Why eBooks Will Become Important Media For Short Story Writers
Who would have guessed that in just a few years cell phones would be the new IT development platform paradigm? (Well, some did, but were waiting for the paradigm for distributing applications to mature.) Apple, by hook and by crook, made it happen with the iPhone.
Amazon made a similar move, by creating the Kindle platform for eBooks (preceded by Mobi, which Amazon bought last year).
These technology platforms are now converging with the Apple iPad and with the apps for cell phones to purchase and read eBooks. And last August, the International Digital Publishing Forum announced they would begin work on a new ePub format to supersede the current format that was developed in 2007, and which Apple has embraced for the new iPad.
I should also note that eBook readers are becoming increasingly available for PCs and non-Kindle/non-Apple devices. One that I use is actually a add-in for the Firefox browser called "ePub Reader" available at the Mozilla site. And Amazon has a PC -based reader for Kindle books (Mobi). They work just fine for those of us who are "screen-bound".
Today the two commercially viable publishing formats for eBooks are the Mobi format (Amazon) and the ePub format (nearly everyone else including Apple). The reason is, simply, that they provide the mechanisms for reading and distributing content wirelessly to a traditional audience of readers.
There's a lot of debate about eBooks, particularly by individuals who live and breathe for the "printed word". On the downside, eBooks are new, they're "technology", and they give neither the tactile feel nor psychological comfort that physical book media has traditionally provided.
And yet, in my opinion, eBooks will become increasingly important -- particularly to writers of short fiction -- because of commuting lifestyles. People who are commuting need quickly obtained, appropriately styled short content. Their lives are busy, and these readers use reading as a form of meditation and reflection. They require their media to be highly portable, inexpensive, and readily available for those few moments when they find the time to read.
My experience, so far, in converting my stories to eBooks is small. Technically, I've tried open source converters including Sigil (http://code.google.com/p/sigil/), Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/), MobiPocket Creator (http://www.mobipocket.com), and eCub (http://www.juliansmart.com/ecub), as well as the Smashwords service (http://www.smashwords.com).
It's not been an easy road to understand these open source mechanisms, and Smashwords offers the easiest road (with limitations) to making the conversion into multiple formats for the novice.
I was disappointed with Sigil because it is still very much a work-in-progress, is glitchy, and provides little or no support.
Calibre was also disappointing with its support and with extraneous fields that look like they do something, but don't push through to the actual ebook formats. (Publisher, tags, etc.) I liked their PC-based eBook viewer, but the package is really focused around converting eBooks that one owns from one device to another, and maintaining a database of personal eBooks.
Smashwords is a great service, but I've also found that their conversion process (MS Word to ePub, Mobi, etc.) does a terrible job of handling graphics.
eCub, by comparison, is workable. You can convert an HTML file (saved from Open Office), design a reasonable cover, and hook in external services (eBook viewer, eBook format checker, etc.) from other sources. It's creates its own "chapters" and "Table of Contents" from the number of files that you add to the eBook, making segmentation easy to figure out.
Below is the cover I created for one short story called "Climbing Mt. St. Helena".
eCub creates both ePub and Mobi formats pretty quickly, and the resulting eBooks are consistent.As far as distribution goes, today Amazon has the fastest means of getting your eBook in front of people. Unfortunately, their rates are higher than Smashwords (you get 35% vs. 55% from Smashwords) but since I'm pricing the books for "consumption" instead of "profit", I'm willing to take any resulting hit just to have a wider potential distribution.
I'll continue to investigate what works and doesn't, and as time permits, I'll post back here the results.
