Ebook Publishing
A growing area of popularity, as you’ll know if you frequent the auction pages of Ebay, is ebook publishing.
Broadly speaking, and hence the name, ebooks are electronic books.
They are electronic files that can be read by a computer, a PDA or a specialised ebook reader, depending upon the format the ebook has been written, packaged or published in.
The term ebook (also e-book) has also been used to refer to hardware upon which to read the files, but these are now more commonly referred to as ebook readers or ebook devices.
Ebook publishing has suffered in reputation in recent years as a result of the ‘get rich quick’ crowd who were among the first internet entrepreneurs to grasp the potential, the immediacy and the general cost-effectiveness of ebook publishing to spread the word on their latest scheme or business plan.
Ebooks are, however, an ideal way for the aspiring author to publish their work quickly and cheaply, if you have the means to market your ebooks via the internet. This could either be via your own website or a distribution agreement with a web-based ebook specialist.
A quick internet search will show that there are many dedicated software applications you can buy that will format and produce your ebook for you after you have written the content.
Many ebook writers eschew such bespoke software in favour of Adobe’s Acrobat pdf format. This format is becoming the de facto internet standard in downloadable documentation, in part due to its widespread use and the free Adobe Reader software. It will also surely be the least likely form to have compatibility issues in the future as it is being constantly developed and applied.
Many of the bespoke software solutions will undoubtedly have compatibility and longevity issues in the future as they become defunct and unsupportable, possibly making your ebook defunct also.
Some of the applications, however, will package your ebook into an executable file, allowing it to be viewed on any computer without the need for specialist reading software.
For more information, there is a very good entry in Wikipedia about ebooks that discusses the various current standards and formats in depth.
It’s also worth making sure you understand the basic advantages and disadvantages of ebook publishing before you decide if it’s a publishing medium that will suit you.
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