In an increasingly fast-paced world it becomes more and more fascinating to me to follow the fortunes and advances of the ebook.  We seem to be demanding faster and easier access to almost everything and the ebook is no exception.  This is having a significant impact on the printing and publishing industry.  Places like Barnes & Noble, Borders etc. have probably had many a serious discussion around the board room tables before a difficult decision is made to offer more of their books online.

What I really don’t understand is why we keep getting yet another digital format to go with yet another reader.  It is particularly interesting when you read the news and the statistics on sales.  Amazon.com reported that sales of ebooks outnumbered sales of hardcover books over the second quarter by 40%.  They didn’t outsell paperbacks but are catching up fast.  The bulk of these would be PDF or ePub format since they have been around since the first Kindle was introduced and way before that in the case of PDF.

The only possible explanation is that they creators of the reader believe that of all the hardware devices theirs is far superior to whatever came before and therefore, to get the maximum benefit for their users, they must have a different format.

This is patently wrong as the Adobe PDF format is so powerful now that you can create even full multimedia ebooks with embedded video, embedded websites, secure forms and fully password protected encrypted files and your readers can download a free reader to view your work of art.

The main reason the manufacturers want their own format is so the can use the DRM tools.  DRM or Digital Rights Management is used to restrict access to the digital work, ebooks, movies, music, to only those who have paid for the right to access the content.  What they don’t tell you is that they are only selling you a license to use it.  You never own it and they can take away your rights to access at any time at their own discretion.

That’s right, if you change hardware device, upgrade your computer, reload too many times (according to their rules) or even if they decide to stop supporting your right to access, close their website down or whatever then you can no longer use the product.  This will never happen with a hardcover or paperback book.  That would be the equivalent of the book retailer, author or publisher coming into your home and repossessing your books right off the shelf just because they have decided not to reprint any more or they have decided that you have read them enough.

An e-book, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English, is “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a personal computer or hand-held device designed specifically for this purpose”. It appears that it is perfectly reasonable to write them as ebook, digital books, eBook or e-book and even interchangeably in the same article.

There is software available, often free, which makes it easy to read all the different ebook formats on your personal computer be it a laptop, note book or desktop machine.  These are also often available for your PDA and perhaps your cell phone.  Some companies, such as Microsoft, even have their own free reader, called the Microsoft reader, which can only read their propriety digital format.  What is wrong with the formats currently available such as .txt, .pdf, .rtf which can be read by almost anything?

Some of the available e-book formats are .pdb .arg .azw .djvu .html .lbr .lit .mobi .opf .pdf .pdg .tr3 .txt .xeb .mp3 .epub and others.  I am unable to find justification for all the different formats as a comparison of e-books in the different formats fails to expose any real differences.  If you want to be in the e-book market as either one of the many e-book publishers or selling ebooks  then I would suggest setting up an ebook club.  You may find that this market needs additional work to get going in but if you stick to popular subjects you should reach the tipping point fairly quickly and get established fast.

Some of the available e-readers are Agebook eBook Reader, Kogan eBook Reader, eGriver IDEO, eGriver, Touch, Alex eReader, Kobo eReader, ES600, Digital Reader, Boox-S, Boox 60, Reader Paperback, Daily Edition PRS-900, Nook, Story, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600, iPapyrus 6, WISEreader N516, PocketBook, Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300, Opus, eBook, BeBook Mini, BeBook One, COOL-ER, Papyrus, Kindle DX, Kindle 2, Kindle 3 Wi-Fi, Amazon Kindle 3 Wi-Fi 3G, eSlick, Reader PRS-700, Reader PRS-505, Digital Reader 1000, Hanlin V5, Amazon Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Hanlin V3, Reader PRS-500, Hanlin V2, ,iLiad, Librié, eClicto with my apologies if I have missed some e-book readers out of this list.

The main difference between a dedicated ebook reader and a PC is that the LCD screens on the readers use e-ink technology which is claimed to make reading easier on your eyes.  This would be necessary as I find that my eyes get very tired and sore after long hours in front of the screen.  I don’t have any type of e-reader to be able to confirm or refute this claim but they all have the technology so it may be correct.

Some publishers are releasing e-books with printed books and some are delaying the release of the ebook or releasing a sample only as an ebook.  Since Project Gutenberg began in around 1971 converting books into .txt files, the early e-book format, there has been an ongoing rush to digitize more books, particularly those in the public domain.  There are organizations which record audio books to add another option to the range of digital as opposed to printed books.

One of the limitations of physical books is their weight.  There is no way you could possibly carry more than 20 hardcover or paperback books any distance but it is a cinch to carry 1,000s of digital e-books, academic and educational electronic paper as study aids and other things.  It is hardly likely that you’ll ever pick up from the university press any bundle of documents with missing pages.

Despite all of that an eBook is still a book and as such I have no problem in claiming that I am a published author even though I self-published an ebook.  You are an author if you have written a book even if it isn’t published, if you self-publish then you are a published author even if no-one else buys or reads your book.

Don’t pooh-pooh the digital book as not being valid, it is increasingly valid and has the added advantage of adding much greater flexibility to the art of writing.  Embedded video, images, interactive content and more expand the horizons of what is possible and available to you.  Can you use this for current events?  Streaming rss feed can keep your ebook current.  What about juvenile nonfiction?  How about working on ways to use this flexibility for the performing arts? Language arts?  I can think of multiple ways of using the rich media capability for all of those.  I’m not sure about true crime stories but I’m sure that some things can be used, video of the crime scene, after clean up of course.  Political science is a wonderful genre for rich applications as is social science.  Imagine something like National Geographic blended with the work of David Attenborough?  Now that’s an ebook I’d love to experience.