Writing the Special Editions Part IV: Hitting the 15MB Wall and a POLL

 

I'm hitting a wall.  And it's 15MB high.

How big is 15MB?  Well, that will get you about one minute of an HD movie.  About one quarter of a podcast.  About ten high-quality photos.  

On the ebook publishing site Smashwords, that's the maximum file size allowed for an uploaded book.

Smashwords is the site I've used for all my books, primarily because they allow me to publish free ebooks (since I can't charge for my BSG spinoffs) and because they convert the source file into just about any format for ebook readers.

When I finished Lords of Kobol Special Edition, I was concerned about the file size since I added a bunch of pics and such in the commentary.  The total at the end of it was 13.7MB.  

I knew, when it came to Colonies of Kobol Special Edition, I would be in trouble.

I have since sorted all 526 chapters from the three volumes into near-chronological order and I finished the laborious task of bookmarking/hyperlinking the chapters for the Table of Contents.  I was well over the limit.  I reduced the quality of the pics to blurry-ass JPGs ... still over.  I deleted all of the maps ... over again.  I deleted all but the two most important (low-quality) pics in the book ... 14.8MB, as you see above.

"Whew," you're thinking.  "You did it!"

No.  No, I have not.

I haven't even started the author's commentary yet.  For me, that's the most important part.  I really enjoyed reading Lords of Kobol again and writing my thoughts about it right afterward, sharing stories of its creation, where ideas came from, pictures and maps, homages I included, linguistic jokes and tricks, and so on.  Since I just finished Colonies a little over a year ago, all of that info is fresh in my head and I won't have to rely upon my archives of old Word files or ancient blogposts to fill in the blanks.  I have PLENTY of thoughts to share on Colonies, stories to tell about its inspirations, LOADS of linguistic insight, connections to the TV series, pics and maps and flags and covers, and much, much more.  I desperately want to have that info readily available for readers in the same way it will be for readers of LoK.

Unless Smashwords changes their file size limit, I can't.

But ... I have an idea.  And a Plan.  (You BSG fans should like that.)

Here's the Plan: I'll publish what I have now via Smashwords next March.  For most readers I'm sure, they'll be happy to have all three volumes in one ebook and with the chapters sorted in chronological order.  For those readers who want all of the additional information (and to salve my own ego), I will have, standing by, a FULL VERSION of the Special Edition ready to be downloaded from some file sharing site.  This will be the version of the book I'd make if Smashwords had no limit.  I will place links to that version right at the beginning of the Smashwords 15MB edition so readers can't miss it.  Then, they can choose if they want the whole shebang or decide they're happy with what they've got.  

Meanwhile, I'll keep checking Smashwords to see if they decide to up their file limit in the next year.  The FULL VERSION will be ready to go, if they do.

TAKE A POLL: Which version of Colonies of Kobol - Special Edition are you likely to download?

VOTE HERE

NEW PLAN: I'm going with the epub file from the get-go.  I've tested it before and a fully annotated and illustrated Special Edition comes under the 20MB limit, so no worries there. 

Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part III: Lords of Kobol is finished ... for now

Took about two-and-a-half months, but I've finished the first pass at Lords of Kobol: Special Edition.  If you haven't been following along, I read each of the books and created a kind of "commentary track" (like good ol' DVDs) in which I discussed inspirations, languages used, mythology, connections to the TV shows, and so on.  I threw in quite a few pictures and sketches and things, too.  I tried to keep the commentary fun but I'll admit, it was kinda like therapy for me at times so I got a little "real" once or twice.

All five books plus commentary came out to 1,314 pages in Word.  Thankfully, it's still 1MB under the 15MB limit imposed by Smashwords. 

I'll let it sit and macerate for a while.  I wasn't planning on publishing it until December for BSG's 20th anniversary, so I'll check back in and give the additional stuff another look before locking it down.  

"Will there be changes?"  Yes.  Deleted scenes have been added in, but with "DELETED" in the header of each chapter, so you'll know what's what.  I'll leave it up to you to decide if those are truly "in the story."  There were about three chapters altogether wherein I was displeased with how it read.  More often that not, there was too much "telling" and not enough "showing," so I altered things to do more of the latter.  Only one chapter required a true rewrite and it was for that reason.  I made a few other minor corrections (e.g. spelling) or additions for clarity's sake.  The end product, however, will be the definitive version of those books.

"Are you going to pull a Lucas and remove the originals from the web?"  No.  I won't go that far.  However, once the SE is published, that's the one I'll point people toward.  I cannot foresee a time in the future wherein I'll want to add or change anything else, so the SE will be the final word.

"What's next?"  Oof.  Colonies of Kobol.

Lords of Kobol was "only" one thousand pages.  Colonies is 2,000+.  AND, the Special Edition will put nearly everything in chronological order.  I am certain it will take me days, if not weeks, to arrange the chapters in the new file and then retitle the headers for each chapter.  And that's to say nothing of the bookmarking/hyperlinking for the Table of Contents.  All of that before I even start on the commentary portions.  Plus, don't forget about that 15MB cap for uploads to Smashwords.  I will have to degrade the quality of the images in the books (maps, primarily) to try and stay under that cap.  It's a good thing I wasn't planning on releasing that SE until next March.

I kid about the tedium.  It will be tedious, but I'll enjoy digging into each facet of Colonies again and talking about the various languages involved, why I made certain choices, etc.  

That's what I'll be up to.  Thanks for reading.