BUSINESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB:

where "word of keystroke" begins

Sept. 7, 2000 -- eBookIt: a quick way to create multimedia books

Transcript of the live chat session that took place Thursday, September 7, 2000. These sessions are normally scheduled for 12 noon-1 PM US Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4) every Thursday.

To connect to the chat room, go to www.samizdat.com/chat-intro.html

Since the chat itself happens at a rapid pace, it's often difficult to note interesting facts and URLs as they appear live. Here's a place to take a more leisurely look. I've rearranged some of the pieces to try to capture the various threads of discussion (which sometimes get lost in the rush of live chat).

Please send email with your follow-on questions and comments, and suggestions for topics we should focus on in future sessions. So long as the volume of email responses is manageable, I'll post the most pertinent ones here for all to see.

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This is one of the longest-running chat programs on the Web. (Please let us know if you know of ones that are older.) We've been doing this since June 1996.

For transcripts of previous sessions and a list of future topics, www.samizdat.com/chat.html.

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Threads (reconstructed after the fact):

Today's participants

For an example of an audio book made using eBookIt, check The Lizard of Oz. To hear the narration, you should use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and you need the RealPlayer.

Introductions

Richard Seltzer -- All -- we'll be starting in a few minutes. Today's guest is Bob Zwick, who will be talking about some new free software of his for making talking ebooks.

Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Bob. For starters, could you please give a quick decription of your eBookIt software -- what it does, the need it fills.

Bob Zwick -- Thank you Richard - eBookIt is a free software program that is designed to make creation of electronic books fast and simple. As an FYI item I created eBookIt for my own use to be able to read etexts like those from the Gutenberg project and be able to enlarge the text and bookmark where I left off.
Then I realized the potential uses for authors and publishers so I am making it available to the public.

Richard Seltzer -- I understand that this program is still brand new -- in beta. But have you gotten feedback from users on what they are using it for, what benefits they see? My quick take on this -- You automate conversion of large text files to nicely formatted, easy to read HTML pages; and you make it easy to integrate RealAudio files for each of those pages; and you make it easy to move the text from those pages to a palm device (using Coola). Is that a reasonable description?

Bob Zwick -- Richard - your quick take is right on target. I see many programs that complicate ebook creation with special formatting and security encryption available, but I see those features as a deterent to readership.
Bob Zwick -- Richard - your quick take is right on target. I see many programs that complicate ebook creation with special formatting and security encryption available, but I see those features as a deterent to readership.

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- I agree about the importance of keeping it simple. Quick question, I've been experimenting a bit with eBookIt but hadn't noticed the ability to enlarge type size. How does one do that?

Bob Zwick -- Richard - text enlargement is done in your browser software. For example in Internet Explorer click "view" then "text: then "Larger" or Largest".

Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Tim Dolan. Please introduce yourself and let us know your interests. Tim -- are you familiar with, have you tried eBookIt?

Tim Dolan -- hi ya folks - probably a lurker today - in the middle of a phone call.

Tim Dolan -- Me again - going to try "frames" this time. My interests are old-time-radio and books on tape.

Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- Yes, frames works best with this chat room. As for books on tape, eBookIt seems like an interesting alternative.

Tim Dolan -- web site for reading about ebookit?

Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Barry, please introduce yourself and let us know your interests.

Barry Beckham -- hi folks, just reading the messsages to catch up... I'm a publisher redesigning my site to focus on ebooks and pub on demand.

Richard Seltzer -- Richard Seltzer -- Welcome, Thomas Thomas (from Ion Systems), glad you could make it. Unfortunately, we're just about ready to wrap up. If you don't have time to post here what you have to say, please email your comments to me for inclusion with the transcript. Welcome, also troysmithp51, please introduce yourself and let us know your interests. 

RealAudio and the blind

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Have you had any feedback from the blind? Are they able to use RealAudio without problems? I'm sure the sound is good, it's just a question of whether the RealAudio application, its user interface, is blind friendly.

Bob Zwick -- Richard - I have not had any feedback from blind users, but I am working on several enhancements especially for them. In particular, the blind version has automated audio introductions and prompts for page navigation.

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- have you made an effort yet to get in touch with the blind community? I know the folks at the National Braille Press and subscribe to an email discussion list for the blind. would those contacts be useful to you? 

Flexibility and format conversion

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- also, is the intent that people will read these books while on the Web? or can they/should they download books in this format for reading/hearing later, when they are not Web-connected? Is it possible to save the RealAudio files in a some convenient way for replay -- to tape? to CD? etc.?

Bob Zwick -- Richard - the intent is flexibiity ! The author has the capability of offering the entire book zipped for download or, as I do, on CDROM. People can still read on the Web but there is definitely an incentive to purchase your book to be read anywhere any time.

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Please clarify. I'm used to seeing texts in the eBookIt format. And I'm in the midst of converting one of my books to that. How could I offer such a book zipped for download? Do I simply zip the contents of the directory that eBookIt creates for that particular book? Does the user/reader need any special software, or is a browser all that's necessary to read?

Barry Beckham -- Does the kit replace my converting MsWord documents to pdf?

Richard Seltzer -- Barry -- For eBookIt, there is no need at all to use pdf. You can go straight from plain text files in MSWord to pages in eBookIt.

Bob Zwick -- Barry - eBookIt nicely formats text to HTML from there you can use any of several HTML to PDF conversion programs to offer your book in that format.

Barry Beckham -- So the kit is for converting text; what happens when a book is scanned? It's scanned to MsWord and then converted by ebookit?

Bob Zwick -- Welcome Barry - as a publisher eBookIt is a great tool to put ebooks on your site as a hook to sales either in electronic or printed form.

Bob Zwick -- Barry - The proceedure you speak of might look like this: Scan - OCR to Word - Save to text (from Word) - run eBookIt to create an enhanced HTML eBook.

Richard Seltzer -- Barry -- why do you want your documents in pdf? for the look and feel of a printed page? check the look and feel of eBookIt. It's very readable, and may well make pdf unnecessary in your case.

Barry Beckham -- Since I publish pod, we typeset in pdf; so the pdf version gives us both an ebook and a hard copy book

Bob Zwick -- Barry - As I mentioned HTML to PDF conversion programs are available. If the format that eBookIt creates is suitable after converting to PDF there should be no changes in your POD operation.

Barry Beckham -- Well it sounds as if I would have to use ebookit for selective html texts, and the advantages of audio and video are great. But we must typset in pdf, and I'm not inclined to get another program to convert html to pdf

Richard Seltzer -- Bob and Barry -- Does the regular Acrobat creation program handle conversion from HTML? Or does it just deal with things like Microsoft Publisher, Pagemaker, and Quark?

Barry Beckham -- Richard I don't know the technical side of pdf, so I can't answer that...whether it converts html. I just send it out :)

Bob Zwick -- Richard - I am not familiar with the Adobe PDF creation program. I just use a shareware "simple" conversion tool that takes HTML and outputs PDF.

Barry Beckham -- Let me try another approach at making this clearer. We have books already set in pdf. So now I have to convert the pdf to ebookit to use your features Bob?

Richard Seltzer -- Barry -- The Acrobat program costs about $400 I believe. Depending on whatyou are paying someone else to do it for you, you might want to consider doing it yorself.

Tim Dolan -- Not being familar and at heart lazy - could someone point me to a good html to PDF tool? The word "good" means robust and free.

Bob Zwick -- HTMLDOC is a freeware html to PDF conversion program and can be downloaded from www.easysw.com/software.html

Barry Beckham -- Richard, I can't do anything else myself :) I want to have a list of 600 titles within 6 months, and it's enough working with editors, designers and writers. I can get a doc converted for $50 and I have a typset pdf book without knowing any more technical stuff...

Richard Seltzer -- Barry -- 600 titles? What kind of books are you looking for? (I'm an author :-)

Tim Dolan -- barry - 600 titles of what and for whom?

Barry Beckham -- Tim, the 600 titles will be on our site as the major publisher of online multicultural books.

Bob Zwick -- Barry - does that doc conversion include a readable html file on your web site or just a pdf file?
I also do complete conversion services including CDROM mastering and CDROM-ON-DEMAND

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- is that conversion service perhaps where you are likely to make your money? can you give a rough feel for your rates?

Barry Beckham -- Bob, the conversion is a readable ebook pdf file with hyperlinks as well as a pdf file we send to our printer, who prints the book in 24 hours.

Richard Seltzer -- Barry -- which print-on-demand printer are you using? What's the cost to you of having an average book printed? What's the typical sales price for such a book? And does the printer charge the shipping cost back to you?

Barry Beckham -- Richard, I have several printers, but one can print and fulfill, so I am leaning toward him; just looked at his plant in NYC. Because of my quantity expectations, I can get a book for 1.6 cents a page and $1.50 for full color cover

Bob Zwick -- Barry - 600 titles in 6 months. With eBookIt I could do that in less than two months including web site uploading.

Barry Beckham -- Bob, but many many of those titles have to be scanned because they are reprints of public domain or out of print books

Bob Zwick -- Barry - I'm sorry if I misled you. I don't do scanning or OCR. My services just include text to HTML and/or PDF. Audio and video of course would add considerable time and cost to the project.

Tim Dolan -- barry - your comment invoked a brain flash (or cramp) How about setting up a network of printer companies across the nation that could do just-in-time. simlar to the Florist delivery. you could tap into free time of various printers across the nation. let them bid on the job, they would drop ship to customer. fewer touch points.

Barry Beckham -- Tim, great idea, but can they deliver as well as print?

Barry Beckham -- Tim--I wonder if my accountant could handle the varying reports and shipping details

Tim Dolan -- hey - i'm just the idea guy - the rest of it, is just a simple matter of implentation. 

Books for Palm and PocketPC

Tim Dolan -- I have not read anything on this specific product. is it palm/pocket enabled?

Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- Bob has built in a connection to Coola. Check out their site at www.coola.com Basically, they make it easy to move selected content to your palm. Bob's software automates that, so each page has its own Coola link, and by clicking on that link you set up to receive that text the next time you sync (if you are registered at Coola). For details, see their Web site at www.coola.com or check my Coola Fan Page at www.samizdat.com/coola.html

Bob Zwick -- One note: Coola downloads are only capable while connected to the web.

Tim Dolan -- Also mentioned but lost . is there a standalone clent application that runs on the Pocket-PC? Does Ebookit do any clever compression?

Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- For now, Coola just works for the Palm (synced through a Windows system). But I know they plan to expand to PocketPC soon (as well as Macintosh as the desktop system). 

Automation vs. control, how to "tweak" pages and add graphics

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- While the automation works great 99% of the time, what about the other 1%? How can a publisher tweak the automatically created files? e.g., to make a minor change in formatting, or to add to link for a graphic?

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- It appears that the html files that eBookIt creates cannot be edited. Is that intentional, a feature so readers won't mess with files? and is there a way that publishers can make edits to tweak the format?

Barry Beckham -- What about charts and graphics capabilities?

Bob Zwick -- Barry - charts and graphics are simply inserting the image tag. Of course charts would have to be a graphic. All HTML tags are recognized and included by eBookIt. 

Claim to fame

Tim Dolan -- Sorry to be simplistic - What is Ebookit's claim to fame? is simplier than xxx? makes a smaller file than xxx? Cheaper than xxx? What is my payback for learning yet-another tool?

Richard -- Tim -- There's not much to learn. I just started playing with it this morning. The basic software is free. It takes a plain text Word file and converts it to a series of nicely formatted, very readable html pages, with all the hooks for audio and palm (Coola) built in. If the look-and-feel is good enough for your needs, this could save you many hours of formatting/page design, and give you a product that is more than just a text book.

Bob Zwick -- Tim - good question Claim to fame ? Free, learn it in a few minutes, available now, adds audio, video and palm sync abilities. Your payback ? Depends on if quick simple creation of eBooks has a return on the investment of a a little time. 

Adding video

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Video? I didn't realize that. Is that using RealVideo? And the same RealProducer software that's used for Audio?

Bob Zwick -- Everyone - we have mentioned audio, but let me emphasize that video is also just as possible to include. I am working on a book that is narrated and includes sign language video. I think this will be a good classroom or presentation tool.

Bob Zwick -- Richard - the FREE Real Producer basic that is linked on the eBooks sight allows audio and or audio video. Just add a camera and a mike and you are ready for production. Keep in mind that audio/video files are much larger. 

Adding Audio

Tim Dolan -- Someone touched on this a bit ago - but are there tools to help a narrator create a voice file? And how labor intensive is it to link scores(pun intended) of sound files to many text/html files?

Richard Seltzer -- Tim -- That's one of the things that eBookIt makes easy. It automatically divides your book up into pages, and for each page it create a dummy RealAudio/Video file. You use the free Real Producer software to create your audio/video files (using a microphone and/or videocamera). Then you replace the dummy files with your real files.

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- I'm just starting to use Real Producer and the choices for settings are somewhat confusing. It looks like you have to choose whether to combine video and audio for streaming from their G2 server or go for plain audio over a standard Web server. I'm not about to buy their server, and couldn't do anything with it if I did, since my site is hosted. Am I misunderstanding the options? Can I actually use their free producer software to create video/audio files and all I have to do to make them available on the Web is put them on a standard Web server?

Bob Zwick -- Richard -in the producer I just save the output to a local file wether it's audio or audio/video. Then those files can be uploaded to any web site. eBookIt takes care of the .ram interface file needed. Just skip the options to publish the output.

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Interesting. In other words, I should avoid user their "Wizard" handholding, and just record the files?

Barry Beckham -- Bob, my College Selection Workbook: Self-Paced Exercises to Help You Choose the Right College may be a good beginning for us. We want to make it a web-based book that students can read and fill in exercises and save. Their counselors can also have access to the exercises. Now adding audio could be a great addition not anticipated earlier.

eBookIt business model

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- What's you business model? You are giving the beta away for free. Do you plan to charge for the final version or for a "professional" enhanced version? If so, how much? (It's awfully tough making money selling low-cost software).

Richard Seltzer -- Bob -- Are any of the major ebook publishing sites offering books in your new format? In fact, are there any sites, other than your own, where folks can see examples?

Bob Zwick -- Richard - I intend to always keep the standard edition of eBookIt free. I want the average online reader to be able to format etext so they can enjoy reading on a monitor and I especially want it free for basic educational uses. Of course the PRO version will eventually contain many heavy duty features not in the standard version. As for making income on conversions, that is just one way to compensate me for the time and effort I'm putting in to eBookIt. 

Wrapup

Richard Seltzer -- All -- we're reaching the end of the hour. As usual, I'll post an edited transcript in a few days. Please check http://www.samizdat.com/chat.html Please send me your followup questions and comments for inclusion with the transcript. seltzer@samizdat.com

Richard Seltzer -- All -- thanks very much for joining us today. Please send me email with your suggestions for future topics, and please join us again next Thursday. Before signing off, please post here your email and URL addresses so we can stay in touch. Don't presume that the software caught that.

Barry Beckham -- I think everything is multicultural in a way, so Internet and fiction qualify; beckham@erols.com; www.beckhamhouse.com

Tim Dolan -- tim dolan tdolan001@yahoo.com

Bob Zwick -- Thank you Richard -
bob@cottagemicro.com
Our FAQ & Support Forums are at:
http://www.webex.com/webex/tool/forum/enter.asp?Action=ListForum&COTP=1&COID=51836&Rnd=641606338
eBookIt LINK =

For an example of an audio book made using eBookIt, check The Lizard of Oz. To hear the narration, you should use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and you need the RealPlayer.

Previous transcripts and schedule of upcoming chats -- www.samizdat.com/chat.html

To connect to the chat room, go to www.samizdat.com/chat-intro.html

This site is Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com

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