Frequently asked Questions

1. What are e-books?
2. What do I need to read an eBook?
3. Are all eBook readers and eBooks the same?
4. Is there a common format that everyone uses?
5. Why do some e-books cost more than others?
6. Can I share e-books with others?
7. Can I print an e-book ?
8. Why does it seem the e-book market is so slow to develop?

1. What are e-books?
e-books are complete electronic versions of literature that can be downloaded and read on a computer or laptop, on a dedicated e-book reader, on a handheld computer, on a smartphone, and on other electronic devices. They can even be output on a laser printer and read "ye olde-fashioned way." e-books are considered by many to be the natural next step in publishing, joining books with computers and the electronic age.

2. What do I need to read an e-book ?
You have a lot of choices! First of all, an e-book can be read on any computer with an e-book reader application installed. Most of the popular e-book reader software applications have versions for PCs, Macs and Linux computers.

If you have a PDA or handheld computer, a Palm Pilot, a Blackberry or a smartphone, you can read e-books. Most of the e-book reader applications are expressly designed for these devices, and can be downloaded and installed by you when your device is sync'ed to your PC.

There are a number of popular e-book reading applications (see the e-book software list). MAKE THIS A LINK Most reading software is free to download, but you may have to register the reader to read your e-books.

There are various "dedicated" e-book readers, a piece of hardware that is specifically designed for e-books. Amazon has recently released the Kindle e-book reader, and you may have seen or heard of Sony's e-book reader, now available at many bookstores, and at the Sony store. The Aple iPad has recently been released. Other readers are sold by various companies, and new readers are being introduced regularly. Many brands can be found and purchased online.

Finally, you can read e-books on gadgets that you might not expect... such as iPods and game players! Many devices that have a screen to read text or graphics, and can accept files downloaded from a computer, can read e-books. You just have to look for a reliable source to ask about it, and you might be surprised what you can do!

An excellent list of e-book readers, hardware and software, with comments from users, can be found at Mobileread.com.

3. Are all e-book readers and e-books the same?
No: Each e-book reader is different from the others, and presents e-books in a slightly different way, so you might want to try out a few to see which one you like best. Each reader supports different e-book formats as well, although some readers read multiple formats. You'll also discover that some formats have more book titles available to them than others.

Of course, there's no reason why you can't have more than one software reader on your computer, handheld, or smartphone. Most readers are free, and do not take up much space in your computer or handheld device. e-book software list.

The Mobipocket format has readers available for more devices than almost any other format. The Palm Doc format is an unformatted PDB file that can be read on all Palm devices. eReader, iSilo and Mobipocket each read PDB files formatted for those readers, but they can also read an unformatted PDB file. So if you use multiple readers, you might want to use unformatted PDB files that can be read on multiple readers.

Adobe's PDF format has been a popular universal document format for years... however, many devices display PDF files differently, making a one-size-fits-all PDF file unworkable. PDF files are suitable for all computers, and most dedicated readers, and if the file is a "tagged PDF" it will reflow the text on a smaller screen like on a handheld PC.

4. Is there a common format that everyone uses?
Unfortunately, not yet. Many companies developed their formats independently, and others have tried to create proprietary systems. As a result, there are more e-book formats than anyone wants to count, many of which are only read on a limited number of readers. This can make it difficult to pick the right format for your platform and software, and occasionally a book is only available in a format that is not available to your platform. (This issue is often referred to as the "Tower of e-Babel.")

But hope is on the way: The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has recently developed an open-source format good for most forms of e-books. The Open e-book format, aka EPUB, is being adopted by many of the new e-book readers and reading software, for all platforms, and may eventually become the de facto standard format of e-books.

5. Why do some e-books cost more than others?
e-books represent a new way for publishers to sell books... a very new way. The practice of producing and selling e-books is still in a developmental stage, and the optimum business model has not been finalised yet (and may not be for years to come).

As a result, some publishers sell e-books for about the same price as a paperback novel, while others charge more. Even others sell e-books for a fraction of the paper book cost. Which business model will win out? Only time will tell. But eventually, a business model will become standard for all e-book publishers, and prices will even out amongst them.

6. Can I share e-books with others?
It depends: e-books, being electronic files, are capable of being passed on to other computers and shared. Some eBook sellers, however, use Digital Rights Management (DRM)—combinations of passwords and encryption keys—to allow an eBook to open on only one or two computers, so they cannot be shared. The theory behind this is to maximise profit for the eBook seller, but it also introduces complexity in the eBook selling and usage process, which turns many eBook readers off. Fortunately for consumers, DRM is falling out of favor in other industries, and so it may be abandoned by the publishing industry soon (for more information on the effort to eliminate DRM, visit DefectiveByDesign.org).

7. Can I print an eBook?
In many cases, yes. For printing, PDF files will probably result in the best printed product, but if you can connect your eBook reader to a printer, any eBook format should be printable (as long as it is not encrypted to prevent printing... see No. 6 above).

8. Why does it seem the e-book market is so slow to develop?
Digital publishing is a very different process from print-based publishing... so different, in fact, that many publishers have outright avoided delving into it, for fear (often justified) that it would irrevocably change their business and profit models. Others have explored the market, but have made bad business decisions, including attempts to artificially secure their market with proprietary formats and DRM.

This has created a mess of formats and business models that needs to be cleaned up before e-books can really take off. The widespread adoption of ePub, an open-source e-book format, has started the clean-up process, though resistance from other publishers is slowing progress. Still, many consider that e-books have "gotten over the hump," and that it's all downhill from here.