NLP positions and writer points of view

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Nigel

Teachers need to experience being in the class if they are to teach well

So there are three basic points of view Dickens could have used in his writing.

Before getting deeper into this, let’s think about some NLP that is almost (but not quite) the same thing, and can help a writer get characters clearer in his own mind.

Let’s take an example from normal life. Recall any occasion you were having a disagreement with someone. Take your mind back to the experience. Recall as many aspects of the experience as you can (we’ll come back to this in a later article).

Can you feel emotions you had at the time? You were calm, rational, and above all right? Yes, of course you were right.

Now try this mind experiment: stay with that disagreement, but move across to the person you were arguing with, get inside their head, see the situation from their point of view, feel their emotions.

Look at yourself through their eyes, hear yourself through their ears.

You have just moved from first position to second position.

This change of view can make a dramatic difference to your understanding of the situation. Try it next time you’re chatting with a friend, preferably while you’re listening.

Now change it again. Imagine you are an objective observer, perhaps observing the interaction through hidden CCTV. Watch yourself and the other person, listen to the words and the tones of voice and observe the body language. Do this for each of the participants, and then for the total situation.

This is third position. Try it next time you’re listening to a friend.

In fact, try moving your awareness around through all three positions. Experience how your understanding changes.

Now let’s use the same example as last time: Oliver Twist asking the master for more gruel.

The reader is channeled into whichever point of view the author’s using, but if you’re the writer why not play with all three positions?

Position 1: I am Oliver Twist. My past experiences are his. I have his understanding of the world. I am dressed as he is, his age, his height, and I’m so desperately hungry I dare to challenge the master. It hurts when I’m hit in the head with the ladle.

Position 2: I am the master with his experiences, background, hopes and fears. I look up and see one of the orphans walking towards me. What am I thinking? How do I feel?

Position 3: I am a fly on the wall, a very intelligent fly on the wall. No emotional involvement, but I can see and hear everything. What do I make of the situation? (This is almost the point of view used by Dickens).

We’re talking about getting right inside the head and body of your characters. Have you ever tried anything like this? Hey, it can be powerful. Try it as you write. Try it in your life beyond writing. You never know what you might discover.

And if you find this useful, how about letting us know what happened?

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3 points of view

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Nigel

You know who this is!

What if Charles Dickens had written Oliver Twist from a different point of view?

Here’s how he actually wrote one of the most famous scenes in literature:

The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook’s uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:

‘Please, sir, I want some more.’

Dickens used a third person viewpoint of an outsider able to observe anything and everything without changing what happened.

But what if he’d chosen to write the story in the first person?

At every stage he’d be experiencing events as Oliver experienced them, and as readers that’s what we would experience too.

Let me have a go at that. Apologies but I’m no Dickens.

The evening arrived. As we took our places I could feel myself trembling, my heart racing. I could see the head and shoulders of the master, wearing his cook’s uniform. Behind him would be his pauper assistants in a line. The gruel was served. We stood there desperate to eat, but holding back in fear as a long grace was said. We ate. It didn’t take long. We licked our basins. Hunger remained.

Boys were whispering. Someone elbowed me in the side, and I looked round to see others winking at me. I must have been mad, mad with hunger, reckless with misery. I stood up, forcing myself to keep breathing, and walked up to the master with my basin and spoon clutched tight in my hands.

Suddenly the words were out.

‘Please, sir, I want some more,’ I said.

The story feels different now. It’s more personal. Emotions are explicit. And when the master rushes out to call on the board for help, Oliver would be left behind imagining the worst. The reader would not be able to follow the master out of the room, and that might be good or bad in terms of telling the story and maintaining impetus.

But what if Dickens had gone for a viewpoint somewhere between the two, where at each stage of the story we see events through the eyes of one character?

The evening arrived; Oliver took his place with the other boys. The master, in his cooks uniform, was stationed at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him. Oliver joined the line as gruel was served out. It was hard not to eat it at once, but first a long grace was said over the small meal. At last he could eat, and when a few spoonfuls had emptied the basin he dared to lick it.

He could hear boys whispering, saw some wink at him. The boys either side nudged him. He was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery; he stood up, picked up his basin and spoon, and walked toward the master. Suddenly he found himself saying:

‘Please, sir, I want some more.’

This is close to the original, but we have more access to how Oliver feels. There’s now a choice for the author: stick with Oliver, or jump to the master’s point of view, or even jump to seeing things through the eyes of a board member as the master bursts in. It all depends what emotions you want to produce in the reader.

But once you’ve selected your point of view as author, then you have created both opportunities and limitations.

Let’s look at that in more detail in future articles.

Picture copyright © Nicku | Dreamstime.com

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5 novels for writers: 5 classics

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Nigel

Isaac Asimov wrote this advice for anyone who wants to be an author: writers write.

They write, but they also need to read as widely as possible.

Here’s a personal selection of ‘old’ books I’ve enjoyed which have helped my own writing and could well help your writing too.

If you try any of these, please remember that society has changed. Be patient with the slow pace at which these stories unfold. Don’t try to copy that, obviously, but do observe the techniques each writer uses so effectively. Why are these novels still so powerful?

John Steinbeck – his books are quite varied. He writes about situations and locations he knows, and set in the times round about the Great Depression of the last century. He also writes about people, often people under financial pressure. A great starting point would be Of Mice and Men which is unusual in the way it uses viewpoint. Each scene feels like you’re observing it from a fixed position. Sound weird? It works? And it makes sense once you know he wrote the play version first.

Charles Dickens – do I need to introduce Dickens to you? Maybe. His personal life and psychological problems can seem at serious odds with his writings. His novels were originally serialised. He used to go on long walks on which he would think through details of how his current work should proceed. I’d recommend Oliver Twist. The story is all too well-known. The interest for an author is how Dickens uses words to create story and characters.

Thomas Hardy – he was as much a poet as a novelist, and brilliant at description. His novels are set in Wessex, which in reality is much of the south-west of England. I find his writing fascinating, but can’t take too much of it at one go. This is partly because he goes for sad endings, which doesn’t mix that well with my chronic depression. Have a look at Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

 

Wilkie Collins – his novel The Moonstone is credited as being the first British detective story. It’s also very good, complex, varied, and fun. Have I read anything else by Collins? No. Why not? I don’t know, maybe I should try one. Remind me.

 

 

Joseph Conrad – what a guy. He was Polish, and that’s the language he was raised speaking. Later he became so accomplished in English that he became a great writer in that language. I find his writing, like Hardy’s, superb but often painfully slow. I haven’t actually finished any of his novels, but I keep trying. Have a go at The Secret Agent.

Let me know how you get on. Why not post your own recommendations in a comment.

(I’ve used images of current paperback versions of the novels. If you’re the publisher and you object to free publicity, just let me know which image(s) you want removed and it will be done.)

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Review: “Gabriel’s Redemption” by Steve Umstead

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Nigel

Steve Umstead has the potential to be a great author

and he’s already good enough that if you enjoy SF you should read him.

Gabriel’s Redemption is his first book. It’s hard Science Fiction, real, no fantasy. If you read SF you should buy this one and get in on the ground floor with a guy who will hopefully become far better known.

Steve only began in November 2010, writing the first draft of this novel for National Novel Writing Month – a month when ordinary people aim to get a novel onto paper in just 30 days. He then self-published it on 2 Feb 2011.

The year is 2176, the central character is Evan Gabriel. We meet him living below the radar in Jamaica and find ourselves rapidly drawn into a great story. Some years earlier he’d been kicked out of special forces, a scapegoat after a faulty mission. Now two men are approaching his room, their intentions unclear.

The plot is good with some twists. The universe Steve has created is believable and interesting, I want to know more about it. I want to know more about Gabriel and his team.

On the other hand Steve’s work shows his inexperience, and part of this is the clear lack of editorial support. Let me try giving an example that should not spoil your enjoyment of the book; near the end Steve writes:

The mission had developed  an unusually strong camaraderie between them ….

Yes, this is absolutely what would have happened, but we shouldn’t need to be told. We should have experienced it happening through the book. That would have been far more powerful, and made it a better novel. An objective editor would have picked up on things like this.

So we have a book with missed opportunities, and an author who has much to learn, and yet I read the whole book.

And I enjoyed reading it.

And I’m now reading the follow-up, Gabriel’s Return, which has an even better opening sequence.

And I’m looking forward to reading more from Steve Umstead as he develops into a great writer.

Two covers, one book

By the way, the cover has been changed. Once Steve had a sequel he got together with talented artist Josh Powers and they devised three new covers. The original, which I like the most, was deferred for use when the trilogy was complete and an omnibus edition was published. Here it is as originally used.

The original book cover. This picture has now been moved to the collected trilogy edition.

Gosh, I love that cover. It superbly perfectly the atmosphere of the book.

Contact details

The books are available from Amazon for the Kindle at an absurdly low price for such good stuff. Go download.

Steve Umstead is at http://steveumstead.com/ and there’s an interview with him at http://writingontherocks.com/2011/08/02/interview-with-steve-umstead-author-of-gabriels-redemption

Artist Josh Powers is at http://www.twistedlexicon.com/

Please encourage these guys.

They deserve it and will reward your interest.

And don’t borrow the books - buy them!

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Writers write – and read

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Nigel

Hello, I'm Harry. I'm hoping to stop Nigel working this morning. But I'm not that hopeful. I love him anyway :)

Writers write!

That was Isaac Asimov’s key piece of advice to wannabe authors: write.

He dryly commented that you can tell who the authorsare  at an SF convention: they’re the ones in their rooms typing away making sure they reach their daily target. They do it whether it’s convenient or not. They do it whatever mood they’re in, because writing badly is far better than not writing at all.

Really?

Why?

It gets the imagination going

I’m coming to the conclusion that writer’s block is almost always unwillingness to get started. For me it could be I’m feeling tired or ill or depressed, or I’m in the wrong place, or have the wrong computer with me.

But most of the time I’m scared if I start, what I write will be rubbish.

And what I’ve discovered is: IT DOESN’T MATTER!

Yes I might produce stuff that’s never used, but it doesn’t matter. I’m getting my subconscious moving on stuff I want to write about. It almost always pays off. I’m talking upwards of 95% of the time!

It maintains the habit

My current target is at least 500 words a day, 6 days a week. That’s not much, except it comes to over 150,000 words a year. Sound a lot? That’s a short novel, say 60,000 words, plus all the necessary revisions. It doesn’t allow for blogging.

But it strengthens the habit so that getting started becomes less effort, less painful. And one day off a week really gets the creative juices flowing!

Any practice is good practice

Every time I write, I’m trying to achieve the best I can. Once started, all the other things – headache, blues, ambient noise – fade. I always get into the zone. I always start to feel the flow, though not always as much as I’d like. I’m flexing the mental muscles I use for writing, keeping them fit. Often I find myself achieving far more than that.

But …

But writers must do more than just write if they are to grow.

They must live. Obviously.

And they must read.

They must read as widely as possible.

They must read outside their comfort zone.

If you’re an obsessive writer of SF, then be sure to read other genres. Read mystery, and thriller, and real life, and mainstream, and non-fiction. Read new and old.

And as you read: look for the bits that really work and the bits that drag and ask yourself how the author has achieved these two opposing results. Read because it’s fun, and read to grow as a writer. The days of apprenticeship are not gone, just less obvious. It’s an incredible way to learn.

So …

I’m going to offer a few suggestions. Take them or leave them. The point is there’s a lot of great stuff out there. I don’t want to write like Thomas Hardy, but gosh he has so much to teach me. I’d love to write as well as the best bits of Iain Banks, and by devouring his novels I can at least move towards that goal.

Join me.

And give us your own recommendations.

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The problems with epublishing now

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Nigel

Digital publishing has exploded.

There are ebooks all over the place, and sales continue to grow.

Hold on, pause there just one moment.

I’m writing this in February 2012.

Let’s be completely honest about this: no one knows what the situation will be in a few years time, and even now there are problems which may not be obvious to readers or writers.

Many many people are doing it

Written a book? Just get it formatted as a pdf and you can publish it free on Amazon for the Kindle.

Now that’s incredible and fantastic, but with it come problems:

  1. A lot of what’s available is of poor quality.
  2. Most Kindle ebooks sell under 200 copies.
  3. Pricing has to be thought through carefully and knowledgably.
  4. Piracy is simple.
  5. How can you tell how long an ebook you’re buying?

1. A lot of it’s of poor quality

When I was young I thought that once I’d written the final sentence I had a saleable book. Now I understand how much rewriting and editing should be done after the first draft is complete, and I know how much it helps to have someone offer objective advice. Many of the self-published Kindle books I’ve tried have come across as very early drafts which have not benefited from experienced editing. Usually I give up on the free sample without paying for the whole book.

As a reader I’m frustrated by the need to plough through so much juvenilia in order to find one good book by a new author. There are web sites that can help, but I’m still dicovering them, and I know that part of the problem is taste. John Locke’s books sell in great numbers, but they’re not for me.

As a writer I have the problem of making my book visible amidst all the competing stuff.

Of course, if a book is published by one of the major publishing houses I know it has passed rigorous checks and been edited. As an author this doesn’t help me because these guys are running scared, and generally only publishing stuff they can be reasonably confident will sell.

2. Most Kindle books don’t sell many copies

Amazon don’t give out much information, but it seems likely their Kindle business model is that most books will sell 50-200 copies. That’s nowhere near enough to cover the costs of the sort of value a good publisher will add, but it is probably reducing the sales of really good books.

3. Pricing’s a problem

It costs almost nothing to store a digital book and make it availble for download. Some authors are giving away one of their books in order to raise their visibility. Others are pricing their books at 50p – £2. And they still sell under 200 copies. Major publishers are charging quite a lot more for what are usually better books, but where will this price war end?

4. Piracy

Download someone else’s book, change the title, credit it to yourself, and bung it back on Amazon so you get the profit.

I know it happens. I bought such a book last year. The original was available free from the author. And at the moment, if you are the real author Amazon seem to be leaving it up to you to reclaim your share of the sale price from the pirate.

5. How long is the book I’m thinking of buying?

A couple of books I bought looked really good, and the sample was acceptable. I paid up, downloaded, and found the sample was almost all of it. Grrrr! We need to know how many pages the book would be as a typical paperback – at say 250 words a page.

What have I missed out?

(Photo © Squakoon | Dreamstime.com )

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Readers, writers, and e-books – part 2

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Nigel

Readers, writers, and e-books – part 2

Many things affect how easy it is to read a digital book.

Obviously there’s stuff like swimming at the same time, how much beer you’ve had, where you’ve put your glasses ….

Last time we looked at  how the device you use affects ease of reading. Now let’s look at the content aka the book you want to read. This part is of less interest to readers but highly significant for writers and publishers. Nowadays it makes sense to have in mind how people will read your work as you write and format it.

 

Readers and writers work best as a partnership

 

How helpful is the content?

  1. Are the extras there and easy to use? Is there a contents page and (for non-fiction) an index? Can you find and use these easily if you want to? Some books have a contents page, but on the Kindle it’s not listed. You have to go to the book cover and turn pages to get there. Some digital books don’t tell you when they were written; okay, so you usually don’t care, but if it’s about some aspect of technology, suddenly that matters very much.
  2. How long are the paragraphs? What a strange question. In the old days a writer might use shorter paragraphs if he wanted to speed up the action, but otherwise it was a matter of taste. Now, reading digitally, I find myself affected by paragraph length. With ebooks, less text is shown on each page. If a page is all one paragraph it can feel daunting and a bit boring. White space really does make a difference. And with the changes in our brain structure caused by stuff like the internet and Twitter, we seem to be preferring shorter paragraphs – and maybe also shorter sentences and chapters.
  3. How helpful is the layout? This is to do with stuff like starting each chapter on a fresh page, formatting different text (eg chapter titles, quotes, footnotes, labels) so it shows up helpfully on an e-reader.
  4. Have the graphics been optimised? If a diagram or picture is included, does it make full use of the screen resolution? Is it in the right place in the text? Is the label in a sensible place? Does the graphic allow normal text on the same page, or do you gave to keep flipping back and forth?

As a reader you shouldn’t notice any of this stuff. The writer and publisher should have got it all sorted. That requires them to have expertise, the right software (we use Adobe InDesign), and a willingness to invest the necessary time in getting this right. Us? We’re time rich and cash poor, and yes, we do think the reader’s experience matters.

Now for the writer there’s one other factor which may become of increasing importance. That’s for next time.

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Readers, writers, and e-books – part 1

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Nigel

 

Reading should be easy and fun

We’ve looked at some aspects of e-books (here and here), but have left out quite a lot of what really matters to the user.

Let’s clarify that. What are the things that really mattersto the reader and the writer? How about this:

How easy is it to read the e-book?

How easy is it to read the e-book?

There are two areas involved, neither of which includes price or how many books can be stored on the device. There’s the device, and there’s the content.

How helpful is the device?

  1. How big is the screen? You can read books on a phone, but I prefer at least the screen size of a Kindle (6″ or 7″). For some types of book the iPad (9.5″ ish) suits me better. By the way, screen measurement is diagonal. This is partly to make it sound more impressive and partly to allow for different shapes of screen.
  2. What’s the screen resolution? My Kindle is 800×600. That’s how many little dots each way on the page. It’s better than my first computer (1979), and fine for the screen size. The iPad I’m writing this on is 1024×768 which I’m also happy with, but some people have complained of eye strain when reading a lot.
  3. How reflective is the screen? It’s hard to read the iPad in bright light, but the Kindle thrives in sunshine. I use both according to location and type of book.
  4. Is the screen backlit? My Kindle isn’t. Like a normal book, I need enough light to read.
  5. How heavy is it? They’re all pretty light now, but lighter still would be nice if the price is right. The iPad2 is 600-610g (1.33-1.35 lb). My Kindle (not the latest) is 247g, so a lot lighter. It doesn’t do as much, and that’s fine because it is fit for purpose provided you want it for reading.
  6. Does it use colour? My Kindle uses black, white, and shades of grey. For reading a novel that’s all I need. For non-fiction I might switch to reading on the iPad to get the benefit of colour graphics.
  7. Can you transfer books? Can I buy a book once and then read it on a range of devices? With Kindle books, yes. With iBooks, at the moment mainly no.
  8. Are books synchronised across devices? I start reading on my Kindle. Then I want to continue on the iPad Kindle App. It asks me if I want to jump straight to where I got to on the other device, which is marvellous. Simple things please me.
  9. Font size and line spacing? All the devices I’ve used let me choose how big the characters are. Some publishers have set up their books so you can’t change how far apart the lines are – probably because they didn’t bother to prepare the book for digital reading.
  10. Page turning, highlighting, links? How easy is it to do these things? On my Kindle, which is not a touch screen, only the page turning is easy. Highlighting and following links: serious pain. But then again, I rarely want to do either when reading a novel. The iPad with its touch screen makes all of these simple (although accurate highlighting needs practice).
  11. How easy is it to be distracted? My Kindle just has books and magazines on it. Once started on a book I tend to keep going. The iPad, now that has Facebook and Twitter and games and email and ….

That’s enough for today. Next time we’ll look at how the nature of the content affects readability.

(Photo © Ed Fielding | Dreamstime.com)

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So what are the pros and cons of converting a book to digital format?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Nigel

Last time we looked at the three* leading formats: Kindle, iBooks, and PDF.

I used to teach Josh, and now he's working hard to break into the music business. This EP, which has the same feel as his incredible gigs, is available both on CD and as mp3 download.

 

It partly depends on whether you’re using an established publisher or self-publishing. We’ll look at those issues later. For now here’s a broad analysis:

Publish digitally because:

  1. You may be able to reach people who buy e-books only, sad that they are.
  2. Preparing a book for digital requires time and expertise, but once converted, actually publishing is free. (Now publicity, that’s another matter.)
  3. The author is likely to receive a higher percentage of the sale price.
  4. Digital sales can be very high. They can be, sometimes.
  5. If you find mistakes it’s easy to amend a digital edition.
  6. Production costs aren’t much higher for a longer book.
  7. You don’t need to worry about reaching High Street bookstores.
  8. You don’t have to pay for loads of printed copies up front.

Avoid publishing digitally because:

  1. You have far less control over how your book looks. Except for PDF, you can’t control the font, text size, line spacing, or page layout. In most cases you have little control over where and how pictures are shown.
  2. Preparing a book for digital requires some expertise and knowledge if you want the layout to be as good as possible. For more advanced work you’d need sophisticated software too. I’ll return to this in a future post.
  3. The pricing arrangements for e-books are different, which requires some serious thought. More on that later.
  4. A significant number of people who read digitally are adopting the attitude that e-books should be not just a bit cheaper than paperbacks, but virtually free. One reader contacted Steve Umstead about his first novel saying he’d enjoyed it, but thought it over-priced at $2.99 despite being a good length (86,000 words). He complained he could usually buy three novels for that amount. As Steve said, do people really think a good novel is worth less than a petrol station coffee? Cut the price of the book and the author gets less cash per sale. 10% of £7.99 is far more than 35% of 99p.
  5. Unless your book is digitally marketed by a major publisher (see later post about the agency model) Amazon can slash the sale price without consulting you. That may increase sales, but cuts your income on each sale.
  6. With print-on-demand technology (POD) you don’t need to carry any stock unless you’re also selling on the High Street.
  7. Digital books are relatively easy to pirate.

If you’re a beginning writer these issues should be considered very carefully before proceeding.

What I would say is that the creative world is in turmoil. We’ve been seeing it for some time with music; now similar issues are hitting books. My own feeling is that when the dust settles we’ll have a different way of looking at things. I don’t know what that will be, but I suspect it will involve far less DRM, and a widespread acceptance by authors and publishers that part of the publicity process is to leave purchasers the option of passing on free copies.

(The Josh Flowers & The Wild EP is available at http://joshflowers.bandcamp.com/ . Go on, you know you want a copy. Check out the samples.)

* There are two other types of e-reader I come across quite often: The Kobo, which in the UK is marketed by WHSmith, and the Barnes & Noble Nook which is mainly marketed in the USA. I’ve not yet tried either.

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The changing world of books: e-books

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Nigel

The world of e-books can feel confusing so let’s take a quick look through the bits that matter to readers and writers.

The three main types

The format war continues, but things are beginning to settle down. There are now three clear market leaders in e-book formats:

  1. Kindle (Amazon),
  2. iBooks (Apple),
  3. PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format).

Let’s consider them one at a time.

The Kindle

Amazon controls this market, but anyone can place their book in the Kindle bookshop on Amazon. There are several versions of the Kindle reader.

I use one which hardly ever needs recharging because it uses a special screen that draws no power once it has updated the display. I love using it, and it’s really easy to read in bright light, but it does have three key shortcomings:

  1. It has a good display, but only in black, white, and shades of grey,
  2. Display changes are very slow, though I’m sure the tech will improve,
  3. It’s not a touch screen.

On the other hand, once I’ve bought a Kindle book I can read it using free apps on my desktop and my iPad.

There is a new Kindle out in the USA called the Kindle Fire. This is full colour with a touch screen, but reviewers have been critical of some aspects of this first generation model. I think I’ll wait for the next gen.

It’s straightforward to e-mail a book to Amazon for free conversion and download to your own Kindle, though there can be problems with formatting.

Kindle currently has the largest share of the e-book market.

iBooks

Here's the same page on my iPad 2. As reader I've selected a smaller font so there's more on each page. The screen is backlit but reflective, so a bit annoying to read in bright conditions.

Apple’s e-book store is growing. Books can be in colour and interactive because iBooks runs on an iPad, iPhone, or equivalent. Unfortunately most of their books are protected from copying (DRM), and cannot be read on any other devices – yes, not even an Apple desktop/notebook.

Their books are in the well-established ePub format, so I can use iBooks on my iPad to read any unprotected ePub book I download from elsewhere, and that’s really useful.

PDF books

Here's a book I bought in PDF format showing on my iPad2. This is the cover, but the contents also use artistic layout and colour. I recommend the book, although it is short and expensive.

This format has been around for a very long time. Adobe wanted to create a standard format for digitising any kind of document so that every aspect of the document would be there: pictures, colour, font, page layout, book layout, hyperlinks. They made their Adobe Reader free, and all my computers run it. Web documents you download are usually in pdf format.

The disadvantage, which we’ll look at further in the next post, is that you’re stuck with the page layout of the original. If you want to read using a larger font you have to zoom in. Okay so this is easy but gets annoying if the document has more than a couple of pages. Magazines available for the iPad appear to have this format, which makes sense because a mag relies heavily on the visual appeal of good page layout.

Upcoming posts:

  • So what are the pros and cons of converting a book to digital format?
  • What fresh options are available to authors?
  • The pricing of e-books (for reader, for writer)
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