Arthur Attwell
Electric Book Works
Ebooks 101

Preface

Think of the Internet as
the Great Database of
Human Knowledge

‘Ebooks’ =
Adding the world of
literature to the
Internet

‘Ebooks’ do not replace
print. Print is too
brilliant a way to
distribute the
information in the
Great Database.

The excitement about
‘electronic books’
is a phase.
That said, right now,
what should we know?

Preface, done.

1/5
Ebook readers
(hardware + software)

Kindle, Sony, iRex Iliad

Desktop PCs, netbooks

iPhone, Android phones

Phone web browsers

Ebook readers, done.

2/5
Ebook distribution
(where you find ebooks)

Ebook retailers

Audiobooks

Archives: Internet Archive

Archives: Google Books

Libraries

Content sharing sites

Free/sample PDFs

Books as website content

Ebook distribution, done.

3/5
Stats and speculation

In US and UK, ebooks
only 1–3% of turnover,
but

APA stats for wholesale
trade ebooks:
Jun 09 +136%.
($14,000,000 vs
June 08 $5,900,000)

On Amazon.com,
when print and Kindle
editions are available,
Kindle = 35% of sales

Ebooks in South Africa?
Developing countries
often adopt technology
later but faster than
developed ones

Don’t think it’s all about
ereaders and laptops,
think mobile phones
and institutional
computers

Stats and speculation, done.

4/5
Consumer basics

Know a bit about file
formats: esp. PDF, epub
(mistakenly called
‘Adobe’ formats)

Know how to spot DRM
(digital rights
management)
and what it means:

the unspoken rules of
‘ownership’ are
changing:
what you’re allowed to
do is no longer the same
as what you’re able to
do with your digital files

Consumer basics, done.

5/5
Publisher basics

Be curious about
technology

Challenge the way you
think about rights,
pricing, and piracy,
try something new

Experiment: there are
no established no-
brainers
(so pick a cheap, flexible
approach to learn by)

You can’t work alone:
use simple, non-
exclusive, popular
services
(e.g. Scribd, Symtext,
Stanza, Mxit)

Publisher basics, done.

electricbookworks.com

twitter.com/electricbook

thank you

EBW