Format Wars: Why Formats Matter

Format Wars: When WordStar was King is a nice article at Teleread that illustrates the problem of proprietary formats in ebooks by comparing what has happened with word processing formats.

There was a time when WordStar word processor was king. I remember it well because I used it and another early word processor, PerfectWriter on my first computer a KayPro II. WordStar quickly won the popularity race partly because they were quick to port to MS-DOS. Then Word Perfect became big only to be replaced by MS Word.

Now look at this from the ebook perspective: Rocket eBook used to be one standard, but it is dying slowly along with the aging Rocket Ebook hardware readers. How long before those books are unreadable? DRM schemes change, what happens if eReader or Mobipocket should go out of business?

Ebooks need to have a non-proprietary format so that collections do not become unreadable each decade.

Periodicals and POD Publishing

Here is a good example of print on demand technology (POD) being used to publish a magazine. Gryphonwood Press uses Lulu.com print on demand technology to publish a quarterly Fantasy genre magazine.

I think it makes a lot of sense to offer a ezine in both electronic and print formats. So if you are already publishing in PDF format, it is just a small step to also publish it in POD format. I think I would also add an electronic format specific to handhelds in addition to the print and POD versions.

Source: Tenebris

NewsArray

Slightly off topic, but I want to recommend NewsArray which is a directory of: newsletters, webzines, forums, weblogs and RSS feeds all organized into topical niches. The earlier discussions about niche content reminded me to mention NewsArray which is a neat source of niche news and content.

Right now the listings are mostly newsletters and ezines, so it would be nice to get some weblogs and forums listed. Anyway try it out and pass the word.

Niche Authors and Buyers are Huge in Sales

Both eBook Culture and Teleread have written facinating posts about this Wired article. I highly recommend reading all three.

This does dovetail with my favorite saw in regards to building and promoting websites: "find the niche and rule it." I think the same dynamics are at work with music, books, Internet Radio, and more.

Cybook: New Dedicated eBook Reader Plus

Cybook is a new dedicated ebook reading tablet which comes preloaded with several ebook readers (software) so that it covers many formats. Chief amongst the readers are Mobipocket and uBook Reader, both of which I hear good things about. This fine review by David Rothman at Teleread pretty much sums up my thoughts too.

This beats the heck out of earlier dedicated ebook readers like the late Rocket eBook Reader since it does not lock you into one proprietary format. Cybook looks like a nice setup, but at US$744 it is not cheap. I was just stressing about buying a Palm Tungsten C for US$399 but Cybook's $744 makes the Palm look cheap. Admittedly, the Cybook has more functions than just being an ebook reader, but it is also not a full Tablet computer either. I assume the Cybook makes it easier and less scary for a computer, ebook and/or handheld novice to get into reading ebooks. That is a good thing because getting started with ebooks in general and on a PDA in particular is not an intuitive process. If Cybook can lower some barriers I'm all for it.

Cybook runs on Windows CE OS, so at first I thought Mac users would be completely frozen out of Cybook use. However, there seem to be some workarounds: the unit has a modem if you are on dialup and it looks like you can purchase either an optional Ethernet card or a WiFi card if you are on cable internet. Those should allow anyone to directly download ebooks from online ebooksellers and collections using the Cybook's built in web browser. But those expansion cards add to the price of an already costly unit. One problem might be the initial installation of software on a new Cybook if one does not have a Windows PC. Native, Mac OS X support would be nice.

Despite the cost, Cybook is on the right track with a multi format approach that will read many different formats, including lots of non-DRM formats. Good for them, it puts them miles ahead of the DRM crippled Sony Libre.

Wikipedia on eBooks

The Wikipedia has a good section on ebooks.