So you’ve bought that shiny new tablet and fired it up. Now what? You’ve got a bunch of app icons, and you know it should be a great tool. But how do you learn to use it? This article assumes you’re new to the tablet world. If you’ve changed operating systems, like moving from an iPad to an Android tablet, you at least understand the basics of using a tablet. Your challenge is finding apps in the new platform to accomplish the things you’re used to on your old tablet. However, plenty of my clients have purchased their first tablet and hit...

Do you like to "buy" lots of free books, but you don't want them all downloaded to your Kindle? Not a problem. Try this. 1. Install Kindle for PC (or Mac) on your computer. 2. When you "buy" a free book, have it sent to your Kindle desktop app instead of your Kindle 3. Select a Collection category for your new book You can import all your collections from your Kindle, just like in the screenshot below, so you won't lose any of your organization.  When you're ready for a new book, browse your collections on your computer, select a new book and go to...

Sometimes, if you are on your computer and visit Kindle Store, you’d like to start reading a book immediately – before making a decision to buy. You can obviously send a free sample to a device connected with your account, but some people just don’t want to clutter their Kindles or Kindle apps with too many book samples. Here is a simple tip to read a free chapter of a Kindle book without sending it to a device – and even without leaving a web browser. 1. Check whether the Kindle ebook you’re interested has a print version: paperback or hardcover. 2. Click on...

From the Smashwords blog: We updated the Smashwords Style Guide today to include improved instructions for building linked Tables of Contents, controlling your NCX, building intra-book links for footnotes and endnotes, and troubleshooting. The new instructions are included in an expanded Step 20. Download the latest Style Guide here. [...] Separately today, we reached an exciting milestone. Today, the 100,000th copy of the Smashwords Style Guide was downloaded at Smashwords.com. Thousands of additional copies have been downloaded through our retail distribution network and Amazon. ...

Back in June, Apple introduced a new iBook feature it calls Read Aloud, which is similar to Nook's Read to Me feature in that it provides a human voice narration that syncs to the onscreen text. In both commercial cases, the feature is meant primarily for children's books. Now Apple has updated its iBookstore Assets Guide to include instructions on how to add a Read Aloud narration track to your EPUB file. You can't access the latest guide unless you're a registered iTunes Connect member, but eBookNewswer has printed part of the relevant section: "You can create a Read Aloud book...

Over the past couple of weeks, Robert Niles at OJR has posted a series of guides to help journalists self-publish their content in ebook form. He starts with suggestions on how to choose good content for epublishing, then moves into technical issues like formatting and listing content with ebooksellers. The three posts together come in at about 3,400 words, so it's a quick way to jump start your own self-publishing project if you need some guidance. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [Online Journalism Review]...

When you make a decision to publish your book only in digital format, you are also making essential change in how you approach cover design. You no longer have to deal with dots per inch in a high-quality print. The goal is not 9 x 6 inch, 300 dpi any more. It's 1024 x 600 px, 118 ppi of a typical netbook's screen or 800 x 600 px, 167 ppi of a Kindle 3 display. We also have to keep in mind that the readers very seldom will have a chance to see the cover in full screen. If yes, it's going...

Even if an ereader device doesn't include a proper web browser, odds are that if you're shopping on an online ebookstore, there's a way to jump the fence and check out the rest of the Web. Nate at The Digital Reader has been playing around with his new Story HD over the weekend, and he found a way to do just that. My trick involves first entering the Google eBookstore, then going to the Help pages. When you're on the first Help page, look at the links across the top. The one labeled Books will take you to books.google.com, and that...

Last week, we posted about a new Tools of Change webcast from Peter Meyers that looked at several ebook production tools currently available. If you missed it, the webcast is now archived and available for viewing after a free registration screen. If you're not a webcast kind of person, you might want to revisit the earlier post for a quick overview of the programs discussed, then take a look below at the slide deck he used: Digital Bookmaking Roundup-Peter Meyers View more presentations from Pete Meyers TOC Webcast Archive: Digital Bookmaking Tools (registration required) "Digital Bookmaking Tools Webcast:...