Running with the Big Dogs

After doing my due diligence and researching all the ePub3 eReaders I could find, I also Googled the hell out of what’s out there in the way of tools for creators who want to build their own enhanced, multimedia eBooks. The only good tools were at Inkling Habitat, and I decided since I had a designer on board who once created a title for me (Steam City Pirates) using that “in the cloud” software, I would use it as a basis for creating my own company’s online resource.

First, I wrote a book that was aimed at teaching the student how to use electronic media in an interactive way. I called the book Running with the Big Dogs: A Creator’s Guide to Using Electronic Media. I had, many moons before, written another book that I sold to then Harcourt-Brace’s AP Professional Press Division entitled The Digital Scribe: A Writer’s Guide to Electronic Media. I looked over that 1996 book and shuddered. It was so out-of-date in 2014 that I could only salvage the writing exercises from it! The rest of my book had to be researched and written completely over because there had been so many good things happening in the world of multimedia creation, and the development of ePub3 was probably the most significant to my purposes.

My company’s flagship is the Embellisher eReader, about which I have written extensively on this blog in the past few months. It is the honey to the bees, and if we can surpass our competition in the eReader market, then the synergy will take place. Readers who want an ePub3 experience that is open source, and therefore can be constantly improved, will then recommend it to other readers, and the results will show in how many downloads and installs we get. And, of course, the positive and constructive application reviews won’t hurt either because our app is measured to be effective according to the professionals in this development game,

One of my two “Flying Dutchmen” developers, Bas van Stein, has just about completed the task of bringing this superlative Frankenstein’s monster eReader to life. If you want to view it, then please send me your email and name, and I’ll let you pre-test our alpha version. Act quickly, however, because our final version 1.0 will be available for installation on your mobile device shortly after the 2015 New Year.

It is quite appropriate that we are bringing out our Embellisher for the New Year. We believe that once readers see how they can begin to experience the full impact of multimedia done well inside a story they will never really go back to the previous way of reading on a mobile device.

Also, since I am a former online educator (over 25 years teaching at the college level as an English professor and with the final 10 years teaching online), I use education as a way to reach the members of our team at EMRE Publishing.

I am also a publisher and independent author, so my vision for an eReader fits both the creator’s and reader’s needs. However, the real challenge to me, as I see it, is to educate the new authors, business people and families about how to develop ePub3 books for this new market.

Thus, as we roll out this new eReader, we’ll also roll out two new online creative writing courses to teach authors how to best utilize the eReader and the yet-to-come ePub3 Creator’s Studio. The idea is to give people who are new to creating enhanced or multimedia eBooks a way to learn how to do it that is most effective for learning. As I was an online instructor who had won awards for my curricula developed online, I put my full talents into the creation of these courses.

The free course on creative writing is based on the teaching of one of my favorite writing instructors, Gabriele Lusser Rico, who has since passed on. Her contention was that anybody can learn the basic ingredients of being a “creative writer.” Therefore, this course is adapted to teach creative writing with the purpose of showing the learner how to use several innate creative techniques that can be applied to creating multimedia eBooks. It is my hope that once a new learner sees how easy it is to tap into his or her innate creative skills, then he or she will then want to take my more advanced course. This course includes the use of a digital textbook I wrote for this purpose, mentioned earlier, called Running with the Big Dogs: A Creator’s Guide to Using Electronic Media.

With the combination of this eText and the online curriculum, the learner will progress onward to the development of his or her own ePub3 title. What makes this eText valuable is the collection of royalty-free media that it contains for the student to use in his or her projects. This brings me to the final, and most critical, step in the learning process: application tools, packaging, and distribution for sales.

With this in mind, I wanted to leave an historical record of the progress of our online suite of developer tools. We want to create the most practical and resourceful package of tools, so we are working together to accomplish this. We have our entire team on this project, so you will be hearing the suggestions from all of them: Tom and Bas of van Stein and Groentjes, Dave Rhoderick of Artlitical Media, and Deepak Chauan of Vocso Technologies, Ltd., will all be contributing to this endeavor.

I will be posting their suggestions and ideas, along with my own, as we take the steps needed to complete this project. In addition, as we work with the user in mind, any ideas you might have about constructing this suite of tools would be greatly appreciated. Our entire business is all about “open source” application of knowledge, and this is why we believe we will ultimately have the best product.

The following is the first outline of what I had in mind in the way of an online suite of development and design tools for our clients and their employees. All the members of my EMRE team have received these ideas in an email, and I am awaiting their responses soon after the New Year. Welcome to our creative passion!

Purpose and Sales Method

The purpose of this online members-only developer studio will be to create a suite of ePub3 creation tools that users can implement to plan an interactive story, add appropriate media, convert the result into ePub3 format and upload into the Embellisher eReader App for sales and distribution.

I see it as a way to introduce new creators to an easy interface whereby they can learn the elements necessary to create a multimedia eBook. They should, with these tools, be able to create an interesting and salable product.

I would also like an option that would allow them to pay for a “designer consult,” which would employ the services of Dave Rhoderick to help them along. That would be one price: consulting work. Also, if they would like Dave to do the complete development of the eBook, then they would pay a higher price.

I would also like to include a priced “Editing Option” for those who need an editor for their text copy.

Please note that I have included links to open source software that may assist you in developing the tools inside this studio. I would also like to know if this studio could be “packaged” to include with our “tailored Embellisher eReader App” for clients that want to have it on their website for employees and customers to use.

Contents of the Studio

I would like to be able to do the following tasks inside this suite. I am speaking strictly from an author’s perspective. I am certain that Dave, Tom and Bas can add the elements necessary to implement these tasks in the best possible way. Also, if there are other elements that need to be included, please let me know.

Brainstorm

• A tool to do clustering of ideas and connecting them logically.
• A simple word processor to make chapter outlines, character outlines and rough drafts of stories.

Storyboard

• A tool to create panels for storyboarding.
• This would include a way to write inside the panel to describe the action and scene taking place.

Fiction and Non-Fiction Author Tools

• An easy interface that duplicates the inside of the eBook, similar to Inkling Habitat.
• A method of creating chapters with tailored fonts and paragraphs.
• A “choose your own adventure” alternate plot hypertext tool (Dave developed this ingenious tool for the Welcome eBook at EMRE).
• A tool to assemble song “playlists” to include inside the eBook. User should be able to search possible songs by keyword and subject to be included in the list.
• A tool to include background “sound effects” to the storyline (similar to what Booktrack does).
• A method to insert hypertext footnotes and sources for non-fiction and academic eBooks.
• A tool to insert audio, video and animation files from folders into the eBook and re-size them and do other necessary “tweaking.”
• A method of downloading multimedia from the royalty-free websites that I provide in my accompanying eText, Running with the Big Dogs.

Provide the following templates for families to use (I am using the “time capsule metaphor” for design purposes):

• Family Love Time Capsule: with places to include home videos, favorite song playlists, a family tree, and interviews with family members. This template should also have a “donation link” for the Music and Memory organization. Perhaps we can also have a way to include these time capsules into the iPods used by care-giver nursing homes.
• Wedding Time Capsule: with places to include videos from bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridal showers, wedding rehearsals, wedding ceremonies, toasts to the bride and groom, wedding receptions, interviews with families of bride and groom, and “bloopers.”
• Birthday Time Capsule: with places to include videos about cutting the cake, opening presents, surprise party and playing games.
• Coming of Age Time Capsule: with places to include videos from the ceremony and the reception afterward.

Provide the following templates for business owners to use:

• Business Time Capsule: with places to include videos of Company Profile and Annual Report, interview with officers and employees, testimonials from clients, and tours of the business.

Provide the following templates for authors to use inside the studio:

• Choose Your Own Adventure template (includes the hypertext tool that Dave developed). Include extra price option to have EMRE Publishing write the alternate plot scenarios.
• A cartoonist, comic and manga template with panels and tools for online drawing and cartooning. (Stripwise is an open source tool for reference.)
• A musician and live performance template with easy ways to load songs and videos of live performances.
• An art sales template, which would include an interactive gallery to sell featured artwork with sluglines for information about artist and work.
• An ePub3 auction template that would provide ways to create auctions of products.
• Academic textbook template that would include footnotes, mathematical and scientific interactive elements, and a way to develop simple interactive quizzes and tests. Also include an extra price option for EMRE Publishing to develop the tests using Wordpress Courseware (I have this on my site).
• ePub Promotion template: this would be for authors who have an older version of ePub without multimedia. This would allow author to include an interview with author video, book trailer video, and dramatic reading from text video that would be packaged in the final ePub3 formatted eBook that includes the old ePub eBook for just reading.
• An Interactive Children’s Book template: this would be a template that would include a simple interface that authors could use to include movable characters, pop-up text bubbles for speech, read-along playback, a game and puzzle interface, and simple animation tools. Tapbookauthor seems to have a good plan for this.
• An Advertiser’s template: this would allow authors to insert different types of ads and promotions into their eBooks, such as banners, animated gifs, and Promo Simple sweepstakes and giveaways. This should also include a way to trace user responses to these ads to report back to advertiser.

Please stop by to continue reading this ongoing saga. Your input is invaluable to our task, and we hope you can enjoy the final fruits of our endeavor.