The Advantages of EBook’s and How to Download Them

There has been a lot of talk lately about changes in the publishing industry and the pros and cons of the EBook popularity. Is it just a phase or are they here to stay? Now I admit, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the technology age. As a kid I wrote all my stories long hand, then I moved on to a typewriter…no sweat. But when it came to computers I was horrified at the idea of storing all my babies on a machine that looked like something out of the Twilight Zone. It was my big brother who finally convinced me to give it a try. He brought over an old HP, taught me how to do the email thing and then turned me loose on it. “Trust me, you can’t screw it up.” And he was right, sure it froze up a couple of times, but it never blew up. After a couple of months of playing around with my new toy, I was confident enough to store my babies on it, with back-up disks of course…you know just in case :). Then I got a job in an office where I had to work on one all day and had to learn even more programs, including power point. It’s been an adventure, but not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be…which brings me to the topic of my post…Ebooks. My editor/writing coach is the one who suggested I submit to some ebook pubs. She told me that was where the future of publishing was heading and I should jump onboard. So I did. So far it’s been a great experience. Not only am I saving a few trees, but let’s face it folks, with the way the economy is going people just can’t afford to dish out a lot of money for a book they’ll probably only read once. Ebooks are 30 to 50 percent cheaper than paperbacks. You can store dozens of books on your PDA and carry them with you all the time, or if you have a Kindle or PC you can store 1000’s. You can even read them on your IPhone and Blackberry. Most of your Ebook readers are similar to cell phones in that they’re able to keep a charge for several days to a week, and are about the size of a paperback.

Now the only downside to all of this is not everyone has the new ebook readers and are unsure how to purchase and download my book onto their PC or laptop. So I’m going to try and explain it the best way I can. My book for example is available in Amazon Kindle, Adobe Acrobat, HTML, and Mobipocket. I’m going to use my publisher’s website as an example, but most distributors are the same. Go to the website, click on the buy link. After payment is received and your order is confirmed, you will receive detailed instructions on how to download the book in the format of your choice. Almost all computers come with Adobe Acrobat or it can be downloaded for free from their website. If you chose this option (excellent for PC and laptops) your PDF file can be downloaded and saved to your documents. For example you will be given a link to click on and a box will come up that asks Open or Save As or something similar. Click on the Save As and another box will open and ask where you want to save it. I store all of my downloads in my documents and then move them into a file I’ve designated for all my ebooks. When you’re ready to read it just click on the PDF file and it will open up similar to a book. To enlarge the print just move your cursor to the tool bar at the top of the page and click the + symbol. You can’t do that with a print book :-). If you have one of the readers and don’t know how to download them the distributor usually has detailed instructions and are happy to help you if you have questions or concerns. Also, if you’re low on storage on your laptop you can save your eBooks onto CD-R disks.

I hope this helps those who are still leery of the eBook technology. If you have any questions feel free to email me at: annepatrick07 at yahoo.com