Posts Tagged ‘ebooks’

Written by: Kelly Kingman, Guest Author

Last month, Apple sold its one millionth iPad, just 28 days after the device was introduced.The Consumer Electronics Association projects that 5 million eReader units of all stripes will be sold this year, up from 2.2 million in 2009. Apple’s iPad is just one of a dozen new devices on the market. This past January, two dozen companies that either make or deliver material to eReading devices attended the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — the industry showcase of cutting-edge technological gadgets. It was such an increase from the previous year that a special eBook section was created for the first time. The age of the eReader has dawned.

Getting your eBook onto eReaders

From a seller standpoint, you’ll want to know how to convert your content into the most widely accepted formats. As eReaders are really just becoming mainstream, the industry is still sorting out standard formats. Just as when MP3 players arrived on the scene, creators and distributors need to find the technological means to protect their work while allowing users to share across devices and platforms. The result has been a plentitude of eBook formats which potentially complicates the production process. In my opinion, there are only a handful worth worrying about.

PDF

It’s very likely that your product is already in Portable Document Format (PDF). The good news is that PDFs are widely supported by eReaders, though they become awkward on smaller devices like the Kindle (its screen is 4 x 6 inches, the Kindle DX is larger) or a smartphone. The device will shrink a PDF page to fit the available space, which, if the user cannot zoom in, may render the document unreadable.

With the release of OS 4 for iPhone and iPad this summer, PDF-viewing will become native to the iBookstore (basically iTunes for books). The PDF-viewer application will let you upload eBooks you already own to your iPad as well as display the first page as a book on a virtual shelf. This will allow a buyer to easily add eBooks they’ve purchased elsewhere online. Currently available apps like Stanza and Fast PDF allow iPhone users to view PDFs by drag-and-dropping them into iTunes or downloading directly from a URL.

ePUB

ePub is quickly becoming the universal eReader standard format, the only exception to which is the Kindle, which instead uses Amazon’s proprietary AZW format (see below). ePub files are currently supported on: Apple iPad, the Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader and many, many more devices. The Stanza application for iPhone and iPod Touch also reads ePub files.

If you work with a designer, they are likely using Adobe InDesign, which has an ePub export feature. Otherwise, there are numerous open source software options for converting files to the ePub format. Beware when using converters that simply extract text from PDFs, as ePub preserves content but not formatting. The ePub language is very similar to HTML or XHTML and most conversion programs will preserve HTML formatting.

AZW / Mobi

These formats are only worth mentioning because, aside from a plain text file, an AZW or MobiPocket format is one of the few options available for reading an eBook on the Kindle. As with ePub, there are numerous conversion services and software options too numerous to go into here. Amazon provides document conversion using their Digital Text Platform. After conversion, you can take the .azw or .mobi file and distribute it yourself, as part of your total eBook package.

The Bad News for Worksheets, Tables and other Graphics

Because of the fluid nature of a non-PDF eBook (the text re-flows to fit the size of the screen) it’s difficult to preserve specific formatting. The formatting languages do not yet have the ability to resize images and graphics accordingly. Here is a rough list of formatting that is not supported when converting your document into and ePub or AZW format:

• Tabs
• Tables
• Extra returns between paragraphs
• Fonts other than Times New Roman, Garamond and Arial
• Type larger than 14 points
• Columns
• Multiple text or paragraph styles within the body

For a more in-depth look at formatting for non-PDF eBooks, check out the Smashwords Style Guide.

Join the eBook revolution

No doubt in the next few years the process will get a little more streamlined — let’s hope so. But in the meantime, take advantage of every opportunity to get your eBooks in to the hands of your readers, in whatever form that takes.

About the Author

Kelly Kingman helps people take their eBook from idea to reality. She is the author of the Sticky eBook Formula and blogs about creating awesome eBooks at StickyeBooks.com.

Andrew Warner of Mixergy recently conducted an extensive interview with ClickBank’s Director of Marketing, Bob Dunlap. In their discussion, Bob shared strategies he’s observed over the years for successfully creating and selling ClickBank products, particularly ebooks. If you’re thinking about developing a new ClickBank product, or want to know how to increase sales of your existing product, be sure to check out the Mixergy podcast.