Just created my first e-book (EPUB and Mobipocket/Kindle) from one of my articles. I used the excellent Calibre e-book management tool.
Why? Well, as more people get e-book readers (and that obviously includes smartphones) they’re likely to turn to content that works on those devices. Speaking personally, I’m much more likely to casually read longer content (articles/books) if I can store it on my device (e.g. iPhone/iPad/Kindle) and read it at a convenient time. If the article is in PDF, it had better be something that I need to read as it’s not accomodating my lifestyle—but dictating terms.
Another benefit, as an author, is that e-book devices can store so many articles that, once your article gets on there, it’s likely to remain for a while. That should increase the chances of it being read—especially if it’s reference material.
PDF just doesn’t work well on these devices — especially smartphones. We’ve sort of come to accept PDF as the default e-book format, as we’ve used it like that on the web for so long. However, PDF is designed for printing—which makes perfect sense when the choices open to users are vertical monitor or paper. HTML for the device (monitor) and PDF for printed content.
However, the whole point about e-book devices is that we no longer have to print articles/books. So, why use PDF? HTML (the technology underlying some of the major e-book formats) is a better tool for the job of presenting content on a diverse range of electronic devices.
So, I’ll probably produce all my articles in an e-book friendly format—XHTML/CSS—moving forward. It’s the future.
