There is nothing quite like the first time you open a fresh copy of a printed book. The pages crackle a little, and the smell is somehow soothing, as if you are coming home to an old friend. Times are changing though, and as a writer, you need to be prepared for these coming changes. Electronic versions of published works are now becoming a normal occurrence in the book retail world. The e-book revolution is here, and readers are looking for more books available online.
The concept of putting published books on the Internet is nothing new; it has been around for decades. Founded in 1971, the Project Gutenberg was the first organized group to put books into an electronic form. Their mission was to offer electronic copies of books in the public domain to the general public at little or no cost. Since the Internet boom, they have grown by leaps and bounds, with more than 28,000 books available for download today.
Now, contemporary authors have the option to publish their books in both electronic form and printed form. While many avid readers fought against this change to the digital format and preferred reading books on the computer, some authors took charge and began offering their books in electronic form only. One of the first high-profile authors to take charge this way was Stephen King with his book, Riding the Bullet. Published on March 14, 2000, the book had more than 400,000 confirmed downloads within 24 hours of becoming available online. The demand for King's book became so great that some sites hosting the digital files were overwhelmed, and their servers were inaccessible for hours as a result of the incoming traffic.
The popularity of e-books has only increased since then, and devices used exclusively for downloading and displaying e-books have become widespread. Sony® reported in December 2008 that more than 300,000 units of their e-book reader had been sold since its launch in October 2006. To remain competitive, Amazon.com® came out with their version of the e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle, in November 2007. Within five and a half hours after releasing Kindle on the market, the devices sold out completely. Unprepared for the overwhelming popularity of the device, Amazon was not able to produce more until late April 2008. Amazon has since introduced a second incarnation of the Kindle device to accommodate the increasing needs of their e-book readership.
The security of copyrighted work has always been one of the main concerns for most authors. To date, however, there have only been limited copyright violations in the distribution of e-books, which can be primarily attributed to the comprehensive security measures that e-book retailers take to ensure that material cannot be so easily shared or printed. These security measures, known as digital rights management (DRM for short), are constantly updated, so authors can definitely feel safe entering the e-book generation with the knowledge that their work is protected even in its electronic form.
While most readers still rely heavily on printed books as the main source for literary enjoyment, there is a growing population of readers that use e-readers, phones and computers to access newer publications.
If your goal as a writer is to reach as many readers as possible, publishing a book in both printed and e-book formats is definitely a smart choice, if not a necessity in today's book market. Long story short, e-books are safe, easy, and here to stay.
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Looking for a free e-book publishing solution? Wordclay suggests Smashwords™, which provides an online program to help authors create, publish and sell their e-books. Wordclay also provides a professional e-book formatting service to help prepare and optimize your book for multi-format publishing through Smashwords.
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