2. Why are e-books becoming so popular?
E-books are becoming popular with people who regularly carry around handheld computers and smartphones, because it allows them to bring a book (or, for that matter, an entire library) with them at all times. Dedicated e-book readers, like the iRex Iliad and the Sony Reader, are beginning to garner fans and increased sales on the open market. Also, smartphones and handheld computers are proving to be very popular and effective reading devices, and are spurring the current growth in the e-book market.
Computer users are discovering the ease of storing e-books on their computers, instead of maintaining shelves of books, a great space saver. More and more authors, including best sellers and award winners, are being produced in e-book formats every day.
E-books are flexible and customizable... they can be read on different types of hardware, and adjusted to the needs of the user. Readers can enlarge type, change fonts and background colors, making them very useful for people who have problems reading smaller type or odd fonts.
Best of all, e-books do not require the same production, materials and shipping costs as traditional paper books. Avoiding paper printing is an environmental plus, preserving our forests, and cutting down on greenhouse gasses created during production and disposal, and eliminating fuel use for shipping. All of this also makes e-books cheaper to produce, store, and disseminate.
3. 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 on it. Most of the popular e-book reader software applications have a version for PCs.
If you have a PDA or handheld computer, a Palm Pilot, 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.
Some of the more popular software readers are Adobe Reader (formerly called Acrobat), MS Reader, eReader, Mobipocket, and iSilo, but there are many others. Most readers are free to download, but if you buy encrypted books, you may have to register the reader to read your e-book. (You will not have to do this to read my novels.)
There are various "dedicated" e-book readers, a piece of hardware that is specifically designed to 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.) Hardware readers are sold by various companies, and new readers are 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.
4. Are all e-book readers and e-books the same?
No: Each e-book reader is different than 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. Here are the readers and formats supported by this site (click on one to get its reader):
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eReader (.pdb) |
iSilo (.pdb) |
MobiPocket (.prc) |
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MS Reader (.lit) |
Adobe Reader (.pdf) |
Palm Doc (unformatted pdb) |
The Mobipocket format has readers available for more devices than almost any other format (Mobipocket files can also be read on the Amazon Kindle). 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. 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. The RTF files offered on this site can be opened in applications like Word, adjusted according to your needs, and saved in PDF format ready to be loaded onto your reading device.
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 finalized 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 far 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 e-book sellers, however, use Digital Rights Management (DRM)—combinations of passwords and encryption keys—to allow an e-book to open on only one computer, so it cannot be shared. The theory behind this is to maximize profit for the e-book seller, but it also introduces complexity in the e-book selling and usage process, which turns many e-book readers off. Fortunately, 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).
Steve Jordan's e-books are sold in a form that allows the purchaser to share with others. It is his hope, however, that enough people will be willing to pay the relatively low cost for his e-books that sharing will be kept to a reasonably low level. The idea is for word-of-mouth from satisfied customers to drive others to the web site and buy e-books rather than share them, allowing him to make a reasonable profit from his books (a.k.a. the Right Brane Business Model)
7. Can I print an e-book?
In many cases, yes. For printing, PDF files will probably result in the best printed product, but if you can connect your e-book reader to a printer, any e-book format should be printable (as long as it is not encrypted to prevent printing... see No. 6 above).
All of Steve Jordan's e-books are unencrypted, so feel free to print them as you'd like. You can do anything with your copies but sell them!
8. How do I buy an e-book?
This site uses Paypal to process transactions, allowing you to use a credit card, or transfer funds from your Paypal account. Simply follow the steps outlined by each novel to go to the Purchase page, choose your book in the preferred format, and process your payment through Paypal. Once the payment has been verified, you will receive an e-mail with a link to your e-book.
Unfortunately, Paypal's system doesn't always work on some older browsers or computers. If the purchasing system does not work for you, or if you'd simply prefer not to use it, you can also Contact me and arrange to "snail-mail" a check, money order, or even cash, and provide an e-mail address to send your e-book to.
9. Will I ever be able to buy your books in print?
Well, anything's possible. Although I started this venture to test the e-book waters (not to mention my own sellability), eventually I hope to be able to present my success to a print publisher, to help "get me in the door." If sales go well, and reviews are positive, my books may end up in print.
But to be honest, it doesn't matter to me if they go to print, as much as the fact that they are available to a world market as they are right now. If my novels sell well as e-books, I'll be happy... not only because they are popular, but because I'm selling them with minimum impact on the environment, and in a budget-conscious fashion that still makes me a modest profit. Whether I make it big or not... I believe that this is the publishing model of the future, and I want to see it happen.
10. Okay... just what exactly is a "Right Brane," anyway??
Time for a physics lesson, then:
Modern physics, highly influenced by a fairly new area called "string theory," theorizes that what we see as our universe is actually a projection—a hologram, if you will—of a construct called a "Brane." You can imagine a Brane as being a two-dimensional surface, with infinite length and width, within which our universe exists... like a two-dimensional picture with a holographic image in it.
Scientists also theorize that there may be other Branes, universes similar to ours, that exist parallel to our Brane, and which also project "holograms" of themselves that would theoretically overlap ours. There may be an infinite number of these Branes, in fact, but each one is different in its cosmic frequency, which keeps each Brane invisible to the others, and which keeps us from interacting with another Brane, in the same way that radio stations at different frequencies do not overlap each other.
Some scientists believe that, at some point, entropy brings these Branes together, at which time they swap energy and matter, creating a "Big Bang." (Yes, that Big Bang.) They then move apart again, where they stay apart for billions of years or longer... until entropy brings them back together, and we start all over with another Big Bang.
The Right Brane is a construct of mine... another universe existing at right angles to our own... that represents the universe of the possible, a universe similar to ours, but in which fantastic things happen. And when viewed from the right angle, at the right time and place, we can get a glimpse of that universe of the possible, and revel in its secrets.
How's that?
Other questions or comments? E-mail me.
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