The Good Life of Georgia

by Lane Lester

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The short answer is an ebook is like a book in the same way that email is like mail. They all four have words (and sometimes pictures). The primary difference is the way they’re published: mail and books are on paper; email and ebooks are in computer files which can be transmitted across the Internet.

Millions of people in the United States and around the world have email addresses and use them to exchange messages with friends, family, and others. But a much smaller number buy and read ebooks. In fact, the chances are good that you are an email user, but have never seen an ebook.

In recent years I’ve downloaded (gotten from the Internet) a lot of free and commercial ebooks, both fiction and nonfiction on a wide variety of topics. Some books are only available as ebooks, and other books are free if you get the ebook version. Because of the advantage of ebooks, from time to time I’ll be telling you about free ebooks and also ebooks for sale.

A Free Ebook for You

Here’s my first free ebook recommendation for you. It’s a 12-page ebook I wrote, entitled Who Else Wants to Have Their Own Blog… and Make Some Money at the Same Time? and you can download it from this address: http://blogbonanza.biz/YourOwnBlog.pdf

How Do You Read an Ebook?

Almost all ebooks are Adobe Acrobat files and have the extension (the part of the filename after the period) of pdf. Most computers have the free Adobe Reader, a program that allows you to read ebooks on your computer screen. If your computer lacks this program, you can get it by clicking here. However, it’s a very large download, so I prefer the smaller and faster Foxit Reader which you can get by clicking here.

The biggest drawback of an ebook is you have to read it on the screen, instead of being able to carry it wherever you prefer. Many people print their ebooks, and if you have a laser printer (cheap ink), this is an option.

What Else Is Worth Knowing About Ebooks?

Here is what Wikipedia.com has to say about the advantages of ebooks.

Text can be searched automatically, and cross-referenced using hyperlinks. This makes e-books an excellent choice of format for works that benefit from search and cross-reference capabilities, such as dictionaries, reference works, and certain kinds of textbooks.

Less physical space is required to store e-books. Hundreds (or thousands) may be carried together on one device. Approximately 500 average e-books can be stored on one CD (equivalent to several shelves of print books). Because they take up little space, e-books can be offered indefinitely, with no ‘out of print’ date, allowing authors to continue to earn royalties indefinitely (copyright law permitting) and allowing readers to find older works.

Readers who have difficulty reading print books can benefit from the adjustment of text size and font face. Text-to-speech software can be used to automatically convert e-books to audio books. In addition, some e-books devices allow reading in low light or even total darkness, with a back-lit device.

An ebook may be more comfortable for some to hold because it does not need to be held open like a paperback. It can also be set down and read hands-free.

It costs little to reproduce an e-book. Copies can be made instantly and in as great a quantity as desired. This makes it easy to retain backups and difficult to eliminate works once they have been distributed. From the publisher’s point of view, the ease of distributing e-texts means that they can be used to stimulate higher sales of printed copies of books.

With Internet access becoming ubiquitous in industrial nations, the ease of distributing e-books is a considerable advantage. E-books cost little to transfer, and such an operation occurs quickly. Readers can begin reading as soon as the download completes, or sooner, depending on the e-book formats’ capabilities, without the need to visit a bookstore.

Although they require electricity to be read, the production of e-books does not consume the paper, ink, and other resources that are used to produce print books.

Books in electronic form are usually cheaper than same books on paper, and some are free.

An electronic book can be downloaded in seconds or minutes, while sending a paper book takes days or weeks. Some books exist only in electronic form.

Ebooks can in theory be updated wiki-style, thus keeping a record of changes, as well as having the most up to date version.

The Good Life, May 2008, page 3

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