E-book
Encyclopedia
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book
, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated e-book reader
s. Personal computers and some mobile phone
s can also be used to read e-books.
was given extensive computer time by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois. Seeking a worthy use of this resource, he created the first ebook by typing the United States Declaration of Independence
into a computer. Project Gutenberg
was launched afterwards to create electronic copies of more books.
One early e-book implementation was the desktop prototype for a proposed notebook computer, the Dynabook
, in the 1970s at PARC: a general-purpose portable personal computer capable of displaying books for reading.
In 1990, Sony
launched the Data Discman
, an electronic book reader that could read e-books that were stored on CDs. One of the electronic publications that could be played on the Data Discman was called The Library of the Future.
Early e-books were generally written for specialty areas and a limited audience, meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. The scope of the subject matter of these e-books included technical manuals for hardware, manufacturing techniques and other subjects. In the 1990s, the general availability of the Internet
made transferring electronic files much easier, including e-books.
Numerous e-book formats, view comparison of e-book formats, emerged and proliferated, some supported by major software companies such as Adobe
with its PDF
format, and others supported by independent and open-source programmers. Multiple readers followed multiple formats, most of them specializing in only one format, and thereby fragmenting the e-book market even more. Due to exclusiveness and limited readerships of e-books, the fractured market of independents and specialty authors lacked consensus regarding a standard for packaging and selling e-books. In 2010 e-books continued to gain in their own underground markets. Many e-book publishers began distributing books that were in the public domain
. At the same time, authors with books that were not accepted by publishers offered their works online so they could be seen by others. Unofficial (and occasionally unauthorized) catalogs of books became available over the web, and sites devoted to e-books began disseminating information about e-books to the public.
U.S. Libraries began providing free e-books to the public in 1998 through their web sites and associated services, although the e-books were primarily scholarly, technical or professional in nature, and could not be downloaded. In 2003, libraries began offering free downloadable popular fiction and non-fiction e-books to the public, launching an e-book lending model that worked much more successfully for public libraries. The number of library e-book distributors and lending models continued to increase over the next few years. In 2010, a Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study found that 66% of public libraries in the U.S. were offering e-books, and a large movement in the library industry began seriously examining the issues related to lending e-books, acknowledging a tipping point of broad e-book usage. However, some publishers and authors have not endorsed the concept of electronic publishing
, citing issues with demand, piracy and proprietary devices. Demand-driven acquisition (DDA) has been around for a few years in public libraries, which allows vendors to streamline the acquisition process by offering to match a library’s selection profile to the vendor’s e-book titles. The library’s catalog is then populated with records for all the e-books that match the profile. The decision to purchase the title is left to the patrons, although the library can set purchasing conditions such as a maximum price and purchasing caps so that the dedicated funds are spent according to the library’s budget.
, new marketing models for e-books were being developed and dedicated reading hardware was produced. E-books (as opposed to ebook readers) have yet to achieve global distribution. In the United States, as of September 2009, the Amazon
Kindle
model and Sony
's PRS-500 were the dominant e-reading devices. By March 2010, some reported that the Barnes & Noble Nook
may be selling more units than the Kindle.
On January 27, 2010 Apple Inc. launched a multi-function device called the iPad
and announced agreements with five of the six largest publishers that would allow Apple to distribute e-books. The iPad includes a built-in app for e-books called iBooks
and the iBooks Store.
In July 2010, online bookseller Amazon.com
reported sales of ebooks for its proprietary Kindle
outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010, saying it sold 140 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there was no digital edition
. By January 2011, ebook sales at Amazon had surpassed its paperback sales. In the overall U.S. market, paperback book sales are still much larger than either hardcover or e-book; the American Publishing Association estimated e-books represented 8.5% of sales as of mid-2010, up from 3% a year before. In Canada
, the option of ebook publishing took a higher profile when the novel, The Sentimentalists
, won the prestigious national Giller Prize. Owing to the small scale of the novel's independent publisher, the book was initially not widely available in printed form, but the ebook edition had no such problems with it becoming the top-selling title for Kobo
devices.
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". In the space that a comparably sized print book takes up, an e-reader can potentially contain thousands of e-books, limited only by its memory capacity. If space is at a premium, such as in a backpack or at home, it can be an advantage that an e-book collection takes up little room and weight.
E-book websites can include the ability to translate books into many different languages, making the works available to speakers of languages not covered by printed translations. Depending on the device, an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. Many newer readers have the ability to display motion, enlarge or change fonts, use Text-to-speech software to read the text aloud for visually impaired, partially sighted, elderly or dyslectic people, search for key terms, find definitions, or allow highlighting bookmarking and annotation. Devices that utilize E Ink
can imitate the look and ease of readability of a printed work while consuming very little power, allowing continuous reading for weeks at time.
While an e-book reader costs much more than one book, the electronic texts are at times cheaper. Moreover, a great share of e-books are available online for free, minus the minimal costs of the electronics required. For example, all fiction from before the year 1900 is in the public domain
. Also, libraries lend more current e-book titles for limited times, free samples are available of many publications, and there are other lending models being piloted as well. E-books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on-demand book printers.
An e-book can be purchased/borrowed, downloaded, and used immediately, whereas when one buys or borrows a book, one must go to a bookshop, a home library, or public library during limited hours, or wait for a delivery. The production of e-books does not consume paper
and ink
. The necessary computer or e-reader uses less materials. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce. Depending on possible digital rights management
, e-books can be backed up to recover them in the case of loss or damage and it may be possible to recover a new copy without cost from the distributor. Compared to printed publishing, it is cheaper and easier for authors to self-publish e-books. Also, the dispersal of a free e-book copy can stimulate the sales of the printed version.
Paper books can be bought and wrapped for a present and a library of books can provide visual appeal, while the digital nature of e-books makes them non-visible and intangible. E-books cannot provide the physical feel of the cover, paper, and binding of the original printed work. An author who publishes a book often puts more into the work than simply the words on the pages. E-books may cause people "to do the grazing and quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author's ideas". They may use the e-books simply for reference purposes rather than reading for pleasure and leisure. Books with large pictures (such as children's books) or diagrams are more inconvenient for viewing and reading.
A book will never turn off and would be unusable only if damaged or after many decades. The shelf life of a printed book exceeds that of an e-book reader, as over time the reader's battery will drain and require recharging. Additionally, "As in the case of microfilm, there is no guarantee that [electronic] copies will last. Bits become degraded over time. Documents may get lost in cyberspace...Hardware and software become extinct at a distressing rate." E-book readers are more susceptible to damage from being dropped or hit than a print book. Due to faults in hardware or software, e-book readers may malfunction and data loss can occur. As with any piece of technology, the reader must be protected from the elements (such as extreme cold, heat, water, etc.), while print books are not susceptible to damage from electromagnetic pulses, surges, impacts, or temperatures typically found in automobiles on a hot day.
The cost of an e-book reader far exceeds that of a single book, and e-books often cost the same as their print versions. Due to the high cost of the initial investment in some form of e-reader, e-books are cost prohibitive to much of the world's population. Furthermore, there is no used e-book market, so consumers will neither be able to recoup some of their costs by selling an unwanted title they have finished, nor will they be able to buy used copies at significant discounts, as they can now easily do with printed books. Because of the high-tech appeal of the e-reader, they are a greater target for theft than an individual print book. Along with the theft of the physical device, any e-books it contains also become stolen. E-books purchased from vendors like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com are stored "in the cloud" on servers and "digital lockers" and have the benefit of being easily retrieved if an e-reading device is lost. Not all e-booksellers are cloud based; if an e-book is stolen, accidentally lost, or deleted, in the absence of a backup it may have to be repurchased.
The display resolution
s of reading devices are currently lower than those of printed materials and may cause discomfort due to glare on the screen or difficulty holding the device. Due to digital rights management
, customers typically cannot resell or loan their e-books to other readers. However, some Barnes & Noble e-books are lendable for two weeks via their 'LendMe' technology. Additionally, the potential for piracy of e-books may make publishers and authors reluctant to distribute digitally. E-book readers require various toxic substances to produce, are non-biodegradable, and the disposal of their batteries in particular raises environmental concerns. As technologies rapidly change and old devices become obsolete, there will be larger amounts of toxic wastes that are not easily biodegradable like paper..
Reading devices for e-books in a reflowable format
such as EPUB
may display page numbers, but these numbers change from device to device depending on factors such as the size of the display and the selected font size. This makes them unsuitable for citation
purposes. To remedy this problem, Amazon Kindle
e-books contain what are called "location numbers", that is, numbers in the margin of the electronic text that indicate where the corresponding page begins in the printed version of the book. However, if there is no standard hard copy in print, which may increasingly be the case as the popularity of digital publishing grows, these "location numbers" will not exist. APA, MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style have all tried to address the problem of accurate academic citation by recommending that versions be identified; e.g., Kindle edition, Kindle DX version, or any other “source of e-book". The wide variety of versions, text and font sizes make this solution impractical. The only real solution would be a standard format for all devices.
The USA's Federal Aviation Administration
requires the prohibition of e-book reader use on commercial airliners during takeoff and landing.
techniques may be used to restrict what the user may do with an e-book. For instance, it may not be possible to transfer ownership of an e-book to another person, though such a transaction is common with physical books. Some devices can phone home to track readers and reading habits, restrict printing, or arbitrarily modify reading material. This includes restricting the copying and distribution of works in the public domain
through the use of "click-wrap" licensing, effectively limiting the rights of the public to distribute, sell or use texts in the public domain
freely.
Most e-book publishers do not warn their customers about the possible implications of the digital rights management tied to their products. Generally they claim that digital rights management is meant to prevent copying of the e-book. However in many cases it is also possible that digital rights management will result in the complete denial of access by the purchaser to the e-book. With some formats of DRM, the e-book is tied to a specific computer or device. In these cases the DRM will usually let the purchaser move the book a limited number of times after which they cannot use it on any additional devices. If the purchaser upgrades or replaces their devices eventually they may lose access to their purchase. Some forms of digital rights management depend on the existence of online services to authenticate the purchasers. When the company that provides the service goes out of business or decides to stop providing the service, the purchaser will no longer be able to access the e-book.
As with digital rights management in other media, e-books are more like rental or leasing than purchase. The restricted book comes with a number of restrictions, and eventually access to the purchase can be removed by a number of different parties involved. These include the publisher of the book, the provider of the DRM scheme, and the publisher of the reader software. These are all things that are significantly different from the realm of experiences anyone has had with a physical copy of the book.
, though in many instances they may not be put on sale until later. Often, e-books are produced from pre-existing hard-copy books, generally by document scanning, sometimes with the use of robotic book scanner
s, having the technology to quickly scan books without damaging the original print edition. Scanning a book produces a set of image files, which may additionally be converted into text format by an OCR
program. Occasionally, as in some e-text projects, a book may be produced by re-entering the text from a keyboard.
As a newer development, sometimes only the electronic version of a book is produced by the publisher. It is even possible to release an e-book chapter by chapter as each chapter is written. This is useful in fields such as information technology
where topics can change quickly in the months that it takes to write a typical book (See: Realtime Publishers
). It is also possible to convert an electronic book to a printed book by print on demand
. However these are exceptions as tradition dictates that a book be launched in the print format and later if the author wishes an electronic version is produced.
As of 2010, there is no industry-wide e-book bestseller list, but various e-book vendors compile bestseller lists, such as those by Amazon
Kindle
Bestsellers and Fictionwise
. Two yearly awards for excellence in e-books are the EPIC eBook Award (formerly EPPIE) given by EPIC
, and the Dream Realm Award for science fiction, fantasy and horror e-books. Both awards have been given since 2000.
, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is a mobile electronic device
that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals. An e-book reader is similar in form to a limited purpose tablet computer
.
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated e-book reader
E-book reader
An e-book reader, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals....
s. Personal computers and some mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s can also be used to read e-books.
History
In 1971, Michael S. HartMichael S. Hart
Michael Stern Hart was an American author, best known as the inventor of the electronic book and the founder of Project Gutenberg, a project to make ebooks freely available via the Internet...
was given extensive computer time by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois. Seeking a worthy use of this resource, he created the first ebook by typing the United States Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
into a computer. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
was launched afterwards to create electronic copies of more books.
One early e-book implementation was the desktop prototype for a proposed notebook computer, the Dynabook
Dynabook
The Dynabook concept, created by Alan Kay in 1968, described what is now known as a laptop computer or a tablet or slate computer with nearly eternal battery life and software aimed at giving children access to digital media...
, in the 1970s at PARC: a general-purpose portable personal computer capable of displaying books for reading.
In 1990, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
launched the Data Discman
Data Discman
A Data Discman is an electronic book device introduced in 1990 by Sony Corporation. It was marketed to college students and international travelers, but had little success outside of Japan....
, an electronic book reader that could read e-books that were stored on CDs. One of the electronic publications that could be played on the Data Discman was called The Library of the Future.
Early e-books were generally written for specialty areas and a limited audience, meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. The scope of the subject matter of these e-books included technical manuals for hardware, manufacturing techniques and other subjects. In the 1990s, the general availability of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
made transferring electronic files much easier, including e-books.
Numerous e-book formats, view comparison of e-book formats, emerged and proliferated, some supported by major software companies such as Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
with its PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
format, and others supported by independent and open-source programmers. Multiple readers followed multiple formats, most of them specializing in only one format, and thereby fragmenting the e-book market even more. Due to exclusiveness and limited readerships of e-books, the fractured market of independents and specialty authors lacked consensus regarding a standard for packaging and selling e-books. In 2010 e-books continued to gain in their own underground markets. Many e-book publishers began distributing books that were in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. At the same time, authors with books that were not accepted by publishers offered their works online so they could be seen by others. Unofficial (and occasionally unauthorized) catalogs of books became available over the web, and sites devoted to e-books began disseminating information about e-books to the public.
U.S. Libraries began providing free e-books to the public in 1998 through their web sites and associated services, although the e-books were primarily scholarly, technical or professional in nature, and could not be downloaded. In 2003, libraries began offering free downloadable popular fiction and non-fiction e-books to the public, launching an e-book lending model that worked much more successfully for public libraries. The number of library e-book distributors and lending models continued to increase over the next few years. In 2010, a Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study found that 66% of public libraries in the U.S. were offering e-books, and a large movement in the library industry began seriously examining the issues related to lending e-books, acknowledging a tipping point of broad e-book usage. However, some publishers and authors have not endorsed the concept of electronic publishing
Electronic publishing
Electronic publishing or ePublishing includes the digital publication of e-books and electronic articles, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed scientific journals are in...
, citing issues with demand, piracy and proprietary devices. Demand-driven acquisition (DDA) has been around for a few years in public libraries, which allows vendors to streamline the acquisition process by offering to match a library’s selection profile to the vendor’s e-book titles. The library’s catalog is then populated with records for all the e-books that match the profile. The decision to purchase the title is left to the patrons, although the library can set purchasing conditions such as a maximum price and purchasing caps so that the dedicated funds are spent according to the library’s budget.
, new marketing models for e-books were being developed and dedicated reading hardware was produced. E-books (as opposed to ebook readers) have yet to achieve global distribution. In the United States, as of September 2009, the Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
model and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's PRS-500 were the dominant e-reading devices. By March 2010, some reported that the Barnes & Noble Nook
Barnes & Noble Nook
The Barnes & Noble Nook is a brand of electronic-book reader developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform. The original device was announced in the United States in October 2009, and was released the next month...
may be selling more units than the Kindle.
On January 27, 2010 Apple Inc. launched a multi-function device called the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
and announced agreements with five of the six largest publishers that would allow Apple to distribute e-books. The iPad includes a built-in app for e-books called iBooks
IBooks
iBooks is an e-book application by Apple Inc. It was announced in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. At that time, it was described by Apple as being available only in the United States...
and the iBooks Store.
In July 2010, online bookseller Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
reported sales of ebooks for its proprietary Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010, saying it sold 140 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there was no digital edition
Digital edition
A digital edition is an online magazine or online newspaper delivered in electronic form which is formatted identically to the print version. Digital editions are often called digital facsimiles to underline the likeness to the print version...
. By January 2011, ebook sales at Amazon had surpassed its paperback sales. In the overall U.S. market, paperback book sales are still much larger than either hardcover or e-book; the American Publishing Association estimated e-books represented 8.5% of sales as of mid-2010, up from 3% a year before. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the option of ebook publishing took a higher profile when the novel, The Sentimentalists
The Sentimentalists (novel)
The Sentimentalists is a novel by Canadian writer Johanna Skibsrud, which was the winner of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.-Synopsis:The novel's protagonist is an unnamed young woman seeking to better understand her relationship with her father by investigating his experience in the Vietnam...
, won the prestigious national Giller Prize. Owing to the small scale of the novel's independent publisher, the book was initially not widely available in printed form, but the ebook edition had no such problems with it becoming the top-selling title for Kobo
Kobo eReader
The Kobo eReader is an e-book reader produced by Toronto-based company Kobo Inc. The original version was released in July 2010 and was marketed as a minimalist alternative to the more expensive e-book readers available at the time. , fifty-eight percent of Kobo Inc is owned by Indigo Books & Music...
devices.
Timeline
1971- Michael S. HartMichael S. HartMichael Stern Hart was an American author, best known as the inventor of the electronic book and the founder of Project Gutenberg, a project to make ebooks freely available via the Internet...
creates the first ebook by typing the US Declaration of Independence into a computer. He launches Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
to create electronic copies of more books.
1985–1992
- Robert Stein starts Voyager CompanyVoyager CompanyThe Voyager Company was a pioneer in CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s, and published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films on Laserdisc. It was founded in 1984 by four partners: Jon Turell, Bill Becker, Aleen Stein and...
Expanded Books and books on CD-ROMCD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
.
1990
- Eastgate SystemsEastgate SystemsEastgate Systems is a publisher and software company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, which publishes hypertexts by established authors with careers in print as well as by talented new authors...
publishes the first hypertext fictionHypertext fictionHypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in "literature" and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a...
, Afternoon, a storyAfternoon, a storyAfternoon, a story is a work of electronic literature written in 1987 by American author Michael Joyce. It was published by Eastgate Systems in 1990 and is known as the first hypertext fiction....
, by Michael Joyce, available on floppy disk. - SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
launches the Data DiscmanData DiscmanA Data Discman is an electronic book device introduced in 1990 by Sony Corporation. It was marketed to college students and international travelers, but had little success outside of Japan....
electronic book reader.
1992
- Charles Stack's Book Stacks UnlimitedBook Stacks UnlimitedBook Stacks Unlimited was an online bookstore created by Charles M. Stack in 1992, two years before Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com. Stack's store, selling new books, began as a dial-up bulletin board located in Cleveland...
begins selling new physical books online.
1992-1993
- F. Crugnola and I. Rigamonti design and create the first e-book reader, called Incipit, as a thesis project at the Politecnico di Milano.
1993
- Digital Book, Inc. offers digital books on floppy disk in Digital Book Format (DBF).
- Hugo Award for Best NovelHugo Award for Best NovelThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
nominee texts published on CD-ROM by Brad TempletonBrad TempletonBrad Templeton is a software architect, civil rights advocate and entrepreneur. He graduated from the University of Waterloo....
. - Bibliobytes, a project of free digital books online in InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
1995
- Amazon starts to sell physical books on the Internet.
- Online poet Alexis KirkeAlexis KirkeAlexis Kirke is a composer known for his interdisciplinary practice. He has been called "the Philip K. Dick of contemporary music." Alexis is British and lives in Plymouth, in South West England. Alexis says he takes his inspiration from both the arts and science/engineering - and has completed two...
discusses the need for wireless internet electronic paperElectronic paperElectronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technology which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper...
readers in his article "The Emuse".
1996
- Project Gutenberg reaches 1,000 titles. The target is 1,000,000.
1998
- Kim Blagg obtained the first ISBN issued to an ebook and began marketing multimedia-enhanced ebooks on CDs through retailers including amazon.com, bn.com and borders.com. Shortly thereafter through her company "Books OnScreen" she introduced the ebooks at the Book Expo America in Chicago, IL to an impressed, but unconvinced bookseller audience.
- First ebook Readers: Rocket ebookRocket eBookThe Rocket eBook was an early popular e-book reader. It was manufactured by NuvoMedia until 2000, when it was purchased by Gemstar-TV Guide International.Rocket-compatible e-books were sold through the websites of Barnes & Noble as well as Powell's Bookstore....
and SoftBookSoftBookSoftBook, "The Intelligent Reading System," was one of the first dedicated electronic book readers. It was released in 1998 by SoftBook Press, Inc...
. - Cybook / Cybook Gen1Cybook Gen1- Description :The Cybook Gen1 was originally made by the French company Cytale, which filed for bankruptcy in 2003. Two engineers of Cytale founded Bookeen and bought the rights to the Cybook. They completely remade the integrated OS and application, and then sold it as the Cybook Gen1.This...
Sold and manufactured at first by Cytale (1998–2003) then by BookeenBookeenBookeen is French company dealing with eBooks and Consumer electronics.- History :In 2003 after the failure of Cytale two former engineers of Cytale, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan, bought the intellectual property of the Cytale reading device, the Cybook Gen1...
. - Websites selling ebooks in English, like eReader.com and eReads.com.
1999
- Baen Books opens up the Baen Free LibraryBaen Free LibraryThe Baen Free Library is a digital library of the science fiction and fantasy publishing house Baen Books where 112 full books can be downloaded free in a number of formats, without copy protection...
. - WebscriptionsWebscriptionsWebscriptions is a web services company that has sold e-books without DRM since 1999. It is closely associated with Jim Baen's Baen Books. Purchasers can download the same e-book in five different formats, even long after the initial purchase...
starts selling unencrypted eBooks.
2000
- Microsoft ReaderMicrosoft ReaderMicrosoft Reader is a Microsoft program for the reading of e-books, originally released in August 2000.Microsoft Reader is available for download from Microsoft as a free program for computers running Windows. It can also be used on a Pocket PC, where it has been built into the ROM since Windows CE...
with ClearType technology. - Stephen King offers his book "Riding the BulletRiding the BulletRiding the Bullet is a novella by Stephen King. This work marks King's debut on the Internet. Simon & Schuster, with technology by SoftLock, first published Riding the Bullet in 2000 as the world's first mass-market electronic book, available for download at $2.50...
" in digital file; it can only be read on a computer. - Digital Book Index begins operation. DBI and the Online Books PageOnline Books PageThe Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania...
both organize electronic books from disparate sites into single, searchable indexes, creating large virtual libraries of ebooks.
2001
- Todoebook.com, the first website selling ebooks in Spanish.
2002
- Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
and HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
start to sell digital versions of their titles in English.
2004
- Sony Librie with e-ink.
- GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
announces plans to digitize the holdings of several major libraries, as part of what would later be called the Google Books Library ProjectGoogle Books Library ProjectThe Google Books Library Project is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries. The project, along with Google's Partner Program, comprise Google Books . Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable...
.
2005
- Amazon buys MobipocketMobipocketMobipocket SA is a French company incorporated in March 2000 which produces Mobipocket Reader software, an E-Book reader for some PDAs, phones and desktop operating systems....
. - Google is sued for copyright infringementCopyright infringementCopyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
by the Authors Guild for scanning books still in copyright.
2006
- Sony ReaderSony ReaderThe Sony Reader is a line of e-book readers manufactured by Sony. It uses an electronic paper display developed by E Ink Corporation, is viewable in direct sunlight, requires no power to maintain a static image, and is usable in portrait or landscape orientation.Sony sells e-books for the Reader...
with e-ink. - LibreDigital launched BookBrowse as an online reader for publisher content.
- BooksOnBoard, one of the largest independent ebookstores, opens and sells ebooks and audiobooks in six different formats.
2007
- Amazon launches KindleAmazon KindleThe Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
in US. - BookeenBookeenBookeen is French company dealing with eBooks and Consumer electronics.- History :In 2003 after the failure of Cytale two former engineers of Cytale, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan, bought the intellectual property of the Cytale reading device, the Cybook Gen1...
launched Cybook Gen3Cybook Gen3Cybook Gen3 is a 6 inch e-Reader, specially designed for reading e-Books and e-News, or listening to MP3 music or audio-books. It is produced by the French company Bookeen....
in Europe.
2008
- Adobe and Sony agreed to share their technologies (Reader and DRM).
- Sony sells the Sony Reader PRS-505 in UK and France.
- BooksOnBoard is first to sell ebooks for iPhones.
2009
- BookeenBookeenBookeen is French company dealing with eBooks and Consumer electronics.- History :In 2003 after the failure of Cytale two former engineers of Cytale, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan, bought the intellectual property of the Cytale reading device, the Cybook Gen1...
releases the Cybook OpusCybook OpusCybook Opus is a 5 inch e-Reader, specially designed for reading e-Books and e-News. It is produced by the French company Bookeen.-Description:The Cybook Opus is an ultra-light reading device based on E Ink screen technology....
in the US and in Europe. - Sony releases the Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition.
- Amazon releases the Kindle 2.
- Amazon releases the Kindle DX in the US.
- Barnes & Noble releases the NookBarnes & Noble NookThe Barnes & Noble Nook is a brand of electronic-book reader developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform. The original device was announced in the United States in October 2009, and was released the next month...
in the US.
2010
- Amazon releases the Kindle DX International Edition worldwide.
- BookeenBookeenBookeen is French company dealing with eBooks and Consumer electronics.- History :In 2003 after the failure of Cytale two former engineers of Cytale, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan, bought the intellectual property of the Cytale reading device, the Cybook Gen1...
reveals the Cybook Orizon at CESCESCES may stand for:*Closed ecological system, an ecosystem that does not rely on matter exchange with any part outside the system*Constant elasticity of substitution, an economics production function*The ISO 639 code for the Czech language...
. - TurboSquid Magazine announces first magazine publication using Apple's iTunes LP format, however, this project was cancelled before it reached the market.
- Apple releases the iPadIPadThe iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
with an e-book app called iBooksIBooksiBooks is an e-book application by Apple Inc. It was announced in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. At that time, it was described by Apple as being available only in the United States...
. Between its release in April 2010, to October, Apple had sold 7 million iPads. - Kobo Inc. releases its Kobo eReaderKobo eReaderThe Kobo eReader is an e-book reader produced by Toronto-based company Kobo Inc. The original version was released in July 2010 and was marketed as a minimalist alternative to the more expensive e-book readers available at the time. , fifty-eight percent of Kobo Inc is owned by Indigo Books & Music...
to be sold at IndigoIndigo Books and MusicIndigo Books & Music Inc. is a Canadian retail bookstore chain. The company was founded in 1996 by CEO Heather Reisman, wife of Gerry Schwartz, majority owner and CEO of Onex Corporation....
/ChaptersChaptersChapters is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a company in its own right competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001.-History:...
in Canada and BordersBorders GroupBorders Group, Inc. was an international book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company employed approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores....
in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
reported that its e-book sales outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010. - Amazon releases the third generation kindle, available in 3G+Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi versions.
- Kobo Inc. releases an updated Kobo eReaderKobo eReaderThe Kobo eReader is an e-book reader produced by Toronto-based company Kobo Inc. The original version was released in July 2010 and was marketed as a minimalist alternative to the more expensive e-book readers available at the time. , fifty-eight percent of Kobo Inc is owned by Indigo Books & Music...
which now includes Wi-FiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
. - Barnes & Noble releases the new NOOKcolorNook ColorThe Nook Color is a color version of the Nook e-reader device by Barnes & Noble. It is a 7-inch tablet with full-color multitouch touchscreen input. The device is designed for full-color viewing of books, newspapers, magazines, and children's picture books...
. - Sony releases its second generation Daily Edition PRS-950.
- PocketBookPocketBook ReaderPocketBook is a series of devices primarily for e-reading by PocketBook International, a Hong Kong based multinational company headquartered in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. USA headquarters are located in Overland Park, Kansas ....
expands its successful line of e-readers in the ever-growing market. - Google launches Google eBooks
2011
- Barnes & Noble releases the new Nook - The Simple Touch Reader
- Amazon.com announces in May that its e-book sales now exceed all of its printed book sales.
- BookeenBookeenBookeen is French company dealing with eBooks and Consumer electronics.- History :In 2003 after the failure of Cytale two former engineers of Cytale, Laurent Picard and Michaël Dahan, bought the intellectual property of the Cytale reading device, the Cybook Gen1...
launches its own e-books store : BookeenStore.com and starts to sell digital versions of titles in French. - Nature PublishingNature Publishing GroupNature Publishing Group is an international publishing company that publishes academic journals, online databases, and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine...
publishes Principles of BiologyPrinciples of BiologyPrinciples of Biology is a college level biology electronic textbook published by Nature Publishing in 2011. The book is not a digitally reformatted version of a paper book. The book, the first in a projected series, is Nature Publishing's first foray into textbook publishing.-Format:Principles is...
, a customizable, modular textbook, with no corresponding paper edition. - Spanish brand bq readers launches bq Cervantes 2, the e-reader with the whitest screen at the moment.
Formats
There are a variety of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books. A writer or publisher has many options when it comes to choosing a format for production. Every format has its proponents and champions, and debates over which format is best can become intense.Comparison to printed books
Advantages
Over 2 million free books are available for download as of August 2009. Mobile availability of e-books may be provided for users with a mobile data connection, so that these e-books need not be stored on the device. An e-book can be offered indefinitely, without ever going "out of printOut of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
". In the space that a comparably sized print book takes up, an e-reader can potentially contain thousands of e-books, limited only by its memory capacity. If space is at a premium, such as in a backpack or at home, it can be an advantage that an e-book collection takes up little room and weight.
E-book websites can include the ability to translate books into many different languages, making the works available to speakers of languages not covered by printed translations. Depending on the device, an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. Many newer readers have the ability to display motion, enlarge or change fonts, use Text-to-speech software to read the text aloud for visually impaired, partially sighted, elderly or dyslectic people, search for key terms, find definitions, or allow highlighting bookmarking and annotation. Devices that utilize E Ink
E Ink
E Ink is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997 based on research started at the MIT Media Lab...
can imitate the look and ease of readability of a printed work while consuming very little power, allowing continuous reading for weeks at time.
While an e-book reader costs much more than one book, the electronic texts are at times cheaper. Moreover, a great share of e-books are available online for free, minus the minimal costs of the electronics required. For example, all fiction from before the year 1900 is in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. Also, libraries lend more current e-book titles for limited times, free samples are available of many publications, and there are other lending models being piloted as well. E-books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on-demand book printers.
An e-book can be purchased/borrowed, downloaded, and used immediately, whereas when one buys or borrows a book, one must go to a bookshop, a home library, or public library during limited hours, or wait for a delivery. The production of e-books does not consume paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
and ink
Ink
Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...
. The necessary computer or e-reader uses less materials. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce. Depending on possible digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, e-books can be backed up to recover them in the case of loss or damage and it may be possible to recover a new copy without cost from the distributor. Compared to printed publishing, it is cheaper and easier for authors to self-publish e-books. Also, the dispersal of a free e-book copy can stimulate the sales of the printed version.
Drawbacks
Ebook formats and file types continue to develop and change through time through advances and developments in technology or the introduction of new proprietary formats. While printed books remain readable for many years, e-books may need to be copied or converted to a new carrier or file type over time. Because of proprietary formats or lack of file support, formatted e-books may be unusable on certain readers. PDF and epub are growing standards, but are not universal.Paper books can be bought and wrapped for a present and a library of books can provide visual appeal, while the digital nature of e-books makes them non-visible and intangible. E-books cannot provide the physical feel of the cover, paper, and binding of the original printed work. An author who publishes a book often puts more into the work than simply the words on the pages. E-books may cause people "to do the grazing and quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author's ideas". They may use the e-books simply for reference purposes rather than reading for pleasure and leisure. Books with large pictures (such as children's books) or diagrams are more inconvenient for viewing and reading.
A book will never turn off and would be unusable only if damaged or after many decades. The shelf life of a printed book exceeds that of an e-book reader, as over time the reader's battery will drain and require recharging. Additionally, "As in the case of microfilm, there is no guarantee that [electronic] copies will last. Bits become degraded over time. Documents may get lost in cyberspace...Hardware and software become extinct at a distressing rate." E-book readers are more susceptible to damage from being dropped or hit than a print book. Due to faults in hardware or software, e-book readers may malfunction and data loss can occur. As with any piece of technology, the reader must be protected from the elements (such as extreme cold, heat, water, etc.), while print books are not susceptible to damage from electromagnetic pulses, surges, impacts, or temperatures typically found in automobiles on a hot day.
The cost of an e-book reader far exceeds that of a single book, and e-books often cost the same as their print versions. Due to the high cost of the initial investment in some form of e-reader, e-books are cost prohibitive to much of the world's population. Furthermore, there is no used e-book market, so consumers will neither be able to recoup some of their costs by selling an unwanted title they have finished, nor will they be able to buy used copies at significant discounts, as they can now easily do with printed books. Because of the high-tech appeal of the e-reader, they are a greater target for theft than an individual print book. Along with the theft of the physical device, any e-books it contains also become stolen. E-books purchased from vendors like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com are stored "in the cloud" on servers and "digital lockers" and have the benefit of being easily retrieved if an e-reading device is lost. Not all e-booksellers are cloud based; if an e-book is stolen, accidentally lost, or deleted, in the absence of a backup it may have to be repurchased.
The display resolution
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
s of reading devices are currently lower than those of printed materials and may cause discomfort due to glare on the screen or difficulty holding the device. Due to digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, customers typically cannot resell or loan their e-books to other readers. However, some Barnes & Noble e-books are lendable for two weeks via their 'LendMe' technology. Additionally, the potential for piracy of e-books may make publishers and authors reluctant to distribute digitally. E-book readers require various toxic substances to produce, are non-biodegradable, and the disposal of their batteries in particular raises environmental concerns. As technologies rapidly change and old devices become obsolete, there will be larger amounts of toxic wastes that are not easily biodegradable like paper..
Reading devices for e-books in a reflowable format
Reflowable document
A reflowable document is a type of electronic document that can adapt its presentation to the output device. Typical desktop publishing output formats like PostScript or PDF are page-oriented, so are not generally reflowable , whereas the world wide web standard, HTML is a reflowable format.The...
such as EPUB
EPUB
EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum...
may display page numbers, but these numbers change from device to device depending on factors such as the size of the display and the selected font size. This makes them unsuitable for citation
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
purposes. To remedy this problem, Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
e-books contain what are called "location numbers", that is, numbers in the margin of the electronic text that indicate where the corresponding page begins in the printed version of the book. However, if there is no standard hard copy in print, which may increasingly be the case as the popularity of digital publishing grows, these "location numbers" will not exist. APA, MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style have all tried to address the problem of accurate academic citation by recommending that versions be identified; e.g., Kindle edition, Kindle DX version, or any other “source of e-book". The wide variety of versions, text and font sizes make this solution impractical. The only real solution would be a standard format for all devices.
The USA's Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
requires the prohibition of e-book reader use on commercial airliners during takeoff and landing.
Digital rights management
Anti-circumventionAnti-circumvention
Anti-circumvention refers to laws which prohibit the circumvention of technological barriers for using a digital good in certain ways which the rightsholders do not wish to allow...
techniques may be used to restrict what the user may do with an e-book. For instance, it may not be possible to transfer ownership of an e-book to another person, though such a transaction is common with physical books. Some devices can phone home to track readers and reading habits, restrict printing, or arbitrarily modify reading material. This includes restricting the copying and distribution of works in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
through the use of "click-wrap" licensing, effectively limiting the rights of the public to distribute, sell or use texts in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
freely.
Most e-book publishers do not warn their customers about the possible implications of the digital rights management tied to their products. Generally they claim that digital rights management is meant to prevent copying of the e-book. However in many cases it is also possible that digital rights management will result in the complete denial of access by the purchaser to the e-book. With some formats of DRM, the e-book is tied to a specific computer or device. In these cases the DRM will usually let the purchaser move the book a limited number of times after which they cannot use it on any additional devices. If the purchaser upgrades or replaces their devices eventually they may lose access to their purchase. Some forms of digital rights management depend on the existence of online services to authenticate the purchasers. When the company that provides the service goes out of business or decides to stop providing the service, the purchaser will no longer be able to access the e-book.
As with digital rights management in other media, e-books are more like rental or leasing than purchase. The restricted book comes with a number of restrictions, and eventually access to the purchase can be removed by a number of different parties involved. These include the publisher of the book, the provider of the DRM scheme, and the publisher of the reader software. These are all things that are significantly different from the realm of experiences anyone has had with a physical copy of the book.
Production
Some e-books are produced simultaneously with the production of a printed format, as described in electronic publishingElectronic publishing
Electronic publishing or ePublishing includes the digital publication of e-books and electronic articles, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed scientific journals are in...
, though in many instances they may not be put on sale until later. Often, e-books are produced from pre-existing hard-copy books, generally by document scanning, sometimes with the use of robotic book scanner
Robotic book scanner
A robotic book scanner is a machine which is used to scan books, integrating automated components that allow the device to exceed the speed of traditional manual imaging devices such as camera stands...
s, having the technology to quickly scan books without damaging the original print edition. Scanning a book produces a set of image files, which may additionally be converted into text format by an OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
program. Occasionally, as in some e-text projects, a book may be produced by re-entering the text from a keyboard.
As a newer development, sometimes only the electronic version of a book is produced by the publisher. It is even possible to release an e-book chapter by chapter as each chapter is written. This is useful in fields such as information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
where topics can change quickly in the months that it takes to write a typical book (See: Realtime Publishers
Realtime Publishers
Realtime Publishers is a San Francisco-based content marketing and publishing company focused on supporting the IT industry. RTP publications focus mainly on IT topics, and chapters for each publication are released and posted as they are written...
). It is also possible to convert an electronic book to a printed book by print on demand
Print on demand
Print on demand , sometimes called, in error, publish on demand, is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received...
. However these are exceptions as tradition dictates that a book be launched in the print format and later if the author wishes an electronic version is produced.
As of 2010, there is no industry-wide e-book bestseller list, but various e-book vendors compile bestseller lists, such as those by Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
Bestsellers and Fictionwise
Fictionwise
Fictionwise, owned by Barnes & Noble, is one of the largest electronic book sellers in North America with an estimated 1.5 million ebook content units sold in 2008. Fictionwise sells ebooks in various formats...
. Two yearly awards for excellence in e-books are the EPIC eBook Award (formerly EPPIE) given by EPIC
EPIC
-Technology:* Explicitly parallel instruction computing, a design philosophy based on VLIW used in Itanium CPUs* EPIC , Executive-Process/Interactive Control, for artificial intelligence studies* Electromagnetic Personal Interdiction Control...
, and the Dream Realm Award for science fiction, fantasy and horror e-books. Both awards have been given since 2000.
e-Readers
e-book readerE-book reader
An e-book reader, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals....
, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is a mobile electronic device
Mobile computing
Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals. An e-book reader is similar in form to a limited purpose tablet computer
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
.
Market shares
See also
- Accessible publishingAccessible publishingAccessible publishing is an approach to publishing and reading whereby books and other texts aren't only available in one standard format. Other formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds of reading...
- BlookBlookA blook is printed book that contains or is based on content from a blog.The first printed blook was User Interface Design for Programmers, by Joel Spolsky, published by Apress on June 26, 2001, based on his blog Joel on Software...
- Cell phone novel
- Digital libraryDigital libraryA digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
- Flexible electronicsFlexible electronicsFlexible electronics, also known as flex circuits, is a technology for assembling electronic circuits by mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, PEEK or transparent conductive polyester film. Additionally, flex circuits can be screen printed silver circuits on...
- List of digital library projects
- Networked bookNetworked bookA networked book is an open book designed to be written, edited, and read in a networked environment. It is also a platform for social exchange, and is potentially linked to other books and other discussions...
- Online book
- Tablet computerTablet computerA tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
- Web fiction