Comments

I think the link is broken?

Posted by Ken at May 18, 2006 3:38 PM

ken, i just clicked on it and it worked just fine. what happened when you clicked it?

Posted by Erik Hansen at May 18, 2006 4:34 PM

Thanks Erik.

Ken, just in case you are still having trouble reaching the site, here are two links that should work.

Link to the book in NXTbook format:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/NXTbigthing/may2006/index.php

Link to the book in PDF format:
http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/ebooks/PBTP.pdf

Best,
Raj

Posted by Rajesh Setty at May 18, 2006 6:31 PM

Worked now - I think Raj's blog might've hiccuped for a little while.

Posted by Ken at May 18, 2006 9:19 PM

Thanks Raj - fascinating stuff.

Posted by Sean at May 19, 2006 8:15 AM

Simple,Straight,speaks from his heart, Lovely articles of Rajesh Setty. Thank U very much Tom peters for introducing Raj to all of us, who visit your website.

Posted by Raj Sekhar at May 21, 2006 10:47 AM

What does everyone think of NXTBook? I found the grey down the center annoying. A solid black line would have been better. Also the bottom right corner folding up and down is a distraction. On my computer screen, the two-page spread is not quite legible - but is guessable. Font size only a little bigger (i.e., smaller margins) would have made the text legible.

Posted by Mike L at May 22, 2006 4:03 AM

I am not sure what extra NXTBook gives you above PDF. Does anyone have details of substantial differences (it could be I am not seeing the features highlighted in this example)

Posted by PaulH at May 22, 2006 5:39 AM

I thought NXTBook was a bit gimmicky and quickly decided I didn't want to read it online - but it took an eternity to format to print! The print quality isn't brilliant - I think Adobe is better.

Posted by Mark JF at May 22, 2006 7:33 AM

Hi to all and thanks for the comments regarding the NXTbook. I'll try and reply to each.

RE: The grey bar and corner flipping.

This tends to be a love-it or hate-it feature, so it's easily turned off. Simply go to the tools button on the left and select EFFECTS. Both features can be turned off. :)

As far as legibility goes, replicating print online always presents certain challenges which we try to minimize with various zoom settings (In addition to the click-zoom, you can set-up your own default setting in the TOOLS/EFFECTS setting. The vast majority of our readers find that after a short adjustment period, they can find an effective setting for them.

RE: Why NXTbook over PDF? Forgive me for the sales pitch:

• Integration of rich media. Though not shown in Raj's book, you can include Video, Audio and Flash Animation within your NXTbook. If Raj were to do a presentation of his book, he could've included that presentation within the NXTbook. In addition, the question and answers throughout Raj's book could've been transformed into interactive forms.

• No downloading necessary. There is no downloading required to view a NXTbook. Some people don't like 25MB downloads. In other office environments, you're not ALLOWED to download PDF's. In addition, the NXTbook requires a Flash plug-in which - according to Macromedia - is on 98% of computers. In comparison, the stated penetration for Acrobat reader is 89%.

• Tracking. Publishers see all kinds of data from NXTbooks. They know the open rate, how long the book was opened, how long readers spent on each page, which links were clicked and how often, which items were searched and how often. As our #1 customers are B-to-B magazines, you can imagine how useful this data would be to advertising sales people.

RE: Print quality.

Another trade-off. Just as a higher quality PDF is a larger download, a higher res. NXTbook would have a slower open time, but it's a choice given to each publisher. A press quality PDF will provide comparable quality to a NXTbook produced from a press quality PDF. Our designer felt that Raj's book was high-enough quality to not use a press-ready PDF (which would've resulted in a slower loading time), but considering Raj's book is a workbook, I think his print rate is probably higher than the average NXTbook, and we should've considered this ahead of time.

Again, thanks for all the comments! We appreciate all of them.

Posted by Marcus at May 22, 2006 8:20 AM

It's good to see the humility question being raised in this work. For me this is a big thing. I like talented, humble people

One thing I am curious about is how much of the self publicity part of branding actually works? To me the whole networking thing feels like the brute force and ignorance approach to advertising - I thought branding (person and org) is more subtle than that.

Personally I want to know about someone's reputation, not what they are saying about themselves - for me this is a much more real approach to branding.

Posted by PaulH at May 23, 2006 7:43 AM