Do I need an ebook?
For most authors, yes. If someone hears about your book, wants to read it tonight and prefers a Kindle, an ebook lets them buy it in seconds. Once the digital edition has been created, there is no physical copy to print, store, pack or ship each time another one sells.
That does not mean ebooks have replaced printed books. Plenty of people will always choose print, while others love having an entire library on one lightweight device. A Kindle can go on the train, the bus, on vacation or to bed, with hundreds of books ready whenever you want them. You can enlarge the type, read with the built in light and download something new the moment somebody recommends it. Plenty of readers use both, perhaps choosing a Kindle for a novel but wanting a cookbook, workbook or beautifully illustrated book in their hands.
For an author, the attraction is pretty simple. Ebook readers are a huge audience rather than a niche sideline: in the US, around three in ten adults now read ebooks. If your book works well digitally, an ebook gives people another way to buy it for a relatively small additional cost, without another physical product to manufacture every time somebody wants a copy.
What an ebook actually is
The ebook most people picture is the kind you buy for a Kindle, phone or tablet. Usually, that means a reflowable ebook.
Instead of fixing the words onto pages of a set size, the text moves to fit the reader's screen. Someone reading on a tablet with fairly small type will see different line breaks and page breaks from someone reading the same book on a phone with the text enlarged.
The reader can change the font size, spacing and display too. In a printed book, the designer controls exactly how each page looks. In a reflowable ebook, some of that control is deliberately handed to the reader so the book can adapt to different screens and reading preferences.
These books are normally supplied as EPUB files and sold through the major ebook stores, where readers download them to their devices or apps.
For most books, the standard ebook works brilliantly
Reflowable ebooks are ideal whenever the exact page layout is not vital to the message. That covers most novels, memoirs, biographies, business books and a huge range of other nonfiction.
They can also do some things better than a printed book. The contents can take the reader straight to a chapter, web addresses can be live links, and notes and references can use two way links so someone can jump to a note and straight back again. The whole book is searchable, the text can be enlarged, and it adapts automatically to different screens.
For books that suit the format, there is very little downside. Your printed edition stays exactly as it is, while the ebook opens the book up to readers who prefer digital.
Creating a good ebook takes more than pressing a button
A straightforward novel has fewer potential problems because there is less complicated formatting to preserve. Once a book includes images, tables, lists, footnotes, references, links or several levels of headings, there is much more that needs to keep working as the text moves, resizes and appears on different screens.
Images need to stay with the right captions. Tables have to remain readable. Notes and references can use two way links, while the contents and navigation need to work properly throughout.
Quick automatic conversions can easily turn a more complex book into a mess. Images move, tables become unreadable, links fail, or the whole thing simply looks ugly and frustrating to use. In some cases, a badly made file can also run into problems when it is submitted for sale.
Our reflowable ebook conversion service takes care of that properly, adapting and checking the book so it works as it should across different screens and devices.
But not every book works as reflowable
The great advantage of a reflowable ebook is that the page can change. For some books, that is also exactly the problem.
A children's picture book may need a sentence beside a particular part of an illustration. A graphic novel depends on its panels. A highly visual cookbook, workbook or technical book may have photographs, instructions, tables and other elements arranged very deliberately on the page.
Sometimes a book like this can still be adapted successfully for reflowable reading. Sometimes so much would have to change that the digital version would lose too much of what made the original work.
In those cases, it is perfectly reasonable to decide that a conventional ebook is not worthwhile. But there are two other digital options worth considering.
Fixed layout ebooks keep the page design fixed
A fixed layout ebook keeps the words and images in their intended positions rather than allowing everything to rearrange itself around the screen.
That makes it particularly useful for children's picture books, graphic novels and other highly visual titles where the relationship between the words, pictures and page design matters. The reader sees the page much more as it was originally designed.
The tradeoff is that fixed layout does not have the same flexibility as a reflowable ebook. Readers cannot freely enlarge and rearrange the text, and distribution can be more restricted because ebook stores and devices are quite particular about the fixed layout formats they support.
So fixed layout is not simply another version of a standard ebook. It is an option for a different kind of book, where keeping the page intact matters more than allowing the text to reflow. Our fixed layout ebook design service is designed for exactly those titles.
An ePDF just makes your print pages digital
An ePDF keeps the designed pages of your printed book as they are and makes them available as a digital file for reading on screen. Useful extras such as clickable contents, links and bookmarks can be added, but the page itself does not change.
That can make an ePDF a very good option for workbooks, training materials, reports, manuals or books that you want to sell or share directly through your own website. The reader gets the familiar designed pages without needing a physical copy.
The main difference is distribution. An ePDF is intended to be supplied directly to readers rather than sold as a conventional ebook through the major ebook stores. If that suits the way you want to sell or share the book, our ePDF design service prepares the print edition specifically for digital use.
So, do you need an ebook?
If your book works well as a standard reflowable ebook, there is usually very little reason not to have one. You keep the printed edition, add another way for people to buy and read the book, and make it available to a huge group of readers who actively prefer digital. Once the conversion has been done, there is no extra stock to manufacture for future sales.
If the design of the page is an important part of how the book works, the answer needs a little more thought. A fixed layout ebook may preserve that design while still giving you a sellable digital edition. An ePDF may make more sense if you simply want your printed pages available digitally and plan to distribute them yourself. And occasionally the right answer really is that a particular book is better left in print.
Our ebook formatting services cover all three options. If you are not sure which route suits your book, send it to us and we can look at what you have, recommend the format that makes sense and prepare the digital edition properly from there.