Submission formats

[cjhuitt]

So, I've been thinking about submission formats recently, and how I prefer to read the submissions. I often read the submissions on my computer, and especially if I'm reading the critique I'll usually have the submission open in another window, so I can switch back and forth between them. However, a lot of my reading recently has been on an iPad, which is a lot more convenient for places like reading in bed, or while on the go. I tend to not read the submissions on there, primarily because most of them come in .doc format, and reading a word processing document on a device like that isn't the best experience. PDFs work better, but even they aren't as good as the full ebook experience (bg color changes, font changes, adding notes, etc.)

I've been using Scrivener for writing for a while, and so I got to looking at the formats it can produce. It can create ebook formats as well, in passable form, which I might consider handy for reading. So I thought I'd see if anyone else had a preference.

Another possibility would be to send out multiple formats, maybe one for computer and one for ebooks, but that would potentially increase the email size, if anyone is worried about that. I did a quick test, and the PDF of my biggest book is 840 KB, while the .doc is 560 KB and the .epub is 270 KB for the full book so far, so perhaps the worry about size isn't as relevant as I thought.

Anyway, I set the poll to allow multiple options in case you have multiple preferences.

[Yados]

Actually, I read them off my iPad too. I use ReaddleDocs, which does MS Word, RTF, Open Office, and Pdf interchangeably. But not epub. But then, iBooks does epub. In short, I have no opinion.

[Silk]

I just read documents on the computer, though I've been considering getting an e-reader for reading manuscripts. Perhaps one document form and one e-book form, as you suggest, if lots of people are doing their reading on e-readers and tablets these days. PDF seems to be fairly universal across devices, yes...?

[Yados]

I just read documents on the computer, though I've been considering getting an e-reader for reading manuscripts. Perhaps one document form and one e-book form, as you suggest, if lots of people are doing their reading on e-readers and tablets these days. PDF seems to be fairly universal across devices, yes...?

You'd think, but I believe the Nook only does epub.

The Kindle only does mobi well, though it will do others.

[Aminar]

PDF's are universally easy to manage on most things. Plus they convert well into everything via Caliber. I like to read on my Kindle. PDF's make that possible. That said, I can make anything into anything with relative ease.

[TheSadDragon]

Thanks for the tip about Caliber!

Also, I prefer PDFs but as long as its a format i can read i can always convert it to pdfs for easy reading

-TSD

[Jack the Halls]

I read on the computer so I can switch between files and write my thoughts down as I read as well as after I read. It doesn't matter what format it's in to me, but I have no problem submitting my future works in the format people most want! I mean, I don't see why I couldn't send it in multiple formats, either.

So PDF seems popular. Any others? I know PDF is impossible to read on my Kindle, but I use Calibre so .mobi is doable, as well as any other format.

[cjhuitt]

It seems pretty clear that .doc and PDF are the most popular choices, which was what people had been sending (more or less) even before I sent this poll. So I guess I've been expecting people to send the same formats as before, which is generally what has been happening.