Administrivia: Offline-readable episode poll

[wonder_city]

Hi, all,

I've had a couple of questions about making the Wonder City episodes readable offline, and so I am mulling how to go about this.

Once I determine which format(s) to create, I'm going to start posting downloadable episodes when I post an episode. I will then work my way through the earlier episodes of Volume 3, providing offline versions of each ep.

Please respond to this poll if you have an opinion on the subject!

Poll #15891

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

View Respondents

If there were offline-readable versions of episodes, what formats would folks prefer?

View Answers

PDF
4 (40.0%)

epub
7 (70.0%)

mobi
1 (10.0%)

HTML
3 (30.0%)

Other (specified in comments)
1 (10.0%)

If I were to make collections of episodes of completed arcs available for download, would folks be willing to pay a nominal fee (like $1.99 or so) for them?

View Answers

Yes
5 (55.6%)

Maybe
4 (44.4%)

No
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[jinian]

I still use LRF format on my aged Sony e-reader, but Calibre converts very well to that from epub and acceptably from HTML.

Are you thinking of putting the collections on Smashwords? They seem to be very good for making a variety of formats available, and I have browsed there for SF before, so you might get some new readers.

[heavenscalyx]

I'm trying to balance between availability/accessibility for current readers and trying to sell the (extensively edited) novel manuscript at this point. Not sure whether there IS a balance, given the publishing industry. I'm not sure whether Smashwords is an option, given that, but I'll definitely be looking into it!

[elf]

Formatting for SW is a nuisance, and allows limited options (which don't matter for most books), but once it's done, SW's "meatgrinder" will convert into the various popular formats. (I can babble for hours about ebook conversion processes.)

They've also got the easy option of coupons--you can give out freebies and discounts, which most other sites don't allow. SW produces technically ugly (re: the internal coding) epubs that are entirely functional and nobody who doesn't unzip epubs to see the insides will ever care.

There's a style guide for Smashwords, which is unfortunately a mix of
1) what you actually need for SW ebooks,
2) how to find various settings in Word, and
3) the site owner's personal preferences about ebooks, some of which have been hard-coded into their system.

Category 3 includes things like "no titles in all caps" and "every book must include a copyright statement" and "author's name must go on the cover."