How to get along with smart-alec eBooks
67
"They's a whole lot of evolution goin' on"
Once upon a time there was a book that was made of stone. Books like that one were hard to print, hard to carry (especially down from mountain tops), difficult to read unless you understood critter pictures, but they surely were really long-lasting. Then, along came books that people produced by hand, one at a time, writing the words and making images with inks they brushed and quilled onto animal hides, papyrus paper, and cloth. These became known as "scrolls" because, by and large, they were stored rolled up (scrolled) and unrolled (unscrolled) for reading. As time ambled along, people began to make their books of one sort of paper or another, fastening little piles of the paper pages together at one edge and usually sandwiched between durable covers made of leather, wood, or some sort of cardboard.
Books like these began to be produced at least 1,000 years ago, and, looking around today, that kind of book is what we generally see today in book stores, libraries, and as "remainders" on the storage shelves of bookstores and publishing houses.
Cut down some more trees, Sam. We ran out of paper.
Beginning around the late 1940's a new kind of book came into being. Those books consisted of the paper printouts made using a whole new way of writing - the printed outputs of electronic computers. At first, the electronic computers were huge affairs that were not capable of doing a whole lot of paper printing. As time moved along, the computers became more compact outside while expanding their output capacities inside. With each such expansion of computer power came an increase in printed paper output. It used to be predicted that the use of computers would result in decreasing the quantity of paper printout production. However, the easier it became to produce paper records using computers to do the job, the more paper printouts resulted. This startled everyone who had believed that records would now become computer-written to and stored on electronic media, such as computer tapes and disks. It did not surprise anyone who understood human nature.
The arithmetic may be wrong, but the thoughts are in the right ballpark
Along came desktop computing. Computer equipment got smaller and smaller, but the capacities became greater and greater. The small "personal computer" being used to construct and store this HubPages article sits by my left hand atop the desk. It has built-in storage of about 200 gigabytes, each 8 bytes of which are roughly equivalent to one alphabetic character. One sheet of ordinary notebook size paper will hold about 2,000 characters. Thus, my little computer can hold about 100 million pages-worth of information, give or take a little - maybe 500,000 books-worth at 200 pages per book. My guess is that there is not enough room in this entire house to hold that many books. Storage space is not really the whole story here. Cost to store all of those many words enters into the picture, big time. A "terabyte" size disk (5 times bigger than my 200 gigabyte disk) can be purchased for close to $100. Compare the size and the cost of disks like that one with the physical size of some early disk drives (300 megabytes each and $25,000 per drive) like the ones I had in my computer room back in 1979
How can getting smaller mean that capacities are getting so much bigger?
But that is not the whole story. For seven dollars I can buy a small storage gadget (often called a "thumb" drive) on which I can store 4 gigabytes of information - and I can stick a handful of such thumb drives into my shirt pocket. They are tiny. I use them to back up book files and Web site page files as well, one little thumb drive for lots of books, many articles, or whole Web sites. Back in "the old days" it took several strong workers to just move one of those big disk drives several feet or across the raised computer floor. Today I can stick five or ten thumb drives into a shirt pocket - the equivalent of between 35 and 70 of those big disk drives. Even though I am one of those "computer nerds," I never fail to be amazed at how much the capacities have skyrocketed and the physical sizes of computers and their many gadgets have shrunk in just a relatively few years.
That brings us to eBooks. From stone tablets on which the writing was by hammer and chisel to tiny devices such as thumb drives and the new eBook readers that fit into one hand while storing 1,000 whole books at a time inside.
You need 'em to read 'em - eBooks, that is
Right now there are probably 100 different eBook readers that one can obtain and use. I have not looked at all of them, but all eBook readers that I have investigated display book page text and images, some in color as well as in plain black and white. All have batteries on which they operate, but battery life and power-on times vary from reader to reader. The purchase costs vary, too. Some readers are available for under $100 and others can cost $500 and even more. Page reading is done from the reader's screen, and its size and characteristics change from one reader to the next. All have internal data storage, the amount of which is not the same for all readers.
As you might expect, the eBooks stored by and read at the many different readers are in different formats. An eBook written in one format may or may not be readable on all eBook readers. Some can handle eBooks having different formats, whereas other readers might only be able to present text and images having only a single format. As might be expected, the lesser the ability to read eBooks prepared in many different formats, the lower will be the cost of the eBook reader. The same is true in regard to the number of features built into a reader - the more features there are, the higher will be the cost. Ah, but tomorrow will bring more features at lower cost of eBook readers, just as happened with computer equipment.
Let your vanity never betray you
Writers, such as you, should be very aware of what is going on with eBooks and eBook readers. Are there eBook publishers out there who might be interested in producing and selling your writing? Where do new or little-known authors fit into that picture? How about self-publishing much as authors of paper-page books can self-publish their works? Is there anything in-between where authors can compose their books and others produce the eBooks and sell them? How long will it be before there are dozens of "vanity eBook publshers" spoofing naive and unwary eBook writers? Can authors actually produce and sell eBooks on their own? What will become of paper-page books?
Before contracting with a commercial publisher (conventional paper books or eBooks), you really should follow up on your desires by reference to "SFWA's" comprehensive blog at this URL: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/ . It is a very good blog and is full of information on many topics of use to writers. Another good reference for your review is http://publishingguru.blogspot.com/2009/08/thumbs-down-list-of-vanity-publishers.html
Through storm and fog and eMail come the eBooks
A question to be asked is "What is going to happen to the U.S. Postal Service?" Will everyone stop sending letters, greeting cards, invoices, and so on in favor of eMailing and eBilling? I personally believe that will happen eventually. For now and for some time in the future, there will be more online communications and less paper mail. That is largely why, beginning in January, 2012, the Postal Service will be cutting way back on its number of mail processing stations, days for mail delivery, and more - and why the cost of a postage stamp is going to increase. People are asking, "Why spend money on stamps with which to mail a letter that takes a week in transit when you can send an eMail that is there almost instantly at no extra cost but what you now spend for your computer connection to the Internet?" The answer is that they will not buy stamps if they can send an eMail or pay a bill on the Internet.
It is going to be much the same when it comes to buying and reading books. If a person can save on book prices, save on book storage, save going to a book store, and get all sorts of new features with their books (color, instant jump-to for pages, automatic searching in books, and even links to information outside of books (cross references, sources, and so on), why not do it with eBooks?
Guess what is making all of those bookstores close their doors
It is now at the point where you have the ability to be your own author-producer-marketer of an eBook. You write the book, edit it (or have that done for you), produce the book (or have that done for you, too) and then market and distribute the book, all at low cost to you. If you like, the distribution can be via people downloading of your eBook to their own computers or directly to their capable hand-held eBook reader. The shipping cost is zero and delivery is right now, not in a week or two. The recipient of your eBook can receive some sample chapters before making a decision to buy your book (no books returned back to you) and payment for the eBook can be right over the Internet (no "Your check is in the mail.") . When your next book becomes available, you have a customer list in hand. You can add to the list with new customers, but you don't have to rely on a bookseller to entice earlier readers back inside the bookstore, Further to that, bookstores are beginning to close shop, even at this early date when eBooks are just beginning to make an impact on book marketing.
Mostly information and "open source" stuff of good use to writers
Here are some links for you to follow in your search for information about eBooks - what they are, where they now stand, how to read them, and some ways in which you can write and produce them.
Notes: "Open Source" software is distributed without charge by developers generally in return for your agreement to abide by the terms of the license (provided to users on condition that they not sell the downloads to others.) Change the "dot" to "." and the "colon" to ":" because this many active links are not allowed in hub articles except to point to other HubPages articles.
For those who do not enjoy changing "dot" to "." and "colon" to ":" I have set up a page on one of my Web sites on which I have already done the changing for you. Use the following link:
(No dots or colons other than the real things)
Articles and charts
wwwdotThe-Digital-Reader.com
Articles, reviews, comments, product prices
httpcolon//reviews.cnet.com/ebook-readers/
eBook product reviews including descriptions, multiple features, and photographs
eBook readers and do-it-yourself software
wwwdotebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com
Comparisons of the Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, and the BeBook NEC
wwwdotscribaebookmake.sourceforge.net
Software with which you can produce eBooks in the ePub format
Note: There is no "r" at the end of "bookmake"
eBook distribution and marketing
wwwdotsmashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords
PDF booklets from publisher who pays writers royalties for eBooks you write using "Word"
Producing your own eBook
Note: almost all eBook readers can display "PDF-format" eBooks
wwwdotopenoffice.org
Download the "Open Office" software suite with which to produce text and PDF-format articles and eBooks - open source
wwwdotserif.com
Commercial software, "Page Plus" used to produce text and PDF format articles and eBooks - NOT free, but there are some earlier versions you can have as samples
wwwdotcalibre-ebook.com
Convert eBook formats to the format you need for reading. Manage eBook library - open source
httpcolon//audacity.en.softonic.com
produce MP3 audio for inclusion in eBooks - open source
wwwdotgetgreenshot.org
Capture images of your computer screen as jpeg images - open source
wwwdotgimp.org
Image manipulation and editing. Similar to Adobe Photoshop - open source
wwwdotFotosketcher.com
Turn photos into "art" - open source
Links to other HubPages articles about eBook publishing and the like
How to make your own eBook - http://hubpages/t/1d79c9
How to self-publish your eBook - http://hubpages/t/1e9a45
How to become an instant artist - http://hubpages/t/1a6c53
How to find out if your writings are being plagiarized - http://hubpages/t/1f88bc
How to get some really great publishing software free - http://hubpages/t/fa87b
How to get even more free writers' software - http://hubpages/t/1529bd
How to have your PC and your eBook reader, too - http://hubpages/t/21d984
How to make Web and book pages - http://hubpages/t/d6985
How to record voice, music and noise on your computer - http://hubpages/t/15d3bd
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Your comments will be both welcome and usefulLoading...
Howdy 50 - It surely is great to read your kind and very thoughtful words again. Anyone who reads your comment will understand that you "were there" at the beginning of all of this computer stuff. I hate to put a date stamp onto myself, but so was I. The first computer I ever used was in 1964 for something published the following year... It occupied an entire wall of a huge auditorium-almost-size room, floor to ceiling. Behind it was an 8-foot wide passageway that was air-conditioned (a rarity back then) because the thing was operated on glowing and hot vacuum tubes. Its output was a tiny pen plotter that put little squiggles (graphs) onto a continuous (long) sheet of paper. Progress, such as it is, moves along - at least in the computer world.
Let everyone know when your book is due out. It is going to be a real beauty whether it is pressed onto paper, electronicked onto CD or the Internet, or drawn onto parchment by hooded scribes inking away with quill pens (with or without the feather part still attached.)
Gus :-)))
Hi Gus - I will probably have to read this whole thing again, just to get it all sunk in to my hard head. But what I do understand about it is real interesting like. Thanks. We have come a long way since I was just a yonker.
Well now, Paddyboy - I just now finished doing some more editing of this article, mostly in the "links" section. Hubpages allows 2 links per article, so folks are going to have to translate for the dots and colons with these to make them all "legal" as far as HubPages is concerned. Their automatic "catcher" software made it so that I had to get rid of the word, "free" that was all over those links. I hope that everyone understands that "open source" is probably another good way of saying "free."
From reviewing the various pieces of information available on the Internet about those eBook readers, I was pleased to learn that virtually all, if not all, readers can handle "PDF" format eBooks. There are many other formats in use, but it was good to learn that PDF is rather universal to all of them.
By the way, it is OK with me that you must read this hub again - just as long as I do not have to write it all again.
Gus :-)))
This is a very informative and useful hub.
This is the way the world is going now. I know some of the post shops in New Zealand are closing down right now. We live in an electronic world.
Thank you for sharing this information and giving us the links, even if we have to dthecipher the links. pity hubpages make it so difficult
A very good hub and well laid out
Howdy Rosemay - I thank you for the comment with news of NZ. Interesting that some of the postal service there is slimming down a wee bit. I do apologize for making everyone work on decoding (so to speak) the many links in the hub, but that is probably better than the alternate route of using only a single link to a page on my Web site where I would list all of them intact. I had to mess around with lots of the links, too, for I noted on all but one of the many that they offered "free" things to readers. That brought the wrath of the HubPages software check-it program down on my head such that publishing this hub was delayed several days for HubPages to check the hub out. They thought that the article was almost totally about "free stuff."
I love the "Team" anyway, for I have a ton of fun on what they have provided for us here.
I hope that all is OK now in NZ and the temblor damages have been put behind everyone.
Gus :-)))
The rebuilding of Christchurch is a very slow and expensive process, in fact it is so slow that the population has dwindled drastically because of the lack of jobs and poeple leaving the area. So it is uncertain just how big the rebuild will be.
Thank you for asking
Hello again Rosemay - The reason I asked about Christchurch was that back in 1969-1970 our little company sold one of our great big nuclear medical gamma camera computer systems to Christchurch Hospital, shipped it there, and installed it nicely in one short morning such that they used it to help patients whose images it helped to analyze. Christchurch was a beautiful place back then.
Gus :-)))
For a while the hospital was without computers, radiology, elevators or access to the intensive care unit and operating theatres. But it was sorted fairly quickly. But I believe several wards are still not open. They were taking patients up to Auckland via helicopter.
The Cathedral suffered quite badly and they have deconsecrated it before deciding if they can save any of it or not.
Rosemay - Thank you for the information. In June, 2001 I had just started work at a very large hospital in the SW part of Houston, Texas.Along came the disstrous floods from Tropical Storm, Allison. Our hospital was one of about five of the hospitals in one big system of medical facilities. The whole "Houston Medical Center" was flooded and all of the more than 100 hospitals and medical buildings there had to be evacuated. We got our share of their patients and many of their personnel worked alongside of us until they could return to the HMC and their own resurrected hospitals. I am attaching a URL that opens a Web site with many photos of the flooding. We are quite used to being flooded here, but Allison was unusually disastrous.
http://www.khou.com/community/slideshows/Photos-Tr
Thank you for letting me know how things are with Christchurch and the Christchurch Hospital.
Gus :-)))
Oh boy that was shocking. so much damage. It must have bee really hectic at the hospital.
Bookmarked in a folder all newly created. Ebook publishing. Thanks Gus. Just in time for my eval of my year here at hubpages and what direction to take the articles I have written. This will be high octane fuel for sure in a AA dragster with 8000 horsepower barreling down the track at 300mph. Awesome and shared.
tsmog - Thanks for the kind comment. eBooks are probably my current "hot button" (among a bunch of others...), and I hope this article helps you and others with their eBook production.
Gus :-)))
So much good information here, Gus, that I have bookmarked this hub for further reference. Thank you for sharing all you have learned about ebooks and open source software. You are a fount of information, my friend.
Good Doctor bj - Gotta do something around here in this cold weather to raise my body temperature. Don't like jogging. Someone told me that writing doesn't work. Looking for suggestions at the moment. You probably have many of the links already from other hubs, but there are some new ones not already in those "long-since" pieces. I'm looking for that eBook of yours PDQ.
Gus :-)))
After I stopped looking for the punchline, I realized how much useful info you were imparting. Very helpful and informative. my friend! Rated up and shared.
Well stated Gus! It's sad to see our bookstores closings in Orlando, if it wasn't for the attached coffee shops that are keeping them afloat, I'm sure the rest will close also. "Long live the book!" I've not evolved to the ebook yet, I prefer the real deal.
Hi Elle - My fingers were restless, so I kept on keeping on with the thing until realization hit that it was time to get a wee bit serious. We all have so much to learn, and I probably figured that one way in which I might be able to learn more was to list some of the stuff of which I might already know. (Hope that is so...)
Gus :-)))
Howdy Sunshine - I just looked out the window and there you were, all over the yard and just about everywhere. Man alive ! How do you do that?
That's interesting about those coffee shops. the "big boys," like the now closed "Borders." I suppose don't feature coffee shops. The little guys are kinda famous for them, maybe trying to emulate Paris back in the '20s. My guess is that the smaller booksellers will keep going OK, people like you and me being who we are.
When the eBooks really come into flower, those little guys will still be there, probably installing some PCs in their coffee shops to help people read 'em while they suck up coffee at a buck a cup. I can also see the shops installing a decent (and really fast) laser printer and a "binding machine" (like I have in the corner over here) to make nicely bound paper copies for anyone who wants to have a "paper-page book" from their eBooks. (Piece of cake!)
Gus :-)))
It's a gift Gus:) Its cloudy in Orlando, I'll need that Sunshine back soon!
Our Borders closed down. We have Barnes & Noble with a Starbucks indoors and free wifi. One of my favorite stops to shop:)
Hello again, Sunshine - That warm sun will come on back again for you soon - as will all of those eBooks in Barnes and Noble. (They peddle their own eBook readers)
Gus :-)))
50 Caliber Level 7 Commenter 5 months ago
Gus, old pard' you've made me think a lot about just how far life has dragged my sorry old hide with little realization or thought I remember the black and white images of the huge computers and the ticker tape style programs that ran automated machinery and the special little hole puncher that changed the input into holes that dictated all the aspects of a machined part that I was paid to make, I got put out of work by them.
Seems many jobs are falling to computers and those who set them up to run and repair them and program them. These days choosing a field to work in, if one intends to retire from it, much thought needs to be given to what it will be.
I didn't miss the point of being a self publishing author or just an E book proof reader, or other things that lead to publishing, that is a thought that should make publishing houses tremble after years of telling folks "no, wrong or worn out idea", those shot down will have the chance to prove them wrong it seems, great hub laid out well and a jewel to read,
thanks,
dusty