission
(metadata
requirements)
• Source
files
(XML,
print
PDF,
image
PDF,
etc.)
• Complexity
levels
of
books,
defined
by
the
vendor
and
accepted
by
the
Press
• Conversion
rates
according
to
page
count
and
complexity
levels
(necessary
for
es:ma:ng
conversion
costs)

7. Service
Level
Agreement,
cont’d
• Conversion
instruc:ons
(reference
to
the
standard
instruc:ons)
• Delivery
standard
(file
format:
ePub
version
/
turn
around
:me
for
deliveries
including
rush
jobs)
• Quality
expecta:ons,
including
Amazon
Kindle
conversion
via
Kindlegen
(important
because
we
are
ordering
ePub,
delivered
to
Amazon
and
converted
via
Kindlegen)
• Error
correc:on
policy
(including
costs)

8. Complexity
Levels
• 4
Categories:
Simple,
Medium,
Complex,
Very
Complex
– Content
complexity:
inline
images;
music
or
poetry
content;
math,
chemical
or
other
scien:fic
languages;
Greek,
or
other
foreign
languages
– Number
of
links
– Number
of
Images
– Number
of
Tables/text
boxes/side
bars
– Number
of
Lists/Nested
Lists
– Number
of
Notes/Footnotes

9. ePub
QA
• Amazon
reworks
spreadsheet
– Marke:ng
reviewed
and
fed
back
to
vendor
• Integra:ng
the
workflow
in
Produc:on
– Who
checks
the
files?
– Can
we
make
correc:ons
internally,
or
do
we
need
to
send
them
all
back
to
the
vendor?

10. Amazon
Reworks
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Loca:on
:3921/Chapter
:1/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text.
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text./
Chapter
:1/Error
Loca:on
:5853
ISSUES:
Other/Error
Descrip:on
:Blocking
Mobi
7
issues;
please
check
with
your
TAM/Error
Loca:on
:throughout/Chapter
:1
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text./Error
Loca:on
:
5822/Chapter
:1
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text./Chapter
:1/Error
Loca:on
:3961
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Loca:on
:4156/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text./Chapter
:1
ISSUES:
Paragraphing/Error
Descrip:on
:Image
is
interrup:ng
the
flow
of
text./Chapter
:1/Error
Loca:on
:5363

11. New
Roles
• Produc:on
Editors
– ePub
QA
• Check
:tle/author/ISBN
against
database
• Check
cover
and
TOC
against
PUP
web
site
• Check
TOC
links/sidebar
links
• Check
illustra:ons
• Spot
check
internal
and
external
links

12. New
Roles,
cont’d
• In-­‐house
composi:on
– Correc:ons
(those
that
can
be
done
in-­‐house)
• Manufacturing
– Ebook
conversion
es:mates?
• Designers
– Familiariza:on,
art
check
(especially
the
cover)
– Development
of
CSS?

13. New
Skill
Sets
• XHTML
• CSS
• XML
– And
related
technologies,
like
XPath,
XSLT,
DTD,
Schemas,
etc.
for
the
ambi:ous

14. XML
Editor:
oXygen

15. ePub
Valida.on
• ePub
correc:on
and
valida:on
(files
up
to
10MB
can
be
checked
online)
– hjp://validator.idpf.org/
• Larger
files
can
be
checked
via
command
line,
downloaded
from:
– hjp://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/

16. Ongoing
Challenges:
• Tighter
integra:on
with
Produc:on
• Nature
Guides
• Math
• Textbooks
• Fixed
layout?
• iBooks
Author?

17. Thanks!
Kenneth
Reed
Princeton
University
Press
ken_reed@press.princeton.edu