Expanding Covington Innovations

One of my long-term consulting projects appears to be scaling down, and for the first time in years, I have some availability for new projects. Please let me know if I can help you. I am happiest when inventing a new computer solution to a problem that has not been solved before. "No job too small; few jobs too weird."

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Preparing books for Amazon self-publishing

I'm about to self-publish several things on Amazon. For the most part, Amazon's KDP page explains the process, but I wasted time on some serious pitfalls, which I want to keep you out of.

If you want to publish only on paper, or if your book is heavily illustrated and you want its e-book to consist of page images:

• Choose the intended page size (trim size) in your word processing software. It's probably not Letter; few books are that big.
• Create the output as a PDF file.
• Include a conventional table of contents (created from section headings), and use the same PDF for the e-book and print editions. (In this situation, people reading the e-book will use the old-style table of contents as a useful outline of the book, more detailed that the e-book's clickable table of contents.)
• If working in Word, use Save As (or Save Copy), PDF, not Print To PDF. Choose the options to optimize image quality and create bookmarks from headings.
• For the print editions, simply upload this PDF. First, use a PDF reader to verify that you got the page size right and everything looks OK.
• For the e-book edition, do not let KDP's online converter take your PDF file. That way lies madness. It will try to make it reflowable and will garble it terribly.
  
  Instead, use Kindle Create (free software) to make your PDF into a KPF. With just a bit of help, Kindle Create will create a clickable table of contents for you in addition to the table of contents page, which I recommend leaving in because people can use it as an outline of the book.
  
  Then use Kindle Previewer (on your PC; not the Kindle for PC reader app) to preview it. Do not trust the online previewer, which will make it look as if you have no clickable table of contents.

If your book consists mostly of a continuous flow of words (stories, essays, etc.) without many illustrations:

• Everything that I just said, except that you will open your Word document in Kindle Create to make a reflowable (variable-line-width) KPF file with table of contents.
• For the print edition it is probably best to output PDF from Word, with the page size carefully chosen.

By the way, both Kindle Create and Kindle Previewer are not high-DPI aware and will need some settings if you have a high-resolution display (click on that link for more).

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A note about telling the truth

Honest communication requires you to anticipate how your audience will understand what you are saying. Language is not private, and you do not get to redefine words yourself. If you did, it would be all right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater if you privately have redefined the word, or if you and a few friends have declared it to be an in-joke.

I have heard something like this claimed in defense of spreading a conspiracy theory. "They should have known it's a joke" — well, should they? It was a conspiracy theory that some people were already believing. When the audience is large, some people are not going to know the context you have in mind, and they will take you at your word, and you should have known that.

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Hire a professor...?

Silicon Valley tends to glamorize people who succeeded without adequate education (e.g., college dropout Bill Gates) or with inept management (almost any computer company). Lesser minds think that inadequate education and bad management lead to success.

I suggest looking somewhere else. On LinkedIn, Grant Lee tells the story of Luis von Ahn, who invented CAPTCHA, went right back to teaching computer science, and later founded Duolingo. His point was that academic virtues became strengths of Duolingo. His main points:

• Professors debate ideas while respecting people.
  
  Academia is a zero-blame culture. You're expected to be wrong some of the time. Ego is no substitute for correctness.
• Teachers break down complex concepts for confused freshmen.
  
  Explaining your work to others is vital. So is keeping good notes to explain it to your future self!
• Academics demand evidence before action.
  
  Duolingo products are tested, not just launched into the world.

Academia is methodical and ego-free. Pompous egos are considered fools, not leaders.

And for 2500 years there have been people among us whose job was developing and spreading new ideas. Most of them have been called professors.

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