January 20, 2010

Dimensional Ropes - Book 3

I have finally come to the conclusion that the third bead crochet book will never see daylight as a glossy printed book. Ink and paper publishing has become prohibitive and I can't see charging over $30 for what is really a 20 page catalog. It's time to quit waiting for prices to come down and do something else with the information I have in my studio.


Now this old dog has to learn a few new tricks and start thinking about e-books. Designing with beads and thread is easier than designing with software and computers. I'm thinking through formats and what should work on screen and home printers. Is a Gallery important in an e-book or is it better to have more patterns? File sizes, photo resolutions, layouts, new graphing techniques and how fancy/interactive a pdf, are a few of the things running through my mind.


I have some different things going on with dimensional ropes that I think bead crocheters will find useful and different. I have a bunch of samples done up but need to do those creative pieces that use these sample techniques. These photos show some of what I will want to present to the bead crocheting public.


So, how does three e-books on dimensional ropes sound to you? Each would be around 10 to 12 individual pages with 8 - 10 patterns and 3 to 4 complete bracelet and/or necklace projects? One would be donuts and toggles, another square and triangular ropes and a third would be an expanded Caterpillar.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:59 PM

    Sounds great to me. I look forward to anything new from you. Would your offer a deal if someone wanted to purchase all three books?

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  2. If you'd like to see an example of a well put together e-book, I recently purchased this one = Game Knitting.

    She includes a fair sampling of photos showing variations of her ideas, and at the back she has a list of the pages she suggest for printing on hard copy to work from, to save people the cost of printing out the whole thing.

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  3. An eBook is a great idea. The instructions are more important than lots of pictures since these are more advanced projects.

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  4. E-books are definitely the way to go. In a format where we could either print out selected pages on our home printer, or, if we want something fancier, send it to the local copy shop for printing & binding.

    Personally, I would love both photos and instructions with diagrams as I never seem to trust myself when it comes to beads.

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  5. I also look forward to your patterns. Since I don't have a Kindle, I don't know much about e-books. Do they contain a set of pdfs that one can print, and so they'd be readable on a Mac as well as a PC? Also I like pix with the instructions for Suzy's reasons!

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  6. Thanks for the feedback, very much appriciated.

    Probably wouldn't be able to buy them all at once as they'd be published as completed.

    Yes, all would be in pdf format to download, view and print on any computer.

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  7. Isn't it sad....How I miss the new book smell in my garage.

    But I think the self-publishing days (as they once were) are over for most of us. We just cant compete with the big guys that are out there, and printing is just way too expensive.

    Selling ebooks is the best way to go. No big upfront cost, no storage, not even shipping, and you can offer the "book" cheaper than if you sent it out to the printer.

    Good luck!!

    Sig

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