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I don't know about many people, but when I got my first PDA (back in August of 2000); I decided to run with the paperless lifestyle mantra. And for the most part, it worked quite well. That is, until it came to books. For one reason or another, finding a good book was a lot harder than it should have been. And those prices...well, let's just say that it is better to just write the book yourself sometimes. And me being the avid writer that I am (at least in poetry), I decided that it would be a great idea if I could take my poetry books and then create ebooks out of them and then be able to give them away at my leisure.

I started by just looking at HTML and PDF, but they were either too large, or not versatile enough. Then there was that issue of doing HTML from Word docs. Yes, I know you can make any Word doc into a webpage, but I am a website designer and cannot stand that dirty code that really makes webpages larger than they need to be.

So for years now, I've searched for a good solution. And at one point thought that I found one with eReader's eBook Studio and DropBook software. The process was simple enough, the problem is that it was licensed software and therefore if I wanted any advanced features, I'd have to pay for it. So my search continued.

Some months ago, I stumbled across a thread at 1src where a user stated that he created a plugin for Word that would enable you to create an ebook out of nearly any Word doc. And the best part was that it was free. Publish eBook instantly a program that captured my interest. Besides the simple installation and instructions, it was just flat out easy to create eBooks of any Word docs that I have (and I have a lot).

Peter Gorod is the author of Publish eBook and has an excellent site and forum so that you can keep up with the developments to Publish eBook. I recommend this program to any of you who are in the position where you may want to distribute documents via eReader (PalmOS, PocketPC, and Windows desktop computers). It can be especially excellent for creating and distributing programs at conferences and other functions where it is known that many people may have mobile devices and want to use them.

So Why Haven't We Seen More eBooks

This whole process of making ebooks makes me ask the question of why it is so hard for publishers to get on the ball with making more eBooks. I understand the economics of eBooks being somewhat less controllable than that of paper books. But the potential of subscription and licensed based models of selling could make for a nice cash cow. For example, you find a book by BargainPDA Publishing Company and you want both the hard and electronic copy. So you bought the hard copy at Borders and now you are on the website. You click on a link to sign up for a subscription service that gets you that book you bought at half the price (or even free) for the electronic version, and then are made a member of the BargainPDA Publishing Company and can get similar deals on future electronic books. Makes sense to me, and I just wanted one book. Now the door is open for me to get more.

That is just one example, but I am sure that there are others for reasoning the need for more eBooks. And I would not be surprised at all if many authors are using MS Word to create their books. How easy then to use a program like eReader's eBook studio or Publish eBook to create a version that could be considered a lite version? Digital security would be a concern, but then, that is where companies like eReader and Adobe have expertise in. If they have made books secure, there isn't much left to do than to turn the page.

Well, at least the cover of eBooks looks good.

More info here:
http://pwp.netcabo.pt/Gorod/PublisheBook/