Where to get eBooks

Well, first of all, Merry Christmas.  If you've stumbled across this post on Christmas Day then it's probable that you've been given an eReader or maybe a tablet computer as a present and want to get into the eBook world.

For those of you not convinced that eBooks are a substitute for the printed variety then, for what it's worth, here is my view as a person who has been reading eBooks on a variety of devices for the last couple of years.  So, OK I'm a little bit biased as I sell my own novels as eBooks, but I'm also a consumer of the genre.  You'll have to persevere and try the eBooks out for yourself before you're fully convinced, but in my experience every person who has insisted that they didn't rate reading eBooks over print books had, with one exception, never tried reading eBooks.  Of those who have subsequently tried the eBook thing, they love it.  Sure, there's a tactile element to print books, as well as allergy inducing paper particles, but you try lugging a couple of dozen of books around with you all day long and you'll soon realise there are disadvantages to the paper versions.

But you're reading this because you've opened a package and found a Kindle or a Kobo, maybe a Nook, possibly a Google Nexus 7 or even an Apple iPad in one of the two variant sizes.  Where do you go next?

Well, if the device you have unwrapped is a dedicated eReading device then you are largely limited to the bookstore supporting it for your books - that is, for Amazon Kindle devices look at your local Amazon eStore for books, for Barnes & Noble Nook devices, the B & N store that serves your region and so on.  There is one other legitimate route for you (and the implication that there are illegitimate routes is intended - books can be obtained over the internet through eBay and other sales channels that imply they are free but many of them are illegal copies).  The legitimate alternative is  Smashwords - a US company that lets authors self publish through them non-exclusively and acts as an aggregator, a company that distributes those books to B&N, Kobo, Apple etc.  Not every book on Smashwords is distributed to the other bookstores - that's down to the author choosing whether or not to and then jumping though some technical hoops if they do choose to.  Anyway, Smashwords provides dedicated eReader owners with an alternative source of eBooks.  Downsides are that you'll have to download the correct format (Smashwords makes that very easy for you) onto your computer.  From there you'll have to drag the file onto your eReader by connecting it via a USB cable.  It may sound techno, but it isn't that hard to do.  The other downside to Smashwords  is that it does seem to attract a significant number of 'adult' books, some only a few thousand words long which technically makes them an essay.  You should be able to filter these books out if they're not your bag and by default Smashwords signs you up with a 'prude filter' engaged.

If you have just unwrapped a tablet computer and want to use it for reading eBooks, then your options are better than ever.  Sure, you can use the product store associated with the tablet, if it has one, such as the Apple iBookstore or Amazon store for the Kindle Fire family, as well as the Smashwords option - by the way, if you buy books for an iPad through them then the book pops into the iBookshelf as if it came from Apple.

But the better news is that pretty much all the major eBook sellers have their own eReading apps that you can download for free onto your tablet.  So, if you have just opened a Google Nexus you can download the Amazon Kindle app or the B&N app for it. Same goes for your Apple iPad and any other tablet computer. The one bookstore that doesn't seem to  let you do this is the Apple bookstore - if you don't have an Apple device you don't get access to their bookstore.So the world really is your oyster as this allows you to shop around a little and perhaps find books not listed on your device's bookstore but on someone else's.

Enjoy your new eReading device.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Why not take a look at my books and read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Worried/Interested in the secretive world of DLFs?  Take a look at this website dedicated to DLFs here, if you dare!

How To Judge An Industry By Its Cover

I caught a segment on the BBC programme 'The One Show' on Tuesday about book covers - you may be able to watch the segment on the BBC iPlayer if you are interested.  Like most of the segments on this programme the subject matter was presented well but was ultimately shallow, such is the nature of a magazine style TV programme.

Inevitably the focus was on the conventional book industry and discussed how publishers make us choose their books over others - of course I'm interested as I realise the well entrenched belief that we tend to judge books initially by their covers is essentially true.  And it also reflects how people browse eBooks, I would suggest.  So that made the segment worth the time investment even if ultimately I don't think they actually said anything earth shattering or revealing.

Just as the segment was grinding to a halt the interviewer slipped in a sneaky question to an unsuspecting representative of, I seem to recall, Bloomsbury. The question was about whether all the skill needed to produce a good book cover is going to die off with the advent of eBooks.  Or something like that, it slipped in without any warning and I think it caught the publisher's rep off guard because there wasn't any natural reason for the question to slip in other than curiosity.

Anyway, said representative was duly defensive about the industry that feeds and clothes his family, for some unexplained reason.  After nearly choking on a creme de menthe he spluttered that there will always be books and, after recovering he added that 'they said TV would spell the end of Cinema'.  At that point the interview moved into wrap up and the programme moved on.

I thought he'd made a valid point for a while - to be fair there was some validity in what he'd said - but then I rationalised a bit more.  TV was touted to destroy cinema and in fact it very nearly did - there are whole swathes of the cinema industry that no longer exist.  After a period of decline cinema did reinvent itself - it produced fewer, bigger productions, the like that TV couldn't afford to produce.  So it survived, but it had to change to do so.

So it will be with books.  If we take the unreasonable view that eBook reading technology, effectively tablet computing, stands still then on current trends there will be a few books that will never work well electronically.  But most books are as good in electronic format as in print.  I know there is a sentimentality about books that transcends all the logic about cutting down perfectly healthy trees, logging, pulping, bleaching, printing, binding, shipping and finally remaindering and repulping them, a sentimentality helped by the eBook industry trying to price eBooks as if all the costs associated with real books needed to be applied to eBooks.  Some books, though, benefit from the print format - generally the large format coffee table books that actually few people own many of and even fewer read. However, the technology won't stand still, so even those books will, in time, be good candidates for converting to eBooks.

The other issue with the industry rep's comparison is that TV is arguably a poorer medium compared to film - or at least it was until high definition large screen TVs became affordable.  There still does appear to be an immersive quality to cinema that TV doesn't cut yet, but that differential is being eroded all the time.  There isn't really a comparable differential between print and eBooks - many eReaders and tablets have similar tactile qualities to books and generally those who complain that eReaders and tablets are inferior reading media are not generally found to have tried eReaders.  Once they do, the conversion rate is staggering.

So, do try to catch the segment using iPlayer but don't expect to learn a great deal about book cover design. But if you catch the programme you may learn quite a bit about the print industry fears.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Why not take a look at my books and read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Worried/Interested in the secretive world of DLFs?  Take a look at this website dedicated to DLFs here, if you dare!