E-Books

E-books are electronic versions of books that do not require printed versions.  Many self-published writers are finding e-books to be a simple way to express their ideas without the cost and barriers involved with traditional publishing.  Amazon has been a leader in the industry with its Kindle reader while Apple has challenged the platform with its tablet the i-Pad.  My personal favorite for e-book reading and more is the Google Nexus 7 Tablet.

The popularity of e-books has skyrocketed in the second decade of the 21st century.  In May 2011 Amazon reported that its sales of e-books had surpassed sales of hard copy books.  A Pew Internet Project survey in 2012 showed that 21 percent of American adults had read an e-book within the past year.  It was also found that e-book readership favors people under age 50. A large majority of e-book readers read printed books as well.  Nearly half of the respondents said they preferred e-books over printed books. 

In 2012 Apple launched ibook author, which is a software program that allows authors to create e-books in the PDF format on an I-Pad and directly make products available in the IBooks store and  for sharing.  Amazon has a platform called CreateSpace for authors to create t-books, which must conform to the site's policies.  Lulu also provides the tools for authors to create and market their own self-published e-books.

E-books have proved to be profitable, even for traditional publishers such as Random House.  The company reported that e-book sales made up 27 percent of the total book sales, which was a 7 percent increase from a year earlier

If anyone know of a good way to start in e-books please share it here.