My new eBook workflow

[nickbaer]

I really like making eBooks. Actually, I like HAVING eBooks, MAKING them is - WAS - a real pain.

After shooting the photos, and picking and cropping...

Came the excruciating task of manually drag/dropping into InDesign or now Pages, one at a time... centering horiz & vert, fitting to the page... making the cover with title, making the inside cover with title, description, links to my other sites, making the back cover with title text... making the PDF, making the cover thumbnail... making the .epub, making the .mobi...

So I just spent 2 1/2 days writing two PHP scripts to automate 90% of the drudgery: I put the jpegs in order in a directory, and the script makes the cover, inside cover, back cover, assembles all onto one multi-page pdf (usually ~50 pages), makes the thumbnail, makes the .ePub, copies the thumbnail to the right web directory, copies the PDF for purchase.

I still have to make the .mobi on my Mac, using kindlegen for OSX (from the .ePub), which runs from the Terminal!! Can't get the kindlegen Linux version to run in my hosting account. But that only takes a minute.

I have 340 eBooks in www.NickBaerGallery.com, 337 that I made by hand, like a good 2 hours each. Now, the scripts do the same in 2 minutes.

Now I can concentrate on shooting!

Sorry I was busy the past couple of days.

[nickbaer]

If any content producer - or studio - has model photos they'd like to license, I have built some eBooks from purchased photos from Lee and others.

Nude male, or erotic, but I usually keep the erotics separate. 50 of one model, or multiple models adding up to 50. I'm OK with watermarks promoting your studio.

Besides the costs of travel, needing 2 hours to make an eBook was a real obstacle to me being more productive with eBooks - especially buying/licensing from others. I finally was at a point this week to tackle automating the process. Like everything else, searching for code (snippets and understanding certain PHP functions) took longer than writing the finished code.

Thanks in advance if you have images to sell/license,

[PFLJayden]

We have 2 books (both e-books and print), one we actually just got a publisher on it! Yay! They are printing 5,000 copies to distribute.
But they aren't adult related. They are on Dog Training, Dog Agility, and Unwanted Behaviors.
Success to JJ, my partner.... He's really gone gungho with giving back to the communities. He just graduated from a vocational school and is a certified trainer with the AKC and is almost finished with Animal Behavior Society to get his license to be a Canine Animal Behaviorist.
The things he does is just remarkable such as traveling all over southern california to help no-kill animal shelters in working with dogs to break bad behaviors so they can get adopted. All volunteer work. A shelter actually wants him in Maine to work with a dog that has a lot of bad problems.
Anyways, sorry I got distracted. Books are awesome in making.
Making a movie is one thing. It's okay. But when you actually make something and it's going in stores where millions of people are seeing them, that's just an even better reward in it's self.
Keep up the good work.

[nickbaer]

What is the ISBN(s)?

Not that I condone thread hijacking by a reply, but I'm curious.

[nickbaer]

Still open to hear from shooters and studios with nude male photos I can put in my next eBooks.

I used to buy content from Lee in 2010, and a couple of others who are also gone.

I would like to work with studios who will let me use watermarked images (to drive traffic back their sites), as travel costs are high. Most of my books have images shot by me while I shoot video of the model, so I amortize costs differently that way, than if considering paying for just photos from someone else. eBooks are a small component of my business, but like everything else, I keep making more to keep bringing "new" content to market.

My new workflow is much more accommodating to doing this, compared to previous years.

Thanks,

- Nick

[nickbaer]

I used my new workflow (and inventory system) to make 2 new eBooks tonight.

http://www.NickBaerGallery.com

Male Nude Photography Shower with the British Beef and Male Nude Photography The British Beef Bare Feet

ALmost time to hit the road in search of more British Beef!

[UrbanLad]

Your new ebook workflow excites me much

[nickbaer]

It's all about networking and doing business together.

[UrbanLad]

Yes now we are both excited

[nickbaer]

I got caught up with 9 new eBooks.

Any studios or content producers with Photos of one or more models, can PM or e-mail me.

Thanks,

[longboardjim]

I love your Models as well as your Work!

- jim

[UrbanLad]

I got caught up with 9 new eBooks.
,

9 Oh my goodness :O I can imagine the joy.

[nickbaer]

I just finished catching up on my backlog of photo content, making 19 new Books, with my new PHP script-based authoring workflow.

I started working on the scripts on July 11. Had a lot to research, and one-step-at-a-time, built a workflow that creates properly resized .jpegs (7x10in 300dpi plus 8.25x6in rotate -90 300dpi), to 2 different sizes of .PDFs, plus 2-UP cover (16.5x6in front & back) .pdf, plus .epub and .mobi, then .jpg from .pdf for the front cover artwork for the web page...

Plus I relocated from Cardiff to Manchester, and from a small hotel room to a bit larger. Glad to be caught up on MY photo backlog.

Now I can take on new photos from studios and content producers.

They are the 19 new titles at the top menu on: http://www.NickBaerGallery.com

[PFLJayden]

You may want to try ITunes for your books. But it can't show any form of pornography. The guys must wear underwear without bulges.
Our dog training books are on the ITunes App Store. We also have a series of books similar to yours on ITunes. To be honest, the erotica books that we did really don't earn anything much.

[nickbaer]

JJ - my posts here are about me looking for photo content from studios or content producers, for me to make new eBooks. Your post has NOTHING to do with that. AGAIN!

Plus, if you're going to type about books you've done, then post bona fide, authentic, verifiable links to them.