About eBooks
©2003 by W. E. Lopez
Authors
write to communicate ideas to others.
Often, the reason is to inform the reader, amuse the reader, frighten
the reader, build upon the reputation of the writer, or—more often—make money when
the book or story is published. No
matter your reason, you cannot achieve your goal unless others have access to
your deathless prose (or poetry).
Aspiring
writers have always found breaking into the world of print to be a challenging,
if not daunting, task. With the advent
of the Internet, you have the ability to share your work with friends or
discussion groups at little or no cost.
Sharing can provide you with feedback by which you can clarify your
writing, correct typos or punctuation, and most important, improve upon your
style of writing.
The
members of the Oasis Writers’ Guild share your goals, which is why we joined
the guild in the first place. To put our
writing in front of readers, we use our printed quarterly magazine and our
on-line website. Because we do not add
advertising to our print issue, each run is hardly more than a break-even
proposition. Our on-line edition
provides us with statistics which show our work is being read by dozens, even
hundreds of readers in the
How
then can you get your work to a reader?
More importantly, how can you get $$$$ for your efforts?
eBooks
provide the means! eBooks
are generally smaller than the Word document used to create them. Only a text file is smaller if compressed
using a zip utility. An eBook is a
computer file compiled from your written work, whether your work is in HTML,
text, word, or other format. At the
Oasis Writers’ Guild, we have tested and used eBooks in many formats, and while
we generally agree MS Reader is our favorite, we will discuss several others
here and allow you to decide for yourself.
There are several programs for compiling electronic books, but we will
use the generic term ‘eBook’ when referring to electronic books.
·
PDB – eBooks in
PDB format are intended for hand-held readers, making them ideal for commuters
or persons who realize they must spend time waiting for an appointment. They are generally very small in file size,
meaning they can be rapidly downloaded over the Internet and a single PDA can
hold dozens of complete novels for entertainment and relaxation. The software needed to compile a book for PDB
format is inexpensive, and a free reader to open the file is available for PDA
or Desktop. http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/product/reader/browse/pro
·
PDF – Adobe
Acrobat is a popular format for sharing text, whether it is on a website,
Desktop, or hand held device. To create
a document in PDF format requires Acrobat Writer, which is not free. http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html#Readers
·
eBook – The software to create a file in eBook format is
free for the standard version, but an upgrade is needed for additional
features. The file extension for an
eBook is .EXE, meaning it is executable on any PC. Because every eBook file
contains a reader program (adding significantly to the file size), the audience
does not need a reader application on their Desktop. eBooks are not
suitable for hand held devices. http://www.ebookcompiler.com/
·
MS Reader – the
software to create a file for MS Reader is free, and the file size is only
10-20% larger than the same file in PDA format (the smallest we have
found). MS Reader books (which have a
.LIT file extension) can be read with a free desktop reader downloaded from
Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp
At
the Oasis Writers’ Guild, we have experimented with all the above formats. PDB, EXE, and LIT formats will save your
place if you quit in the middle of a chapter and open the story again. We think this is a plus compared to Adobe.
eBooks
for MS Reader are very simple to compile, the file size is relatively small
permitting them to be easily transmitted over the Internet, and are acceptable
to many on-line publishers. You will
find many novels by famous authors available from a large number of on-line
booksellers.
MS
Reader is not compatible with the MAC OS, so your audience will be reduced by
the 7% of computer users’ world wide with Macintosh computers.
For
more information, please contact: