Why iPad?

iPad comes with the nice lay out and has a large color capacitive, multi-touch screen. It uses the same iOS that’s used on the iPhone and iPod Touch, makes it instantly familiar for consumers. It contains many available apps in market which makes it more effective than other devices.

According to James McQuivey, Forrester Research principal analyst “there are about 6 million people who are gearing up this year to buy an e-reader. And they’re going to spend between $250 and $700 on it”. It shows the increasing value of the devices in ebook market. As iPad is coming up with many features, it might attract many consumers towards it. Apple is not pushing this as a Laptop or the Netbook replacement, but as an audio/visual entertainments product.

As an eReader, one of the main advantages of iPad is the ePub format compatibility. Which separates it from the Kindle (Kindle can play only mobi ebook format). ePub is a format which can be played on different devices and Apple’s iPad gives a very nice rendering of the ePub format. ePub is the open ebook format, used by many online stores. The books purchased through the iBooks Store are actually in ePub format, but include DRM to prevent unauthorized sharing or copying.

You can go with the Barnes & Noble Nook also but it is not compatible with large number of apps as Apple iPad does. If you are a Kindle owner and want to switch over to iPad or if you are already an iPad owner and just want to buy a book from Kindle store, then Kindle for iPad is a very useful application.

For books that do not have DRM, you can also convert other formats to ePub and then sync them to the iPad via iTunes. ePub can also be converted to other formats like .Mobi, .prc, .Lit etc.

The Apple iPad’s native eBook format is ePub. This of course makes sense as many publishers have been working on creating their content in this format, therefore Apple haven’t forced the providers to come up with another format yet. So over all iPad with the multifunction facilities and nice rendering of ePub, is the best eBook reader in the current market.

eBookHands offering the ePub conversion of Apple iPad. We follow the IDPF standards to produce validated ePub files from .indd, PDF, Word and other formats.

The author is the Team coordinator of eBook conversion team at ebookhands.com.

Here are two quick questions to consider when qualifying a vendor…

1) Do they have samples and references?
In a job interview you always ask for references, why not do the same with an eBook conversion company? With all the variance in formats, and eReader devices, you want to make sure the company you are considering has worked with the format you need. A good, experienced company will have resources ready to show you. Ask for references of publishers or authors that they have worked with before. Look at their samples. Call a previous client and ask about the company’s project performance and value. In the end you will be glad you did.

2) How about a test project with a prospective eBook conversion service company?
There is wisdom in taking it slow with new relationships. Giving an eBook conversion company a chance to prove itself has a number of advantages:

• It builds trust
• You get to experience how communication will flow
• (Most importantly) you see that the company can do the job right.

If you can get the appropriate answers to the above two questions you are well on you way to finding an eBook conversion service company you can trust with your digital publishing projects. Doing some homework and a few test projects will pay off in the long run. Happy hunting.

The report also indicated that eReadership is more amongst the affluent (US Income of US$75,000 or more) with college education than with lesser income group. It can be implied that the cost of eReaders is still prohibitive and keeping the lower middle class from entering into the market. However, in our opinion, this should change as eReading apps for smartphones start to emerge.

What does this research mean to you as an author or publisher considering to publish an eBook?

1. You have to be patient with your ebook sales. The market though climbing fast, is still very new.
2. If your titles are aimed at the mass market, then significant eBook sales will have to wait till adoption of eReaders increases.
3. Promoting your ebooks is as important as converting them. There is a possibility that readers do not know that your books are available in the leading eBook formats such as ePub for iPad, Kindle and ePDF for multiple eBooks. Therefore, on and off line marketing may be required.
]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/how-big-is-ereadership/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookhands.com/ebook-conversion-good-news-for-publishers/ http://www.ebookhands.com/ebook-conversion-good-news-for-publishers/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:43:27 +0000 Jeff http://www.ebookhands.com/?p=295
Good news for publishers, print companies and writers! In what might be the best, and certainly disruptive, thing to come to the industry since the softcover book, ebooks now present a new and exciting medium to market published content. This has created new channels for revenue and savvy publishers and independent authors are making sure they have a piece of the action. Every day more and more are proactively converting their published works to digital ebook formats such as:
• ePub
• HTML
• OTML
• Mobi
• XML
• Amazon Kindle AZW
• Microsoft .LIT
• Adobe .pdf
• IDPF .epub
• Libretto Digital Library System

Warning: No Free Lunch
But converting these books into ebooks which will ‘fit’ and ‘run’ in the sleek new ebook readers, like iPad and Amazon’s Kindle, requires a little more than just ‘cut, paste & convert’. Despite the conversion software available the process of ebook formatting often demands a time intense, hands-on approach to make sure that the book in its entirety will properly display on the eReader devices. This is especially important with ePub format conversion as the ePub may run on multiple readers. This will take time and effort so plan accordingly. You may want to consider a vendor who specializes in ebook conversion into multiple formats?

But a Lot of Dessert!
But hard work and investment aside, many publishers are realizing the return-on-investment (ROI) is pretty bright as more and more people adopt to reading ebooks through eReader devices or even their tablets, hand phones, BlackBerrys and PDAs. It’s like the move from hardcover to paperback, why not do it?

Better Get in Line…
Some people think ebooks means “free books”. There are free books out there, and the DRM debate continues, but the general industry consensus is to stake your claim and to convert your published content to an ebook format before Google or some other entity does it for you. This will earn you a place at the bargaining table when the revenue/royalty pies are getting cut up. Again, why not convert your published works?

The Supporting Cast
eBookHands has a dedicated team experienced in ebook conversion. If you have books which need to need to be converted to digital formats like valid ePub, Mobi/AZW or any of the others we can help. We provide a quality, hands on approach to produce ebooks which will run on the desired format and our pricing is very competitive. We also have samples and references for your assurance. The good news is that ebooks are here, but will people be reading your published works on their eReader device?

]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/ebook-conversion-good-news-for-publishers/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookhands.com/retailing-your-epub-on-the-web-via-pub-it/ http://www.ebookhands.com/retailing-your-epub-on-the-web-via-pub-it/#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:39:11 +0000 admin http://www.ebookhands.com/?p=415
eBookhands receives lots of inquiries for converting their books into ePub format but the avenues for distributing an ePub to retailers such as iBooks, ebooks.com or Sony ebooks is not as simple as selling on Amazon.com. But recently Amazon’s competitor, Barnes and Noble, has launched a new service for independent authors called Pub it!which is their response to Amazon’s Digital Platform.
Following are some highlights for Independent Authors:
1. All that is needed to publish a book via Pub it! is a valid U.S. Bank Account, U.S. Credit Card, and U.S. Tax ID (or your SSN or EIN).
2. For marketing purposes B&N would be permitted to display “via download all front matter of an eBook and up to five percent (5%) of an eBook’s content (nonexclusive of an eBook’s front matter) free as a sampler.” Also remember that within a store each Nook user has complete access to your eBook, just like any other author.
3. Royalties: Publisher will be paid a royalty off the List Price according to the following terms:
   1. For eBooks with a List Price at or between $2.99 and $9.99 – 65% of the List Price
   2. For eBooks with a List Price at or below $2.98 or at or greater than $10.00 (but not more than $199.99 and not less than $0.99) – 40% of the List Price
4. eBook conversion: Barnes & Noble have their own eBook conversion tool with the Nook emulator. If you have not already converted your eBook to ePub, PubIt! has a free tool to convert Microsoft Word (.DOC and .DOCX), HTML, RTF, and TXT files into ePub. You can preview your titles on a NOOK emulator before submitting them. Note that you will need to follow their formatting guide to have a successful sale.

Very soon I will be providing feedback on the Nook emulator and its usefulness to independent authors. Of course, if you want professional work for a valid ePub conversion, you can always hand your manuscript over to eBookHands. It might be cheaper than you think?

]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/retailing-your-epub-on-the-web-via-pub-it/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookhands.com/epub-universal-format-for-ereader-devices/ http://www.ebookhands.com/epub-universal-format-for-ereader-devices/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:29:22 +0000 admin http://www.ebookhands.com/?p=313
Up until now the E-publishing industry and publishers have had to choose from many different format options when it comes to converting a book so that it could be used and read on eReader devices like Kindle, SonyReader, Nook and iPad. The eBook conversion industry was lacking a universal standard to run the format on multiple devices. Publishers either had to “bet” on a format, or pay much more money to have the book converted to most of the popular ones. Thankfully that appears to be changing with the help of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

Presently, there is no such format available on the market which gives 100% certainty to run on every eReader Device. However the IDPF’s ePub format is the only format which can be run on the most devices. An ePub file can run on devices like iPad, Sony Reader, Nook, Adobe Digital Edition and others. Also you can run it on Blackberry cell phones and Apple’s iPhone & iPod. Sounding better?

Also, the ePub format can be converted to other formats like Mobi, Pdb and RTF etc. This means you can run on devices like Kindle and Barnes & Noble.

So an ePub file will work on many devices and is able to be converted to most of the other devices.

ePub keeps the standards of well-defined style sheets. Since most publishers use an .indd format for book publishing (or Adobe PDF or MS Word) ePub files are created using .indd conversion extensions. Likewise there are similar conversion extensions for other formats.

Remember that validation is important so make sure that your ePub conversion vendor conforms to all the standards defined by the IDPF and structure of xhtml files. Better yet ask for samples of their work. A universal ebook conversion standard for ebook readers is still out there, but for digital publishers the IDPF’s ePub format appears to be a step in the right direction.

eBookHands offering services for the ePub conversion process. We follow the IDPF standards to produce validated ePub files from .indd, pdf, Word and other formats.

The author is the Team coordinator of eBook conversion team at ebookhands.com.

]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/epub-universal-format-for-ereader-devices/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookhands.com/should-i-get-an-ebook-isbn-for-my-existing-book/ http://www.ebookhands.com/should-i-get-an-ebook-isbn-for-my-existing-book/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:54:04 +0000 admin http://www.ebookhands.com/?p=285
If you are an independent author who has published a book in the past and are wondering whether you need to get a new ISBN for your ebook, then you are not alone. The quagmire created by the digital book industry surely makes it hard to determine what the best step is for you as an author or an independent publisher.

ISBN or International Standard Book Number, is an identifier for the book industry that distinguishes your book from all the rest of the books out there in the world. There are close to 160 agencies globally those offers the service of providing an ISBN and the cost of an ISBN can be high upto a $100 depending on the services you get along with it. On a site selling ISBN, you may come across claims that indicate ISBN allows people to find your book even online visitors – they state that the entire search engines key off an ISBN (Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Bing) and it is important for being able to sell your books. While it is true that bookstores organize their database listings off on the basis of an ISBN (such as Borders, B&N), I believe that getting your book exposed on search engine does not require ISBN. Especially not a specific ISBN for your eBooks. What you may require for your books to come high on search engine results is a well thought through internet marketing strategy for your website selling your ebook.

Many publishers choose to have eBook ISBN, as it allows better reporting of their sales data. But come to think of it, books on CD or Audio books don’t necessarily have additional ISBNs. And what about different eBook formats? Should you have a new ISBN for Kindle .mobi or .ePub or eReader etc? If you do require reporting of your book sales then having a format specific ISBN may not be of any additional help. Since most eBook content is being sold online and through web retail outlets, it would not require that books be sold on a separate ISBN to generate reports of formats or even volume. The web applications selling ebooks should be able to provide you with the reports.

ISBN, as an organization, requires that your current print book ISBN should not (or even cannot) be used for your eBook ISBN. In fact they recommend using a separate ISBN for each format for your eBook (one for Kindle mobi and another for ePub). However, something to be noted is that Amazon.com does not require an author to have an ISBN in order to be able to sell the books on their website. Technology is changing the publication industry and the old barriers for entry of good literature are being removed. Welcome to the good news of digital publication.

The writer of this post is Sumeet Gulati, Director of Services at eBookHands.com, a service initiative of ITHands, Inc.

If you require specific information on how to sell your books in an ebook format, please contact

]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/should-i-get-an-ebook-isbn-for-my-existing-book/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookhands.com/taking-your-books-to-the-digital-world/ http://www.ebookhands.com/taking-your-books-to-the-digital-world/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 04:57:22 +0000 admin http://draft.ebookhands.com/?p=1
Top 5 challenges for an Author or Publisher going digital.

Making your way through the decision making on who to work with to convert your books to ebook formats is not an easy task. Finding an experienced eBook conversion specialist with a large capacity and a reasonable rate can also be a challenge. There are many important factors to consider when partnering with a eBook conversion company and beginning your journey of converting your books to e-Book formats.

5 E’s of e-books
1. Exploring the Strategy:
   The eBook landscape is not in the straight plains but in a constantly shaking and sometime volcanic territory. This is a world where decisions of buyers are being shaped by the launch of an iPad, or a new version of Sony reader or a new smart phone application. Publishers and Authors who have their focus and expertise on content are in a constant state of flux about how to navigate in such a territory.
   • What titles should I select?
   • Is there a way to test the market?
   • What are my retail options?
   • How do eBooks impact my marketing approach?

   eBookHands understand the questions in the mind of a publisher and our team will help navigate your approach to e-books. Learn more at our eBook consultation page.

2. Evaluating the Technology:
   Until now, publishers consider their activities to revolve around the business of editing, producing, and marketing of books, newspapers, magazines.
   However, Pascal Honscher, general manager of O’Reilly’s has made an accurate statement. “To succeed in this new world, publishers must make their content available in multiple digital formats and distribute it through many channels.” No doubt that it is technology that is driving the publishing business now but you publishers shouldn’t have to wait to become technology companies. Read about what is the technology behind various readers in e-books.
3. Electing the Right Team:
   Even if you ave figured out the strategy there is still a lot to understand and much to do before you can get to your first e-book, including converting and formatting files, finding new distribution channels, coming up with new creative ways to promote books, collecting and analyzing sales data for price testing, and managing potential rights issues. eBookHands offers ebook conversion services and ebook back office services.
4. Establish the Quality Benchmarks:
   Reading is an experience in learning and enjoyment. Publishers have mastered the art of making engaging covers, balanced typesetting for easy reading and fine illustrations for a smooth reading experience. However, sadly majority of publishers are making the mistake of choosing a eBook conversion team based on lowest cost. This is primarily due to lack of understanding of where things can go wrong with an eBook. Learn about Quality in eBooks as you make an important decision.
5. Execute the Post Production Activities:
   According to Association of American Publishers and Forester Research eBook would be a US$6.6 Billion market by 2015. So the decision to go digital is an easy one. However, even after you have successfully produced an e-book with the right team, an important task is to make them available to the right distribution networks and online retail store. Along with this authors require a complementing social media marketing in order to access the readers in the locations where they are most available. Read about our post production services in eBook promotion service as well as in our FAQ section.
]]> http://www.ebookhands.com/taking-your-books-to-the-digital-world/feed/ 1