Digital – Chrys Buckley

Echoes of the Lost – Accessible Ebook – Mystery

One of my last acts as manager of the Digital department at Ooligan Press, along with training my successor since I’ll be graduating soon, was making the ebook for Echoes of the Lost.

Of course, for the full ebook experience, you can always purchase Echoes of the Lost on bookshop.org or any other bookselling website and choose the ebook version. Echoes of the Lost launches on May 12.

Since this fully accessible ebook is reflowable, its appearance will adjust to any changes in typeface, font size, or any other parameter that someone makes in their e-reader, so this is just one view.

Here is a peak inside the ebook via images from Apple Books:

This is a really fun book, both cozy and gritty, and I’m really excited for it to be out in the world a week from today!

Here’s the cover, designed by my Ooligan Press colleague who taught me everything I know about ebooks, Madelynn Sare. Again, I did NOT design this, but wanted to include it for the visual element of the cover, as well as to plug Madelynn’s work!

book cover for Echoes of the Lost: A Mystery by Cindy Brown. The title is in large red words over a background image of a bridge in Portland.

Surveying Press Backlist Ebooks – Digital Accessibility Project

One of my biggest projects as the Digital Manager at Ooligan Press was to make a plan to remediate our backlist. A new EU law, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has direct language about accessibility requirements for frontlist and backlist ebooks, with due dates for each. Thankfully, our frontlist is already compliant; every book from our fall 2024 release of The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide and onward is good to go.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II is not as direct and specific about ebooks but does address materials used in educational settings, and some of our Ooligan titles are taught in classes.

So, the first order of business was to survey the existing backlist. In doing so, I made this spreadsheet to collect the info in one place. I looked at the existing EPUB files and assessed accessibility, catalogued the amount and nature of alt text needed for each backlist book, took note of special formatting needs (poetry, tables, and the like), and categorized the complexity of each ebook.

The spreadsheet was meant to serve as a resource for planning with the Publisher and as a tracking and organizing document. The Publisher and I have used this to select the first book for remediation: Cataclysms on the Columbia. It’s one of Ooligan Press’s best-selling titles, and it’s one of our most directly educational titles as it’s used as a textbook for geology courses. Next will likely be The Portland Red Guide, which is getting a reprint as well.

Cekpa – Accessible Ebook – Memoir

One of my first jobs as the manager of the Digital and Audio departments at Ooligan Press was to make a fully accessible ebook for Cekpa: A Memoir in Beaded Essays in advance of its release.

This is a little trickier to know how to display! Of course, for the full ebook experience, you can always purchase Cekpa on bookshop.org or any other bookselling website and choose the ebook version.

Here are some images of the ebook in Apple Books:

This was a really fun project to work on, especially since I had already designed the Cekpa galley and then Cekpa‘s full interior. The ebook was the last phase of the process of producing the book. It was a real journey.

And I’m completely biased but this book is really good. I highly recommend it, whether you read it in print or ebook form!

Here is the cover of Cekpa. It was designed by my Ooligan Press colleague Alex Devon, whose work you can see at mothinthemargins.wordpress.com! To be extra clear, this cover is NOT my work—I wish!—it’s here to add some visual flavor to the post, and as a chance to plug Alex’s work! Also, the book is really, really good and you should all read it!