Suppressed Transmission: The Kindle Edition

[Jürgen Hubert]

If publishing the "Suppressed Transmission" series in print is not economically viable, then how releasing it in a format that can be read on an ebook reader?

I'd certainly pay for this, especially if it's hyperlinked. And since ebook creator software uses HTML files as input, it should be far easier to create than standard GURPS PDFs with their fancy layout.

[Crakkerjakk]

I would also pay for this.

[Jürgen Hubert]

The Kindle - and similar ebook readers - aren't really suitable for standard RPG books yet. Even the readers who can read PDFs do so only very awkwardly. And in their native format, they don't offer much in the way of formatting - even tables are difficult.

However, the Suppressed Transmission series is essentially a bunch of essays without any fancy layouting. Sure, the books have footnotes, but Ebooks can do those easily as hyperlinks to other pages of the same ebook. And the Kindle Store has only a very small selection of RPG-related ebooks - and the Suppressed Transmissions are the kind of book that might attract even people outside the RPG community.

Given my own experiments with the converter software, I expect that creating a Suppressed Transmissions ebook with, say, a hundred Suppressed Transmission essays should take an intern who knows the basics of HTML no more than a few days if no footnotes are added.

[Graham]

If you're eReader can handle MobiPocket format, then note that the (free) desktop MobiPocket application does a pretty good, quick job of converting a pdf to a text version that's easier to read. It doesn't handle the graphics of course, but for many RPG supplements it works well, and is better than squinting at the pdf.

My Bookeen reader can display half a page of pdf at a time in landscape format, which is good for the graphics, but you do have to squint to read the text (it's an A5 device), so a separate version with just the text is very handy, particularly as the reader lets you change the font size depending on available light and tiredness of eyes.

And conversions aside, I would be a keen customer of RPG supplements released in a standard eReader format (especially MobiPocket), in addition to pdfs.

Graham

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Given my own experiments with the converter software, I expect that creating a Suppressed Transmissions ebook with, say, a hundred Suppressed Transmission essays should take an intern who knows the basics of HTML no more than a few days if no footnotes are added.

Couldn't the prospective e-book reader simply subscribe to Pyramid (where all the STs and more besides are already in HTML) and download them from there?

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

Couldn't the prospective e-book reader simply subscribe to Pyramid (where all the STs and more besides are already in HTML) and download them from there?

Sure, you could.

But then you'd have to download all the articles one at a time, and then convert them individually. And then you'd have lots and lots of individual small files instead of one big file you could read from start to finish. And unless you mess around with the coding yourself, the result wouldn't have any convenient hyperlinks for internal navigation.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Sure, you could.

But then you'd have to download all the articles one at a time, and then convert them individually. And then you'd have lots and lots of individual small files instead of one big file you could read from start to finish. And unless you mess around with the coding yourself, the result wouldn't have any convenient hyperlinks for internal navigation.

I can access Pyramid with my Kindle and read the articles online.

[Crakkerjakk]

*Arches eyebrow, then scurries to his Kindle, furtively tapping at it's keypad*

Seriously though, I'd pay for just the convenience of having one file on my Kindle. I assume manpower is tight as usual at SJG, but you have at least three customers right here.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by philreed

I can access Pyramid with my Kindle and read the articles online.

Being back in Germany, I can't...

And, like Crakkerjakk said, having it all in one file would be a lot more convenient.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Being back in Germany, I can't...

And, like Crakkerjakk said, having it all in one file would be a lot more convenient.

It would be convenient, yes, but we're not in a position to devote staff time to a project like this.