Classic Gamer magazine switches from print to eperiodical...More
Japanese electronics companies launch new ebook readers...More
The E-book Society's first free epublication is now available...More
Bookmobile projects expand in India and Egypt...More
Indian government backs ebook project...More
Ebook author Cory Doctrow predicts that e-books will have to be the way that writers earn their keep, not the way that they promote the dead-tree editions...More
If you have any opinions about the development and use of e-books and e-publications in general please use this section to share your thoughts with others.
Society activities...
In the four weeks since the Society launched its web site and published its first e-book we have received a steady stream of new members, which will hopefully grow as the Society gets more publicity.
Active participating members of the Society have also been busy with a lot of progress being made by various workgroups and some new workgroups being established
Helping e-book authors
The Society’s e-book author and content creator Forum is now up and running and members will be receiving details about how to use it in the next newsletter. The Forum will hopefully encourage members to exchange ideas, and discuss problems associated with e-books and e-periodicals.
The Society held its first one day workshop for e-book authors in London over Easter, and was deemed a success by all those involved. The Society hopes to expand and develop the workshop concept and will be looking to run more in the future , both in London and in other parts of the world.
A new workgroup has been set up to develop interactive content for e-books, and to help with this the Society is currently looking to recruit members who are professional programmers with expertise in both Java and JavaScript.
Specifications for the Creative Contents database have been produced by the workgroup charged with its development. The database is aimed at e-book authors and creative content producers, such as writers, photographers, designers, artists, film makers, and animators. Multimedia e-books call for use of content from different people with different skills, this database will hopefully provide both a market place for content creators, and a source of content for e-book authors.
Promoting the use of e-books
Workgroup developing specifications for the creation of e-book for the Society’s library of free e-books has come up with some preliminary proposals for titles capable of being used both as an e-book and as a print on demand book.
The workgroup members are also proposing that the Society forges links with various bookmobile projects around the world, and with some of the big overseas aid charities to further promote the idea. Aiding the publishers and users of e-books
Workgroups developing IEPIN numbering system and e-publications database now starting to work on implementing a prototype system with the aim of having it running by mid June
The E-Publication database is designed to give e-book users a primary reference point when looking for an e-book on a particular subject, by a particular author, or in a particular language or format. The database will be accessible by any Internet user via the Society’s web site, and will allow users to search the database in a wide range of different ways. When the user finds what they are looking for, the database will provide a direct link to the publisher’s web site where the e-book may be purchased and/or downloaded.
Rather than spending hours searching the web for an e-book, the E-Book Society’s database will make that task much easier, in much the same way that ‘Books in Print’ makes it easier to find and order a printed book.
In the same way that the database will help e-book readers, it will also help e-book publishers, especially small publishers and self-publishing authors. Being listed on the database will make it easier for potential readers to find the publisher’s books, visit their web site, and acquire a copy or two. For the publisher the only requirement to being listed is to become a Society member, and fill out the appropriate online forms for each title.
Nick Hampshire Secretary the E-Book Society
April 20th 2004
Quote from an ebook author...
"Books come from the creative zizz of people with a vision. A vision of possibilities of future delights that they seek to bring into being?
Delights that they want to make and share with others? These often don't make it into the commercial daylight right away, look at Vincent van Gogh. Where was the demand for his work when he was alive?
For me this is true of the design, writing, recording and creation of e-books that are intrinsically interactive .... the thrilling, roller-coaster ride of digital media... integrated and dis-integrated, in an e-publication. It is fascinating because it HASN'T yet settled, we don't know how it will eventually run.
It is also stimulating because for the first time in my creative life I own the means of production, what I can say, and show digitally is less mediated by producers and publishers than it has ever previously been. That feeds my creative zizz.
Surely the future of e-books depends in the first instance on creative vision, resources, commitment, and capability, key features it would seem, of the E-Book Society's promising initiatives. "
From interactive e-book author and E-Book Society Member Denis Postle…
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