Providing Creative Alternatives

What are Ebooks?

Ebooks are downloadable books in the form of computer files, sometimes free but usually for sale. They cover many topics, most commonly how-to information that is very up-to-date.

They are often in the format of a PDF file, which can be used by people running Macs, UNIX, DOS, or any other operating system as well as Windows. Ebooks in the form PDF files can be read using the free Adobe Acrobat reader, available at www.adobe.com. There's a lot else at that site but you can find the reader from prominent links on the home page.

If a publisher says that their ebook is only available for Windows, then probably the ebook was created with a different ebook creation program.

How to Find Ebooks on Topics that Interest You

Many ebooks are offered for sale through a company called Clickbank. Any publisher or writer can sign up with them and have Clickbank handle the credit card transactions and providing the link to the download page. Clickbank is highly regarded for its care in how it handles sensitive credit card data. It is very particular about accepting credit cards, to avoid problems.

To look around through Clickbank and see what is there, click in the box. If you have an ebook, you can also sign up through this link for Clickbank to carry it.

There are all kinds of ebooks there.

Now I must say that a lot of the ebooks that are published are pretty bad... outdated, hastily written, badly formatted, not all that informative, and so on. Clickbank offers a money back guarantee and all publishers going through them have to offer this as well. You don't even have to deal with the publisher if you want your money back. Just notify Clickbank.

If you buy an ebook from a company that doesn't go through Clickbank, be sure you check their reviews or returns policy before spending your money.

Why Do I Love Ebooks?

As a reader, I greatly enjoy being able to read an ebook almost immediately after learning of its existence. I pay with my credit card, I download, and I print my ebooks out to my laser printer and put them in a binder -- or I just read on my computer. I am fascinated by the variety of topics covered, and I appreciate the money-back guarantees. I buy how-to ebooks primarily, and often I want the information right now.

As a publisher, I like the freedom to publish a book without spending several thousand dollars on a gamble. In our twenty years of publishing, Kelly and I have brought out far more videos (at several hundred dollars for the first run) than books (at least $3,000.00 a time). With the advent of the publishing on demand technology, a PDF file can be printed as a short-run paperback for just a few dollars. We are just beginning to experiment with Publishing on Demand; two places that do it on a small scale are Cafepress (this link is to my page about their tee-shirt publishing mainly) and Lulu Press.

To see an ebook that Kelly and produced, check out the website for his Which Hobbit Lives Here? Reflections on Society and Sustainability. This pushes the envelope of artistic ebook publishing, with attractive layouts and numerous color photos. Another ebook I published is Atomsk, an out-of-print spy novel written by science fiction writer Cordwainer Smith, my father.