What is an ebook

In today’s fast electronic world, where online shoppers want immediate purchase, one product has quickly surpassed predictions on its popularity – the ebook. But just what is an ebook; why are ebooks now so popular; and how do you use an ebook.

So what is an ebook?

An ebook, or to give it its full title, an electronic book (also sometimes called a digital book) is simply a book-length publication in electronic (digital) format. Rather than being published by a hard-copy printing process on paper, an ebooks text, images, or both are published as an electronic file. These digital ebook files can then be opened and read on computers, laptops, iPad’s, electronic readers (such as the Kindle), smart phones and most PDA’s (personal digital assistant, also known as palmtop computers).   

Why ebooks are so popular

Computers and electronic gadgets are an everyday mundane part of living in the 21^st century. Small children to adults, most of us use electronic gadgets each and every day. Though small and light, these gadgets can hold many different programs and electronic files. In fact, these gadgets now have so much storage that you can literally keep thousands of digital books in your pocket – much easier that trying to carry a library on your back!

Easy storage is not the only reason ebooks are so popular; not only are ebooks much easier to store than printed books, they are often much easier to obtain. Using the same electronic gadgets, we can buy, download and start reading an ebook in seconds - wherever we are, at whatever time of the day.

This may be why Amazon.com now sells more ebooks than it does printed paperback or hardback books, and why the American Publishing Association figures make it easy to estimate that e-book sales will form at least 10% of all book sales by mid 2012.

Ok, so how do you use an ebook?

Nowadays, when you have an ebook file (usually from an internet download), it is simplicity itself to click on the file and read the book from the computer or ebook reader screen. But things were not always quite that simple – and if you have an older type ebook reader, e.g. the Kindle 1, or an older PDA, one thing you have to be aware of is the ebook formats and whether the format can be used by your computer or ebook reader.

Just a couple of years ago the older ebook readers were only able to use specialist ebook formats – and they displayed only black and white text. An example of this is the text-only AZW ebook format used for Kindle 1, or text-only epub ebook format for PDAs. Although both of these formats work well (even on the newer models of Kindle and PDAs), they are rather ‘plain Jane,’ showing just text. This may be fine if you just want to read a novel, but what about reading a book that has photos, drawings or diagrams?

Happily, today most new electronic readers (and of course all computers and laptops) can be loaded with Adobe Reader software. This allows you to open and read PDF files – so you can read books in color with all layout and graphics.

E-books are easy to buy online, easy to set up and use, easy to read; there are many ebook libraries online and you can store hundreds of books on a single computer or electronic reader. Is it any wonder ebook sales continue to rise?

About the Author: Tom Henry is an author who decided to write ebooks so readers can obtain his books wherever they are in the world – just as well really as he mainly writes expat survival guides for people seeking ways to live and work abroad in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.  

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