iPad, FIRST MUSINGS ON THE NEWEST CREATION FROM APPLE

I have been deluged with emails (spam) about this new gizmo from  Apple and I thought perhaps I should say something about it here.

In common with most reviewers of the iPad (what does that lower case "i" stand for?), I haven't yet had the pleasure of actually holding one in my hands and putting it through its paces, so I have to rely on the acres of loving verbiage (Apple owners) and less loving verbiage (PC owners) that is spreading like some dreadful disease over the net just now.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

My first impression when I saw its specifications was that it is actually a rather wonderful machine, as it appears to have all the capabilities of a real computer, without the size and weight of even a laptop.   However, on further reading I discover that most of the computer functions -surfing and so on, are  somewhat limited in scope, or in several surprising ways absent. (no built in camera, no Flash support, no built in WiFi support, no expansion memory slots and the list goes on and on........)

WE ARE eREADERS HERE, NOT ACTUALLY NECESSARILY COMPUTER USERS.........

Anyhow, our interest here in this machine is whether or not it is a serious contender in the eReader market, and on this I am completely sure it isn't even a starter.  It is too big, you have to use the screen to turn pages, it is a normal backlit computer screen, which as we all know, isn't the same at all as electronic ink, it doesn't support the normal formats for eBooks, but merely all the normal computer formats - doc, txt, pdf and so on. 

And worst of all, its battery will only power it for about 10 hours, and you can bet that in reality it works out at much less.   Whilst this is better than a laptop, it isn't even on the same planet as any eReader currently on the market.

WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE KINDLE?

For some reason all the various comments I have read about this aspect of the iPad compare it to the Kindle, it is very odd how almost all such reviews on computer websites seem to ignore all the other serious competitors to the Kindle and talk as if the Kindle is the only eReader that needs to be taken seriously. 

Doubly odd when you consider that the Kindle locks its users into buying books from Amazon (Only reading Amazons own format), whilst the rest of the vast and growing world of eReaders mostly support multiple formats,and almost all support the ePUB format.

MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

There is a general feeling that the large screen size and the fact that it is in colour will make the iPad an extremely good machine to read magazines and newspapers with.  I find myself in agreement with this thought, since even the kindest soul in the world can't deny that images on most eReaders are a complete disaster still.  

We are back in the early days of computers with their 16 grey tones still.   But I am sure that electronic ink will develop in a reasonable time to give us colour too.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

I think this machine will very rapidly become as important as the iPod and iPhone have become, as it obviously has a large range of perfectly sensible uses for a lot of us, but I agree wholeheartedly with those reviewers who say "Hold tight, wait for the second or third version of the iPad before buying, as by then probably the missers in the current version will have been corrected".   But I don't think it will ever be a serious contender in the eReader market, as it simply isn't an eReader in the general sense of that word, nor can it become one without undergoing a complete redesign.

APPLE'S WEB PAGE FOR THE iPAD:

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If you have managed to actually play with one of these new toys, or have feelings about it, preferably in the context of eReaders, I would be very happy to hear them.   Simply put your thoughts into a comment box, and we can all share them with you.

SOME QUESTIONS AND MUSINGS ON eBOOK READERS BY A SCEPTIC

Introduction:  

I have asked a number of my friends if they would give me their thoughts on eReaders and associated matters. Here is the first of them, in what I hope will be an occasional series of postings.  I shall be interested to hear your reactions to Jolyon's musings. 

My immediate reactions I shall place in the comments form below.

THE MUSINGS OF JOLYON HAVINDEN.

Over the past few months, I have become increasingly aware of the phenomenon  of "electronic books".  Thus far, my knowledge of this subject is patchy in the extreme, consisting mostly of snippets read in newspapers or heard on the radio.  I have to admit that my initial reaction has been skeptical for many reasons, although I am open to persuasion.

I grew up in a house full of books, of all sorts: reference, art books, literature and the classics, poetry, history, school books and so on......

Throughout my life books have been a constant, I have shelves of them all over the house, there are boxes of books over in the barn which I have read and am unlikely to read again, or are not immediately relevant but I cannot bear the notion of getting rid of them.  There is a teetering pile of books beside and underneath my bed, waiting their turn to be read;  as I finish one I turn to this heap to see which one takes my fancy as the next bedtime read.

There is the entire wall of reference books in the dining room, to which the whole family turns when looking for a recipe, trying to complete the Polymath crossword, settle some argument about an obscure historical event, or sometimes just for opening an atlas and daydreaming about some far-off destination to visit one day.

Every fortnight the mobile library calls, and I browse those shelves too, and fill my bag with titles that look interesting or informative.  I hardly dare visit a bookshop in the town - I can't afford it, I have calculated it costs me about 1 British Pound a minute at least!

All these books seem to have a life and substance which is more than just the sum of the ideas and knowledge contained within them.   They have a smell, a feel to them which is impossible to describe to others, but I know that I am not alone in this feeling.

Imagine therefore, the news of an electronic gizmo displaying books in an allegedly readable form has thrown me into some confusion.  The idea that one relatively compact device can carry, for instance, all your holiday reading, and more, is intriguing.   It sounds like the answer to so many prayers, you could be armed with a selection of bedside books, an atlas, a learned treatise on the geology or flora and fauna of the destination, and the addition of the Rough Guide for finding the evening's restaurant of choice.

Then the questions start, and the doubts creep in - what if I drop it in the bath? - what if I lose it, that's  a  whole holiday's reading and information down the tubes? - are all the titles I would want available to load into it? - how does one access all the available writing? - how much space is there on it anyway? - are there only selected titles available?

Then back home, how exactly would this device fit into my pattern of usage of books?   When researching something for work, or just, or just doing the crossword, I am given to having half a dozen books open around me, so that I can refer to them as required.   How would that work with an electronic reader?   Surely propped up in bed at night, it wouldn't feel like a proper book?

These and other questions have floated through my consciousness of late, usually prompted by something I have read or heard, and thus far remain mostly unanswered.   I will no doubt have to begin to address them;  I am not averse to gadgets and technology per se,  but I think it takes me a little while to get used to the idea of things, and then once converted, I am an eager convert.   However, I do have one admission to make, I do not generally like to read things from a screen, and will print out a long email so that I can read it "properly, on paper".

The other killer question is this; when I  visit other people's homes, I do look at their bookshelves, I note mutual interests and enthusiasms, I can discuss things and compare notes with them on the basis of what I see on their shelves - if all I can see is a shiny piece of electronic wizardry, surely these people will remain, well a "closed book" to me?

Oh dear, there's nothing else for it, I am going to have to find out more about these infernal things, and see if my questions can be answered..............

SOLAR CHARGER FOR YOUR eREADER

One of the main joys of an eReader is that it allows you to carry enough books around with you to keep you happily in reading matter when you are traveling, without having to cart a whole case full of heavy paper books with you.

Whilst the batteries in most eReaders can keep your friendly eReader going for days on end, inevitably there comes a time when the thing runs out of juice.  This has been known to bring fervent readers such as myself to the brink of suicide!

If you are traveling with your laptop, or have a direct charger for your eReader and are staying with friends or in hotels, this isn't really a problem as you can simply charge it up using mains electricity.  However, if you are like me, and tend to wander around the less organised parts of the world and sleep in tents or some other non-electric place, sooner or later you will find yourself with a problem (the same applies to your laptop, of course).  Do not fear, there is a simple and rather wonderful solution to this problem.

Solar  and mobile battery chargers!!

There are a number of these handy little gadgets on the market, but there is one company who have really thought it through and come up with a  whole range of  interrelated solar  and battery chargers that can help your laptop, your mobile phone, your eReader and any other smallish piece of electronic equipment you are carting around with you as you travel.

This is the range of chargers that are made by an innovative British company called Portable Power, whose range of products glory in the most unlikely names - Power Monkey, Power Gorilla and such like.

The models that are of interest to us are mostly inter-linkable too, so one can start with the cheapest and sort of work one's way up to the top model, as you will see as this post goes along.

So, here they are, the entire menagerie of solar and battery chargers that will perhaps interest you.

I shall start with the cheapest model which is capable of recharging not only your eReader, but also your laptop and all your electronic gear when away from base.

MINIGORILLA:

This little gadget is really nothing more than a spare battery, which you can recharge  (either from mains electricity or by means of a car cigarette lighter type plug whilst in a car or with their solar charger, more of which below).  As you see in the picture, it can either recharge your laptop battery, or be used to run your laptop as it can deliver a wide range of voltages, specifically:-

• 8.4 Volts
• 9.5 Volts
• 10.5 Volts
• 12 Volts
• 19 Volts

The capacity of the batteries is 9000 Ampere Hours, so it will keep things going  for quite a long time.

PRICE, ABOUT 100 BRITISH POUNDS.

However, this little fellow, though useful, will only recharge your eReader about once I reckon, so it isn't enough if you are going really into the bush for a long time.   Then you need the following model to make yourself truly independent of civilization.

THE SOLAR GORILLA:

This wonderful creature is capable of directly running all manner of electronic equipment - laptops and so forth, but what is more important here, is that it can either be used to recharge your Minigorilla or be connected to your eReader and recharge it for you while you sit and contemplate the wondertul view from your tent as it does so.

It comes with a bewildering range of little plugs, so it should be capable of being connected to just about any piece of equipment you have with you, and should you have something that needs a different plug, then they seem to be good at supplying you with a plug that will fit.

In spite of its name - the solar bit - you don't actually need to have strong direct sunlight to make this small gorilla work, it uses the Ultra-Violet in sunlight which is always present, even on cloudy days, though obviously it works better in strong direct sunlight.

Obviously you can use it to charge any of the other rechargeable battery units they make.  Their website is very informative on this subject, and well worth a visit to snuffle around to see if any other products of theirs are of interest to you.

Price:  Around 140 British Pounds.

WHERE CAN YOU BUY THEM?

You can buy the entire range directly from the company itself, or from Amazon, who also sell them.

SHARE WITH US:

If you have used any of their products, and have thoughts about them, please let me know and I shall publish them.  Equally, if you have come across any other similar gadgets, do let us know about them too, and what you think about them, so we can spread the good word.

Source: Powertraveller.

ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR eREADER - OCCASIONAL SERIES - COVERS AND CASES

There is a bewildering range of accessories that you can buy for your eReader online, so I thought I should have a snuffle around and collect as wide a range of them and their suppliers for you as I could and post them in an occasional series of reviews and links.

I shall concentrate on companies who make their own accessories as the ones supplied by the makers of eReaders are obviously sold by the same sites and shops who will sell you the eReader, and thus easy to find.

This is a post which will grow over time as I add covers and bags that I come across in my wanderings through the net.

COVERS AND CASES:

Even if you have a cover for your eReader, it can still get very dirty and scuffed if it lives for a lot of its life (as mine does) at the bottom of a rucksack or similar, so some sort of custom made closed case is perhaps not too much of a luxury to protect your expensive eReader.  Of course you could simply wrap it in a small plastic bag, but the things I shall now be looking at are rather more fun.

To get to the companies below, simply click  on the company name, they are links to them.

INCIPIO:

These people make a range of bags in bright and cheerful colours for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and  Sony eReaders.  They are made from tough materials and there are basically two types, the first being simply a made to measure bag for your eReader, the second having a transparent front, so you can use your eReader while it is in its bag - probably useful if you want to read in the rain.

price: about 30 US Dollars

PLAYCOM:

Playcom have a wide range of eReader accessories on offer, including several cases with transparent fronts, so once again you can use your eReader in its case. They seem to only have cases and other accessories for Sony products, but they sell a good wide range of these things.

price: about 26 British Pounds

 M-EDGE:

This is a truly extraordinary case for the smaller Kindles from Amazon, it is completely water-proof (to 1 meter) and is so constructed that you can happily read your Kindle while swimming.  Apparently you can even read it in the water "hands free" as it floats upright.  It is a rather beautiful object in itself and comes in a cheerful range of colours.

It is also unsinkable (more so than the Titanic I hope!) as it has three built in buoyancy chambers.

Fun thing for he who has everything.

price: not yet known as it will become available this coming Spring.

  
 

M-EDGE

They also make a range of very solid covers for the 6" Kindle eReaders, these are more like wallets as they have a closing flap.  I can do no better than to quote from their website here.

• Precision construction and craftsmanship make the genuine patent leather Icon jacket a must have for on-the-go Kindle readers who don't want to sacrifice style for functionality.
• The jacket's interior is made of lush grey microsuede and includes a side pocket for storage of papers as well as a smaller business card pocket and pen loop. A detachable wristlet strap allows for easy and stylish on-the-go carrying.
• Kindle is held in place via a sturdy four-point mounting system made of the exterior patent leather. The front flap closes securely as well as folds back for easy reading via a hidden magnetic closure.
• Compatible with M-Edge's e-Luminator2 booklight (sold separately)

         price around 35 US Dollars

Source M-EDGE:

 

PROPORTA

 Proporta produce among other eReader accessories, a range of cover/bags which will fit most eReaders which are quite impressive.   As with the M-EDGE products, I shall quote from their website, as they give a good and concise description of their products there.

Their description of this product:

Handcrafted from the finest quality faux leather, the beautiful Leather Style Universal Reader Case is designed to work with a range of eReaders measuring up to 134mm x 190mm x 18mm. The luxury lining will keep your device cocooned away from all the nasty little surprises that life has in store, and the button fastener prevents accidental opening. Finished with a striking green lining and a diagonal stripe with contrast overstitching, this case is as stylish as it is robust, and even has a special pocket for holding spare memory cards.

price: about 15 British Pounds.

 

Source: Proporta

EREADER CASE COM 

These people make a range of covers and bags that will fit a variety of eReaders and they come in a cheerful range of colours too, which I like.

Basically they have bags to keep your eReader clean and unscratched while it is knocking around in the bottom of your bag or under the sofa in you house.  These are simply cloth bags, which you zip open and shut.  They also have a zipped pocket on the outside to keep papers and possibly a slim pen or two, handy I feel.

Their eReader covers are impressive looking bits of kit, which seem to be adjustable to fit a wide range of eReaders, and have a pocket on the inside in which one can store papers... money for the bus and so on.

Another rather pleasing range they have are slip on covers for eReaders.   These are simply fabric or neoprene bags with draw string closing, into which you stuff your eReader.  These come in an amazing range of technicolor tints and patterns, quite overwhelmingly colourful.... but fun!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

 

They have gone yet another step, which I will report upon, even though it doesn't come under the heading of this post...... They offer brightly patterned decals (transfers for the English) to stick onto your eReader, simply to cheer it up....  Nice idea.

prices vary from about 10 US Dollars too 40 US Dollars, and they can all be bought at Amazon.

Well, this is a start, I shall be coming back to this post regularly and updating it as I come across other covers for our eReaders, so return and keep an eye on this post, it will grow!!!!!!! 

SHARE WITH US:
If you have come across a company who produce and sell  any accessories for eReaders, please do contact me so we can let the rest of the world know about your discovery.

ARE THERE ANY PROBLEMS WITH AIR TRAVEL WITH AN eREADER?

I have come across quite a few posts on various eReader sites in which people inquire about possible problems traveling by air with their eReaders.  Given the almost lunatic level of "security" involved with air travel these days, this seems a perfectly reasonable concern.

As someone who travels regularly and far by air, and given that one of the main reasons I bought my eReader was precisely because I spend so many hours in planes, waiting for flights or standing in the endless queues to be searched for such lethal things as bottles of water, nail scissors, cough medicine and so on, I have taken my eReader through many security checks in many countries, and so far I have had absolutely no problem doing so.

Whilst I always take my laptop out of my bag, as instructed, I have never bothered to do the same with my eReader, and have only once been asked to take it out and show it  to one of the security guys, who was perfectly happy about it once he had seen it.

Also the X-ray machines don't wipe all my books from the eReader, so no worries on that account.

The whole business is obviously a nonsense though.  If you stop and think for a minute, one could so easily build all manner of offensive weapons into a laptop, and just as easily into an eReader.   Or even a pair of socks at a stretch.

But I shan't begin on this topic, as I am apt to go on too much once started on the subject of security and air travel, and this is a blog about books, not air travel and its expensive miseries.  I will only say in passing, that I wish I had bought shares in airport security things a few years ago... I would be rich now!

So, don't worry, take your eReader with you when you travel by air, and relax into it, knowing that it will help you remain sane and calm through the whole horrid experience.

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If you have experienced any problems when traveling with your eReader however, do let us know, as it could be a matter of real concern to us all should it become a problem.

A COUPLE OF HOME MADE COVERS FOR YOUR eREADER

I know that almost every eReader manufacturer can supply you with a cover for your eReader, and most of those I have seen have been tough, business like things, and are highly to be recommended,  but they almost all suffer from being very dull, mostly made from leather or plastic pretending to be leather, and come in a range of wonderfully sombre colours - black, brown, grey and so on. They also all look like they contain an expensive bit of electronic equipment, and are thus very attractive to thieves.  Sitting happily on the terrace of your local Starbucks, enjoying a cup of good coffee, your eReader looks well worth stealing to your average street crook, who in some parts of the world are all too common - a case in point is Cebu City, in the Philippines where I live. I have known them to steal bags from under the table we were sitting  at in a restaurant without us noticing the theft until we got up to leave.

My wife, who has her own eReader has been pondering on these points and come up with a couple of  rather neat, and fun solutions to them, and has asked me to post them for her, so here goes.......

For those who live in Britain, this will all be highly reminiscent of Blue Peter, a very popular children's TV program that always shows you how to make something using old plastic bottles and such like, so for them,...............  Here is one I made earlier.............

SIMPLE FABRIC COVER:

Materials needed:

• Cheerful fabric of your choice
• Needle and thread
• eReader in its  normal cover

The idea here is to simply make a loose cover for your eReader with the fabric you have chosen. It seems to me to be so obvious how to make this, that I don't really need to write a step by step set of instructions here, if you can thread a needle you will be able to work out how to make this one by yourself I feel.

Once you have made it, your eReader will be personalised and very much more cheerful looking, and as an added bonus, not quite so obviously a piece of expensive electronic equipment.

PAPER/CARD COVER: RECYCLING YOUR FAVORITE BOOK COVER:

Materials and tools needed:

• Sharp craft knife
• Book-binder's tape (or similar strong fabric)
• Glue to glue tape to cover
• Your eReader in its cover
• Cover from an old book, a bit larger all round than the cover for your eReader
  

How to make it: 

1. Take the paper cover that you have found and lay  it open on the table (see picture 1)
   
2. Lay your eReader in its own cover, open on the paper cover (see picture 2)
   
3. Fold paper cover flaps over your eReader as if you were placing the paper cover on it (see picture 3)
4. Now cut Book-binder's tape to correct width and length to place along top and bottom of paper cover (see picture 4)
5. Glue the tape in place
6. When the glue is dry, close book, and it is done!  (see picture 5)

Picture 1

 

Picture 2

 

Picture 3

 

Picture 4

Picture 5

Should the cover you have chosen be too floppy, you could add a couple of pieces of stiff card to the inside of the cover to strengthen it of course.

Now you  have a something that when closed, looks like a perfectly normal book, and thus of no real interest to possible thieves, and as a small added bonus, it feels like a real book when you hold it - the lack of this feeling is something that a lot of people have given as a reason not to want anything to do with eReaders I have noticed.

SHARE WITH US:

If anyone of you gets carried away and actually makes one of these covers, please send us pictures of them, so that I can post them here for others to admire.  You will of course be credited with the pictures and any pointers you have for making the covers.

Further, if anyone has any other ideas for making eReaders more attractive and personal, do let me know.

BOOKEEN OPUS eREADER - REVIEW

Click on image to enlarge it

This latest eReader from the French company who were among the first to produce an eReader lives up to their reputation for innovation and style (they are French after all!!!) and glories in the name of  Bookeen Opus.

This new eReader has been received with generally positive reactions from users and other reviewers and appears to be a solid and worthy successor of earlier models from this company I am happy to be able to report.

FORMATS:

As with most good eReaders this newest one supports all the normal formats,  so you can buy books from hundreds of online eBook shops and happily read them with this eReader.  I shall give the technical specifications at the end of this post, as always.

SIMPLICITY AND PRICE:

This is a very basic eReader, so it will not appeal to those of you who need all manner of special functions obviously, but for people who simply want to be able to carry a lot of books around with them and read them in comfort, then this is a very interesting machine.  And as an added attraction the price is also perfectly reasonable and in line with other eReaders of similar specs at around 250 US Dollars

EXTRAS:

Going a bit against the trend, they haven't included WiFi support to download books or given it a touch screen and keyboard, thus you cant make notations or in any other way do much more than simply read your books.  But, transferring your downloaded books from your computer to this eReader is a very simple matter,  via the USB cable.  The same method is used for charging the battery, which is amazingly efficient by the way - you can go on reading for about 8000 page turns, which makes it a bit like a small moped rather than a Harley Davidson motorbike... very efficient fuel use thus.

COMPANY BLOG:

As you will see, if you visit their blog, which is in English and French they are continuously busy with updates for the operating system, increasing the possibilities at your finger tips.  This is an approach I appreciate a lot, not only is it fun to know that, for example you can read comics on it, but that they have taken the trouble to keep in touch with their customers in this way, as well as a free newsletter that one can subscribe to in order to keep completely up to date with developments.

MEMORY:

As is now almost standard on eReaders, it has the normal compliment of memory expansion slots, to enable you to use memory cards, so that if you wish, you can carry thousands of books around with you at all times, though to be honest, I have never really understood why anyone would want to carry so many books around with them. I find having 70 or so books in mine more than enough, and regularly clear them off my eReader and store them on my computer.... but we all have our needs and having the possibility to carry a complete library around is obviously important to lots of people.

SIZE AND WEIGHT:

The size and weight of this one is something that has attracted a lot of very positive comment out there, most people feel that it is an ideal compromise in those respects, and love it for them, also attracting positive comments is the relative simplicity of navigating around your library in this eReader.

It is simply a very good and user friendly eReader, well supported by a lively and friendly company, no more and no less.

Now for all the technical stuff and contact links to them.

PRICE:

Around 250 US Dollars. 

CONTACT THEM:
Bookeen Blog:
Company website:
Bookeen eBook Store

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Dimensions

Height 151 mm - 6"
Length 108 mm - 4.2"
Width 10mm - 0.4"
Weight 150 g - 5.3 oz

Electronics

Samsung ARM, 400 MHz

Memory

• RAM : 32 MBStorage 
• (NAND): 1 GB
• Storage card : Micro SD

User interface

G-sensor for motion detection :
automatic screen orientation

Keys

• On/Off
• Reset
• 5-way navigation
• Menu button
• Back button
• Page forward/page backward

Display

• E-Ink screen 5" (3" x 4" - 76mm x 101mm)Resolution 600 x 800 - 200 dpi 
• Black & White 4 levels grey-scale
• Daylight readable
• Portrait and landscape mode
• Memory interfaces

• Micro SD slot
• Mini USB slave

Power

Rechargeable and replaceable Internal Battery LI-Polymer (1000mAh), 8 000 page flips - 2 weeks battery life

Software Suite

• OS : Linux 2.6
• Adobe® ePUB/PDF Reader
• Multi-format reader
  HTML, TXT, JPG, GIF, PNG
• Bouton Retour
• Folder support
• USB driver

SHARE WITH US:
If you have one of these eReaders, and have any comments about it that you would like to share with the rest of us, please send them to me, and I shall post them.  As always I shall credit you with the post, of course!



.

FORUMS FOR WRITERS OF eBOOKS TO MEET AND TALK

I thought it would be useful to have a hunt around the net to see what forums might be out there for writers of eBooks to meet and discuss things related to online publishing and allied matters.

So, full of hope off  I went onto Google to see what I could find.....................

What I found were no end of sites that were primarily set up to sell particular services (editing and marketing your books) or specific software that was designed to help you get your books into suitable form to be uploaded to eBook sites, but remarkably few forums where you could meet other authors and discuss the specific problems of this form of publishing.  Also, to add to my unhappiness, most of the forums I did find that sounded interesting were more or less moribund and the last posts being dated 2006 or even earlier!

To say I am surprised at this lack, would be to put it mildly, as there are lively forums out there for just about any human activity you could imagine!  Anyone interested in a  forum for ant breeding?

I shall shortly be moving this Blog to a Word Press version, (to be called eBookanoid) and shall definitely include a forum in it, as there is obviously room for a lively forum for us all to meet and discuss matters of mutual interest.

However, I did manage to find a couple that seemed lively and relevant and not too burdened with advertisements, and I shall put links to these at the end of this post.

Most of the more or less reasonable ones I came across seemed to be arranged more in the form of comments with longish threads rather than the normal forum format of listing the posts by title and subject, with all the replies attached so you can simply open a thread and follow it.  Clumsy, but manageable, I suppose.

Should you be hunting for technical forums, all about software for online publishing or the legal side of it all, that you will find OK.

Obviously writing an eBook is exactly the same as writing any other book, it only changes when you set about making an eBook out of it, so I suppose the lack of eBook writing specific forums is not totally unexpected and obviously there are oodles of forums for "ordinary" writers to meet and talk - the better ones of  these I shall shortly be looking at and reporting back on for your interest.

So, sadly I have to report that my hunt was pretty fruitless.

Anyhow, here are links to a few that did seem more or less likely to interest and be of help to you good folk.

LINKS:

Techarena:

eBook Snips:

eBook Friends:

Teleread:

SHARE WITH US:

Obviously, if any of you know of a good forum that is specifically set up for eBook writers, do let us know about it, or even send me a review of it for me to post here (of course, as always, I shall credit you with writing it).

PUBLISH YOUR MASTERPIECE ONLINE: SUNDRY PONDERINGS ON THIS TOPIC

One of the joys and possibilities of the internet is to publish your own books online.  Currently there are a multitude of sites where you can upload your masterpieces and either allow people to download them for free, or even earn money with them. Or you could start your own Blog and publish your books there.

But, first you need to write the book!

The simplest way to do this is to sit down and hammer away at the keys in a program such as Word and work on it until it is ready to be published.

In this post I shall simply give an oversight of the things you will need to consider if you wish to publish your own  book on line, and not go into too much technical detail, that comes later.

Having said that, a certain amount of technical stuff has to be looked at, so now begins the technical fun.

Documents saved in programs such as Word can't be placed on the web, except as down-loadable files, and simply wont work on most eReaders, so you will have to convert your book to one or more file formats that are supported by eReaders.

You could simply convert your book to an HTML, XHTML or TXT format, and post them as ZIP files (see below for links to ways of doing this).  These will be internet friendly, and potential readers can convert them (using programs such as Calibre) to whichever format their particular eReader uses.  But a more reader friendly thing to do is to place your book online in a number of formats that are used by eReaders, thus saving your potential readers the hassle of converting your book themselves.

This is especially important if you are planning to place your book on your own site or if the file is enormous, with many illustrations for example.

Many of the sites that allow you to upload your book will convert your book to a suitable eReader format for you of course, but it is useful to know how to convert your book from a .DOC format to .ePUB, for example, if for no other reason than to be able to check how it looks on an eReader before launching it on the world.

For the more technical of you, a good place to find a step by step account of how to go about this is the site run by Jet Saber (Obviously a Star Wars fan!) in which he discusses various ways of going about this (click here to visit his site).

There are also sites out there who will convert your HTML files to ePUB and check them for you, see below for links to such places.

The world of online publishing is complex, as you need to consider all manner of things, such as protecting your copyright, locking your book so the text can't be altered, how to go about marketing your book, should you give it a pretty cover, place images in the body of the text and so on, all considerations that you will need to think about carefully.

I shall be writing posts about all these matters, one by one as I go along, since they are important things to know about and you will need to make the correct decisions on all of them in order to make your published book look and feel the way you want it to. So keep coming back, or use the Atom feed below to see these posts as they happen.

To start you off, here are a number of useful links I have found out there that will help, links to software, online publishers, tutorials and so on.
Obviously this list is only a fraction of the available online resources you can find, but it will give you a start, and I hope, save you wasting good writing time as well.

Have fun!   Writing is a real pleasure.

SOFTWARE:

Calibre 
Already reviewed here, click here.

Adobe InDesign
Very expensive, but it does it all. 
Book Glutton
A company who can do the conversions for you and who provide the software needed to get it into a form they can use.

Stanza
A rather intriguing site who offer software that enables you to make your book readable on iPods among other things.
Editplus
Text editor, HTML editor, PHP editor and Java editor
Dream Weaver:
The Grand Daddy of them all, but not cheap!!!!


SITES THAT YOU CAN UPLOAD YOUR BOOKS TO:
Smashwords

See review of this site here (link) 

eBook Cross roads

Directory of eBook publishers 

SHARE WITH US:

The above stuff is obviously only the tip of a very big iceberg, so I shall be adding to it as I find new and interesting things, but, you can also help out here, if you have a favourite piece of software you use in preparing your books for ePublication, or know of an amazing site that helps, or provides tools for writers, please do let me know, and I shall add what you tell us to this blog, and of course, credit you with the information too.

 


 

THE BEARD - A SORT OF REVIEW

As I promised in my post about Smashwords, once I had downloaded a book from them I would write a review of it, to give you a small idea of the sort of books you might come across there, well here is the first one......

THE BEARD, by Andersen  Prunty

This is a truly extraordinary book, a sort of collision between a Surrealist writer such as Jacques Prevert and writers such as John Bunyon or Dante.

Mr Prunty is the author of a number of other books, apparently all much in the same vein; books such as The overwhelming urge, Jack and Mr Grin, which can be purchased from Amazon, among other places as hard copy or eBooks.

The synopsis on the website doesn't really do this book justice, and I quote:

"Seven-year-old David Glum watches as his grandfather is abducted by a legendary herd of elephants. Twenty years later, David returns to his parents' home to focus on growing a beard, a goal he feels sure he can accomplish. Hilarity ensues."

The book starts in a reasonably calm way, with a rather touching description of a young boy and his relationship with his Grandfather, and nothing much about the first couple of pages gives one any reason to expect anything especially strange to happen in this book - to be honest, reading this chapter I began to think that perhaps my more or less random choice of a book had been a bad one.  That is until the above mentioned elephants put in their appearance.

From that moment on, things became stranger and stranger by the minute.  I shan't describe anything more of the plot, as this would take away the genuine pleasure that you will experience should you read this book - well, I hope you will experience pleasure reading it, I did.

Basically it is a tale of an anabasis,  a voyage of self discovery and a very wry commentary on the world we live in.  Also, it is an extremely enjoyable book to read.  The further into it I got, the less easy I found it to put  it down and get on with other things. It completely captivated me; all the various - and extremely strange - characters are surprisingly sympathetic and (this is a real achievement on Mr Prunty's part) believable.  As is the wildly off-beat world they all inhabit.

As you can probably see, I was extremely happy that I had stumbled across this book, and have no hesitation in recommending it to you.

For me this is one of the great joys of free online books, I can risk experimenting with books and authors I know nothing about, and I frequently stumble over real treasures in this manner. Another powerful argument for owning an eReader, no?

SHARE WITH US

If you also read this book, or even if you happen to be the author, I would be very pleased if you would let us know what you thought of it.  Should you be Mr.Prunty, I would be intrigued to know how this very curious book came about.

Now for the technical stuff about this book:

Anderson Prunty's website:  click here

You can download it here, and it is free too!!

SUPPORTED FORMATS

Online reading: HTML

Online reading Java Script

DOWNLOAD FORMATS

Kindle:   .MOBI

ePUB

PDF

RTF (readable in most word processors)

LRF

Palm Doc PDB for Palm reading devices

TXT

eBOOK READER DISCOUNTER - AN ONLINE SHOP THAT WILL DELIVER eREADERS TO THE WHOLE WORLD

In my wanderings I have come across an on-line shop that is happy to send eReaders to anywhere in the world.  Always an interesting plus point in my experience.

This site, based in Amsterdam, but with contact addresses in various other European countries and the US too, offers a wide range of eReader models for immediate shipping to anywhere in the world and their charges for shipping the eReaders are very reasonable too.

I shall put the various models and their links later in this small post, so you can get directly to the page there that relates to the model you are interested in.

ACCESSORIES

Apart from the actual eReaders, they also stock an enormous range of accessories for the various eReaders, so you can happily deck your eReader out with covers, lights and probably even water proof covers that would enable you to read whilst scuba diving..... anything is possible after all!

PAYMENT

Payment couldn't be easier here as they seem to accept just about every payment method one can imagine, about the only form of payment they wont accept would be sending a small boy there with your money stuck on a split stick... come to think of it, they would probably cope with that too, with the utmost urbanity.

NAVIGATING THE SITE
 

Click on image to enlarge it

As you can probably see,navigation is simple on this site as well, not something that can be said of all such places, here there are clear links to every product they have, and it all looks friendly and approachable.

Finally, a real plus point for me, is that they actually answer emails, and not with some some sort of ready made reply form, but with an actual personal email from a real person, so one knows one is actually dealing with human beings.  Such a refreshing change from the normal impersonal communications one normally gets from on-line shops.

So, that is a brief description of what these good folk have to offer us, now  follows the promised collection of links to the various parts of this excellent site.   Go there and have a happy wallow around in the store, you will surely find what you are looking for there.

LINKS:

The shop itself:

BeBook

Bookeen

Onyx

Cool-er

Hanvon

iRex

iRiver

A LIST OF ALL THE eREADERS OUT THERE THAT I CAN FIND

As there are already dozens of different eReaders being made by loads of companies, I thought perhaps a list of all of them (or at least, all that I can find) might be helpful to you.  At the very least, it will give you a good broad selection to choose from, and surely a number of them can be purchased either online or in shops wherever you happen to live in the world.

I shall list them in no particular order, give a link to the manufacturer and model (if there is an apart link to the model) of each eReader, so that you can easily surf around and get the more specific information you will need in order to make your choice.   Thus this will be a post of links, and no comments about the qualities - or otherwise - of the various eReader.

In due time I shall be contemplating all of these eReaders in some detail, and reporting on what I find, what others have thought of them and any other information that I think might be of interest to you.

Almost all of these manufacturers also supply a wide range of accessories for their eReaders, covers, reading lights, reading stands and so on, and a number of them have even gone so far as to produce their eReaders in a wide range of happy, if slightly alarmingly bright colours.  This last I suspect is aimed chiefly at the South East Asian market, as I discovered whilst living in Beijing, people there love to have their electronic things in all manner of bright colours... I was astounded to see bright pink laptops, purple DVD players and so on... the brighter the better seemed to be the rule.   Quite fun really some of them.

If you come across any models that I have missed, please do let me know, and I shall amend this list of links accordingly.

Remember when looking at the specifications of any model that interests you to pay especial attention to which formats it can read, to avoid tying yourself in to a particular internet eBook supplier.  The ePUB format is currently the one to go for, as almost every eBook shop or free eBook site supports this format, and even if you have to download your books as HTML or TXT or PDF, you can always convert them to ePUB with Calibre.   But even the wondrous Calibre cant convert to the Amazon format, for example.

So, here we go!  Simply click on any link you are interested in and you will be taken to the relevant site.

italica GmbH ereader

Condor Technology Associates  eGriver Touch

Onyx   Onyx Boox 

Sony   Reader Daily Edition PRS-900   Reader Touch Edition PRS-600  Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300   

Barnes & Noble  nook

Iriver   Story

Hanvon    N518  N526  N520

PocketBook  PocketBook 301

Bookeen    Cybook Opus  Cybook Ge

Endless ideas  BeBook

Interead  COOL-ER

Samsung  Papyrus

Amazon  Kindle DX  Kindle  Kindle 2

Foxit Software  eSlick

iRex Technologies  Digital Reader 1000

Jinke   Hanlin V3  Hanlin V5 

So there you have it, the fruits of rather a lot of surfing on my part, but I hope it will be of help to you as you attempt to find your way around the rapidly growing jungle that is the eReader world.   For my part I am still perfectly happy with my Sony PRS-505, it does everything I want it to, apart from making me a decent cup of coffee.

All I look for in an eReader is the ability to use ePUB documents and to have the basic function set needed to enable me to read my books comfortably and simply.  But there are many people who for a variety of good reasons, need all manner of other functions in their eReaders, and these requirements are rapidly being addressed by almost all the makers of eReaders.

SMASHWORDS - A SITE FOR AUTHORS AND READERS

Smashwords is a site where authors can post their writings and readers can download these books either free or for a very small cost.

There are a lot of these sites these days, and the numbers are growing too as both writers and readers see the advantages for them both in this idea.  I am sure I shall be drawing your attention to many of these sites as we go along........

This particular site seems to be both a friendly one, and obviously a successful one too, judging by the very large number of books in almost every genre - both fiction and non-fiction - that is on offer there.

This site is different to most other similar sites in that a number of publishers also place books from their lists on this site, which is an interesting development to my mind    An initiative that I for one would be very happy to see more of the big publishers following. 

The Founder of the site, Mark Coker, has an introduction on the "about us (link) " page, in which he explains very clearly the underlying philosophy of his site, and the advantages that both types of user stand to gain by using his site.   It makes interesting reading.

I shall download a few of the  books in various genres, and once I have had time to read them, I shall probably review them here, as I mentioned, the range of book types is astonishing, a very impressive collection indeed.

Prices vary from free to a few US Dollars, and they can be downloaded in all the various formats that are out there just now, so pretty well whatever eReader you have, you can safely download books from this intriguing site.

As with a lot of these sites though, you have to be careful as a number of the books on offer  at no cost are in fact only excerpts of the book in question, perhaps the first 50 pages of a 100 page book - the intention being that if you enjoy those 50 pages, you will want to return and purchase the entire book, to find out what happens to the characters.   As long as one is aware of this, a perfectly reasonable way of doing business I feel, but you need to be aware of this.

As I mentioned above, this site has a very catholic range of literary styles and writers, so it is definitely not one of the sites that are chiefly show cases for authors who have been unable to find normal publishers for their work - such sites are all too often narcissistic self-worship sites. 

I had fun sauntering around the various categories, reading the synopsis's of the various books that caught my eye, this place is definitely one that I shall be haunting in the future, in fact, once I have posted this, I intend to return to it and register myself there and sign on for their Newsletter....

A bookshop/publisher I can happily recommend to anyone who enjoys books, whatever age or tastes.

Click this link to visit them:  Smashwords

NOSTRADAMUS - A TRULY CURIOUS FREE eBOOK SITE

As I wander around the internet looking for interesting pieces of information to post on this Blog, I occasionally stumble over something that is completely different and interesting - one of the great joys of the internet for me.

As I find the more arcane sites that relate to eBooks I shall report on them to you, as I feel that the outer edges of the internet's literary world are perhaps more rewarding to explore than the more every day sites such as Amazon et.al.   There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of sites and blogs that deal with the bread and butter parts of the eReader/eBook world, but very few that offer anything about sites such as Nostradamus.

It is simply a case of entering a search word in Google, and going at once to offering number 10 000, and  not simply restrict one's self to the first 50 or so hits.  wonderful things lurk down there in the depths of the lists.... Including this blog just now, as it is brand new, but given time................

Certainly sites such as this, dedicated to one central idea are very well worth having a look at, even if the idea isn't one that interest you - it is always intriguing to get a glimpse into the mind of a person with an obsession.

This time I have found a site that is really strange.  It consists of a number of books about Nostradamus in a whole range of languages - English, Dutch, Hindi, Traditional Chinese and so on.

I don't know if you are familiar with Nostradamus?   He was a 16th Century Apothecary who made a number of prophecies  which were published in a book shortly before his death and are generally held to be coming true.   To find out all about him you can check Wikipedia with this link.

They can all be downloaded and are free.  They come in HTML, PDF and DOC format, so you will need to use good old Calibre to be able to read them on your eReader.

The guy who runs this site has had a strange and difficult life as well, which makes the whole thing even more interesting.   He discusses his earlier life in rather mystical tones on his site, and why he is so interested in the works of Nostradamus.

Eric, the owner of this site comes across as a sympathetic man, who has had to struggle with a number of demons for most of his life, at times being literally overwhelmed by them.  As far as I can see from what he writes about himself on his site he has more or less managed to rise above his demons now, and is functioning well in a peaceful part of the Belgian Ardennes, a part of the world I know well, a truly beautiful area of soft mountains and huge Pine forests.

A site worth a visit in my view, it is small, so it doesn't take long to explore it.  It is more like a stall in a market rather than a book shop.

Follow this link to visit his site: Nostradamus.

SHARE WITH US:

If you visit this site, I would be very interested to hear what you thought of it .   Also I would be interested to know if you guys find links to the stranger parts of the internet of value and interest.

CALIBRE - CONVERT FILE FORMATS FOR YOUR eREADER

CALIBER, A FREE FILE FORMAT CONVERTER

Caliber is a very impressive free-to-download program designed to convert almost all eBook formats to almost any other format, which means that regardless of where you find your eBooks, you can convert the files to make them acceptable to your eReader - with, as always, the exception of the Kindle from Amazon.  This program can convert Kindle format books to any other, but currently it cant convert other formats to the Kindle one, though knowing how developers think, it will surely come.

For example, most eBooks on the Gutenberg site are either in .TXT format, or HTML, neither of which is much use on an eBook, but by means of this extremely user friendly bit of software, one can convert them in a matter of seconds to whichever format you need....ePUB or whatever.

Rather than make this post a long description of the impressive capabilities of Calibre, I would suggest you follow this link and read the handbook online.  It is very clearly written by Govid Koyal, who created this small masterpiece, with a number of practical demonstrations showing you how to use his program. Not only is his hand book an example of how a hand book should be written, but he has also created videos to show you how to use the program.  An impressive man, Govid.

The only thing I will point out here is that this little marvel of a program is capable of running on all three major platforms, Windows, MAC or Linux.  Govid has truly covered all the bases here!

Another small point I should make is that I have noticed that it takes a rather long time to start up.  I have used it on three different computers, and it has been the same on all three of them.   You need to be patient, click on the icon in the normal way, and then sit back, it will start in its own good time. I have no idea why it is like this, perhaps Govid could enlighten us?

Having read the handbook, I would suggest you follow this link and download the program and set to, hunting for all those free .TXT and HTML or any other format files out there, and merrily convert them to the format your eReader requires... and thus increase your eLibrary hand over fist at a rate of knots!

The eReading public should be extremely grateful to Govid for his work in creating this program, and further, for being so public spirited as to make it free for all of us to use.   He is truly a Gentleman!

He is thoughtful enough to have a link on his site, by means of which one can donate money to help him continue to develop this software, and who knows what other pieces of software he has in his head, waiting to pop out?

Have fun using it, I do, and each time I use it, I send him positive thought waves, thanking him for his work, which, I for one appreciate enormously.