Create and Sell E-Books Online (Full Version)

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powersitedesign -> Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/3/2004 1:45:38)

I have a client that is a writer and she has written a book and wants me to research the possibilities of selling e-books online. I am not very familiar w/ e-books at all, but was hoping that someone on here has some good suggestions as to what format, etc. I would be needing to put this book into and what software is out there for me to do it with. I already have Adobe Acrobat, but I think that there is another format for Microsoft e-reader or something.

Anyone who have any experience on this?



Techforce -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/5/2004 0:26:51)

Hi CR
Selling E-books online has to be done with some market research. But in recent times E-books are welcomed, they have a better scope in the future. There are a lot of E-book readers in the market. Out of that only one dominates the market. Obviously its Microsoft reader. Remaining are Adobe E-book reader, Hiebook Reader(Korean based), Mobipocket reader, Palm reader. All these readers come with their own Publishers. So it becomes easy for one to publish their content in their choice of format. But the basic fundamental for all the formats except for Palm reader is stylesheet based HTML. Each reader have their own specifications to publish content.

All the Best...



OleTom -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/6/2004 4:33:01)

Hi powersitedesign[:)]

I have sold and given away eBooks if you want to try one here is some software that is FREE click here that you can work it's easy to use and you could upgrade if you wanted too. [8|]



Texjd -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/7/2004 13:28:27)

I've used several programs that have many of the same features, password protection, controlling access, disallow printing, and etc.

But none of the MAC folks can use them since they are all windows programs. I've just gone to PDFs (Adobe) for the simplicity and lot less headaches. If someone wants to steal your content, they're going to do it no matter what you use.

The adobe format works on any platform and is very easy for creating ebooks from almost any source. And you can still put some protective features in the ebook if you want.



powersitedesign -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/7/2004 14:06:27)

Many Thanks. As always this has all been very helpful. I think that we are going to try to offer two versions of her book, one in Microsoft Reader format and also one in Adobe. This should handle the dillemma of compatability and preference for both.

Thanks Alot.



cookcomm -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/7/2004 14:21:12)

Cotton,

E-books are hard to curl up with, so they seem restricted to niche markets like tech writing, etc., where they are fine. For the general market, they have not done as projected. Even Stephen King was vexed with the medium.

As a personal comment... We need to have more respect for book design. Any self-respecting book publisher submits his/her books to a designer before going into print. We techies tend to accept brazenly garish designs, or simply decide a straight conversion from Word to pdf is all that we need. I recommend that we pay more attention to design or we will never appeal to a general audience.[8|]

Thanks,

Bruce Cook
Author-me.com, cookcom.net



powersitedesign -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/7/2004 14:29:46)

Great Point. The author has already commissioned illustrations, graphic work, etc. to another source. My only job is going to be the promotion and sales of her book on her website at this point.

You do bring about a Great Point though, for the most part, e-books are kind of hard to curl up with. I have had a pocket PC for some time and only in weird situations found myself actually reading on it. (airports, doctors offices, etc.) There needs to be a way for the books to seem more inviting. I am sure that once PDA's and PALMS really take off into the mainstream then it will be a huge market.

Thanks.



davids -> RE: Create and Sell E-Books Online (1/7/2004 16:32:23)

One of my clients publishes a series of 23 (non-technical) guides, which they sell online ($14.95). I am the part-time lead technical person for the company. With this experience, I will share some of our learning.

First, there is an important choice of Document Type. Both Microsoft and Adobe are members of the open Ebook Forum. This is meant to be the core standards organization for the eBook format. The site has some information and many links. The open eBook format is based on XML. We are currently looking into converting the guides into this format.

The question of Document Type comes down to the issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the availablility of reader software. As mentioned, you could just save the book in PDF format, which will allow you to password-protect it and control some aspects of it's usage. DRM, such as found in the Adobe and MS eBook formats (not standard PDF), allows you to control much more (printing, copy/paste). The main point is that the book can only be read on the computer to which it was downloaded, which means that people cannot copy it, forward it, resell it, etc.

We started with the Adobe eBook Format. We sell the books on our site, payment processing is handled by an outside company, and then download fulfillment is handled by OverDrive, who have the special server software required to support DRM. I have nothing particularly good to say about OverDrive.

Around July Adobe killed the stand-alone eBook Reader software and merged it into Adobe Reader 6. This is when things started going wrong. Very few people have Adobe Reader 6, and many companies have locked-down their systems to keep people from installing software. Also, Reader 6 does not support Win95, Win98ed1, or MacOS9. So now a good part of the office-user and home-user are locked-out. Our problem incidence rate was around 50% and is now down to "only" 5-10%.

We have not looked into MS Reader and never had a single request for it. I would be very wary of other reader formats, which are proprietary and usually involve an executable. With all the virus trouble, who would run unknown software, especially if it came as a "free eBook".

Different types of books are read differently, and our guides are probably not the kind of book you curl up with. We offered 10 of the best selling guides in a Print-on-Demand (POD) format ($19.95 plus shipping). So far, it has hardly been worth the effort of setting it up. Both US and International sales have favored eBooks. Be wary of POD - it's full of problems.



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