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[Andrew Mills]

I've been messing around using Calibre to convert my pre-written app guides for the Kindle (my e-reader of choice/the most popular one available), and I reckon it's looking really, really nice.

So I'd appreciate those with Kindles (or other e-readers that can read the .mobi format) to download the following sample and give me some feedback please.

http://www.gamerguides.co.uk/temp/K&L%20Tester%20Sample%20-%20Andrew%20Mills.mobi

For those of you without an actual e-reader, you can load the file up in Calibre and get an idea of how it would look:

http://calibre-ebook.com/download

All feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[game_pro]

Do you have any plans to do other ebook formats like epub?

[Andrew Mills]

Do you have any plans to do other ebook formats like epub?

Uploaded this just for you

http://www.gamerguides.co.uk/temp/K&L2%20Tester%20Sample.zip

3 files inside are for the .epub format (they were created by Calibre so I assume they're all needed).

Let me know how you get on. But with regards to selling it in that format, unlikely for now as I want to get used to selling it on Amazon first (and they convert the e-books to their own .azw format).

[Venom]

Hi Andrew. I've had a look using Calibre and I like it. If it is going to be a fairly comprehensive guide let me suggest putting in enough hyperlinks so the user can navigate your book in a non-linear way. For example just underneath every chapter title put a 'Go back to table of contents' button. Although the Kindle 3 does have a go to ToC button, you have to press 3 buttons to do it. But it's promising!

[Cal]

Illustrations on cover would look far better without the drop shadow, imo. If you're going for a 2D stylized look, embrace it and stay consistent.

Great illustrations, btw.

[Andrew Mills]

Illustrations on cover would look far better without the drop shadow, imo. If you're going for a 2D stylized look, embrace it and stay consistent.

Great illustrations, btw.

Cheers for the feedback Cal. They're illustrations I paid for when I made the Apps for the iPhone, so I thought I may as well use them again I'll remove the drop shadow as you recommend. What's your thoughts on the box-outs? Do they help break up the text? How do I create Vector text in PS? I want it so if the box-out gets re-sized in another device (phone, PC etc), that it doesn't go all 'pixely'.

[Winckle]

Text is a vector by default in photoshop.

[Andrew Mills]

GamerGuide Productions Limited has been trading for one year now today so I thought it was time to share some hard facts about what I've achieved to date. There's nothing in here that'll blow anyone's minds, but try to bear in mind that I've been doing everything for the company part-time in the evenings, so it's not a full-time job (yet).

Also bear in mind all I pay for 'advertising' each month is the £35 to here for the Banner at the top of the forum.

App Guide Sales (All-Time):

Splinter Cell Conviction - Launched April 2010: 847 Units sold - 2 Refunded
God of War 3 - Launched March 2010: 713 Units Sold - 1 Refunded
Angry Birds Halloween - Launched November 2010: 636 Units Sold - 1 Refunded

Total Revenue Generated from above apps: £1,705

Number of copyright takedown requests from publishers: 2
Number of Takedowns: 1 (Modern Warfare 2 Guide)
Number of copyright takedown requests rebutted successfully: 1 (Angry Birds guide)

Total revenue as a company, including other areas of guide work (calculated so far): £8,750

So nothing eye-opening above, but for a first year trading as a company (part-time), I'm quite pleased with the results so far. This year I'm moving onto e-book self-publishing via Amazon, and I've got no shortage of work lined up for that alone. Combined with GamerGuides.com and my magazine work, it's safe to say 2011 is going to be a much more productive year. I've got - nearly - all the equipment I need now (RAID HD-recording set-up, 2 debug consoles, 2 retail units, decent PC, HD Capture card, iPhone, Kindle and Android mobile), so pretty much all revenue this year should be profit.

I'd like to personally thank each and every one of you for your kind support and honest feedback, it's been genuinely appreciated.

And if all goes according to plan, I'll be doing guide work on a Full-Time basis in the not too-distant future. Here's to 2011-2012!

[Prototype]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

[Andrew Mills]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

Best of luck, and remember that's BEFORE expenses, tax, PAYE, NI contributions etc are paid. So the pst-tax profit is a fair bit lower than that.

[Cal]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

Best of luck, and remember that's BEFORE expenses, tax, PAYE, NI contributions etc are paid. So the pst-tax profit is a fair bit lower than that.

True, but his first 6k is tax-free, so he's only looking at being taxed on 2.5k.

[Andrew Mills]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

Best of luck, and remember that's BEFORE expenses, tax, PAYE, NI contributions etc are paid. So the pst-tax profit is a fair bit lower than that.

True, but his first 6k is tax-free, so he's only looking at being taxed on 2.5k.

Is he unemployed? Thought Proto was a working man...

[Dalagonash]

Well done on your first year Mr. Mills, here's to many more

[Prototype]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

Best of luck, and remember that's BEFORE expenses, tax, PAYE, NI contributions etc are paid. So the pst-tax profit is a fair bit lower than that.

True, but his first 6k is tax-free, so he's only looking at being taxed on 2.5k.

Is he unemployed? Thought Proto was a working man...

I'd have no idea where to start in the app-making business.

I only work part time at the minute, finish uni on Tuesday then i'll look into being a working man

[Andrew Mills]

8k sitting at home making guides? I gotta get a slice of this pie...

Best of luck, and remember that's BEFORE expenses, tax, PAYE, NI contributions etc are paid. So the pst-tax profit is a fair bit lower than that.

True, but his first 6k is tax-free, so he's only looking at being taxed on 2.5k.

Is he unemployed? Thought Proto was a working man...

I'd have no idea where to start in the app-making business.

I only work part time at the minute, finish uni on Tuesday then i'll look into being a working man

I don't do apps anymore though. Moved away from that to eBooks instead.

[Andrew Mills]

Just a brief update to say that the development of GamerGuides.com is coming along very nicely (I've seen the latest design) and I've been working hard (along with Dalagonash) at getting some top-notch guides up there. Granted they'll initially be for games already out, but they'll give you an excellent idea of how future guides will work for new releases.

And if all goes well, the BETA should start within the next 4 weeks or so *crosses fingers*. Looking forward to getting you all involved and taking on all your feedback.

[aayl1]

Just a quick congrats on a year of trading, Andy. This thread's been very interesting to watch over the past 12 months - I do like that you keep us updated with the slightly more personal, (and ironically) business side of things too. Your frustrations with Apple have frustrated me (though to a much lesser extent, I am sure) too!

[Andrew Mills]

Cheers Aaron, always nice to share my successes and woes

I've also upgraded my recording capabilities as I was unhappy with the interference coming from using component cables on my capture card, so I've upgraded to HDMI as I have discovered that my TEST PS3 can disable HDCP protection in the debug settings ( ), and my older retail and dev kit 360's will let me record without any HDCP getting in the way either.

Here's a quick sample of my interference - and HDCP - free HDMI PS3 capture:

http://www.gamerguides.co.uk/samples/HD ... 3_720p.mp4 (44 Megs - The original 720p lossless capture was 7.9 gigs! )

This will give you an idea of the video quality you can expect from GamerGuide.com videos.

[Floex]

Impressive, seriously that is quality. You must be needing quite a bit of hard drive space for that

[Andrew Mills]

Could anyone here with a few spare minutes try out this URL on their mobile phone and/or tablet and tell me how good or bad it performed (and what handset and OS version you used). Would be really, really helpful

http://bit.ly/lvfPYB

(It's the Killzone 3 720p clip, worked flawlessly on my IP4, so I'm curious as to how well it functions on other devices). I'm also going to start experimenting with QR codes to see just how well they work for sticking in guides.