Forum Moderators: not2easy
I am afraid that making someone load a 40-50 page chapter would be too much40-50 pages of text is nothing. The question is how many images go along with those pages. If you start with an ordinary dead-tree book, each page equates to 1-3k of HTML depending, obviously, on page size. But if it's heavily illustrated, the associated images can easily be 10 times the size of the text. (Cursory riffle through my ebooks directory suggests that my record is 7.3MB images accompanying 63k of html--plus a couple of stylesheets--for an “extra-illustrated”* book. That's a factor of not 10 but 100 to 1.)
40-50 pages of text is nothing. The question is how many images go along with those pages. If you start with an ordinary dead-tree book, each page equates to 1-3k of HTML depending, obviously, on page size. But if it's heavily illustrated, the associated images can easily be 10 times the size of the text. (Cursory riffle through my ebooks directory suggests that my record is 7.3MB images accompanying 63k of html--plus a couple of stylesheets--for an “extra-illustrated”* book. That's a factor of not 10 but 100 to 1.)
Personally I start breaking things into multiple files when I pass 800k of html, less if there are a lot of images to load. It isn't only concern for the human user; every human request will cause your server to send out all those supporting files, even if the human turns out to be an idiot in {insert country name ad lib} who doesn't know how to use a search engine.
if I convert things to HTML and offer it as a paid subscription, a thief would have more work trying to re-distribute it, although it not impossible.
Could I do something as simple as break each chapter down into logical blocks of say 8-10 pages, and then daisy chain them all together with the wonder of hyperlinks?Y'know what? I think a lot of the time, your human readers don't even know if they're reading one “page” (= one .html file) or many. It's just following links and clicking buttons.
And would doing so ruin the user's reading experience, or would they not really even notice?
If the content renders in a browser ... it is MINE MINE, ALL MINE! BWAHAHAHA ... sorry, not really funny, but it is the truth.
Even behind a paywall you get a 10% honesty factor, all the rest will scrape you clean. IT IS THAT BAD.
A secured PDF is worlds more difficult, but not impossible, to duplicate. HTML, on the other hand, is easy peasy.
Ebooks have much the same problem. Only way to make money is the HUGE initial release to grab as much income as possible, the play whack-a-mole there after for those scraping your content.
Y'know what? I think a lot of the time, your human readers don't even know if they're reading one “page” (= one .html file) or many. It's just following links and clicking buttons.
It's thoughtful to include links both at the top and at the bottom of each page, so people can jump to and from the next/previous chapter at any time. (In this respect, do as I say, not as I do.) Or, alternately, if there aren't too many chapters, you can have them all linked in the same block, like any navigation menu anywhere. I've done both. Admittedly, I do not often work on 1000-page books, though I've done a few. Most of the time, for me, it comes down to an ever-preseent “back to top” button which brings the reader within sight of the table of contents.
Look at how various long texts are presented onlline--whether it's a classic novel or the php manual. There will be a table of contents of some kind, whether it's called by that name or not, with links to chapters. Sometimes there are links to major sections, with subsidiary links to small sections within those.
Keep copies of major stages in design/coding. This will help you at that inevitable moment when you realize that you made a completely wrong decision the week before last, and need to tear it all apart and start over again. (Been there. Done that. I now keep a copy of the unstructured plain-text version so if all else fails, I only have to do 3/4 of the job over again.)
Fairly often in logs I see people re-loading the same book several times on the same visit. I have no idea why they do this; I wish I did, just so I'd know if I'm doing something seriously wrong or if some of my readers are just too dumb to live. (Is it easier to click the Reload button at the top of the window than the Back To Top button at the bottom? Do ordinary humans simply not understand that these two actions have entirely different consequences?)
So that implies people would pay $50 just to get access to my web page book and then pirate it from there?
Yes.
Then post it on their sites and bury you in the serps. Happens all the time. If you REALLY want to maintain control of the text (work) AND sell it, check out POD (print on demand) publishing and sell actual BOOKS. Much harder to scrape. happy!
Been there, done that.
