# Pay What You Will Kindle Promotion for Show Networks and Control Systems Book



## JohnHuntington (Feb 17, 2013)

I'm running a "pay what you will" promotion for the Kindle edition of my book later this week. Details here.

Thanks, 

John


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## Footer (Feb 17, 2013)

Thanks John! Already own the book (and the previous edition)... might have to pick up the e-version for portability's sake.


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## ruinexplorer (Feb 17, 2013)

D'oh! I have a Nook. I might have to get the kindle reader for my netbook then.


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 17, 2013)

ruinexplorer said:


> D'oh! I have a Nook. I might have to get the kindle reader for my netbook then.



Sorry about that! I'm still hoping to make it in PDF format, but I want individual watermarks and I haven't been able to find anyone to offer that as a service to self publishers...

John


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## LavaASU (Feb 17, 2013)

Are you wanting different watermarks for each copy sold? Or just a custom one?


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 17, 2013)

LavaASU said:


> Are you wanting different watermarks for each copy sold? Or just a custom one?



Doing one would be pretty easy 

I'm looking for something like, "From the library of Joe Smith". My former publisher can do it, I just haven't found anyone to do it for me as a service, and I don't have time to make individual versions...

John


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## emac (Feb 17, 2013)

Ooooo! This is awesome! How do you think it will translate onto a kindle app on an iPad?
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 17, 2013)

emac said:


> Ooooo! This is awesome! How do you think it will translate onto a kindle app on an iPad?
> Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express



I've run it on my Android tablet in the Kindle app and it looks OK. I still think the e-format for technical books overall sucks, though  

John


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## techieman33 (Feb 18, 2013)

JohnHuntington said:


> I've run it on my Android tablet in the Kindle app and it looks OK. I still think the e-format for technical books overall sucks, though
> 
> John



I saw a full color textbook that looked amazing on an ipad. The problem is they have to be formatted for specific devices, if you just convert a standard file there will almost always be something that isn't quite right. It'll be a great day when we can carry all of our reference materials with us on a single device instead of needing to carry around a lot of heavy books. And they'll be more more easily searched for specific things as well.


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 18, 2013)

techieman33 said:


> I saw a full color textbook that looked amazing on an ipad. The problem is they have to be formatted for specific devices, if you just convert a standard file there will almost always be something that isn't quite right. .



Exactly. I looked into this pretty deeply, and the only way that I could figure out to make an EPUB file look any good would be to basically start over strip out all of the layout, and then end up with two versions going forward, or format completely for epub (which would make the print edition look horrible). I wrote about that investigation process here.

I started with the print edition because more people preferred that (based on a survey I did, details here), and this is something I agree with completely. When I started this process I started buying all my non-technical books on Kindle, and even basic books with just a few graphics can look and read terribly in that format.

The only solution I can see for complex books today is print and PDF, but as I said I have not been able to find a provider to sell me individually watermarked PDF's as a service. As soon as I can find that I'll issue a PDF within a few days.

In the meantime, the kindle edition of my book is readable, and, of course, searchable, but it works better as an aid to the printed edition than an easy read. I detailed some of the formatting problems here.

It's a fascinating time to be involved, but we sure don't have a good, unified solution yet.

John


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 24, 2013)

The results, in case you were wondering:
Pay What You Will E-Book Promotion Wrapup &mdash; Control Geek

Thanks to everyone who donated!

John


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## ruinexplorer (Feb 25, 2013)

Argh! I totally forgot. Thanks for doing this for the community.


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## LavaASU (Feb 25, 2013)

I did too :-(.


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## erosing (Feb 25, 2013)

JohnHuntington said:


> Exactly. I looked into this pretty deeply, and the only way that I could figure out to make an EPUB file look any good would be to basically start over strip out all of the layout, and then end up with two versions going forward, or format completely for epub (which would make the print edition look horrible). I wrote about that investigation process here.
> 
> I started with the print edition because more people preferred that (based on a survey I did, details here), and this is something I agree with completely. When I started this process I started buying all my non-technical books on Kindle, and even basic books with just a few graphics can look and read terribly in that format.
> 
> ...



Just a thought, but I think I remember the NFPA watermarking some of their PDF versions of print books (or did at least) maybe you could ask them what they are/were using/doing to get that done?


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## JohnHuntington (Feb 25, 2013)

Arez said:


> Just a thought, but I think I remember the NFPA watermarking some of their PDF versions of print books (or did at least) maybe you could ask them what they are/were using/doing to get that done?



Interesting, thanks, I'll try and check that out. The technology definitely exists--my former publisher does it. I'm kind of amazed that no one's selling this as a service to self-publishing authors.

thanks!

John
Control Geek


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## cpf (Feb 25, 2013)

JohnHuntington said:


> Interesting, thanks, I'll try and check that out. The technology definitely exists--my former publisher does it. I'm kind of amazed that no one's selling this as a service to self-publishing authors.
> 
> thanks!
> 
> ...


It would be tough to sell the service standalone, since then you'd need to fiddle around connecting your e-commerce system to the watermarking service. It would be quite easy to write as a plugin for osCommerce, Zencart, or similar, though.


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