you’ve got some very good insights here.

and maybe a few that need small adjustments. :+)

i’m an e-book programmer, and i’d like to
show you some of my tools you might use.

they’re not publicly available quite yet, but
i’d love to work with an author who has the
courage of their convictions to walk away
from a publisher who refuses to do it right.

-bowerbird

I prefer to buy un-restricted formats (such as SF and Fantasy from Baen or Fictionwise) but when I can’t I go for MS Reader format purely because I can then convert it into a format I can read on any device I choose in the program that I prefer (uBook or sometimes Mobipocket.)

When a particular font is necessary (equations for example, or source code in a mono-spaced font), then they should be embedded into the ebook. Some ebook formats allow this, some don’t. Happily, font embedding is required in the new epub format, along with SVG support. This makes epub the best re-flowable format for technical books. PDF does a better job with this, but isn’t reflowable and sucks on small screens.

In many cases, the fact that certain ebook formats can be de-DRM’ed has been the reason that a purchase has been made. If no such format was available, many times a sale was lost to the “darknet”.

It seems clear to me that DRM is not only a hassle for the user, but it is actually sales deterrent and a hinderance to more widespread adoption of ebooks. The other problem is the multitude of formats. Hopefully epub will catch on and help minimize that problem.

I agree that there are still many difficulties to overcome with the myriad of ebook formats and the equal number of reading devices, from PDA to desktop PC. As for ebook formats, there is a new standard format called epub (www.idpf.org) that is starting to catch on with both publishers and readers. Some of the dedicated reading devices (Sony and Cybook) will soon have firmware updates to support this new format.

One minor point: I think “ebooks should be designed to be read onscreen” means less landscape layouts than reflowable content (like HTML). One loses some typographic qualities with the current reflowable content technologies, but it means the content easily adapts to a display of any size with type of any size.

With regard to your comment on screens – remember that many screens rotate, so more and more users will be at least able to read in portrait orientation. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to format ebooks that way, or even websites. I’m writing this on a 1200×1600 monitor, for instance.

I would really like to be able to buy many of the books I will read on my liseuse, but too many publishers are stuck in “just say no” mode. Even with the pirate versions, I often reformat them to suit my reading habits, so the few that are available are often unreadable anyway (I read fast, and I do not like it when much of my reading time is spent waiting for the one second page refresh. It’s bad enough with pbooks where every second page turn takes a second, but when the ebook has half the word count on each page and one second every time… it’s annoying).

Oh, and pricing: often publishers are setting pricing based on the hardback or trade paperback. Presumably on the basis than anyone who will pay $300 for the liseuse will pay a substantial premium for the ebook. Sorry, but I’m comparing their ebook price to the sale paperbacks, because I can’t pass it on to anyone else and thus it has significantly less value to me (I share books with friends and the local library, so typically each new book is read by at least three people). The latest peter hamilton, for instance, I paid $AUS35 for in trade paperback, but will resell it for $20 or so in a weeks time when i have read it. I’m sure the publisher would be reluctant to see me do that with the ebook, even though it’s perfectly legal to do so with the pbook I bought. So to me $12 is a fair price for the ebook.

1) Some .pdb files of fiction that I read on my palm. Each one of them cost me about a 1/2 of the paperback one. They are easy to transport and can be read anywhere. My palm allows me to have around 300 in it. (Great for traveling.) If the iPod Touch or the iPhone allowed this I would be an instant buyer.

2) Many, many scientific articles / chapters of books / thesis in pdf format. Extremely handy. I simply carry more than half of my research library like that: around 5000 pdf files.

3) Some technical books, like most of the Take Control series on Leopard and Tiger. I love their format (links, easiness of reading, etc.; alas not in landscape format) and I often end up printing part of them. (I prefer to read the printed one, but I like the availability of the pdf format on my hard disk.) They cost a fair price, 10 to 15$ for 100 to 150 pages, and they are regularly updated (minor updates are free, major updates have a small fee). I also liked to read the Macworld, but the Zinio DRM format killed it for me.

Another collection that I’m inclined to buy is the one being currently set by Sharon Zardetto at http://33thingsbooks.com/. They look very cool.

If I could pick, I’d like you (and, eventually, your fellow co-author) to write something like this for Wordpress. Another book I’d like to see in this format would be something along the line of “Killer Tips for Leopard” from Scott Kelby — great to read in small doses, from time to time.

Maria Valente’s last blog post..links for 2008-02-27

Beyond the printed book.

Miraz Jordan’s last blog post..TiKouka in bloom