Believe it or not, ebooks didn't suddenly come into existence just a couple of years ago with the advent of ebook reading devices such as Amazon.com's Kindle, and Barnes and Noble's Nook, among others.
In fact, I have been creating, publishing and selling ebooks online for almost a decade now. Nevertheless, with all of the portable hand-held ebook reading devices (aka eReaders) that have been introduced into the market over the last couple of years, the whole idea of downloadable ebooks seems to have finally caught fire. Overall, I believe this is a good development, in the sense that it makes access to information published in book form easier for the average person than ever before.
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However, anyone contemplating a switch from hard copy printed books to downloadable ebooks should be advised beforehand that ebooks are NOT a perfect substitute for traditional printed books NOR are all ebooks equal. I know this from my personal experience as an author, a publisher, and a reader.
PDF Still the Gold Standard
In 2001 I created and published my first ebook in PDF format. For those who may not know, PDF stands for the Portable Document Format that was created by adobe.com in the early days of online publishing. As I write this, PDF formatted books, papers, and reports proliferate throughout the online space and are, by far, the most common format used for such documents. There are numerous advantages to PDF formatted books and documents, not the least of which is that they can be instantly downloaded and read using the free Adobe Reader program that has been installed on virtually every PC and Mac that exists.
From an author/publisher perspective, PDF is the ideal format for ebooks. That's because PDF documents use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) formatting, so whatever the document, it will always appear in EXACTLY the same format in which it was created. This holds true whether the PDF document is being read online or printed out in hard copy form. So, if your book contains any type of special layout and/or formatting, that will be totally preserved when published as a PDF document.
Don't Expect "Real Book" Formatting With ebooks
On the other hand, the new hand-held ebook reading devices, such as Amazon.com's Kindle, do not preserve the special formatting of a PDF ebook. In fact, as I learned recently through personal experience; in order to produce an ebook product that will be readable in such a device, the creator/publisher needs to seriously "dumb down" the formatting of a book. The reason for this is that the format of ebooks destined for these new reading devices must be kept very simple so that the text will be able to easily "flow around" in the typical small screen of an eReader. That's because these devices allow the reader to dynamically adjust various parameters such as font style, point size, and line spacing.
As a result, the concept of a fixed "page", as we know it in a conventional book, no longer exists with these devices. This means that standard page-dependent elements such as page numbers, and page headers and footers, cannot exist in ebooks formatted for these devices. Also, graphics and tables that are often created and sized to fit in a specific place, on a specific page, in a specific format -- as in the original book -- do not convert well when formatted for these ebook reading devices.
Formatting Challenge For Authors and Publishers
If you are a creator or publisher, don't expect that you will be able to duplicate the exact "look and feel" of a printed paper book with an ebook that you format for one of these new ebook reading devices. (i..e. Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc.). Be prepared to minimize your formatting and to limit it strictly to headings, sub-headings, and chapter breaks. As for tables and graphics, you will have to test each one of them to see how well they convert to the new format; and you may well have to redesign and/or eliminate some graphics for the ebook-reader version.
Convenience and Portability For Readers
As a reader who uses one of these reading-device ebooks, don't expect to have the same experience as when you read a standard book that is printed on paper. In spite of the above-mentioned formatting limitations, you will, in most cases, have access to the same information that is contained in the standard printed book -- but the "reading experience" will be decidedly different. You may find that it is more akin to surfing the Net on your netbook, mobile phone, or PC, than like reading a real book. Some folks will be comfortable with this, others won't.
I purchased one of these eReader devices so that I could see exactly what my newly published Kindle ebook would look like on one, and I was less than impressed. You won't ever find me curling up in bed with one of these things, as I have done for years (and continue to do) with real books.
Nevertheless, I can see certain situations in which one might find reading with one of these devices useful -- convenience and portability when travelling, for example. These eReaders also have certain handy built-in functions such as a direct dictionary access, or if your device is Wi-Fi enabled you will be able to access the Web directly. So you might find one handy if you are in a hurry and you just want quick access to the information that is contained in the ebook, with little concern for the actual book reading experience.
Ebooks Are Not True Substitutes For Real Books BARNES AND NOBLE APPLETON WI