Well I got the beta print copies of Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming and Careers, and Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers.
One of the things I love about eBooks is what you see is what you get. Print books, not so much. Here’s just a few things I found:
- The cover may not quite print as you expected – and any colors, graphics, etc. may not be what you expect in a solid version.
- You can forget things on the cover period. I’ll have to adjust one of the covers, in fact.
- There’s breaks. A paragraph you don’t have to break up in an eBook format may be damned hard to break properly in print.
- Chapter formatting. I love chapters that are on odd pages, so you have to get that right.
- A lot of book elements like Table of Contents, Credits, etc. just seem “different” in print – and you have to make sure the breaking and formatting is right.
- A re-scan of the print copy may help you find issues.
So I’ve got . . . about 600 print pages to scan. I think I’m gonna be busy for a week or two on this.
Now as much as I complained here, I think you should consider print versions of your eBooks, if only for the sheer experience of doing one and discovering you don’t want to. It’s pretty educational all around.
– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.