Jim, I agree with this. Granted, an EPUB starts out as an HTML document but to make a good EPUB you really need to do tweaks that cannot be done automatically. I want the option to submit a hand crafted EPUB along with my HTML and TXT. I want it to be my own work, not the efforts of a bunch of people. Rather than have an HTML file that avoids features of HTML so it can make a decent EPUB, I want to have both HTML and EPUB be the best they can be. James Simmons On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 10:02 PM, Jim Adcock <jimad@msn.com> wrote:
What I was imagining is something far different than what you guys are imagining. Here's some thoughts about what I am imagining:
1) I submit a book in txt and html form. PG generates epub and mobi versions. I am not happy with those versions, because they do not ending up fairly representing what I submitted in html form. So I make my own "hand crafted" epub and mobi version, perhaps by fixing the mistakes in the generated epub and mobi versions, and PG also hosts these alternative "hand crafted" versions.
2) After a couple years I have "improved" my conceptualization of how I think one should write HTML code, and what I submitted back then now looks old and crufty even to me. I submit an updated HTML coding which I think will be more useful to people in the future, and PG hosts that alternative version.
3) Looking back at an ancient PG txt and an ancient PG HTML coding effort, I see things which in no way represent current PG best coding practices, which *have* improved over the years. I go back and make updated versions of these files in order to best represent current PG coding practices, and PG hosts these alternative versions.
In summary, what with 30,000 plus texts, "crowdsourcing" to me means mainly having one person fixing up one text, rather than having 100 people busy fixing up *one* text. Now granted, if its a popular text, then maybe a year or two after I tackle a text then someone else might want come along and polish it up further. Or maybe they want to rework my EPUB2 effort into an EPUB3 effort....
Now, god forbid, if Greg or the WW'ers find merit in any of these alternative versions, then maybe in the fullness of time PG decides to use them for the basis of making a new "official" version. Or they find bits that they like, and back incorporate them.
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