While paper books will never entirely disappear, the introduction of eBooks (electronic books) into the mass market is the future of books and book reading. An eBook can be published in many formats that are supported by various eBook reading devices and software applications.
The most popular reading devices are the Amazon Kindle, Sony eBook Reader and Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the most popular applications are Adobe Reader, Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre and there is even a Kindle app for the iPhone. The most practical formats that suit some or all of the above are PDF, Kindle, MobiBook, Palm Media, ePub and HTML.
In early January 2010 Amazon.com announced that they now allow foreign publishers and authors to publish their work in the Amazon Kindle Book Store via their Digital Text Platform (DTP). Amazon also released the code for the Kindle and invited developers to write apps for the Kindle. This was in response to the highly anticipated Apple iPad launch in late January 2010. By the time the Apple iPad starts shipping in late March, there should be an iPad and several other eBook apps available to run on the Kindle.
This key decision provides foreign, first-time or published authors and publishers access to Amazon’s massive global market and electronic distribution network. In December 2009, the sale of eBooks in Kindle format surpassed that of printed books for the first time. In January 2010, Amazon’s Kindle Store accounted for more than 70 percent of all electronic reader sales and 80 percent of all e-book purchases. There are currently more than 450 000 books available in the Kindle format in Amazon’s Kindle Store.
The Apple iPad is also an eBook reader and its iBook app uses one of the popular eBook publishing formats and fortunately not proprietary software such as the Amazon Kindle. The iPad with its colour widescreen multi-touch display plus the ability to run a Kindle app is set to revolutionise the publishing industry and will rival the Amazon Kindle with its limiting black and white screen.
In the first week of February 2010, Amazon countered Apple's iPad by acquiring Touchco, producer of cheap, full-color, multi-touch panels. Amazon will merge Touchco with its Kindle group and Microsoft marketing veteran Mike Nash is leaving the company to join Amazon, reportedly to work on the new Kindle grasping at the long tail of the Apple iPad. Fortunately the winners in this technology war will ultimately be the authors and publishers.
I can help authors that want to self-publish and publishers with a complete service – from ghost writing, editing, proofreading, dust cover and book interior design, setting, pre-press production, print on demand of small print runs, litho printing of large print runs and publishing in electronic format.
If you have your book in MS Word, PDF, InDesign, Quark, Freehand, HTML or only in hard-copy format, I can convert it into any of the required eBook formats. I can also assist with publishing eBooks on Amazon’s DTP that will appear for sale in the Amazon Kindle Book Store within 72 hours of uploading the Kindle file.
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