An eBook is a digital media that is the same as any paperback book that you would purchase at your favorite bookstore. EBook stands for electronic book. EBooks can be read on the computer or there are devices known as eBook readers where you can read them and now some mobile phones come with the capability of reading eBooks.

EBooks, when they were first introduced into society, were written for specific areas and a very small audience. They were basically only meant for small interest groups. Eventually the readership grew as Adobe came out with PDF formats making reading eBooks a whole lot easier. In fact, many authors whose books were rejected by your run-of-the-mill publisher were able to create their book in eBook format so that it could be sold and read by millions.

There are currently only two eBook readers that are on the market: The Amazon Kindle model or Sony’s PRS-500. The amazing thing is that eBooks are not available worldwide yet. And not ever author wants their works in an eBook format. Take J.K Rowling for example. The Harry Potter series author refuses to have any of her novels converted into eBook format.

Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of eBooks versus print books. Let’s start with the pros, the good stuff. With an eBook, the text can be searched online and cross referenced using hyperlinks, there is less physical space, an eBook reader can hold several eBooks which is easier to lug around than several print books, eBook authors earn continual royalties, eBook readers have text size and font face adjustments making eBook easier to read, you can open an eBook at the last page where you left off, eBooks are definitely cheaper to purchase than print books, because they are easier to distribute, eBooks can amount to higher sales, they require less ink to print and eBooks can have images and multimedia clips embedded. Now as with anything there are cons to eBooks. If the eBook is viewed on your personal pc, additional software may be needed, to view an eBook whether it be on a pc or reader, it requires extra electric consumption, looking at the screen for long periods of time may hurt your eyes and cause headaches, in order for an eBook to run properly, it relies on an electronic device and if that doesn’t work properly, reading an eBook would be impossible, eBook are easily hacked through the use of hardware of software modification without the author or publishers approval, if an eBook is not saved properly it could be lost in the cyberspace world forever and eBooks are very susceptible to piracy. Basically piracy is taking an eBook, copying it exactly and reselling it as your own. It is highly illegal.

With that said, eBooks are a huge part of the online publishing world. The possibilities in writing one are endless and promoting your eBook is just as easy with all the media outlets on the net today.

  

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