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E-books are:
Books converted to electronic files, as opposed to books printed on paper. They can be read on Desktops and laptops, PDAs and Palm Pilots, and Smartphones. Imagine carrying an entire library of books on a single storage disk!
What can you read an e-book on?
PCs and laptops
"Dedicated" e-book readers
PDAs and Cellphones
Ultra-Mobile
PCs (UMPC)
...in fact, most electronic devices that can read text files can be used to read e-books! If you have questions, e-mail me and I'll be glad to help.
Great Resources:
For more info on e-books, visit:
MobileRead.com
Palm Addict.com
Pocket PC Addict.com
Pocket PC Thoughts.com
Project Gutenberg
Yahoo PDA-ebook group
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In preparation to sell my novels as e-books online, I do a lot of web-based research, including browsing and interacting in discussion forums, studying e-book sites, and searching for articles and information regarding the e-book market and state of the art. The information I gleaned from these sources shaped the site before you, and the final format of the e-books themselves.
Presented here are links to my various sources, articles, and other e-book related information that the e-book aficionado may find interesting. (Note: These links do not provide writing tips.)
Websites:
Mobileread.com (many threads chronicle my research and discussion of e-books here)
Pocket PC Thoughts.com E-book Discussion Forum (another series of e-book discussion threads I participate in)
Palm Addict.com
Pocket PC Addict.com
Yahoo PDA-ebook group
Project Gutenberg: free public domain e-books
Articles:
2001 Chronicle of Higher Education article on e-book development
2004 CNN article on e-book development
Cory Doctorrow's article against Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Article on the marketing and profit models for e-music (provides insight into e-book market as well)
Slashdot article on Stephen King's online e-book experiment "The Plant"
Wired article on Stephen King's online e-book experiment "The Plant"
Guardian article on Stephen King's online e-book experiment "The Plant"
2006 BusinessWeek article on e-books' future
[H]Consumer magazine's article on the transition of magazines from print to the web
Science:
A great deal of the ideas that my novels feature or mention come straight out of today's headlines, research and development, trends and expectations, and my own future prognostication. Two excellent sources of scientific study and development are Scientific American and Popular Science magazines... in many ways two sides of the same coin, when combined they provide a well-balanced amount of cutting-edge science, practical application and future speculation. Many of my opinions were documented through my former personal websites, The Informovojo, and Pinging Steve Jordan.
Fine Print
All original e-books, text, and commentary, unless otherwise specified as to the original source, are copyright Steve Jordan. All rights reserved. SJB banner, e-book icon, and all other web page art, are trademarked to Steve Jordan. All rights reserved. Right Brane ePublications and Right Brane logos are trademarked to Steve Jordan. All rights reserved. Book covers are considered approximations, and are not necessarily the images used in final publication art. All novels written by Steve Jordan are considered acceptable for over-the-counter book sales in the United States. All novels written by Steve Jordan are original works, and not based on the writings of others. Steve Jordan uses publicly-available hardware and software designed and intended for writing and conversion of novels to e-books, and for creation of approximate book covers.
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Many people don't realize how long e-books have been around... and once they find out, they wonder why they've taken so long to develop.
There has been a lot of resistance to e-books, by the public, and by publishers. While many people cannot imagine giving up the experience of reading on paper, publishers are hesitant to give up on a medium they have perfected over the last century, and its existing business model, to replace it with the new and untested medium of electronic books.
E-books, therefore, are still in the developmental stage, and it will take time before a dominant format, delivery system or business model will emerge.
These resources and references may help you to understand the painfully slow developmental history of e-books.
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