A Book About Hype 4 (Digital Edition) Is Now Available
After a devastating rejection from Apple, the contingency plan was activated. The idea was to find another place to sell the app. This was always a longterm plan for Photics, but now something was needed quick. After careful consideration, Etsy was chosen as the place to go
Why Etsy?
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Wow, so friendly β It was really refreshing to feel like I had an ally in e-commerce. Their customer service was helpful.
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Downloads β This was a big one. If you have an account at Etsy, you can download the files from previous orders. That's so nice! (This was one of the biggest issues with previous books from Photics.)
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Not too expensive β Their listing fee thing was a little confusing to me, but overall it's not bad. Very good actually.
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Nice Website β It's a lot to absorb at first, but the quality is quite apparent. They did the work!
Two Versions β App & ePub
While I like the App version, with the cool interactivity and the fact it was built with Hype, I realized that people would want search or to use their traditional e-readers. That's why I put in the extra work to create an ePub version. The ePub doesn't have interactivity, but I do enjoy those page curls in Apple's βBooksβ app.
The "Vertical Scrolling" mode is cool too, great for speed reading. However, I learned something while converting the book to ePub. The βcalibreβ app is phenomenal! If you need to make your own ePub, it's outstanding!
It's also a good e-reader, that's available on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The included editor provided some interesting stats about the book...
If this was just an ePub alone, Lulu would have been good enough, but Etsy allows the .zip extension as downloadable files. I also liked that they let me add a promo video. The plan is to retire the printed book at the end of the month. It might come back one day, but right now it's a little out-of-date. There's not much difference between the digital and printed versions of the book, but there are a lot of minor changes to the text.
Now What?
There is a downside to Etsy. The upload limit is 20 MB per file. (The app version is really close to that cap.) That means there isn't enough space for video. The plan is to start a YouTube channel. It's a good book, so it needs marketing. Tutorial videos about Hype seems like a great way to promote the book.
One of the main reasons for the existence of "A Book About Hype" is how it can it can make the modern web more interesting. With Flash dead, Hype is the most likely successor. But to unleash that power, training and experience is needed. Hype starts off easy, but wow there is a lot to learn.
Also, I'll be following the feedback on the book. It's off to a great start! I like the comments that people can put in the orders... and thanks Patrick for the nice review on Etsy.
The plan for the rest of today is to update Photics.com. In the short-term, the links and description for the book need updating. I just wanted to share the good news with you first.