 express permission of its author is not given or implied. Why Go e...for readers? By Brenna Lyons What is an e-book? An e-book is a book, like any other book. The main difference is in presentation. Overall, the differences between e-book and print books are not entirely unlike the differences between mass market and hard bound books. e-Books are more portable, less expensive and more convenient. An e-book is, in the strictest sense of the word, a book presented in electronic format. If you use a computer to write, you are making an e-book. The final presentation of said book or set of poems may not be in e-book format, but the RTF, DOC or PDF file that you create is an e-book. So, all books, these days, tend to start their submission-ready lives as e-books. But, what if you're a reader? You might think you'd never read an e-book. That's an interesting debate in the e-industry, because so many people don't realize the full scope of what e-books are. If you use a computer, it is highly unlikely you've never read an e-book or portion of an e-book, for business, if not for pleasure. They have snuck into our lives and set up residence without many people even realizing they were there. If you've ever gone to the IRS site and downloaded the instruction manual for a form, gone to the transit authority and checked a bus or train schedule, or printed out the map for the zoo, you've read an e-book. If you've ever used the "help" feature on your computer software, you're reading an e-book. If you've ever read articles online...or stories...or poems, you've read an e-book. How do you purchase an e-book? There are several ways to purchase an e-book. The most common way is not unlike purchasing from Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Powell’s online bookstores. You browse the catalog on the web page. You pay with PayPal or a credit or debit card. You check out, any time, day or night. What happens at that point varies. In some cases, you are given links on the screen to download the titles you purchased. In others, you are sent an e-mail with the links in it. In still others, the books are placed on your online "bookshelf" and are available for download or perusal whenever you choose to do so...or when you need to replace books lost in a fire, hard drive crash or other catastrophe. There's no gas to get to the store, no closing time, no wait for books to be shipped to you. You may have to transfer the books you purchased from your laptop or desktop computer to your reading device of choice. Some dedicated readers, like the eBookwise reader, can connect to the online bookshelf with a phone cord and doesn't have to synch to another computer. And, we all know that Kindle can directly download from the Amazon server without ever going to the web site. How do you read an e-book? You can read an e-book on a whole variety of devices: a desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer... But, most people don't like reading from that type of screen. In addition to the discomfort of sitting at the computer for long periods of time, there is also the problem of eye strain. Most e-book readers choose to read from a PDA or Pocket PC, a tablet PC, a Smart phone or a dedicated reader. With the new Stanza software (recently purchased by Amazon), readers can now read on Apple/iPhone devices, as well. You hold these handheld readers...not unlike a book, if you've set the screen to landscape view...and the screen is better for your eyes than the desktop monitors are. You might be interested to note that ophthalmologists have been suggesting handheld readers to their patients with vision loss, between the screen properties and the ability to increase font size on most e-books. CAVEAT on that...don't use backlighting in a completely darkened room. That is worse on your eyes. In addition, e-books that aren't locked to it can be easily made into audio books with a program like ReadPlease or even with Adobe Acrobat. That opens a whole world of new reading material to those who want or need to "read" audio books, like blind book enthusiasts. Though it's not cost-effective, some readers print out e-books to read on the go, rather than carrying a handheld reader. Unless the print feature is turned off, of course. How do you find the e-books you want to read? You find e-books to read not unlike you find print books to read. You can go to the e-book resellers. Though Amazon is selling Kindle e-books, you may want to choose one of the more established sites to visit, since Amazon has not, as of yet, created a Kindle emulator for use at the desktop or on the laptop. The largest reseller, at the moment, is Fictionwise, which also owns eBookwise. If you visit their site, you'll find that you can search for books by genre, publisher, author name, title, by bestsellers and best rated (overall, by publisher and within genres). Fictionwise purchased eReader.com, so that's not a separate venue, these days, and the original Fictionwise content is being cross-posted to eReader, at the moment. B&N recently acquired Fictionwise and are currently working the e-books into their online print book site. Once you find publishers you enjoy (or the publisher of an author you enjoy), you can go to the publisher's list on Fictionwise to find more from them...and a link to their home site, where there is nearly guaranteed to be books not loaded for sale on Fictionwise. If you want to see more from a particular author, clicking the author name on any book listing or from the author list will bring up all of his or her titles on Fictionwise. Another great set of sites include ARe (All Romance eBooks, for lovers of romance, erotic romance, women’s fiction and chick lit) and their sister site OmniLit. It is always more advantageous for the author and publisher, if you purchase from the publisher's home site, but a sale is still a sale. If you prefer one-stop shopping, no author or publisher in his or her right mind is going to begrudge you a purchase from a reseller. If we did, why would we place our books with resellers, to begin with? But, maybe you want to search out some award winners. While there is no way to separate the e-book winners in most major awards...and many e-books are available as print books, as well...there are two established awards only for books released in e-book. The first would be the EPPIE, which EPIC runs, and the second would be The Dream Realm Awards. I highly suggest using the award winners to find specific books, authors and publishers to check out. Last but certainly not least, look at the usual sources for print books. Unless e-books are not accepted, they are reviewed at the same sites print books are, compete in the same awards, advertise in the same magazines, and are discussed on the same Yahoo groups. What about security on e-books? People who follow the internet news will ask about the problem of e-piracy, BitTorrent, and so on. What are the pros and cons of secured formats? Sadly, the pros are few and the cons are many. Does DRM/Digital Rights Management affect sales of e-books. Yes, they do...and negatively. When one of the owners of Fictionwise was keynote speaker at EPICon in OK City, he stated the following: “Secured formats cause ten times the number of customer service calls, when compared to unsecured formats. A customer who has a problem with a secured file is ten times less likely to purchase secured formats again.” In addition to problems opening the secured files and reading them, customer complaints about DRM include: The inability to use a file they rightfully paid for on all devices they own personally. Secured formats are difficult or impossible to pass from device to device. The inability to back up and safeguard those files, in anticipation of catastrophic loss. The inability to cut or copy and paste from a resource book protected by DRM, when citing material in a scholarly study...or when using a recipe from an e-book version of a cookbook. Some might argue that you have to hand type in from a paper book, but the fact is the unique advantages of e-books are stripped away by DRM. The inability to make the e-book into an audio book. The inability to print and read on the go from paper. The added expense of DRM, which is passed along to the reader, in the form of higher prices. Some people in the industry believe that DRM is the only way to stop content piracy, but the truth is that DRM punishes honest purchasers, in a vain attempt to stop criminals. There is currently no DRM that cannot be broken. When a new form comes out, it is usually broken within a number of weeks and the hack...or the unlocked copy of the file is passed around. Is piracy a problem? Yes...a major one, in some cases, but the DRM isn't going to stop it. Further, it's not just e-books that put up with pirates. Paper books are routinely scanned into recognition scanners and pirated as e-books. That's why you can find e-book copies of Harry Potter, when Rowlings has repeatedly refused to release the books in e-book formats. Thankfully, most indie presses do not use DRMd books, so readers don’t have to put up with the inconvenience and higher cost of secured formats, when dealing with indie press. Pros for readers- Backup... With off-site storage, on a server or bookshelf on a reseller site like Fictionwise, you don't even lose your e-books in the case of fire, flood or other natural disaster. You can purchase backlist titles in e-book that are OOP (out of print) in NY mass market/hard bound for $6 or $7, compared to $80 or more for a popular OOP print title in print. You can purchase books, from the comfort of your own home, any time, day or night. You don't have to drive to the store or wait for delivery. You download titles instantly. You can read any books you want in public, without comments about your choice of reading material, since only you see the cover art. The rest of the world sees a PDA or other reading device. *Please note that the literary reading crowd has termed this a “down side” to reading e-books, since they can’t be “seen” with the latest hot literary title in hand. PDAs and e-ink screens are actually better for your eyes than a computer screen or a paper book. Ophthalmologists SUGGEST these readers for their vision-impaired patients. CAVEAT: Reading a backlit device in a completely darkened room is bad for your eyes. Backlit in low light is fine. You can often increase font of e-books to a comfortable level. You can't do that with a paper book. If it's not large type, it's not. Many programs, like ReadPlease and Adobe Reader, can turn your e-books into audio books, meaning that (simply by using a computer or other similarly-equipped electronic device), people who enjoy or require audio books can have a wider range of "reading" choices.v
No allergens! For people who are allergic to dust/book dust, this is a wonder. Also, less dusting. Silly but true and a concern for some readers. There is a wide array of devices you can read e-books on: desktop computers, laptop/notebook, PDAs or Pocket PCs, tablet PCs, Smart Phones, iPod/iPhone and dedicated readers. In fact, you may already own these devices and not realize you can read e-books on them. Though we admittedly need an affordable, durable reader, we're nearly there. Even if you don't already own the hardware to read e-books, you can get durable readers, like eBookwise or Palm Tungsten E, for between $119 and $200. Though readers like the Sony and Kindle get more press, you don’t have to pay $350 and up for a handheld reader. e-Books are perfect for the business traveler or ex-pat worker...or foreign readers searching for English-language books. Unless the internet is blocked where you are, you can purchase and download English-language e-books, instead of looking for somewhere that sells English paper books. You can burn them to CD to make more room on your hard drive, if necessary, and carry home hundreds of new books with you, rather than shipping books home or losing that investment. Some readers, like eBookwise and Kindle, do not have to synch to a computer to download books. Others can be synched to a laptop, and many business travelers carry laptops. Most handheld-sized readers/PDA/Pocket PC/Smart Phones automatically power down, if you fall asleep with them on...and bookmark your place for you. Some e-readers/PDAs, like eBookwise, will allow you to read either portrait or landscape view. In portrait, it's like reading from a sheet of paper. In landscape, it feels to the hands more like reading a book (especially on a large reader like eBookwise or the newer Kindle releasing this summer. The search features allow you to find the information you need quickly and without much fuss, as long as you can remember key words of the phrase you need. Cons for readers-v
Some people find even PDA screens hard on the eyes. Some people prefer the feel of a book...and the smell of one. Print books never run out of battery time, in the middle of a book. You rarely have to worry about someone stealing a print book. Though I’ve found handhelds to be incredibly durable, some people fear breaking it and losing their investment. A valid concern, I admit.v
Most of the other "cons" aren't really cons. People will say you can't read a PDA at the pool or in the tub. Well, of course you can. You simply have to utilize a few cents of Ziploc bag to do it safely. People will complain that their teens are not permitted to take them to school. Of course, they are. My oldest takes her eBookwise to school. They can't take a do-it-all into the classroom, but eBookwise is a simple reader. It does nothing BUT read books, so she's allowed it.    |