eBooks for all

Not long ago, most people had never heard of an eBook, let alone read one, but now, with the popularity of ipads and various other eBook readers, they are everywhere.

We at Green Publishing are now getting more and more requests to produce eBooks, software companies such as Adobe, Brothersoft and Zinio are making it easier to produce them and Apple with their iBook store are making it easier to promote them to a wider audience.

So who reads eBooks?, where do you get them from and what do you read them on?

Who, where, what

I recently got onto an a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne, and on my way through first-class I  couldn’t believe the amount of people who had an iPad. Now that’s not to say that only those that can afford to travel 1st class can afford a reading tablet of one kind or another, more that those that travel first class, often travel regularly, and it’s these people that have found the benefits of having a reading tablet.

You know what it’s like when you travel, you’ll need that days newspaper, your favourite magazine and your current book. Put these all together and you have one very heavy cabin bag. But now you can read all of these (and more) on one device. Being from England I love being able to get that days English Newspaper delivered to my iPad, not to mention the amount of magazines that I can now read from all over the world.

As I own an iPad, I can only comment on the reading apps on that appliance, so below are my favourite reading apps that are available through the Apple App store.

1. The Australian Newspaper – at $5.99 for a month of newspapers? Why would you still buy the paper version?
2. Kindle – Worried about being overtaken by the iPad, Kindle very cleverly released an app for the iPad… and it’s great. You can now download and read any book you like directly from Amazon, and most books are around US$8.99
3. Press Reader – Download newspapers from all over the world, that day in pdf format – fantastic!
4. iBooks – It took a while for Apple to open the Australian version, but they finally got there. Still a way to go to match Kindle prices and selection, but a very nice looking app.
5. Stanza – Can’t find that book or magazine anywhere? Stanza is the place to go. Using book and magazine websites from all over the world, there are many books that this app won’t find, and prices are good too.