E-Books, Part 4: Electronic Reading Devices

Most people want to get comfortable when reading for pleasure (or even for professional development and education). Sitting at a computer to read a book doesn’t appeal to us.

That’s why I prefer to read on an e-book reading device. There are a number of different devices on the market that are suitable for reading e-books. I use the eBookWise reader.

I can download books directly from their site, and I can import personal documents in html, Word, rtf, or txt formats. So if I buy an e-book at a publisher’s Web site, I order it in one of those formats and import it to my e-book librarian. From there I can add it to my reading device any time. The eBookWise holds 10 to 15 books and additional memory can increase that significantly.

I also use the device to read the final draft of books I edit - I can make notes and highlight text to mark the errors and correct them in the computer. It’s not good for major editing, though, because it’s double work. But I like doing the final read-through (when there should be few mistakes left) in the reading device because it’s more like the experience as a reader and gives me a little different perspective.

The eBookWise does NOT read PDF files, so if I get a book in PDF, I have to convert it to Word, then import it to the librarian. And if the PDF is encrypted - I don’t read it. That’s my biggest complaint about the reader - and I would like the largest font to be a little larger.

The first e-book reader on the market (at least as far as I know) was the Rocket eBook, and it was the best. Unfortunately, the original developer sold out to one of the big electronic companies, and they took an excellent product and made it a good product. I dropped my Rocket on a tile floor and shattered it (after I’d had it for several years and read hundreds of books on it), so now I’m using the eBookWise, which is a later version of the Rocket eBook replacement.

There are a lot of things happening in the world of e-books, and Teleread reports on the latest gadgets on their blog. Those of us who love e-books have been hoping for years that someone would come out with the ideal reader. There are some good ones on the market - but not the perfect one yet.

You can read e-books on your Palm, other PDAs, and handheld computers. E-book reading software is included with many devices; with others you can add programs (almost always free) such as Adobe eBook Reader, Mobipocket, or Microsoft Reader.

You can find information and comparisons of various software and devices at the following sites:

• eBook Mall: devices and software
• Fictionwise devices and software
• Twilight Times Books: dedicated devices, PDAs, Pocket PCs, and software

I hope this overview of e-books has been helpful. Please let me know in comments if you have specific questions or if you would like to read more about e-books and electronic publishing.

Updated 8/5/07: I’ve discovered a great new resource on e-book technology: Tech From an E-booker’s Viewpoint, the blog of Dr. Ellen Hage, who owns more e-book devices than most people own books.

Related Posts:
Read an E-Book Week
Self-Publishing Primer: Part 13 - Do I need a Web site - and should I make my book available as an e-book?

E-Books, Part 3: Books from Electronic or Traditional Publishers

Although many people prefer to read print, I always look for e-books. My poor vision makes it difficult for me to read most print books, but I can adjust the font on e-books to make them easy for me to read.

People who associate e-books with short, often free, how-to and marketing books may be surprised to learn e-books are available in every genre as print books. Fictionwise, an online e-bookstore, lists nearly two dozen categories of fiction and nonfiction titles. eBookMall offers more than 150,000 titles in three dozen categories. The EPIC Bookstore carries thousands of titles written by hundreds of members of EPIC, Electronically Published Internet Connection. Other e-bookstores include Reader’s Eden and DPP Store.  My Web site lists e-book and small press booksellers and directories as well as e-publishing resources.

Some publishers release titles only in electronic formats, but most electronic publishers also make books available in print. In general, electronic publishers are small press and often specialize in a particular genre: romance, speculative fiction, etc. Others, however, offer books in all genres.

Most of the large publishing houses now offer at least some of their inventory as e-books as well as print. However, for some unfathomable reason, they offer charge more for the electronic version than for paperback, rarely even more than for hardback. Since the production costs of e-books are less than the costs of producing print books, it seems e-books should sell for less.

Small press publishers do sell e-books for less than print books, usually between $3 to $6. That makes e-books attractive for readers who would like to try new authors and different genres without spending a lot. The low cost also means avid readers can read more books for their book budget.

Although the low cost of entry for electronic publishing brings in a few companies that don’t produce good quality, most e-publishers are selective in the manuscripts they accept and careful in editing and production. Generally, you can read a chapter or three online at the publisher’s or bookstore’s Web site before you buy to decide if you like the writer’s style.

The one thing that sets e-books from small publishers apart from books from the traditional publishers is that small e-publishers are usually more open to books that don’t fit a particular mold. You’ll find more mixing of genres and less stringent “rules.” For example, print publishers told me no one wanted to read a romance featuring a disabled heroine, but an e-publisher was actually looking for stories about characters with disabilities.

EPIC, the voice of electronic publishing, says on its Web site:

Even though E-Publishing is a relatively new venue, there are many readers, writers, and traditionally published authors who believe this is one of the major marketplaces of the future. …

Among our members, you’ll find writers of action/adventure, fantasy, historical, horror, inspirational, mystery, romance, science fiction, suspense, time travel, war, westerns, stories for children and young adults-in short, all the most popular fiction genres, as well as non-fiction self-help and how-to.

The two major problems, as I see it, with electronic publishing are these:

• E-books are harder to find than print books. Many are sold primarily from the publisher’s Web site, so you have to hear about a publisher, author, or book somewhere to lead you to their site. It’s much more convenient to be able to go to a central location to order books from several publishers. While the bookstores listed above carry a wide selection of e-books, many more excellent e-books aren’t available in those stores because the publisher doesn’t have enough titles in its inventory or otherwise doesn’t meet the bookstore’s criteria.
• There is no standard format for e-books. Most publishers offer a selection of several formats. While that makes it more likely that you will find the format you prefer, the number of choices makes shopping more complex. There are various movements to standardize e-books, but there hasn’t been enough progress.

On the other hand, e-books have many more advantages, including these:

• E-books are easier for the visually impaired and people with other handicaps to read. Many people prefer larger fonts as they age, and some people find it difficult to hold a print book.
• The lower cost of e-books lets avid readers stretch their book budget. As mentioned earlier, not all publishers sell e-books at a lower price, but electronic publishers do.
• E-books don’t take up space like print books. If I ever get rich, I’d love to have a huge library filled with beautiful first-edition books. But for now, my library fits in few megabytes on my hard drive.
• E-books are immediately available. If I want a new book at 3 AM, I can place my order online, download the book, and start reading in a matter of minutes.
• It’s easier to find something a little different. The large print publishers want books to fit certain genre conventions so bookstores can shelve them in the right place. If you like comedic horror mysteries or something equally out-of-the-mainstream, you’re likely it to find e-books you’ll enjoy. Of course, you can also find plenty of books that fit the genre conventions if that’s what you prefer.
• Electronic devices make it easy to carry a large number of books and read anywhere. I’ll discuss more in the next post.

Although I read e-books almost exclusively, I do buy print books. But if the book is available as an e-book, I’ll read the e-book version and add the print edition to my collection of autographed books.

In the next post, I’ll talk about e-book reading devices.

Related Posts:
Read an E-Book Week
Self-Publishing Primer: Part 13 - Do I need a Web site - and should I make my book available as an e-book?

E-Books, Part 2: Short Nonfiction (How-To) E-Books

For many people, the word e-book means a PDF or proprietary electronic (some type of .exe file) document that is usually a short how-to guide.

Often these e-books are offered free as a marketing tool for the author. Many of these e-books are useful: I recommend Mihaela Lica’s SEO Book of WordPress Blogs, and Yvonne at Grow Your Writing Business has a list of recommended e-books and advice on writing e-books.

However, a number of these free e-books are worth exactly what you pay for them, and downloading them is a waste of time. The one advantage may be to convince you not to pay for information from that “expert.”

At the other end of the spectrum are the e-books sold by gurus for exorbitant prices. While the information may be valuable and active links can make the e-book more useful than a print copy, most of these e-books are not designed for easy reading. Often they are encrypted to protect the copyright of the author, making it inconvenient for the reader. The e-book can only be read on a computer, and few people want to sit at the computer to read a book, especially when you can probably find similar information in a print book for far less money.

My personal philosophy on downloading how-to e-books is this:

• If the book is available only in a proprietary format that must be read on the computer, I don’t download it. I know it will too inconvenient for me to read.
• If the book is available only in encrypted PDF, I download it if it’s something I REALLY want to read. I keep a few encrypted PDF e-books on my desktop to read when I’m waiting for the computer to back up.
• If the book is available in unencrypted PDF and the subject or author interest me, I’ll download the file, convert it to another format, and import it to my e-book reader so I can read it comfortably.
• If the book costs significantly more than it would cost in print, I most likely will not download it.

That’s my take on nonfiction, how-to books written specifically as e-books, available in only one format, and published by an individual or company that is not in the publishing business.

What are your thoughts?

The next installment in this series will be about e-books from electronic and small press publishers.

Related Posts:
Read an E-Book Week
Self-Publishing Primer: Part 13 - Do I need a Web site - and should I make my book available as an e-book?

E-Books, Part 1: I read throughout a four-hour power outage

Recently, several blog posts have made me think about e-books.

Mig at eWritings released an e-book, The SEO Book of WordPress Blogs, which is a great resource for WordPress bloggers. Then Yvonne at Grow Your Writing Business posted a picture of a library bookcase chair, which led to my comment about e-books and Yvonne’s follow-on question. Liz at Successful Blog posted 7 Reasons eBooks are Losing Readers:

Do you download eBooks?
Most of us do. We download them; print them; and read them - or we set them aside and forget them. eBooks used to seem a bargain. After the third, fifth, seventh download, we’re finding they’ve got their drawbacks. The investment seems to grow with each one.

Some of us read them on our computers. But most eBooks are darn long for that.

Then a few days ago, we had a power outage that lasted for more than four hours. Since it was the middle of the night, most people probably didn’t even know until they woke up the next morning. But I’m a night owl so I was right in the middle of work. My husband came out to my office (a small building in the backyard) with a flashlight to help me get back into the house. He was bored - no TV, no computer, no radio, no light to read. However, I had my lighted e-book reader and sat in comfort reading a novel for the entire time we were without power.

This combination of blog posts and power outage led me to write about e-books.

NetLingo defines e-book as follows:

e-book
short for electronic book
(also seen as ebook and eBook) Simply put, it’s a book that can be downloaded and read on a computer or other digital device. For example, envision a brave new world where freshmen college students load their electronic book readers with “e-books” that contain their curricula and textbooks for the next four years, then they simply log on to the Internet for updates. The challenge is developing a hardware medium that will make e-reading more soothing on the eyes. For most e-book formats, you need a PDA or handheld device. Advances are being made regard to the quality of e-book readers …

In my mind, there are three distinct kinds of e-books:

1. A nonfiction (usually how-to) book written specifically as an e-book in one format, usually PDF or a proprietary format that must be read on a computer, often shorter than a typical book, written and published by an individual or a company other than a publishing company

2. A nonfiction or fiction book, typically book-length (40,000 words+) written by an author and published by a publishing company or self-published, often available in print and multiple electronic formats
3. An electronic reading device to read e-books

I’ll discuss each of these in more detail in future posts in this series.

Related Posts:
Read an E-Book Week
Self-Publishing Primer: Part 13 - Do I need a Web site - and should I make my book available as an e-book?