CYBERCITY (USA) – Maj. O. V. Erhaul of the Cybercity Police Department said in a press conference Friday that investigators have turned up a significant lead on a possible suspect in the mysterious disappearance of Tex T. Box. “We can’t say for certain yet, but it appears that a subject calling himself “Poo” may be responsible for the sudden and traumatic disappearance of Mr. Box, one of this city’s most useful citizens”.
Unnamed sources close to the investigation said the subject calling himself “Poo” is actually a notorious trouble maker whose real name is P.O.Orplanning who, as one source put it, “has caused all kinds of havoc since moving to our city.” Tex T. Box’s disappearance was reported to police by his uncle, information mogul Ebo Ock. Fighting back tears of emotion Ebo Ock told reporters, “I have found it virtually impossible to work. In fact, I am completely useless without Tex here to help me. That is why I said we should call for Major O.V.Erhaul.” Maj. O.V.Erhaul pledged police would leave no stone unturned in their search for Tex T. Box.
I recently downloaded two new e-books full of articles by top online marketers. They were free-to-publish articles and, as I am a publisher, I was very anxious to use some of those excellent articles. Alas, it was not to be.
The e-books had been the victims of the notorious “Poo” (Poor Planning). The articles could only be accessed by printing them to hard copy. The compiler program used to create these e-books had done something very mysterious. It allowed the right mouse button to function normally, but completely ignored the “copy” command. When I highlighted the article and clicked “copy” nothing copied to the clipboard. Of course, that rendered these e-books completely useless to me and to most publishers. The only way to use an article was to print it out, then manually type it into my e-zine. I do not have the time for that–not even for the top online marketers.
The solution is both obvious and simple. The articles were put in the e-books on nice, pretty, HTML pages. They look good, but are no use. If the publisher of those e-books had placed a Text Box on the page and put the articles in the text box, it would have saved these e-books. Text contained in a text box is innately copyable to the clipboard.
When writing and publishing, the #1 Rule is: Thou shalt remember thy audience.
When publishing an e-book full of articles for reprint, it seems certain the audience will be full of publishers. Therefore, it only makes sense to create the e-book in a way that is functional for the audience.
There is a broad lesson in this story (a true story) for all writers and publishers. Don’t fall victim to Poor Planning or someone will call for Major Overhaul.
2003 by Kevin W. Smith. All rights reserved.
KEVIN SMITH is a writer, publisher, public speaker,
and producer of audio/video seminars. He is the
editor of ‘eZone Layer Ezine’ located at:
http://ezonelayer.knows.it and he may be contacted
via e-mail at: mailto:ezonelayer@myway.com
