Digital publishing's technology push

Digital publishing (DP) is becoming the middleware between users, producers, data (including big data), and content.

Where content was once printed material, or even more recently digital content of all types scattered over the Web, users are "looking to experientially connect with content they care about."

DP is the collection of technologies that packages data and content of all kinds and meaningfully presents them to the user.

EPUB3 ebook or HTML5 packaged app? Either one can work.

After you install the IDPF Readium HTML5 app in Chrome (from the Chrome Web Store), you can read downloaded EPUB3 ebooks (e.g. samples from AZARDI@infogridPacific).


An HTML5 packaged app (A) (see also W3C Packaged Web Apps specification) and an EPUB3 ebook (E) are both container files (signed or unsigned ZIP) with metadata and Web-standard contents. One could (in many cases) take contents out of an A and repackage it into an E.

Either one can be the choice for how content is packaged.

E-book Creation, Formats and Workflow

From Booknet Canada Blog: TOC 2012 Conference Roundup:

EPUB 3, KF8, iBooks Author, it was all there. There are some cool new tools like Inkling’s authoring tool and Wolfram’s interactive CDF (Computational Document Format) file format and associated creation tools. For those that like to see a e-book code in action, have a look at Digital Bindery’s EPUB 3 slides—you’ll find lots of great code snippets in the slides, plus they have a list of some of their favourite tools and a sample EPUB 3 file on their website that you can break apart. O’Reilly’s e-book team showed some great slides of their e-book workflow (have a look at slide 11), showing how they tweak and adapt their original XML file to produce all the individual file formats.

Keeping ePub simple for Mobi

From MobileRead:

The CSS from an epub file must be converted (by kindlegen) to HTML 3.2 attributes in the mobi file, so keeping the CSS extremely simple is always the best approach. Unfortunately, the only way to find out what works best (or at all) is through trial and error (and of course by looking through the threads here at MR to find what others may have stumbled upon).

mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155124

Apple fixed-layout EPUB format

For coding ebooks according to the Apple fixed-layout EPUB format:

Description or spec (sort of)

wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Fixed_layout_ePub
blog.threepress.org/2011/01/17/understanding-apples-fixed-layout-epubs

Samples:

ebookarchitects.com/conversions/fixedlayout.php
yudu.com/samples/The_Dinosaurs_are_Dead_Preview.epub

If there is an actual spec on Apple's site of "Apple's fixed-layout EPUB", I'm not aware of it. (Let me know if there is a URL that points to one.) For now it just looks like it's "spec by example".

"open access publishing"

"open access publishing"? Or better:

"redistributable publishing"
"free-to-copy publishing"


See Budapest Open Access Initiative.

commentary by Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>:

Many scientists recognize the harm done by restrictive scientific publishers that control use of the scientific literature. In 2002, the Budapest Open Access Initiative called for applying two principles in scientific publishing: access for everyone at the main publication site, and freedom for everyone to redistribute exact copies (and do other things with them too).

The second principle is stronger. In practice, it implies the first: if everyone has the freedom to redistribute copies of articles, university libraries will mirror the articles, making them accessible to everyone. However, the term "open access" refers to the weaker first principle and not to the second. That makes it a weak term.

I signed the BOAI statement. I had misgivings about the name, after seeing how philosophical opponents of the Free Software Movement had used the term "open source" to downplay our concerns about freedom, but I put them aside because the substance was correct.

My misgivings later proved valid: some influential supporters subsequently dropped the second principle.  In effect, the weak name overcame the strong substance.

To return to the correct substance of the the BOAI, we should drop the term "open access publishing", and talk about "redistributable publishing" or "free-to-copy publishing".  These terms focus on the stronger second principle, so they will resist weakening.

"Open Publishing Association"

@Inproceedings{EPTCS69.5,

author = "Hildebrandt, Thomas T. and Mukkamala, Raghava Rao",
year = "2011",
title = "Declarative Event-Based Workflow as Distributed Dynamic Condition Response Graphs",
editor = "Honda, Kohei and Mycroft, Alan",
booktitle = "{\rm Proceedings Third Workshop on}
Programming Language Approaches to Concurrency and communication-cEntric Software,
{\rm Paphos, Cyprus, 21st March 2010}",
series = "Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science",
volume = "69",
publisher = "Open Publishing Association",
pages = "59-73",
doi = "10.4204/EPTCS.69.5",

}

(The bibtex of the paper e.g. eptcs.org/paper.cgi?PLACES2010.5.)


Open Publishing Association (eptcs.org):
a publication model that links to articles of arXiv.org.

This is the way it works.

Don't webby. Be appy.

There seems to be a proliferation of SasSy sites or tools that can turn your Web site or HTML5 content into an app (.ipa/iOS, .apk/Android):

howtogomo.com
webmobi.com
mobify.com
bakerframework.com
...

This is very cool, and provides e-publishers another opportunity for publishing content.


On a philosophical note, this move away from eyes on Web sites to mobile apps is interesting. On the Web (either envisioned by the "regal" Tim Berners-Lee or the "rogue" Ted Nelson), the idea is that of going from site to site by hyperlinks. You are one site one minute and less than a minute later you are on some site that may have little relation to the first.

An app is not like that. An app is something of a closed world. Within an app, you don't "click" on something in the app and jump from that app to another app like you do from site to site. You basically stay within that app. An ebook (.epub) on a mobile device (read within yet another app, an e-reader app), is like a closed world too.

(Of course a "Web browser" on a mobile device is an app on its own, but the tools listed above create their own apps.)

Guidelines for arXiv Review

arXiv: http://arxiv.org
arXiv Review: http://arxiv-review.org

1. Each submission to arXiv has a (potential) review page (thread or section of comments and reviews) in arXiv Review.

2. Each review page is identified following the article identification scheme in References to and in arXiv Documents.

For example, the article arXiv:math/9910001v1 — refers to http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9910001v1 — could^* have a review page arXiv-Review:math/9910001v1 — http://arxiv-review.org/rev/math/9910001v1 (abs for "abstract" in arXiv, rev for "review" in arXiv Review).

3. When a submission to arXiv achieves a level of acceptance^** from the reviewers on arXiv Review, it is promoted to published status.

This can be found in a separate section of arXiv Review: http://arxiv-review.org/pub/<indentifier> (pub for "published").

This makes the "pub" section of arXiv Review (and its various subsections) effectively an open access journal.


This is how it works:

1. A scientist submits an article to arXiv. If they want it to be reviewed for publication they would submit a link to the article on arXiv to arXiv Review. (The article itself stays on arXiv.)

2. Comments (reviews and ratings) are opened on arXiv Review for the article.

3. When the reviewers of arXiv Review "accept" the article for publication, it is promoted to the "published" section of arXiv Review.

For example, an article in arXiv.org > math > math.DG that is accepted for publication by the reviewers of arXiv Review would appear in the arXiv Review Journal of Differential Geometry section of arXive-Review.org.

This is to say that under arXiv-Review.org > math > math.DGthere is the arXiv Review Journal of Differential Geometry, a peer-created open access journal; under arXiv.org > quant-ph, arXiv Review Journal of Quantum Physics; ...

This post is a continuation of the discussion in scientific journals in the e-publishing age and the discussion on Google+. (And more comments here.)

There is also a Google+ page for arXiv Review.


2012/02/07 (via comment on Google+): The organization eptcs.org appears like it provides publications exactly along the lines of arXiv Review Journal of <whatever subject area>. (And apparently this organization has funding and people to maintain their site. That is critical.)

In each published paper there is a link to an arXiv.org article: e.g. eptcs.org/paper.cgi?PLACES2010.5

So if this organization (or parallel organizations) could take on all of arXiv.org subject areas, then the process seems pretty much along the way of being resolved. (And include Journals as well as Proceedings.)

(Note in the bibtex of the above example: publisher = "Open Publishing Association". There you go!)


And more at: Community Peer Review



^* could, since not every submission to arXiv may have a review page in arXiv Review
^** the article rating and acceptance process is TBD

scientific journals in the e-publishing age

There's been a bit of discussion on Google+ (John Baez - Jan 30, 2012) on the future of costly scientific journals. As print fades into history, there is no reason why scientists cannot have a system where their so-called pre-publications (e.g. on arXiv.org, a current source for many of these) can be reviewed, and with revisions acceptable to a peer community be qualified as being designated as published.

Proposal: arXiv.org continues as it is and some group creates arXiv-Review.org (completely independent of arXiv.org) that accomplishes the intended goal of reviewing the articles of arXiv.org. When an article on arXiv.org gets a pass from the arXiv-Review.org scientific peer community, it's designated as published.

(The problem, as has been pointed out, is for some group to actually go and create arXiv-Review.org.)

What would be the result? A free and open article submission and access system as it exists now (arXiv.org) and a independent review system (arXiv-Review.org).



Update (2012-02-02): Looks like the site has been created.

networksolutions.com/whois-search/arXiv-Review.org:
Domain Name: ARXIV-REVIEW.ORG
Created On: 02-Feb-2012 03:35:26 UTC

(There's also a Google+ Page: +ArXiv Review)

The first step is to provide a Primer and Goals and Mission Statement for the site (along the lines of arXiv.org/help/primer).


Here is a start:

arXiv-Review.org

arXiv-Review is an openly accessible, moderated forum for commenting on and reviewing arXiv.org articles. (For information about arXiv, see arXiv.org/help/primer). To provide for this, each article submitted to arXiv can potentially have a review thread in arXiv-Review for comments and reviews.

Each review thread in arXiv-Review is identified by following the same reference scheme described in arxiv.org/help/faq/references. For example, corresponding to arXiv:math/9910001v1 <http://arXiv.org/abs/math/9910001v1> is a potential review thread arXiv-Review:math/9910001v1 <http://arXiv-Review.org/rev/math/9910001v1>.

Browsing arXiv-Review is open to everyone (the "readers"). Those who comment on and review articles (the "reviewers") must register on arXiv-Review. In addition, a reviewer may be a member of a select "board" (TBD) on arXiv-Review (and this identification will indicated).

arXiv-Review system for evaluating arXiv articles: TBD.

arXiv-Review sponsors and operators: TBD!



Notes
1. See also: Proposal for A New Publishing Model in Computer Science, Yann LeCun.
2. Elsevier's Publishing Model Might be About to Go Up in Smoke - Forbes. Remarks on Google+: John Baez - Feb 1, 2012

EPUB Me

There's consternation about the new .ibooks ebooks produced by Apple's iBooks Author and read by iBooks 2:

iBooks Author Requires Selling Original Books Through iBookstore, Says Apple's Controversial Contract – Jason Gilbert

The pros and cons of the iBooks 2.0 textbook format – Baldur Bjarnason

Will publishers feel trapped?

"Every publisher should have a publishing workflow." There is nothing novel about that. There is a base format (for the publisher) from which all publications are born. EPUB 3 is a candidate. Or something more general involving HTML5, XML, any combination of these with CSS and JS, etc.

The publisher might have their own EPUB with some additions (e.g. Apple's fixed-layout EPUB). The point is the base format is fixed, and from the base format all other formats flow. I'll just call the publisher's own base format EPUB Me, and the file extension .epme (though it might just be .epub following the appropriate specification).

There are various channels the publisher distributes through. These will likely require a conversion from EPUB Me to another format. Take Amazon's KF8 as an example. Thankfully, Amazon has provided a document and a tool for enabling the publisher to covert EPUB Me to KF8. The publisher first has to convert — how this is done is technology adopted or developed by the publisher — their own .epme to a .epub⁺ that KindleGen can accept. (That's where the document comes in: to define what type of HTML+CSS Amazon will accept either in .epub form or a directory of HTML+CSS+image files.) KindleGen will output .kf8.

Apple's format is not so simple: How do you go from .epme to .ibooks? Given the restrictions of iBooks Author, one way would be to use an EPUB to DOC converter (EPUBtoDOC^*, or E2D for short), import the DOC file into iBooks Author, and edit (hopefully without a lot of work) what is there to make it right for delivery in the Apple channel.

So there are two examples already of the publisher's workflow:

.epme → .epub⁺ → KindleGen → .kf8
.epme → .epub → E2D → .docx → iBooks Author → .ibooks

The key to this workflow is that the original source.epme belongs to the publisher alone and not to the channel on which it's distributed. output.ibooks may be "owned" by Apple, but source.epme is owned by the publisher.

iBooks Author seems pretty much like a black hole though. One might manage somehow to get EPUB in, but one can't get anything useful, like EPUB 3 (other than Apple's proprietary format), out.

I.e.: From authors/publishers point of view, they need to feed into the Apple .ibooks format if that turns out to be useful for them, but keep their original source (their .epme) separate, so they can feed that same source independently into different channels as well.

This workflow model can be extended to any number of distribution channels.



^* EPUBtoDOC: e.g. epubtopdfconverter.net/epub-to-doc.html. Alternatively, load the EPUB file into Sigil (EPUB editor) and cut-and-paste into iBooks Author. :(

E-publishing distribution formats for 2012

Here are the "container" formats for e-publishers to distribute in this year. There are a bunch of older ones which don't appear much anymore^* after 2011, The Year Of The E-Reader. (Some said 2010 was that Year, but it was really last year.)



EPUB (.epub)

Technically, it's all about EPUB 3.0 superseding EPUB 2.0.1. (I write "EPUB" instead of "ePub", etc. as that's what's on the standard.)

EPUB (.epub) fixed-layout

Apparently from Apple, it really just seems to be EPUB with pixel-specific settings in the "style" attributes (CSS) in the EPUB file. There are samples from eBook Architects. It's like PDF in that it doesn't "reflow". I guess whether one wants to call this a "different" format from EPUB is a matter of debate.

KF8 (.kf8)

Amazon's new format to "replace" its old MOBI 7. Could add to some confusion of publishing the "same" book in both EPUB (for NOOK, etc.) and KF8 (for Kindle).

KF8 released for publishers
Overview
For Word editors
For HTML+CSS editors

CDF (.cdf)

From Wolfram Research, this is the Computable Document Format (CDF). When CDF "players" are available for tablets, it could be huge in the math e-textbook domain.

How it compares to EPUB

HPub (.hpub)

Used by the Baker Framework to make HTML5-based books or magazines to be downloaded as iOS apps. Could be more powerful than EPUB 3 alone (e.g. allow more JavaScript-ing).

.hpub → Baker → .ipa (iOS "app")

As mentioned above, Amazon will "replace" MOBI with KF8 (sort of, and not yet for its E Ink Touch reader). PDF will stay around as long as people have printers (though fixed-layout EPUB replaces a lot of its non-reflow "features"), Flash will be edged out. HTML5 will rule.

That's about it. Any other formats worth mentioning I missed?


2012/01/21: On Thursday, Apple announced new format: a NotTechnicallyInEPUB (or "iBooks") format. More about when people can figure out what it means.

^* For conversion of EPUB files to older formats, or the conversion of HTML to EPUB, see Calibre (there is a list of formats there). Editing of EPUB files can be done with Sigil.

A comment on new eISBN recommendation

A new recommendation for assigning ISBNs to ebooks has been out a couple of weeks. I remarked earlier on why this didn't make sense to assign two different numbers to the EPUB ebook and MOBI ebook of the "same" ebook when the only operation was to take the EPUB one and use an automatic software converter (e.g. Calibre) to convert the EPUB ebook into the MOBI ebook. This is mainly done now simply because Amazon does not "read" EPUB, and the publisher has to produce a MOBI version for its Kindle customers. (In a way, this would be like asking a publisher to assign different ISBNs to a hardcover book depending on which bookseller chain store they sell that book in.) The EPUB ebook on the NOOK and the corresponding MOBI ebook on the Kindle "look" the same and have exactly the same HTML/CSS content. It doesn't make sense that they would have a different ISBN simply because one is reading that ebook on a Kindle vs. a NOOK.

The point is: If it's a basically automatic conversion that takes your EPUB ebook and produces that ebook in a different e-format, the ISBN stays the same. However, if one uses features of a particular format to really distinguish the ebook in that format (i.e., there is no simple, automatic way to convert it to another format), a different ISBN should be assigned.

(PDF is a curious exception. It is a fixed, not a reflow, format and is used for printing. There are converters of course that take an EPUB ebook and automatically creates a PDF file. Perhaps they would be useful to send one's EPUB ebook to a POD machine.)

Now there is a new format on the block: KF8 from Amazon. If one publishes an ebook that uses KF8-specific features that truly distinguishes it from the EPUB version, then it's a different ISBN. That makes sense.

CDF (Computable Document Format) may be an upcoming one for math ebooks.

Now some ebooks are being published as apps: iOS vs. Android. Here, the recommendation should be the same: If one starts with the same base version of the ebook (e.g. HTML5) and uses a tool that automatically produces the two different apps (iOS, Android) with the same ebook (HTML5) base, the ISBN would be the same. However, if the publisher uses iOS and/or Android dependent features to distinguish the two version, then it's two ISBNs.

Books in repose

I was sitting outside the Barnes & Noble cafe perimeter with my NOOK Simple Touch. I was using its Read in Store feature, which allows one to read any ebook available for purchase for up to one hour. You have to be physically present in the store with your NOOK connected to that store's WiFi, of course, to do this. At any time before the end of that hour, you can purchase the ebook or just leave it. But you could return the next day and continue reading the same ebook. In front of me were stacks of shelves of books — for convenience I refer to the traditional print editions of books as "books" and their electronic versions "ebooks" — and thinking of the future of publishing.

The first thing that struck was the irony of having to go to a location with books to browse ebooks. There were people in the cafe who were reading books they just took off the shelves that they were just "browsing" in the same way I was browsing ebooks on my Touch. (There were probably more people there with their notebook computers just using the store's free WiFi to browse the internet.) But I was there, as I had gone there before, just to browse (i.e. read) ebooks and I would not even touch a single book.

The second thing that crossed my mind were how alien the books sitting on the shelves in front of me appeared. It was like they should be in a museum, like ancient artifacts. People looked anachronistically odd walking up the shelves and pulling one out and looking inside. It was so much more convenient to read that book on my Touch. I could navigate through it so much better. In fact it was a better reading experience in every way.

I can understand, perhaps, some wanting art and picture books. The Touch could not replicate those very well, But the Tablet might. And math books are not there yet. But MathML is part of EPUB3 (or EPUB 3). EPUB is the core of the ebook creation and everything follows from EPUB. EPUB3 is really a subset of HTML5 (HTML5/CSS3/JS to be technical), so you might say EPUB3/HTML5 is the future of publishing.

Will people still want books? As time goes on, this desire will diminish. The reading devices are that good now. I suppose if someone wanted a book version of an ebook they would (via some program or service) convert the EPUB to PDF and send it to a Print-On-Demand (POD) machine to spit it out.

I don't know what will happen to the store with books. I don't think it has many years left. A big part of the bookstore itself isn't even books anymore. It's toys and other non-book gift items. And there is a section just selling NOOKs, of course. Maybe there will still be a store without books in the future where people go just to browse ebooks.

How to publish your own magazine app

... with Google Currents producer.

Caleb Hailey on Google+ shows the way:

Google Currents | A Game Changer?

See also:

Getting custom with Google Currents

from ClarkLab.


Here is my poetry blog published as a "current":

    google.com/producer/editions/CAowhLk3/poetical_bits


Note: If you have a Blogger blog and want to publish it as a Google current, it must first be "verified" that you are the owner. See:

    Verifying a Blogger blog in Webmaster Tools



For Flipboard, as for Currents, you could add a blog to your Google Reader (which is available to both Flipboard and Currents) and subscribe to there. With Currents, you can do more on the publishing side (via producer) than the RSS feed. Plus it runs on Android too.


2012/01/15: Tips to produce your blog to Google Currents (video)

Don't make sour ISBNade

When you think about this, it^* doesn't make much sense. It says that the EPUB and MOBI versions should have a different ISBN. But EPUB and MOBI are mostly interconvertable (it's basically a reformatting -- the same HTML and CSS is there) and do the same things (EPUB is a superset, really). Suppose you have an Android tablet and you get an EPUB ebook. In the software of the tablet one could have an embedded converter — like calibre calibre-ebook.com — that automatically converts the EPUB to a MOBI and you could be reading the ebook in a MOBI reader on that device vs. an EPUB reader on the same device that would look the same. Would you expect to see the MOBI ISBN on the copyright page or the EPUB ISBN? Only a fairly simple software transformation has been made.

Also I just got an ebook from Smashword smashwords.com and I got them in a bundle of formats: MOBI, EPUB, PDF, RTF, PDB, LRF, ... . What this recommendation says is that each one gets a different ISBN. (This was not the case, of course. It was the same ISBN on both the EPUB and MOBI versions, just as you would expect.) If someone sells their ebook in a bundle of formats like on Smashwords then there should be a different ISBN on each format? I don't think so.

I think the confusion is that the electronic world is not the print world. Just because there are different ISBNs on hardback and paperback (and those two from ebook), that analogy doesn't go over into the e-world since different e-formats can be automatically transformed from one to another, possibly in the reading device itself.

So the recommendation of different ISBNs for EPUB and MOBI is a bad one.


^* Re the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) proposal for ISBNs and ebooks, via the post When Book Publishing Gives You ISBNs, Make ISBNade by Thad McIlroy.


What I think will happen in practice for an e-publisher who is EPUB-based is that they would be able to sell their ebook (.epub) in the Nook Store, iBookstore, Google Bookstore, etc. with the ISBN (eISBN) they assigned to that ebook, but when it came to putting it in the Kindle store would let Amazon put an ASIN on it (as Amazon continues to be outside the EPUB standard).

From ADE to ereader

Here is the best researched guide I've found to the question of how to copy to your ereader an ebook you may have purchased from an ebookstore — represented as an ACSM ("Adobe Content Server Manager") file — that ultimately appears in Adobe Digital Editions on your computer:

How To Transfer Files from Adobe Editions to iPad or Kindle

This guide is written for PDF ebooks (and target devices Kindle and iPad), but the same steps can be followed for EPUB ebooks (and target devices NOOK, et al.).

How to copy ePub ebook to iPod touch or iPhone

To copy (DRM-free) ePub ebook on computer (B) to iPod touch or iPhone (A):

• Open iTunes (B).

• Download iBooks app (itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193) (B).

• Connect (A) to (B) with USB cord.

• Click on the iBooks app in iTunes (B). (You may be asked to "authorize" this app on your computer.)

• Copy your ebook (B) to iTunes Books folder (B). (Or add ebook to iTunes Library. It should then appear in a new iBooks Books folder if that folder didn't exist before.)

• Sync (A) and (B):
ebook should now be in iBooks app bookshelf (A).

Once this is done the first time, all that's needed is to copy the ebook to the computer's iTunes Books folder and sync device and computer.

ISBN puzzle

Let's say you have published an ebook (EPUB) and have assigned it an ISBN (eISBN). Then you make it available for e-readers and other devices.

Now suppose there is a POD ("Print On Demand") machine you (or someone who isn't you even) can send it (an ebook) to to make a printable edition (a pbook). Now the ebook is a "float-layout" (or "reflow") format (EPUB in this case), but what the POD machine needs is a "fixed-layout" format (such as PDF). It may be too much to ask at this point to that the fixed-layout PDF can be made totally automatically from the float-layout EPUB: one expects that some editing within a tool (like Adobe InDesign) would be needed to get the book to look right according to the (chosen) page dimensions the POD machine is going to print its output on.

Now would one print a differently assigned ISBN number (one assigned for a hardback or paperback edition) in the pbook (produced by the POD machine) than the eISBN number in the ebook? When you think about it, since you are "just printing out" an existing EPUB ebook with an existing ISBN, it seems strange that a new ISBN would appear in the pbook. Look at it this way: You send your ePub to the POD machine and ask it to print out a 6"x8" version and a 7"x7" version. Would you expect a different ISBN to be printed? Of course not.



2011/12/05: Regardless of the comments in Do I really need a separate ISBN for each e-book format?, I bought a book from Smashwords (one I reviewed): smashwords.com/books/view/94897. I downloaded both the NOOK (epub) and Kindle (mobi) versions. Same ISBN in both NOOK and Kindle versions. That should take care of that confusion.

Another example: Suppose you have an Android tablet running the Kindle app and the Nook app and you download the the EPUB and MOBI versions of the same ebook. Would you expect to see a different ISBN in each reading it on your tablet?

Having a different eISBN on an EPUB and a MOBI is not like hardback and a paperback, it's like having a different ISBN just because there's a different brand of glue used.

Go with the reflow: The reflow POV

Writers (including poets) are entering the age (finally, it has arrived) of people reading from electronic devices instead of from printed matter. It was talked about for decades, but now both e-ink readers and LCD tablets are becoming affordable and actually more practical than the print alternative.

But unlike books and magazines (to pick two physical formats that have been a part of our civilization for a while now), mobile electronic devices vary in the dimensions of what is being displayed. Now readers (consumers) buy a book and expects to be able to read "that book" on their 3" screen iPod Touch, iPhone, or Android phone; their 6" e-ink reader; their 7" NOOK Tablet or Kindle Fire; their 9" iPad or Android tablet. Hence reflow, the reformatting of content for each of these devices in a way that is pleasing to the reader. That is what EPUB is all about, being based on HTML and CSS standards.

With that as a given, it gives writers a point-of-view (a "reflow POV") that is fundamentally different from the print age POV. Now writers are thinking that their products will be seen on any of the devices mentioned above, and they have to write (code, actually) with that in mind. The old way was to write using a tool targeted for producing a format for printed matter (such as Word or PDF), and then hope that some conversion program will make satisfactory formats (such as EPUB) for e-devices. But this approach can lead to unsatisfactory results. Poets, for example, may want their longer lines in their poem to reflow by indenting when the reader changes font or orientation on the device.

In this new reflow POV, writers are now writing in the more abstract and relative mode that EPUB provides, and new tools for making great-looking EPUB content, with that as the primary focus, are certainly on the way. They are not bound anymore to the physical dimensions and type of the printed pages of a particular book.

It's a reflow world.