Giving you choices
We publish our books in multiple formats (paper, eBook and audiobook) so you can buy our books in formats that suits you.
Our aim is to offer all titles in all format. Almost all are available as paperbacks and eBooks. There are a few other gaps which we aim to fill as soon as we can. Currently only a few titles are available as audiobooks more are on the way.
Most people tell us that they prefer to read paper books but many also say that they read eBooks when travelling or on holiday.
The demand for audiobooks is increasing significantly, again for people on the move.
Did you know about the free stuff?
We often find that readers don’t know about some of the options they have for reading eBooks, including lots of free stuff.
First, you do not need to buy an eBook reading device such as an Amazon Kindle. All the main types of smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs can be used instead and there are FREE eBook reader APS available on all of them. Even if you want to read Amazon Kindle books you only need to download the free Amazon Kindle AP.
Most of the literary classics and many more modern works of all kinds are available free through a number of websites.
Of these, probably the best know if not the largest, is Project Gutenberg which is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. gutenberg.org
These come in a wide assortment of file formats but will topically not be readable on an Amazon Kindle, which is proprietary and may need special software in some cases.
Another website with a more modern feel that again has a huge stock of around 50,000 free eBooks as well as discounted best sellers is Manybooks.net.
Understanding eBook File Formats
There are lots of eBook file formats but you can ignore almost all of them because there are very few that really matter.
These are..
- ePub – This is the international standard for eBook files and has been widely adopted by eBook publishers, eBook libraries, eBook shops and eReader device manufacturers. Whatever kind of device you wish to read on you will find a choice of good ePub reader APS for it ( available in the iPhone or Android AP stores and elsewhere). There are also various ePub reader devices available including Nook, Kobo and InkBook. Currently the big exception is Amazon Kindle which uses its own proprietary file format instead of ePub.
- Adobe Acrobat (pdf) – This started off as a proprietary format but is now widely adopted. Its strength, and weakness, is that it uses a fixed page size format so can be printed and has a consistent appearance across devices. However, the page images typically display poorly on smart phones and tablets because of their fixed format.
- Mobi – This pre-dates ePub and is still widely used – especially on older devices. Amazon uses a proprietary variant of the mobi format for its Kindle books and that means that mobi files can normally be viewed on Kindle book readers – although such use is not formally supported.
We recommend the use of ePub where possible.
If you already have a smartphone, tablet or laptop then a free ePub reader AP is probably all you need to read eBooks. If you want to read eBooks extensively especially for long periods then an eBook reader device may suit you better. We think the inkBook is the best bet in such case because it offers the best of both worlds – in that it uses the same screen technology as teh popular Amazon Kindle devices and has a Kindle AP BUT also works as an ePub reader.