E-book
Also called: electronic book or e-edition
An e-book is a digitally published book intended to be read on an electronic device such as a computer, tablet, smartphone or e-reader. E-books, like traditional books, can consist of both text and images.
Most commercially published e-books are intended to be read with a special e-reader. These offer a pleasant digital reading experience by using "electronic ink. The image then is not created by an artificially lit screen, but becomes visible using the daylight that falls on it. Of course, most e-readers do simply feature the ability to read at dusk or in the dark.
E-books can have the format of a PDF document, but usually special software is used to read them. In order to open e-books on different devices, the special Open eBook file format was developed. E-reader software provides an appropriate on-screen presentation and offers additional features such as virtual page turning, tracking reading time and bookmarks, and often includes a library function where the entire collection of available e-books can be viewed.
Benefits of an e-book
A big advantage of e-books is their easy distribution, which usually makes these virtual books somewhat cheaper than their paper counterparts. E-books are also easy to take anywhere, due to the handy size of e-readers or the smartphone or tablet you often carry with you anyway.
In addition, an e-book offers several features not available in a paper version, such as optional read-aloud features, multimedia playback, search options and inline references, hyperlinks and dictionaries. In addition, e-books save considerable amounts of paper.
Cons
Many users believe that, despite the extra features, the digital reading experience cannot match the holding of an old-fashioned printed book. You cannot put an e-book on your bookshelf, have it signed by the author or include a written personal message. To read an e-book, you are also always dependent on electricity.
There are also privacy concerns in that with many distribution channels, the publisher can track exactly what you read and when. This information can then be used for commercial purposes. On the other hand, the publisher, in turn, must go to great lengths to prevent e-books from being illegally copied and distributed.
Sales and distribution
A major player in e-book sales is Amazon. The company developed its own e-reader, the Kindle. Google and Apple are also active in selling e-books. More traditional (online) bookstores now also offer e-books, including the Dutch company Bol.com.
Libraries are also entering the e-book market on a small scale, although the principle of "lending" e-books is not entirely uncontroversial in the book world. To prevent abuse, rights management such as DRM must ensure that books are actually only available for a limited period of time and cannot be copied.
Traditional books that are also published as e-books must be formatted or scanned as such. As a result, it may take some time after the first printing before an edition is also available digitally. More and more books are being introduced simultaneously in print and as e-books. There is also a growing supply of e-books for which no print version has been released.
