Whilst writing my previous entry on Ebook Formats and Types, I realised just how some of those format choices in the creation of eBooks annoys me, as a reader of Ebooks. Although I completely understand the reasonings and objectives behind some format and distribution choices, perhaps my own thoughts as a reader might make that side of me more measured. And allow me to evaluate such choices when going to create my own eBooks in the future. My reading opinions may not be shared by many other eBook buyers and readers out there, and as I go about learning more about the industry and making those publishing choices myself, I’m sure some of my pet peeves will change also.

A Letter to Ebook Creators

These points are purely as a reader of eBooks. I understand the need many eBook publishers feel concerning digital piracy of their books, and securing their books from this. There also appears a desire in some quarters to control how an Ebook can be shared (or not) including it being printed. I also understand the demand that some have for different formats such as formats supported by certain mobile devices. The industry is still somewhat thrawted by the various different eBook formats and non-standards, but as a customer and reader of eBooks here are my desires -

1. Please choose a format which is compatible with the vast majority of my own systems and those of others. Technically, the easiest for me is PDFs. Not exes – these come in far too many variations, and just aren’t as easy to work with, or even read. In fact, after purchasing some executable eBooks to find they were corrupt, I have a distrust of these, no matter how whiz-bang technically they may be.
2. Please allow an eBook to be printable – many readers don’t enjoy reading on the screen all the time. Having a physical copy to read (on the train or plane) is a selling point.
3. Stay away from formats which have strange digital rights management. I need to transfer my eBooks across computers and possibly onto mobile devices to read. If I’ve purchased something to read, I consider it my right to be able to read this eBook where-ever I desire. You can move a real book around locations, and you should be able to do the same for eBooks.
4. Consider the future and media changes. Remember that many of us are spending hours transferring our old video (and even vinyl albums of music) recordings onto the newer formats. We are also spending large amounts of money backing up our electronic media onto backup storage, and finding that we have to reconvert (using even more software and data storage) when technology changes. This is going to become an issue if eBooks aren’t future-proofed as much as possible, by using standardised and common-place supported formats which work across platform and independently from the software version used to create it. Ebooks might, in the future have different readers and technology for both archiving them, and reading them. I don’t expect you to cater for these, but as you are in the business of creating an electronic product, you should be knowledgeable of the latest trends as a business practice and as a professional. If you choose to provide your eBook in a non-common format, at least provide the textual content also in a more common format such as PDF.
5. Various types / page-lengths of eBooks require differing pricing structures. However there’s a huge discrepancy over an eBook’s price. From my side, I’m not going to pay $77 for an eBook even if it does contain 149 pages of promised special information which can make me a millionaire in two days, when I can buy the same information (as far as I can tell) in a book off Amazon for $12.99 (and with free delivery) or find it free spread across the internet. You can’t leaf through an ebook in your purchasing decision, as you can do a book on a shelf. Having a money-back guarantee is helpful in my own buying decision, as are chapter summaries and looks inside at some of the content.
6. Pricing of eBooks is getting notoriously difficult to fathom, when I can see huge packages of PLR or resell rights ebooks being sold for a pittance on eBay. And yet some eBooks are going for more than I would ever pay for a physical book. There are incidents where both a physical book and an ebook are available, and yet both are priced the same. As a buyer I would expect the eBook in this example to be priced substantially lower. I am well aware that eBooks circumvent the warehousing and distribution requirements of a paperbook and can not understand why both should be the same price.
7. Point 5 above mentions some of the attraction factors towards my own buyer’s decision in purchasing an eBook. This point is going to mention the huge turn-off factor when looking into an eBook – the long scrollable sales letter page websites which have reader’s recommendations and reviews as quotes scattered throughout the page. Why? I don’t know Sam Jones from Arkansas from a bar of soap, and I don’t care what he thinks of your eBook - nor do I actually believe he exists in the first place. If you are going to insist on a sales letter page, then at least keep it factual, and include content which helps me make my own decision towards purchases. Give me the features, the benefits, the cost (often missing from the pages, or embarrassingly dealt with in the smallest fineprint at the bottom), and the previews if possible. But not your made-up character’s testimonial which I simply don’t believe.
8. Sales Letter pages again – don’t tell me I’ve only got five days for this special offer only, then the price is going up. I don’t believe you, and I don’t like being treated like a fool. And contrarily, if I ever found I paid through the nose for an eBook which others got cheaper earlier on, you would never find me buying from you again. This rule does not apply to eBooks which are released as free for a limited time to subscribers or via special online events, and then are sold. I don’t resent that particular special at all – it’s perceived as a kindness.
9. Go to Point 7 again. Note the bit about where you’re putting the cost on the sales letter page. Don’t do that. If you’re selling me something, I want to know how much it is right from the start. If I have to search for it, or worse - if I have to click through to a purchase page before I know how much the eBook is going to cost me, then you’re 99 out of 100 times going to lose the sale.
10. Please include graphics and good graphical design if you can. I know, I know - there are many good eBooks which simply look like a standard novel or technical discussion book. And those are plain text, with limited if any formatting, without pictures, without colour. And they work, right? Yes, but in eBooks I would draw your attention back to Point 2 above. You just can’t sit in front of a computer screen reading a book for a long time, without needing something else to rest your eyes on, to break up the blurriness of the text, to allow you to think. So include graphics, borders, sidebars, stupid little cartoons which make me grimmace, coloured headings, formatted backgrounds - not too much, but enough to break up the text and add value and rest-points to my reading.