Title: First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way
Tags: english, docbook, freeculture
-Date: 2015-08-09 10:00
+Date: 2015-08-09 10:15
-<p>Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped. This summer it was time
-to format my translated <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a>
-based version of the <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>
-book by Lawrence Lessig, and I've been trying to get docboox-xsl+fop
-and dblatex to give me a good looking PDF. In the end I went with
-dblatex, because its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were
-responsive and very helpful in solving my formatting challenges.</p>
+<p>Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped. As the translation is
+mostly done, and a volunteer proof reader was going to check the text
+on paper, it was time this summer to focus on formatting my translated
+<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> based version of the
+<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> book by Lawrence
+Lessig. I've been trying to get both docboox-xsl+fop and dblatex to
+give me a good looking PDF, but in the end I went with dblatex, because
+its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were responsive and very
+helpful in solving my formatting challenges.</p>
-<p>Last night, I finally managed to get a PDF that
-<a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu.com</a> no longer complained about
-after uploading, and I ordered a text version of the book on paper.
-It is without a proper cover and not tagged with the correct ISBN
-number, but should give me an idea how the finished book will
-look.</p>
+<p>Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made
+<a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu.com</a> complain after uploading,
+and I ordered a text version of the book on paper. It is lacking a
+proper book cover and is not tagged with the correct ISBN number, but
+should give me an idea what the finished book will look like.</p>
<p>Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using
<a href="http://www.createspace.com/">CreateSpace</a>, but ended up
using Lulu because it had smaller book size options (CreateSpace seem
-to lack pocket book with extended distribution).</p>
+to lack pocket book with extended distribution). I looked for a
+similar service in Norway, but have not seen anything so far. Please
+let me know if I am missing out on something here.</p>
-<p>But I still struggle with deciding the book size. Should I go for
+<p>But I still struggle to decide the book size. Should I go for
pocket book (4.25x6.875 inches / 10.8x17.5 cm) with 556 pages, digest
(5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.6 cm) with 323 pages or US Trade (6x8 inches /
15.3x22.9 cm) with 280 pages? Fewer pager give a cheaper book, and a
smaller book is easier to carry around. The test book I ordered was
pocket book sized, to give me an idea how well that fit in my hand,
-but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book.</p>
+but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book in the end to
+bring the prize down further.</p>
<p>My biggest challenge at the moment is making nice cover art. My
inkscape skills are not yet up to the task of replicating the original
the book on the back (will most likely use the same text as the
description on web based book stores). I would love help with this,
if you are willing to license the art source and final version using
-the same CC license as the book.</p>
+the same CC license as the book. My artistic skills are not really up
+to the task.</p>
<p>I plan to publish the book in both English and Norwegian and on
paper, in PDF form as well as EPUB and MOBI format. The current
status can as usual be found on
-<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
-So far I have spent all time on making the PDF version look good.
-Someone should probably do the same with the dbtoepub generated
-e-book. Help is definitely needed here</p>
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>
+in the archive/ directory. So far I have spent all time on making the
+PDF version look good. Someone should probably do the same with the
+dbtoepub generated e-book. Help is definitely needed here, as I
+expect to run out of steem before I find time to improve the epub
+formatting.</p>
-<p>Please let me know via github if you find typos or translations
-that should be improved. The final proof reading is being done right
-now, and I expect to publish the finished result in a few months.</p>
+<p>Please let me know via github if you find typos in the book or
+discover translations that should be improved. The final proof
+reading is being done right now, and I expect to publish the finished
+result in a few months.</p>