CyberKen Blog

About a year ago I got excited about the technical challenge of using photo illustrations in e-books. Some e-books for children use illustrations, but almost none do for adults.

I especially wanted to see whether I could use photos well on a gray scale Kindle.  The screen resolution of that model is not high, but when I noticed the handsome screen graphics that appear when my Kindle is turned off– (they have the appearance of fine old etchings) — I decided to try producing photo illustrations of similar quality.   I’m pleased to say that my experiment succeeded.  I just published my first Kindle e-book.   It is based on a photographic motif, and is entitled,  Double Exposure:  A Veteran Returns to Vietnam.

Kindle users can download it from Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y2FOS4

If you use another hand-reader, like the Nook, or if you would like to read it in PDF format on your computer or even print it out, you can find it at Smashwords.com, here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/214823

Here’s a brief description of the book:

“What might a Vietnam combat veteran discover about himself as he revisits the country he fought in forty two years ago? TCDavis, a pastor turned photographer, and former naval adviser to a South Vietnamese junk base, reveals his answer in Double Exposure: A Veteran Returns to Vietnam, an exciting and thought-provoking memoir of 22 photo-illustrated reflections.”

You will find earlier CyberKenBlog posts about my experiments, one on How to Use Photos in Kindle E-books.  This one tells how to achieve good contrast with your photos, and how to size them so that they display properly on a Kindle screen.  The second post deals with the problem of reference, that is, how to show your readers which photos go with which paragraphs of text.