ePubSecrets in 2014

  • Sumo

We’ve got some exciting changes happening here at ePubSecrets.

First, Hi!

My name is Derrick. I wrote a guest post last week. This week I’m excited to announce I’m joining ePubSecrets as an editor.

When I started getting deep into eBook production, I did a lot of Google searches. One of the most common URLs I ended up on was this one right here. In 2014 I’m hoping to make ePubSecrets an even larger community resource for all things eProduction.

A Bit About Me

When I got out of design school—a school where we learned almost exclusively print design—I wasn’t entirely sure where my professional life would go. I started, probably like a lot of you, designing what I knew: identities, packaging, print work, and books. I loved book design the most, but as the youngest person at the design studios I worked for it was kind of assumed I new about the web. Pretty soon I was being asked to design websites, and pretty soon after that my bosses asked me if I could code (I couldn’t, besides intro Flash and intro HTML—mostly learned from lynda.com). But I took it in stride and ended up spending a few years doing web design and development. Then in 2011 I was approached to make an iPad app book on this platform called Inkling (this was a good year before Habitat existed). By the time I was done as VP of Design at Open Air Publishing, I found real joy in merging my web knowledge with books I loved. Open Air won a few awards for our titles, beta-tested Habitat for Inkling, and was eventually bought by Inkling themselves (maybe I’ll post some Habitat tricks here some day!)

In August of last year I joined Atavist Books, helping the fledging publisher create a model for digital-only publishing that works across the web, tablets, and eReaders (and some print books too). As a part of the Atavist team, I also contribute to the creation of Creatavist, our publishing tool that we make available to the public (shameless plug: try it, it’s free, and tell me what you do or don’t like about it). As a part of both groups, I’ve come across what I hope are helpful tips and tricks for eProduction people. Some I found on my own, but a lot I found with friends in the community. I’ll be sharing a lot of them in the coming months.

ePubSecrets: A Community of Book Makers

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered about the eProduction community its that we will bend over backwards to help each other. Creating great eBooks isn’t easy—device testing on a million devices, knowing which retailer expects and overrides what, all while trying to create quality products with short turn around times. But we all help out with the knowledge we have and it makes all of us better as a group. In that spirit I will work to keep ePubSecrets a vibrant part of that community.

Write for ePubSecrets

Sorry, I’m really burying the lede here!

If you’ve ever solved a stupid CSS issue on an old eReader, found a better editorial workflow, figured a way to cut 5 minutes off of your QA time—heck, if you’ve found a buried InDesign preference that saves 2 seconds of time—consider writing for us. If you helped someone over Twitter and you think a few other might benefit from knowing an answer, add it here. You don’t need to have an expert tip that no one else knows, just a good solution that might save someone from a headache (and we get a lot of them in eProduction, don’t we?).

Interested in writing for us? Have a question you think we can answer? Tweet us (@ePubSecrets) or email us.

I look forward to chatting with all of you soon.

3 Responses to “ePubSecrets in 2014”

  1. We’re so happy Derrick could join our team as the Managing Editor of ePubSecrets! Welcome, Derrick … looking forward to great content and a lively community.

  2. Marty S says:

    Thanks for your enthusiasm. I will be checking back much more often now, and I hope to learn more and contribute in some way.

  3. Derrick Schultz says:

    Thanks Marty!