The Future of Ebooks & Readers: By Stephanie Burkhart

It's National "Read an Ebook" week here in the US and I've found several "deals and steals" all week. Check out Rebecca J. Vickery's last post for some great deals for ebook week. You can also visit: http://www.ebookweek.com/index.html

On Monday, I talked a little about the history of ebooks on my blog (http://sgcardin.blogspot.com) along with the growing popularity of ebook readers, starting with Amazon and Sony in the mid-2000's. Let's take a look at the future. What are the best ebook readers? What's the advantage of having an ebook? Are ebooks & readers here to stay?

Since Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, Ebook readers have been on the rise. Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple now offer competitive ebook readers at affordable prices.

In 2009, Amazon's basic ebook reader, the 2^nd generation Kindle sold for $259.00. Now you can get the basic 3^rd generation Kindle model (WiFi only) for $79.00. Kindle now offers several models for various price points to suit every reader. They offer 3G and Fire versions along with bigger screens. In fact, all of the ebook readers companies – Sony, B&N, Kobo, & Apple – offer various models at affordable prices. Every company has their advantages and disadvantages so it really comes to what you want in an ereader and how much you are willing to pay.

Advantages of an ereader:

Affordability

At a practical price, more readers are willing to check an ereader out.

Internet friendly to use

Most people these days have some Internet smarts/savvy. On Amazon, you can buy an ebook with one click and have it sent to your ereader. Sony, Amazon, B&N, and Kobo have made their Internet stores easy to maneuver. Sites such as All Romance Ebooks make it simple to buy an ebook. Programs like Calibre help to convert to the format of ebook you need.

Price Friendly

Ebooks are price friendly.  If you're a savvy shopper, you can find ebooks for free, for 99 cent, and other price friendly points.

Instant Gratification

Ebooks and readers nowadays help to satisfy the "instant gratification" of today's market with their accessibility and easy-to-buy format.

Ebook readers are:

Lighter than books

Saves storage space

They're easy to buy

So, what does the future hold for ebooks/readers? I see the readers continuing to improve. They'll become lighter, faster, and more convenient to carry.

Question for you: I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think the future holds for ebooks and ebook readers?

Author Bio: Stephanie Burkhart is a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. Her latest release is "The Secret Door," Book 4 in the Budapest Moon Series. Her 99 cent story, "Journey of the Heart" is an Amazon Best Seller. She lives in Castaic, CA, has two boys, is addicted to coffee and loves a good piece of chocolate, especially Cadbury Crème Eggs.

Enjoy an ebook. I'm offering my stories, Christmas in Bayeux and A Polish Heart for Free on Smashwords during "Read an Ebook" week.

Christmas in Bayeux: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72100

A Polish Heart: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/164429

If you enjoy the stories, please give it a review. I'd really appreciate it.

Smiles

Steph

Linda Acaster: Ebooks R Us

Back in the days of yore I won a competition and ended up with two historical romances being published by Mills & Boon (Harlequin UK). When I was able I had my rights reverted to me. Better the novels sitting in my drawer than lost in theirs.

Last winter a cross-genre novel Torc of Moonlight finally saw the light of day and Amazon USA opened its DTP e-book publishing arm to non-USA residents. Time, I thought, to dip my toe into indie authoring and ebook my rights-reverted novels, beginning with Hostage of the Heart.

I did masses of research regarding the experience of others, and can recommend The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog, not just for the posts but for the knowledge of its commenters. On a read through, e-publishing for the Kindle I didn’t find easy to understand, but Smashwords helpfully offers idiot’s guides as well as multi-formats, including for the Sony e-Reader and the Apple I-Pad. Both devices need spot-on formatting, and also an ISBN dedicated to the ebook, which Smashwords offers free, so I decided to try my test run there.

Taking care not to include the strapline or page number, I scanned my h/backs to create digital files (the paper used for p/backs carries more wood fibre so confuses the scanner). I then re-edited all the phrasing that I’d now never write due to the improvement in my writing skills. Copyright and Title pages are well explained in the guides, as is the preferred formatting. Ignore this at your peril. You are not formatting for a print book, but for a digital file than can be read on anything from a desktop computer to a mobile phone.

I’m a reader who prefers to see the cover as the first page of an ebook, so added mine at the front of the text file. Of course, updating the cover will mean re-uploading the text file, so you take your choice.

The biggest boon to indie e-authoring is the ability to advertise my other ebooks at the end of the novel. Initially I wrote a paragraph on each of my forthcoming titles complete with live links, but decided as a taster to add in the full initial chapter of my second historical Beneath The Shining Mountains.

After checking every line and comma, I uploaded the file to Smashwords and held my breath. It takes surprisingly little time to convert a file to the requested formats, and watching a series of boxes turn green can be riveting. It is at this stage that any likely problems are flagged by the automated system. With that hurdle passed the ebook joins a queue for a human check before going live on the site.

Smashwords offers a running tally via the author’s ‘dashboard’ not only of sales but of number of downloaded samples, which is a wonderful indicator as to the efficacy of a marketing drive. Although I took all the steps very slowly, I found the experience a piece of cake. Not so uploading for the Kindle.

Armed with my ISBN (which Amazon accepts but doesn’t use, allotting its own ASIN) I forayed into Kindle territory via Amazon’s Digital Text Platform

There are lots of user forums and some Q&A guides, but it could do to be a bit more idiot-proof for first-timers. Amazon’s conversion process isn’t as forgiving as that of Smashwords, but it will take Word files, just the same. After altering the Copyright page and checking formatting against the Kindle’s guidelines, the uploading procedure was straightforward enough. However, at the Preview stage I realised that the automated system was grouping short paragraphs (dialogue) and indenting them as a block – a known problem, I gathered from the forums. For some writers, and readers, this wouldn’t be a problem. I’m finicky and want the presentation as good as by any professional publisher.

There’s an option to download the semi converted HTML file and hand edit, but considering what I know about HTML can be written on the back of a postage stamp, for a 71k word script this was a non-starter. One indie author suggests using Open Office and exporting direct as HTML, which Amazon’s DTP system will accept, so I did, but when I got to the Preview stage with this second file I found that all my centring had been left justified. Argh!!

Which brings up the question: how much time do I spend messing about with these things? As long as it took to contact Jim & Zetta Brown who convert Word files for the e-publishing industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Jim suggested a PRC file was likely to solve the problem. And it did. I shall not mess about for the rest of my books, simply go to him first.

The Kindle version went live last Friday, so the marketing starts now:

Hostage of the Heart - a mediaeval romantic suspense set on the English/Welsh borders in 1066.
When her kin refuse to pay her ransom, dare a battle hostage give her heart and her life to a warrior-knight shielding dark secrets of his own?
Heat level: sweet. 71,000 words. $1.99
For the Kindle  /  For all other formats

To read the opening chapter: http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com/, or download the samples direct from Kindle or Smashwords.

If you haven’t been bored witless, return tomorrow for a laugh about the making of its cover, through the original publisher's branding to my own first effort.

Regards – Linda Acaster
http://www.lindaacaster.com/ / .co.uk