Finally, after the past few days of sometimes-frustrating proofreading by Clenise and me, a little while ago I uploaded the PDF files to the printer, Lightning Source. The book, Photographer’s Guide to the Panasonic Lumix LX5: Getting the Most from Panasonic’s Advanced Digital Camera, should start showing up as available on Amazon.com within a week or so, if all goes well. In the past, I’ve had problems with PDF files that did not meet the specific requirements of the printer, though this time I think I did better than previously, having learned from my mistakes, and having been very careful to follow all the steps exactly to produce compliant files.
I did change the file with the text of the book a couple of times today, as I spotted last-minute problems in the layout. In one case, the photos of the HDMI cable connecting to the camera were misplaced next to the discussion of connecting the regular (non-HDMI) cable. That was a pretty small thing, but I don’t like to have any mistakes in the book, if I can find them. Inevitably there will still be some typos or other glitches, but I did my best to find and eradicate them.
As of now, the book will be available only in printed form, though I have it scheduled to be converted for the Kindle in December (the formatting company always has a hefty backlog), and I may make it available on PDF within the next few months, depending on how things go with the printed version. The book is already listed on bn.com (Barnes and Noble’s site), because I submitted the information about the book through the Bowker company, which runs Books in Print. Bn.com has it listed at a substantial discount, but, based on past experience, they won’t actually fill any orders at that price, and will cancel them if anyone pre-orders the book, because the book is not going to be available at that price. I believe BN just assumes it will be, because most books are heavily discounted by the publisher to get them into stores. In my case, I can’t offer a heavy discount, because it costs so much to print each book, partly because of the color photographs. It will eventually be available at BN.com, at a more regular price.
A shame that you are not making the PDF available immediately (I rarely buy printed books these days). Credit card in hand, I was hoping that I would be able to buy the book in PDF format next week.
I can only assume that you don't need the cash flow – lucky fellow!
Well, I do have plans to make the PDF version available eventually. You're the first person to ask about it, and I will consider doing it in the near future. But I'm getting some work done on my web site, which needs to be set up for the ordering process. In the past, the print version has come out first, followed by the Kindle, then the PDF. I'll give this some thought and, especially, if other people express interest, I'll see if I can get the PDF version out earlier than usual. By the way, I have plenty of expenses, and I could use the money!