Over the summer we released a score of improvements to our Upload Feature. The WYSIWYG interface lets you make changes to uploaded material in a way that allows you to see instantly what it will look like in the Reader. We think authors will catch onto this. If you’re an author, we’ll be releasing a lot of interesting things for you in the coming months. Keep your eye on the site!

As for the video, which outlines all this and more, check here:

WATCH VIDEO on YouTube

Our newest Featured Author is David T. Page. Read his rugged historical accounts of Yosemite, Death Valley, and the True West, along with guidelines about what can still be seen today, at BookGlutton.com.

Recent Activity, BG Style

This new homepage inset lets you keep track of the most-recent books read, groups formed and comments made. It’s more compact so you can peruse all the homepage info quickly and easily. Also – it has those fancy new tabs.

BookGlutton Profiles – See What I “Recently Read” Detail

Check out the new Profile Pages – you’ll see what people have been reading. Naturally, if you set your preferences to “Read in Private,” you’ll be able to keep this a secret (that’s in the Account Section, btw) But why would you want to read alone? Following what people have been reading really helps connect. It’s also super addictive.

BookGlutton Refreshes the Homepage

Good news – we’ve been making some slick new changes to the site. When you get a chance try out the new Search. And dig around in the Profiles a bit – it should be a lot easier to find other people to read with now, especially since people’s friendlists are more transparent and we’ve got the site listing who the last reader was next to each book.

Here’s A Larger Image of the New Chat

Every time we get a chance we make the chat a little better. Now there’s a roster to see who’s in the book with you. It’s represented by that little guy in the upper right corner of the TALK panel, along with the number of people in the book with you. Clicking on that will give you a list – a roster – which shows you who else is in your book.

In the roster you’ll also be able to see who can hear you (dark text) and those can’t (grey text), — people who limit their scope to chapters that you’re not in will see grey. You’ll also notice a presence icon at the top of the screen, which quickly lets you know if you’re connected or not.

You’ll also find the chat less buggy overall, due to plenty of upgrades behind-the-scenes. Find someone to read a book with and try it out!

Heads up – now you can easily see how people are connected on the site!

See who’s been added as a friend, as well as who’s following whom, on each Profile page. Naturally you can click on any of these Glutton Profile Images and hook up with new readers. Try it and see.

We’re happy to announce the first tool in our own API series, the BookGlutton Epub Converter. It’s a simple way to create the IDPF‘s open ebook format, ePub, from basic HTML files. The REST-like interface allows developers to do conversions from anywhere on the Web, be it a backend script or a frontend form for their users. The curious can play with the tool on our site, where we’ve put up some documentation and a test form.

Now, I know I’ve voiced concerns about the ePub format before, so at first glance it wouldn’t make sense for me to build a tool which creates more of it. The short explanation is that if we make this format accessible to independent, open-source Web developers and tech-savvy Web readers and writers, a collective outcry may have more sway in future renditions of it. So please, create some ePubs with this. If you’re curious about the internal XML workings of the format, rename your epub with a .zip extension, unzip it, and open the files up in your favorite text editor. Then ask yourself how the format could be improved for you, and tell the IDPF what you think.

We’re committed to being open and we hope that developers in the online book community will not only want to use the tools we develop, but will also feel encouraged to develop their own. As always, we welcome suggestions. Developers out there: what services or data would you like to see us make accessible to your own sites? Users: what tools might make reading online easier and more fun? Let us know!

Here’s a screenshot of BookGlutton’s new “Featured Author” section, which can be found right on the homepage. We’ve introduced this area to highlight contemporary authors that have uploaded original work or excerpts of published pieces to the site. It’s a great way to discover something new to read!

Keep an eye out for this – we’ll be cycling it frequently.