Publishing on the Kindle

[Brother Zag]

As you've been covering webcomics, Steven, I thought this might make interesting, related column fodder... or maybe just an interesting discussion here.

I was giving tips on formatting a comic for the Kindle to a guy who asked over at the Digital Webbing forum. He got his book up, all was good, and then we started to get attacked on the thread by people, comic book creators (supposedly) who condemned us for wasting our time. One said Kindles are for book readers, not comic folks, which I thought was a telling projection by the author. Another said these devices are all fads and we should wait for the one that gets it right... etc.

The thread is here: http://www.digitalwebbing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140057

I'm of the mind that you make your book available to as many people as you can, in as many formats as you can; that you should reach out to all potential audiences, and not limit your thinking. Seems to me the mindset I ran into is what is killing comics, that insular exclusivity.

Plus, I've sold six copies of "Holy Shit" in the last 3 weeks, since it went live on Amazon. Not a ton, but still 6 more than I would have sold otherwise. My novels sell better on the Kindle, just to keep it honest.

So... is the Kindle a waste of time? Anyone have one? Thoughts?

[NatGertler]

Plus, I've sold six copies of "Holy Shit" in the last 3 weeks, since it went live on Amazon. Not a ton, but still 6 more than I would have sold otherwise.Yes, but if you'd taken the time and energy that you'd put into prepping your book and spent it in some other form of promotion for your work, how many would you have sold?

I spent considerable time prepping a work of a best-selling cartoonist for a Kindle edition (http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B000ZZKY8S) (admittedly, much of that was learning time, and would've been much less with the better documentation that is now available), and I can't say that the sales that have come from it in the past year-plus have made it worthwhile.

Thing is: the original Kindle's resolution was simply insufficient for most extant comics pages... and there wasn't the mass of material that made comics one of the reasons that one had a kindle. I've not paid close attention, but if, say, one of the major manga publishers were to embrace the platform, that might change... but then you'd face the problem that comics are resource hogs, taking up much more of the device's limited storage space per page.

[Brother Zag]

Yes, but if you'd taken the time and energy that you'd put into prepping your book and spent it in some other form of promotion for your work, how many would you have sold?

Well, I'd learned how to format for the Kindle putting up my novels, Nat. Without the learning curve it took me all of about an hour, start to finish. I used the same resolution files I used for the online version. As the book has been out for a while sales had trickled down to a sporadic sale here and there... putting it out for Kindle actually allowed me to promote the book again, and my other work as well. I don't see it being an either/or proposition.

Kindle 2 actually has improved graphics resolution. Kindle 1 wasn't comic friendly. The new Kindle 3 is still 1/3 inch think but has a larger screen, and greater graphics capability as well.