Can you add pictures to eBooks?

I'm writing (several) eBooks, which I'd eventually like to upload onto Amazon.  My goal is simple.  It's to stop Sam nagging me become as rich and famous as JK Rowling, then retire to a tropical island for the rest of my days.

But before that can happen, I need to produce the things.   Can I add pictures into these books?   Currently they're walls of text, as befits a novel.  But in those which I'm writing as guides, an image or two would really help me illustrate stuff.

Thanks in advance,

yours

Jo

xxxxx

Can't answer your query directly, but.....

in my quest to determine the best platform to write for I found that one platform was moving towards interactive books ie integrating pictures and video. Unfortunately (for you) I have been more concerned with my own websites and can't now find my research notes: I think it was either Apple or Google Books - but can't be certain.

Note: it would be sensible to consider platforms other than Amazon, as that platform is highly competitive - some other platforms are less competitive, and can be better for Guides (especially those for males).

I think books integrating videos will be huge in number and popularity in a few years. I have yet to see one though. Have been wondering about them for a while now.

I'd of thought so - creating the ebook how you want it, converting it to .pdf and then converting that to .epub is what I'd probably do.

It's doable on Kindle, though Amazon aren't really happy about having lots of images due to the size of the file and will often charge to sell larger books.

Hello, Jo.

Yeah, when using KDP, you can definitely have pictures - I've got images in my books. Some of the other ebook publishers, like Smashwords, suggest not using pictures, because the format kind be hit and miss, but I haven't had any problems.

Can't wait to see your books available!

Best,

Sam

Yes and I advise you do, depending on the written work. I'm working on plays I don't add images to. 

I just found this: http://www.publishpaper.com/en/index.php

Check out the demos. Looks fantastic but I don't know how much the license costs.

JoHarrington: 03/04/2013 - 01:07 PM

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I'm writing (several) eBooks, which I'd eventually like to upload onto Amazon.  My goal is simple.  It's to stop Sam nagging me become as rich and famous as JK Rowling, then retire to a tropical island for the rest of my days.

But before that can happen, I need to produce the things.   Can I add pictures into these books?   Currently they're walls of text, as befits a novel.  But in those which I'm writing as guides, an image or two would really help me illustrate stuff.

Thanks in advance,

yours

Jo

xxxxx

Short answer, yes you can! Longer answer: Doing so that it looks good takes some tweaking. For ebooks you can use both color and bw images, but only bw images will display on all readers nicely, color images only on the modern ones. For print books you can go wild on Createspace, but color images are more expensive / will cut more into your royalty. There are actually good guides on Amazon / Createspace available for free that explain that - RTFM ;-) SY

PS Thanks for the strike-through mention ;-)

PPS I added you some time ago to our Indie Author group on G+, with all due respect, that is a better place to ask questions about Indie Publishing than the Wizzley forum ...

Hello, again!

I'm not entirely sure what I meant when I wrote, "because the format kind be hit and miss". Perhaps, I was going for '...format can be kind of hit and miss'. In any case, I'm illiterate.

Just wanted to clarify, I was talking about still images. Sam and Catana have got good points (that I neglected to mention), though: you will almost certainly have to move the images around a bit to make sure they're on the right pages.

And, in my experience anyway, you end up losing control over that to a certain extent, because once it's downloaded onto an ereader the individual settings (font size etc.) will dictate whether there's a big ol' gaping gap before or after the picture.

Best,

Sam

I've heard that kindle is all words and an image at the beginning an end (book cover).... I've not yet even seen smashwords or figured out what that i exactly (someone enlighten me?)- but in PDF and exe formatted ebooks (not for sale on kindle I assume) you can do anything you can do on a website. I used to make eBooks from ebookgenerator- you'd set up a webpage then the software converted it into a book essentially a portable website-the problem is it was in exe format (not usable on mac and viruses could infiltrate easier)... I did like that I could turn a book off with a built in cyonide pill, if they wanted a refund etc...

Wow!  Loads of advice!   And this is what I love about the Wizzley community!

The images that I add will be minimal and bw.   They're just there when a picture really will do the job of a dozen words. 

Thank you all for your insights. <3

JoHarrington: 03/05/2013 - 04:45 AM

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Wow!  Loads of advice!   And this is what I love about the Wizzley community!

The images that I add will be minimal and bw.   They're just there when a picture really will do the job of a dozen words. 

Thank you all for your insights. <3

There is also a lot of info on the Amazon site itself, see https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help (sorry for not hyperlinking it, seems the editor doesn't like links that start with https )

SY

Catana: 03/05/2013 - 08:20 AM

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Sam, just delete the "s" to allow the link. It's only there when you're signed in to your Amazon account.

Super tip Catana! Thanks, here is the link again: http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

SY