When contemplating my trilogy, I wanted to create my very own distinct universe of worlds, words and character names. However, what many people suggested is that they could not pronounce many of the fictitious names. Having 25 years experience in technology consulting, I had to consider a method to enhance the readers’ experience. So, as I began designing my website, my first goal was to provide readers a small glimpse into the story and characters. For this goal, I will provide an audio file each character for the pronunciation of his/her name. Learning all of this has me one step closer to understanding the creation of enhanced e-Books.
As with any technology you must create, test and verify. So let me cover each subject:
Creating
There are many audio file formats. However, which one will survive the test not only on the website, but on mobile devices. There are way too many standards by various competing technology firms. What works for one, does not for others. After some testing I was able to determine that WAV files was the most widely acceptable format. I acquired MS Windows 2007 which has a new feature on sound recorder found under Programs – Accessories. Now the sound recording is made and a Windows media player file is created. But remember – Windows Media Player likes to play Windows files, not other companies’ files. So, with the assistance of Adobe Media Encoder, I was able to add the file and recompose as a WAV file.
Testing
My next step was to find an icon that most would recognize as an audio icon:
Using this icon, I can load onto one of my Adobe Dreamweaver pages and link to the WAV file. Knowing some HTML coding is always helpful. Once you have the page created, you must post your page and associated files to the web server, which in my case is GoDaddy.
Verifying
The final process is to have friends or colleagues verify your page, icons and associated files actually work. If error messages are received, they can be diagnosed and healed.
Collaboration
In this age of technology, your skills as an independent author may be limited, but you are intelligent enough to learn. If you have no desire to learn the technology, there are plenty of consultants who can help you achieve your goals. One of my longtime goals was to use my knowledge to assist people in financial affairs. To do this I created a portal called the “The Client Reference Center,” which comes complete with audio/visual training guides.
In the near future, I will be announcing the Author Center which will share my experience and knowledge. Together we can solve the cost issues of publishing our own stories and get them to readers as soon as possible.
