Publishing an eBook online is without a doubt one of the most profitable ventures you can undertake when trying to make some income from the Internet. But you must consider what format your eBook will be in. Choose the wrong format and you can doom yourself to never making a profit, or at least not making a profit for very long. What are formats and what are some of the things you need to consider? A format is simply what type of file your information will be stored in. On your desktop computer are many different file types, where each file type is typically opened by a different type of program. For example, there are plain text files, usually denoted with a .txt extension, there are .doc files, which are usually opened in Microsoft Word, there are .htm files, which can be opened by any web browser, and so on. There are many, many different types of formats that are used by the myriad text and word processing programs our there. In the same way, the information you present in your eBook needs to be presented to your online audience in a format that they can open up and read. Formats such as .doc.txt.htm (or .html).pdf (for Adobes ubiquitous Acrobat Reader) will have virtually universal readability. However, you need to consider more than just readability when you make this decision. You must also consider piracy and copyright infringement. If your eBook is truly stellar, with a title such as How to make a million dollars in two weeks by watching TV, you must realize that it will be a prime target for information pirates. Your eBook creation is your intellectual property and needs to be protected as much as possible. Otherwise, people can simply pass your eBooks around on the Internet or attach them in emails to their friends. You want to ensure that anyone who is reading your valuable content has legitimately bought and paid for the right to do so. For this reason, the best solution is to publish your eBook in one of the many proprietary formats that will convert your ebook into a protected file that can only be opened by the person who has purchased it. There are many programs out there that will convert your eBook into a secure format. I cant even begin to list them all, but you want to look for a format that will convert your eBook into some type of executable (.exe) file that cant be cut, copied, or pasted from. Search for ebook creation software or something like that in your favorite Internet search engine, and follow as many links as you desire until you find the format you like the best. Its up to you to protect your content, because certainly no one else is going to do it for you! Till next timeSuccess to you! -Ted |
