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Ask HN: Re-review the redesigned eBookCake

2 points by JoeyDoey ↗ HN
I just redesigned my eBook design service's website ( http://ebookcake.com ) and hopefully made the purpose/ focus of the service clearer.

Let me know what you think of the site designwise but also if the purpose of the service is clearly conveyed. When I initially launched the service all I designed was PDF format ebooks and the input I got was that PDFs are low man on the ebook totem poll.

With the addition of the two main ebook formats (.epub and .mobi) would you use this design service?

4 comments

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jordanroher
Nice! I saw the tagline ("documentation") and thought, oh, that's a cool service. Then it changed to "blog articles" and I ooh'd a little bit.

The purpose is good, and I like the testimonials on the front page. One thing I might suggest is testimonials from people who buy your eBooks. As in, "9 out of 10 programmers prefer our elegantly designed eBooks to those converted by other services." Also, it's hard to see the "b" in your logo. I'm not sure what your intent was, but it looks like "Eoookcake" to me.

JoeyDoey
Glad you liked that. I don't know that I quite have enough data to accurately use such a statement but hopefully with time I will.

Re: logo, the E and the B just lent themselves nicely to arbitrary ligature. It does make it slightly hard to read I admit.

jordanroher
Some more thoughts as I'm clicking through:

- You have a "Get Started" button on the home page that takes me to a 37signals-ish price selector. Fine. But then you have the exact same "Get Started" button below each rank. Now I'm confused. Haven't I already started? I expect a "Select" button or something.

- The process image suggests that after step 3 is step 1. On reflection I think I get it (that I'll like your service enough to convert another book/article), but it's kind of confusing.

- One thing I don't fully understand: do you just convert the files and hand me an ePUB/MOBI/PDF, or do you also submit those files to iTunes/Kindle? To the inexperienced, it kind of looks like you do literally all the work for me.

JoeyDoey
Thanks for the feedback.

- Great point. I'll change that.

- That was the idea. That you'll keep using the service.

- Right now I take whatever material is submitted to me and I design the ebook and output it in the different formats. I'm not distributing it (to itunes, Amazon, etc) quite yet. Down the road perhaps.