eBooks are books in electronic
format. They usually come as downloadable files from online 'bookstores', or
possibly as CD-ROMs, or even as floppy disks. You can read them on the screen of your PC
or lap-top or - sometimes - your Palm (or similar) hand-held computer. There
are also special portable hardware devices designed solely for reading eBooks.
If you do not wish to use any of these devices, you can, of course, print out your e-book
as a single hard-copy document, or perhaps split it into manageable sections, and read it
on the bus or the train as you would a conventional book.
eBook Formats
eBooks come in a number of different formats, each
requiring a specific piece of software to read and display the book, but this need not be
a problem. In some cases the software is free. In others the required software
is simply your existing web browser.
Adobe Acrobat
A popular formats for eBooks is Adobe Acrobat which uses
.pdf files. which have the advantage of being very compact and flexible.
Adobe Acrobat files can be output directly from a Microsoft Word document but are more
usually generated by means of the full Adobe Acrobat software which is much more versatile
but comes at a price - currently in the region of £200. To read an Acrobat
file, you do NOT need the full Adobe Acrobat software. You need only the Acrobat
Reader which you can often find among the free software distributed with PC
magazines. Alternatively you can download it free of charge from the Adobe website.
- Browser-Based Formats
Some eBooks can be read without any special software
other than an up-to-date web browser. In this format, the e-book is downloaded
as an executable file.
When you double-click on the executable, the book
opens in your web browser, giving books in this format the familiarity of web pages - and
many of the advantages. With a live internet connection, your eBook can
provide rapid links to many related sources of information.
Downloading eBooks
Some eBooks are given away free of charge - often as
promotional material. (There are some examples on this site.) Most are sold
like conventional books but usually at a fraction of the price. In addition to the price
benefit, eBooks have many other advantages. Delivery time for downloadable
books is negligible, they are rarely out of stock or out of print, and there are no
delivery charges!
Downloads are usually in the form of compressed files and you may
need a piece of software - usually a shareware program - to uncompress the file. (
This too can be downloaded if necessary.) Full instructions are usually given by the
eBook supplier.
Creating Your Own eBook
And here's another advantage!
If you have written a book, or think you could write one, it is
not difficult to go the extra step and convert the finished manuscript to eBook
format. First you need to choose which format to use. (Some eBooks
are available in several formats, giving the customer a choice, but you may consider
this something of a luxury.)
If you choose the adobe Acrobat format, you can output your eBook
direct from Microsoft Word, or you can buy one of several HTML compilers which will
compress large numbers of HTML pages into a single executable file.
For a browser-based eBook you need to create the
original manuscript as a series of web pages, with tables, images, animations, hyperlinks
and all the other features used in conventional web pages. There are several
proprietary software products that will then compress these pages into a single executable
file which can be transmitted electronically and opened in any suitable web browser.
Some of these products also permit the addition of security features such as embedded
passwords, expiry dates, or computer serial numbers, thus further limiting the scope for
software piracy!
To find out more about creating your very own eBooks
please go HERE.
