By D. H. Connor
E-books are quickly becoming, if not so already, an important alternative to paper books and thousands of e-books are downloaded through the Internet every day.
Introduction
The books are making steady in-roads with readers and are starting to be trendy. E-books are any type of book that you read in electronic format and are generally available in every category and genre, from bestsellers to classic works. Ideal for home study and reference. People are becoming e-book converts, and this article tries to share the reasons, possibly, that e-books are a successful communication trend.
Range of Information
If you are looking for information on a topic and can get it NOW, that's good. E-books must have their place, especially for time-sensitive information such as Internet Marketing or SEO where the information changes quickly. But e-books sell like hotcakes when they contain PRACTICAL information in ready-to-use form.
If users need the most up-to-date knowledge, then there is a tremendous advantage to publishing the data electronically. It is hard to find a subject, which is not covered in e-book format.
Availability
Clearly e-books are books that are available in digital format and easy to access. Each book is in your hands (metaphorically speaking) and available to read almost instantly.
Some e-books are available only through a library; others have to be paid for but a substantial number, particularly in the public domain, are free. All are easily accessible on the web. You are normally taken to an e-book listing page, where the e-book is made available instantly for download.
Since e-books are online, they are available at your convenience - anywhere, anytime. Many e-books are available long before they could be released through the traditional print publishing channels.
Reading
As a delivery system, some people have commented that, an e-book is unconstructed, of low design and packaging and benefits the author/publisher, more than the customer/reader. Although the fundamental reading experience between an e-book and a paper book is the same, there are special benefits of eReaders.
Some use an e-book reader to adjust the font to a readable size. Great for visually impaired readers! Readers feature touch-screen page turning and book marking to facilitate quick returns to noteworthy sections, adjustable font size and colour and full text search. In fact all that you need for an enriched reading experience.
Software programmes are available for handheld devices. For instance, you can download an e-book to your PC and then send it to your Pocket PC if the Reader versions installed on both devices are activated with the same Reader account.
When reading an e-book online you may print or copy as much of it as required for your session or convenience.
As a question, after standards are set and formats are improved, will e-books find a place in readers' hearts? (I'm not convinced anyone would want to come home, slide into bed, and then curl up with an e-book reader the same way they would with a traditional book).
Business
Business books, suspense books, thrillers and romance, all sell.
E-books also provide an invaluable way to gather marketing information, which you can use in many different facets of a business.
Selling e-books, though it is highly profitable, is not a business where you make hundreds of dollars per sale.
There are also innumerable ways to use e-books to promote your business and drive quality traffic to your website. Lots of classics are available as e-books that are completely free, also e-books on businesses and marketing topics.
A lot of well-known experts agree that information products, especially e-books are without any doubt the number one home based business opportunity.
Buy
You don't have to buy an e-book. But many people do buy e-books because they want the convenience of having an easy to print, easy to use version of the content.
If you buy the printable e-book you can print as many copies as you like, either entire documents or page by page, or copy and paste sections into your own course notes say, subject to copyright. A proviso is that you should have a pretty good idea of what you are buying.
Cost
Cost effective: Cost must be one of the main advantages of e-books over the traditional paper book.
If you are a student, you can subscribe to e-books and print pages/chapters of reference material.
E-books should be cheaper than print books (though a lot of publishers haven't discovered that yet J) because the production costs are much lower. There are no hidden costs, no postage to pay.
The costs involved in producing and selling a traditional book are prohibitive for the average person. At one time the capital costs of publishing meant that only a select few companies could produce books for sale on even a national scale. For low volumes, the cost of printing a paper book is very high compared to putting it out as an e-book.
With e-books, readers will have the chance to try out an author with whom they're unfamiliar without chancing a fairly substantial amount every time they do so.
Conclusion
E-books are a great way to catch up on your reading and are automatically returned at the end of your session! They are read for a wide variety of reasons and for an even wider variety of people.
E-books are alive and well and are one product that can serve a multitude of purposes. They are not the same as e-texts and given the standard of products now coming on to the market there is no doubt that e-books are entering the mainstream of publishing.
As of today, the number of available e-books on the Web is in the millions and more e-books are added to the market place each and every day.
And as you can probably see, e-books are truly packed with benefits.
Good luck and happy reading.
About the Author:
Dave Connor from www.connorebooks.com
Article Source: http://www.goarticles.com