Technology

Okay, so I don't have much technology in my books, but technology is something huge that is effecting books.

EMC’s

Enhanced Multi-Media Content includes interactive maps, videos interviews with the author, animation, sound effects, and advertizing.

E-book animation

Just like regular animation E-book animation is a series of pictures put together and flashed in a sequence to make it look like the picture is moving.

There are some differences with e-book animation:

When I do animation for a digital book I use .gif images in Adobe animation. Gif tends to be a smaller file then the other formats and will comply with most e-book programs including Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Each animation should consist of no more than three to five slides.

If you do more than this you file will be too big. The trick is to keep the files small so that there are no delays in the upload of pages. By keeping the files small you avoid taking up massive amounts of space on people’s e-book readers.

Another thing to remember with creating animation for e-books is that you don’t want your animation to overpower the work of the author.

The movements in an animation should be subtitle. No one wants a bright blinking light in their face when they are trying to read.

I highly recommend that e-book creators who use animation have a “Turn Off Animation” feature or at least have the option for readers to download a non-animated book for those who find even subtitle animation distracting in a novel.

For more info on EMC's see my main website link here: http://www.knightess.com/otherprojects.html

Advertisements:

If you plan on being published in the next few years you should know that some e-book companies and publishers are preparing to add advertisements into eBooks. Imagine reading a book and an ad for soda pop comes up on the screen. These ads have both plusses and minuets.

On the plus side, these ads make your book available at a lower cost since merchandisers are purchasing the advertizing space in your book. You may even find a company to sponsor the book in exchange for advertizing space. They advertizing in your book in exchange you can provide your book to readers at a low cost or no cost and still get paid as an author. The more readers you get the more of a following you get, which is especially valuable if you are a career author.

If you so decide to do this be careful about what kind of ads appear in your book. For example if you have a Christian Romance book you don’t want your reader to “turn the page” and see an ad for pornography.

Of course most advertisers are smarter than that and usually try and promote to their target market audience. In the case of a Christian romance you may get advertisements for a Christian dating service.