Excellent Ebooks: seminar gets rave reviews

PANZ News

Excellent Ebooks: The Essentials, the seminar developed by Natalie Costa Bir and Sarah Fletcher for the Australian Publishers Association, did not disappoint on its eagerly awaited Kiwi debut. In fact, it received a highly enthusiastic response from the 34 publishing people attending… here’s what some of the participants thought:

Jane Arthur, Gecko Press: It was fantastic, the best course I’ve ever done! It confirmed what I suspected I knew, but wasn’t confident enough to voice; it demystified things and extended me, but gently. I’ve been raving about it and I’ve applied some of what I’ve learned already.

Alan Bridgland, Craig Potton Publishing: It was good motivation and proved you need to be quick on your feet with ebooks. For us, the course posed more questions than it answered because it highlighted that we have so much more work to do to resolve our issues and need a bit of a rethink on the points raised. A good venue and a well paced day, exceptionally well done.

Carole Doesburg, Exisle Publishing: I’m still reeling from all I’ve learned. It was just amazing – it covered areas I didn’t really understand and filled in gaps. One of my tasks is briefing designers, and the gaps in my knowledge have been well and truly filled.

The format was really good, as we were not just lectured but given job tasks to do, and to come away with a work book to absorb at leisure rather than having to take masses of notes was great. It is a stunning course and I’m so grateful PANZ brought it to NZ.

Lynette Evans, Scholastic NZ: I went on the course knowing that one of my needs re marketing ebooks was not going to be covered, but I had a really enjoyable day. The presenters were great and covered a lot of ground. I especially appreciated their tips on testing versions on different ereaders. It solidified what we are doing and that we are on the right track.

Odessa Owens, Te Papa Press: I loved Essential Ebooks, it was really enjoyable and informative; one of the best training courses PANZ has ever run. The people teaching the course are very engaging, actual editors who clearly care about what they do, and I’ve come away with a brilliant resource.