After coming out with my eBook, I discovered that a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors don’t have an eReader and don’t know how to read eBooks on their PCs. This didn’t surprise me, since, up until 3 weeks ago, I didn’t either.
Buying an eReader is WAY too expensive for me. I just can’t justify it. But once I had my own eBook, I needed a way to read it, to proof the design — and once I started buying eBooks, I realized how cool it is and how great the experience can be. There are so many books out there for a dollar (or even free) that I can’t even begin to guess at a total of them. And some of them are downright cool.
This gave me a brilliant idea — why not write a quick guide for those slow adopters, just in case they want to catch up but don’t know how.
What follows is that guide:
1) For Amazon eBooks (.mobi format — Amazon has their own format because they are special):
a) If you use Chrome or Safari as a web browser, instead of IE? If so, you can use Amazon’s Cloud Reader — a web app that accesses any ebooks you’ve ever bought from Amazon, anywhere — here:
https://read.amazon.com/
Note: Safari is the Mac browser, this is the best way to read Amazon ebooks on Mac.
b) If you use a PC but don’t use Chrome for some reason (you madman!), you can download and install Amazon’s Kindle for PC right here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311
2) If you prefer standard .epub eBook format, such as found on a Nook or an iPhone or a Sony eReader (basically everyone except Amazon), you can download and install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer for free — it’s quite a nice tool, zehr modisch.
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/
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If you enjoyed this post, you can give eReading a shot via my eBook “Teddy Bears and Tea Parties: A Horror Story”, available AT B&N or AT AMAZON.
I’m an old fart, still preferring actual books to reading on a screen (regardless of the device/gadget). Then again, I spend all day in my home office, researching and writing my strange novels and literary confections so maybe at the end of that time I’m just too burnt out to stare at a lit screen for another second longer.
Good luck with your writing, I wish you all success.
Thanks for the best wishes — and I completely understand. I just carried a Temerarie novel — Black Powder War — with me to jury duty. I don’t actually own an e-reader, but the lit-screen thing is why the Kindle seems so attractive — it’s not lit at all, and is supposed to be just like reading paper. But I still can’t justify the price tag. Not until my library gets even more out of hand.