4 Big Reasons Your E-Books Should be PDFs
by Jennifer Tribe
Published on this site: August 19th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Last week, someone asked me to recommend a good e-book compiler.
It's a question I get a lot. And I told him what I tell everyone:
forget e-book compilers. Instead, create your e-books and
other print documents in PDF format.
Why choose PDF over a special e-book format?
Familiarity and Ease of Use
Nearly everyone with a computer has Adobe's free reader on
their machine and knows how to use it. The same cannot be
said for the proprietary e-book formats. E-book files create
a learning curve for your customer as they try to familiarize
themselves with document set-up, navigation and functionality
that they may never have encountered before. That's work.
Who wants to do extra work to use a product?
Trust Factor
E-book formats may require that customers install new files
on their machine to read the book. Some e-book files are delivered
as .exe files, which are notorious for their ability to carry
nasty viruses. Your file may not be an .exe and it might be
clean as a whistle, but customers may be reluctant to install
the files anyway. The PDF format is well-known and trusted.
No mysterious installations, no viruses.
Readable by Anyone
PDF is a universal format that can be read on any type of
computer. Most e-book generators create files that can only
be read on PCs, leaving your Mac and Linux customers out in
the cold.
File Stability
PDF documents have a far smaller chance of containing technical
glitches. An e-book I once downloaded wouldn't forward through
the chapters properly. Sometimes I'd click on a chapter title
and get a blank page, or only the first page. The problems
only got worse over time. I've never had such problems with
a PDF document and the files remain stable over time.
What About Security?
What about security and preventing file theft, you say? This
is a common concern among e-book publishers and often the
reason they go searching for an e-book generator in the first
place.
To those people I say: piracy happens. No matter what format
you create your e-book in, if someone is intent on stealing
it, they will find a way to do so.
Publishers focused on tightly locking up their material often
end up creating barriers between themselves and legitimate
paying customers. For example, you might decide to lock the
print function so that people can't print and photocopy your
content. Then a paying customer who doesn't want to read the
whole thing on screen tries to print it out and can't. They
get frustrated. Frustrations don't lead to more sales or good
customer relations.
I'm not saying you turn a blind eye to large-scale theft.
To maintain your copyright, you do need to pursue people who
are trying to pass off your content as theirs, reproduce whole
pieces of your work in their work without permission, sell
your materials without permission, or give them away on a
large scale (say, as a free public download from their web
site). But if someone wants to share their e-book with their
sister, it will happen anyway. In my opinion, trying to track
down and stop these pass-alongs will cause you more time,
money and grief than it's worth.
If you really want to use security functions such as password
protection or locking the print function, they're available
in PDF anyway. Just be aware of the compromises you might
be making in your ability to truly serve your paying customers.
Jennifer Tribe, Juiced Consulting - Turn your expertise
into money-making information products like books, special
reports and teleclasses! Juiced Consulting shows you how.
For a free e-zine and other resources, visit www.juicedconsulting.com
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