Chapter decorations

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Vespertilion

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Hi all,

I lurk in here a lot, but rarely post, so I thought maybe I should do something about that :)

We talk a lot about covers in here, and proper formatting of the text, but I like the ornaments on the insides, too. When I decided to self-pub, I wanted the kindle edition at least to have some, so I built some to go with my story.

This fox head (sans flame) is what I'm using for my chapter decs.

ScreenShot2013-07-19at15148AM_zpsab8c8d14.png


ScreenShot2013-07-20at22431AM_zpsf78d6b04.png


I was going to put fleurons or plain dividers for scene breaks, too, but thought it would be overkill, so I just stuck with asterisks there.


What books have interior ornaments that you've really liked?
 

Vespertilion

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Ha, this is reminding me about a chapter decoration that drove me INSANE, too.

It was a bracelet with a charm on it. I keep reading this book (which was enjoyable), and waiting for this bracelet to turn up, thinking it has to have something to do with the plot. Or the hero is going to give it to her as a gift. Or something. I'm running out of chapters for this bracelet to show up in. All the way to the end, not even enjoying the book anymore, because I'm waiting for the damn bracelet.

No bracelet.
 

Vespertilion

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Nah, I know a lot of people hate them. They can be cluttery. But I enjoy them :)
 

Polenth

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I'm not a fan of illustration in ebooks. I especially don't like picture scene breaks - give me a string of characters of some sort for this, not a picture. It's not that I hate the look, but I don't like the oddities it can produce when the pages flow, or the increased file sizes.

In print books, I do like it when they're decorative. Though things like font choice and other layout choices also contribute to that. Two books where I particularly like how the design came together are the original hardback editions of:

Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - It doesn't have chapter pictures, but it's laid out with little symbols in the text where needed, and has areas that are presented like separate pages (they're journal entries and so forth, saying things about the world).

Above World (Jenn Reese) - This does have chapter pictures, in the form of a repeated seahorse symbol (which is also on the front cover). It ties the whole design together nicely.
 

SBibb

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I personally like them if they have something to do with the story. In an ebook I don't know how well it works, since I really haven't read many ebooks, but I think they work well as beginnings or ends to chapters.

Also, the ones you have look neat. :)
 

Vespertilion

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Thanks, guys :)

I only thought to put them in because several of my kindle books have them, and I've never had any trouble with them loading or anything. If you alter the color of the pages (I have mine set to "sepia," because the white is too bright) then you can see the white box around the images, but that doesn't bother me.

I think the latest was a Delilah Dawson book, that has a steampunk feel to it. It has a simple, bisected gear wheel at the beginning of each chapter. ANGELMAKER has a single bee for scene breaks, but there aren't very many, so it's just a nice little touch instead of annoying.
 

Gale Haut

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I suspect if you style it correctly in css it could look great. I think most ereaders if not all now support png or gif so you should be able to avoid the white box by using a transparent background instead.
 

Polenth

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I suspect if you style it correctly in css it could look great. I think most ereaders if not all now support png or gif so you should be able to avoid the white box by using a transparent background instead.

Transparenting doesn't work reliably, so you should assume your images will appear with a white box around them (even if they don't on your ereader).

Personally, the white boxes really bother me. But it doesn't take much being off with a book for me to find it distracting.
 

Gale Haut

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Transparenting doesn't work reliably, so you should assume your images will appear with a white box around them (even if they don't on your ereader).

Personally, the white boxes really bother me. But it doesn't take much being off with a book for me to find it distracting.

Interesting. The older models must convert them into jpegs.
 

Vespertilion

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The KDP handbook prefers you start with jpegs, but AMZN will convert them to jpegs if you don't.

Smashwords allows pngs, but I only have one pic in that version--katakana characters I wanted to make sure wouldn't be turned into boxes on some readers' devices.
 

sarahdalton

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I really like your designs, Clovia!

One book I thought used interior decoration well was The Blood Red Road by Moira Young. Each chapter break had a little crow, because the MC had a pet crow. It was lovely.

In the print versions of my books I used a small symbol for earth instead of an asterisk. It matches my symbol for 'the blemished' which is similar to the Jewish stars in Nazi Germany -- a way to identify those ostracised by society. I tried to used it in the ebook but it caused problems. In some ePub versions it resized itself for some reason.
 

Gale Haut

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The KDP handbook prefers you start with jpegs, but AMZN will convert them to jpegs if you don't.

Smashwords allows pngs, but I only have one pic in that version--katakana characters I wanted to make sure wouldn't be turned into boxes on some readers' devices.

A quick google search showed that many other devices will convert accepted filetypes to jpeg regardless of your vendors filetype support/preferences. Since this is obviously a real limitation--and a necessary one--why not assume that you will be using a jpeg instead of a transparency or an eps graphic, and design your headings with the bounding box in mind? Try designing it so that it doesn't look like a mistake.
 

Vespertilion

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I was thinking about that, Gale. With the next book, I might be able to pull it off attractively, but I'm not sure I'd like anything added to the fox head this time. I might work on it a bit after the book is out, then re-upload if I get something I really like.

Sarah, I like the sound of that crow, I'll have to check it out. That's good to know about your ebook--I'm hoping I kept the KDP simple enough that there won't be problems, but I can always take the pics out if gets to be a headache for readers. It's not worth alienating them just to have something schnazzy :)
 

Gale Haut

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Here are two ideas just to get the cogs moving (not necessarily solutions).

Use inverted negative space with shades of gray for the graphic instead of white. The graphic appears intentionally bound, rather than bound by default.

nogitsune2.jpg

Create a bar with a style that overflows the max width of the page, and the eye won't view it as a box but as a division line.



ETA: I started to post this before I saw your new post. No worries. :D
 
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Vespertilion

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You're awesome :)
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Gale, that's genius.

However, could you please do something about that second image? I don't think it technically violates the image surface area requirement, but it is so wide it's artificially shrinking down this page on mobile devices.

Maybe rotate it 90° or something so it's vertical instead?
 

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Oh my, that's beautiful. I personally like the chapter decorations, and decorations between scenes... part of this, though, is I'm finding a lot of ebooks (from trade publishers, nonetheless) don't have great delineation between scenes, and the books with the decorations make it more clear.

I know not everyone likes them, but I love little decorative stuff like that. :)
 

Polenth

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Oh my, that's beautiful. I personally like the chapter decorations, and decorations between scenes... part of this, though, is I'm finding a lot of ebooks (from trade publishers, nonetheless) don't have great delineation between scenes, and the books with the decorations make it more clear.

Using images or not doesn't change the need for something between breaks. It can be * * * though, rather than an actual picture.

Trade publishers often are too set in trying to make it look like a print book, so leave a space. But some of them are learning. Slowly.
 

Vespertilion

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Did have a little bit of a hiccup with the kindle conversion when I uploaded. I'm not sure if it was because AMZN has it available before it's live live and still filtering through, or something weird with my file, but I think a few of my friends have little surprised cameras where there are supposed to be pics. I reuploaded and it seems fine now, but *stomach acid* for a couple of hours there. :D

(I have a completely pic-less file ready, too, just in case.)
 

JoNightshade

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I obviously don't pay enough attention to what I'm reading, because I can't remember a single instance of any decorations like this in any book I've read. But I know they're out there!

Anyway, I love yours, Clovia.

I haven't attempted anything like this myself, but I was just putting a short story up on Kindle today (still pending) and had to deal with the question of how to indicate breaks. I did the * * * since that seems standard, but then I was sort of flummoxed at the end - I have a little thing after the story ends that has links to my author page and a little blurb for my book. But in the flow of the ebook, it was really not clear that the story was over and the "ad" bit had begun. I ended up putting just one * centered at the end, along with a page break... which I'm not sure always comes through? Anyway, hopefully that was enough of an indication. I almost put "fin" but I thought that might be a little melodramatic. :)
 

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I didn't know the term for them was chapter decorations but I've always enjoyed them in the books I've seen.

Offhand, I recall the Sword of Truth series implement these at the beginning of chapters and perhaps for scene breaks as well. For that it's the sword of truth as the decoration. I recall, barely, that in the Planet of the Apes there is a dark black circle that serves some purpose. Maybe just side decoration in the corner? That plan black circle stuck with me as something simple and eye catching.

I checked the ebook versions of the books, but I couldn't find anything of the sort on them.
 
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