1. What is an Ebook?
The Future of Digital Reading
Rachel Chou
September 21, 2011
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

2. Open Road Media
Ebook Publisher with a focus on bringing the backlist of authors to a wider audience and
developing new talent for E‐riginals.
‣ Literary greats such as: William Styron, Pat Conroy, Iris Murdoch, James Jones and just this
week Alice Walker.
‣Genre classics such as: Jack Higgins, Ruth Rendell, Carl Hiaasen, James Ellroy, and Ellery
Queen.
‣Children’s award‐winning and classic authors such as: Jean Craighead George, Virginia
Hamilton, Gertrude Chandler Warner, and PauleMe Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
Create compelling content (video, photos, essays, Q&A) about the author, book, genre, wriRng
for syndicaRon to sites, blogs, video channels, libraries, schools to spread awareness.
‣Find us www.openroadmedia.com
‣Follow us @openroadmedia.com
‣Friend us facebook.com/openroadmedia
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3. Overview
‣Ebooks/Devices/Desktop
‣Samples:
‣Fixed Format
‣Enhanced
‣Read and Listen
‣Interactive Devt
‣Community
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4. History of Ebooks
‣ Ebooks have been around since the 1971 (Project Gutenberg)
Project Gutenberg began in 1971 when Michael Hart was given an operator's account with $100,000,000 of computer Rme in it by the
operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. He announced that the greatest
value created by computers would not be compuRng, but would be the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our
libraries.
He then proceeded to type in the "DeclaraRon of Independence" and tried to send it to everyone on the networks ... which can only be
described today as a not so narrow miss at creaRng an early version of what was later called the "Internet Virus."
A friendly discussion from this yielded the first posRng of a document in electronic text, and Project Gutenberg was born.
‣ Electronic readers, in one form or another, have been around since the late 1990s
‣The proliferation of devices began when prices dropped and a large amount of content became available
(2000s): Kindle, Nook, iPad (Touch, Phone), Kobo, Sony, Tablets (Samsung Galaxy, RIM Playbook, HP, etc)
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5. BN Nook
‣ EPUB-based
‣ Embedded Video and Audio
‣ Fixed-layout books
‣ Read-aloud and light-motion books
‣ More in Store
‣ Library Borrowing
‣ Lending
‣ Nook software is available for:
iOS
Android
Blackberry
Windows
Mac
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6. Kobo
‣ EPUB-based
‣ Social Reading features
Badges
Milestones
Personal reading analytics
Gamification of reading
‣ Kobo software available for:
iOS
Android
Blackberry
Windows
Mac
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7. Apple iBooks/iTunes
‣ EPUB-based
‣ Embedded Audio and Video
‣ Fixed-layout books
‣ Supports high-resolution images
Embedded PDFs
Tap-to-zoom
‣ Read-aloud books
‣ SYNC to the cloud so that you can access
your media across devices
‣ Based on web technologies, thus
interactivity is possible
‣ iBooks software available for:
iOS

8. Amazon Kindle
‣ Mobi-based
‣ Multimedia in A/V edition
Embedded Video
Embedded Audio
‣ Cross-device sync
‣ Shared notes and highlights
‣ Lending and Library Borrowing
‣ Kindle software available for:
iOS
Android
Blackberry
Windows Phone 7
Windows
Mac
The Web (read.amazon.com)

9. Epub/Mobi Ebooks
‣Flowable/Resizable Text
‣Images embedded
‣Links within Ebook
‣Added Content
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10. Fixed Format
‣A standard text-heavy Ebook (EPUB or Mobi) has
reflowable text, and adapts to its display device.
‣Titles with design-critical layouts, such as cookbooks,
travel books, graphic novels and picture books do not
lend themselves to reflowable text.
‣Fixed format Ebooks were developed to display full-
page, full-bleed, illustrated eBooks that retain the page
fidelity of their print originals. They are designed to be
viewed at just one fixed display size.
‣The process for creating a fixed format EPUB is similar
to composing a multi-page web site, where each page in
the book is a separate HTML file. Each image and text
block is positioned on the page at the pixel level to mirror
the print book layout.
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11. Enhanced (Enriched)Ebooks
‣Ability to add video, audio, embedded maps
(zoom) to ebooks.
‣Available via iBooks, Kindle A/V, Nook (Sony
and others soon)
‣Consumer demand isn’t there yet for the
most part
‣Academic use expected to take off as
textbooks and supplemental reading use this
format. Tablets entering the market end of
2011 will speed adoption.
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12. Read and Listen Ebooks
‣Ability to add audio synced with text.
‣Manual and automatic reading.
‣Sound effects and soundtracks.
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13. Interactive Ebooks
‣The underlying code for ebooks is html and
css (content and design like a web page)
‣Most devices were not able to display
interactive elements...but with web readers
and new tablets new functionality will be
available
‣Light motion and “triggered events” are
coming in ebooks (will this end Books as
Apps?)
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14. Thanks
‣Thanks to Pablo Defendini @pablod for the notes on ebooks and devices.
‣SLJ/Rocco and Brian for the invite.
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