Book production -- for ebooks AND print -- can be done easily & beautifully if we start on the web, with easy tools that support structured HTML, CSS, and templating.

1. the beauty
of
web-first
workflows
Hugh McGuire
@hughmcguire
@pressbooks
http://pressbooks.com

2. (for books)

3. where are we
with
book formats?

4. ePub 2

5. ePub 3

6. azw
(aka mobi aka kindle)

7. kindle 8

8. ... and don’t forget:

9. HTML
(aka “The Internet”)

10. oh, also don’t forget...

11. ...paper.

12. what unites all of the above?

13. they are all based on HTML

14. (except for paper, of course)

15. ebooks are just a special kind of
website, designed to be read in a
special kind of browser

16. and given that ebooks are just
special websites, it’s ...
funny?
ironic?
unsurprising?
really annoying?
...

17. ... that we’ve landed in a similar
problem to the web, circa
everything prior to 2006:

18. browser wars

19. remember this?

21. <!--[if IE 6]>
<link rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css" href="ie6.css" />
<![endif]-->

23. But we fixed all that, more or less:
with standards based browsers.

24. means:
one CSS to rule them all

25. ok:
two CSSes ...
don’t forget mobile browers
(please, don’t forget them)

26. the solution is:
standards based structure
and relatively consistent (&
dynamic if need be) application of
CSS ...

27. you build a website once,
cross your fingers,
and it shows up on all those
browsers (safari, chrome, firefox,
opera + mobile) more or less the
way you expected it to.

28. we’re not there yet (quite) with
books.
but we’re not far.

29. Kindle 8 introduces
new HTML5 tags
and
new CSS attributes

30. ... which is suspiciously close to
the ePub 3 standard.

31. (did you notice that everything is
converging on HTML5 ... web
standards?)

33. so now with:
-- good structure
-- good CSS
-- and good templating systems
you should be able to get:

34. 1. a beautiful web book that
renders nicely on computers
(from pressbooks:)

36. 2. make a beautiful web book that
renders on mobile devices (from
pressbooks:)

38. 2. make a beautiful book that
renders on ...
* Kindle (also on iPhone/iPad/Android)
* Fire
* Kobo (Kobo on etc)
* Kobo Vox
* iBooks (iPad/iPhone) ...
(from PressBooks:)

41. nice.
life is looking good.
structure + style + templates
=
easy-peasy bookmaking for
multiple formats & multiple
devices.

42. wait. shit.

43. did we forget about the most
dominant reading format &
browser?

44. ... paper?
...bookbooks?

45. is paper the
ie6
of bookmaking in 2011?

46. not necessarily.

47. question:

48. why have we made great and
ubiquitous systems to make it
easy for any dummy (like me) to
make a beautiful website...

52. ...but we haven’t made anything
like that for bookbooks?

53. is it too hard?

54. no, actually the tools are out
there ... they’re just really ugly to
use (right now).
someone’s got to make something
that does this easily & well.

55. it turns out that if we start with
structured HTML...
we can get to a nicely structured,
typeset book (from PressBooks):

63. so in theory,
we can start with tool that is as
easy to use as the easiest blogging
engine...

64. ... and pump lovely, templated
books in all formats:
-- epub
-- kindle 8
-- HTML (of course!)
... AND
-- paper

65. which means:

66. we can stop spending lots of time
& money on designing, producing
lots of different formats of one
book...

67. and instead, spend our time and
energy on more important things
like:

68. 1. writing, finding, and editing
great books

69. 2. finding new, and better ways to
connect books to the people who
love them

70. SO:

71. the beauty
of
web-first book production
is that
we can spend more time
on the things that really matter.

72. I am:
Hugh McGuire
hughmcguire@gmail.com
@hughmcguire
You too (!) can easily make nice
books here:
http://PressBooks.com