About eBooks

Curious about eBooks? Here's a short report:

What are eBooks?

An eBook, or electronic book, is a book in digital format that can be bought and downloaded from the Internet and read on a computer screen. Some eBooks can also be read on an electronic handheld device such as a Palm Pilot or other handheld computer. Digital audio versions of eBooks can be listened to on PCs or portable media players such as iPods.

Churning steadily just below the high profile of the music industry's digital drama, electronic publishing has quietly become a major force in the worlds of media and technology. According to figures released in June 2004 by the Open eBook Forum, eBook units sold for the first quarter 2004 were up 46% and eBook revenues were up 28% over the same quarter in 2003. This compares to an annual growth rate of about 5% in traditional print publishing. "This quarter eBooks have hit a new high mark for sales," said Open eBook Forum President Steve Potash. "eBooks represent the fastest growing segment of the publishing industry."

Until now, buying books electronically meant going to an Internet bookseller’s Web site, finding the title you want, paying with a credit card, and having the book shipped from a warehouse to your home or office. While there’s no question that this e-commerce model increases buyer convenience and streamlines distribution, it does not represent a significant advance over the real-world experience of buying a book in a brick-and-mortar store. The buying process incorporates rapidly evolving technologies, but the content remains decidedly low-tech: paper, ink, and glue.

A more visionary scenario comes from futurists and science fiction writers who have long imagined the advent of electronic books – eBooks. eBooks can be read or listened to on PCs, laptops, or handheld devices and display the content found in traditional books, eliminating the need for books as we know them. We’re a long way from abandoning traditional books, but the first eBooks have arrived.

For now, eBooks are an afterthought in the publishing world. Less than 500 000 eBooks were sold in the US in 2002, compared with more than 1.5 billion printed books, say estimates from researchers at Ipsos-Insight in Chicago. According to most predictions, eBooks will remain a niche, for at least five years, but as eBook hardware prices fall, consumer awareness and demand build and today's university students enter the mainstream, eBooks should enjoy a nice ride, perhaps towards the end of this decade.

Why choose eBooks?

* You can buy and read an eBook immediately without having to wait for the title to be shipped, and you don’t have to pay for postage.
* eBooks are generally cheaper than paper books.
* You can take an eBook with you anywhere you take your laptop or handheld computer.
* You can get books and documents that may be difficult to find in print or out of print and often contain timely information.
* You can easily assemble personal libraries of fiction, non-fiction and reference books, as well as download book samplers.
* You can enter a key word or two and easily search for the specific passage of information you want. (Particularly useful for historical, self help and reference books. )
* You can read an eBook on almost 100% of handheld computers in low to no light situations.
* eBooks are environmentally sustainable, not requiring paper and glue.
* Students can receive customized textbooks from teachers and professors that include course syllabi, lecture outlines, book excerpts, journal articles, and graphically rich quantitative data.
* Travellers can create electronic compilations of guidebooks, phrase books, maps, and currency converters.
* Business people can compile eBooks containing research reports, stock reports, competitive information, industry analyses, and credit reports.
* Attorneys can gather case-specific electronic volumes of court records, deposition transcripts, e-mail messages and other evidentiary materials.
* Technical personnel can easily carry suites of complex technical manuals.

What format do eBooks take?

There are five main formats in which you can buy eBooks:

* Adobe PDF
* Palm Reader
* Microsoft Reader
* MP3 (audio)
* Sony eBook

The software required to read or listen to eBooks for all formats is free and easy to download off the Internet.

How long does it take to download an eBook?

The download time varies, depending on file size and Internet connection speed. As a rule of thumb, a novel of about 300 pages is about 1MB in size, a short story about 250KB and a short story in MP3 format is about 1MB in size.

What is the eBook market like?

Publishers report continued increases in eBook revenue for 2005

New York, NY – Tuesday, April 18, 2006 – eBook publishers reported increases in eBook revenue over the previous year with a 23% increase in eBook revenues over 2004. eBook units sold remained even with 2004. And, eBook titles published increased 20% over 2004.

Publishers reported 1,692,964 eBook units sold and $11,875,783 in revenues for 2005. They also reported 5,242 eBooks published during this time.

A total of 18 publishers contributed to the four quarterly 2005 reports including DigitalPulp Publishing; Elib AB; Ellora's Cave Publishers; E-Reads; Fictionwise, Inc.; Hard Shell Word Factory; Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.; HarperCollins; Houghton Mifflin Company; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; McGraw-Hill; Pearson Education; Random House; RosettaBooks LLC; Simon & Schuster; Stonehouse Press; Time Warner Book Group and Zondervan.

While 18 publishers contributed to the reports in 2005 and 19 reported in 2004, publishers reporting varied. There are additions and subtractions of companies reporting to this program and the reported figures will, therefore, reflect this variability.

Who has published eBooks?

World famous authors such as Stephen King, Amy Tan, Bill Bryson, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Douglas Adams and John Updike.

Is there a demand for African writing?

There is growing interest in African writing, as evidenced by the new Picador Africa imprint and the literary spotlight shone on J.M Coetzee, South African winner of the Nobel Prize Literature, as well as Damon Galgut, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2003. Scribner in the US printed no fewer than a million copies of Alan Paton's classic Cry, the Beloved Country when Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club.