We live in the Information Age—an exciting time in the history of human civilization in which technology rules supreme and continues to progress in leaps and bounds every minute of every hour of every day. For a multitude of reasons, more and more avid literary fans are opting to purchase e-books instead of paperbacks. The question to those not yet initiated to the world of electronic reading is simply: why?

Why an electronic book?

Price. An electronic title at Ellora’s Cave Publishing runs anywhere from 40-75% less than the cover price of the exact same title in paperback format. Why? Cold mathematics. It is less expensive to publish an e-book than it is to publish a paperback, so the savings are passed along to the consumer.

Space. Running out of room to house your paperback books? That is one worry you will never have with electronic novels. Store literally thousands on your home pc, hundreds on a single cd. Or, for a low one-time cost you can purchase a handheld computer designed specifically for e-reading purposes. Many e-readers are larger than the average handheld, giving you plenty of screen room. Better yet, hundreds of titles can be stored within your new library—a memory chip like those used in most digital cameras.

Mobility. Because your new library now consists of only a tiny file, your entire cache of books can be taken with you wherever you go.

Personal preferences are accounted for. Are the words you are currently reading too small? Too large? Too…ANNOYING ? Paperback books cannot be modified according to personal preferences, but e-books can.

Innovation. The way you read a book is not the only advancement the Information Age has gifted the literary community with. There is also the factor of what you can read. Ellora’s Cave Publishing will be introducing a new line of interactive titles that are available in e-book format only.

Instant gratification. Is it the middle of the night and all the bookstores are closed? Are you tired of waiting days—sometimes weeks—for online and offline bookstores to ship the novels you bought? Ellora’s Cave Publishing sells instantaneous downloads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our e-book delivery system is 100% automated, meaning your order is filled as soon as you pay for it.

Those are a few of the top reasons why electronic novels are displacing paperbacks for many an avid reader.
 

How to read an e-book.

Deciding how to plunge into the world of e-books is the number one concern for most of EC's new customers. We recommend figuring out what suits your personality first and then deciding on the solution that meets that goal. There are several ways to read an e-book: on screen, printed out, from a handheld, and while sitting in a chair or lying in bed with an e-book reading device. 

Please read this page carefully in order to help you decide which of our formats suits your personality the best. Figuring out what works for you is the hardest part; it's cake from there on out ;-) You will enjoy the instant gratification and other benefits inherent to digital books once you find the e-style of reading that suits your unique personality. Welcome to the Information Age!

Reading from the screen: If you prefer to read e-books directly from the screen of your desktop computer, we recommend downloading MS Reader. Microsoft's e-book reader is made to resemble pages in a book, so no scrolling is required. In addition, Microsoft's Cleartype® technology makes the font very easy to read and causes little strain on the eyes even after long periods of e-book reading. If you choose to download this reader (it's free) do not forget to activate your account with Microsoft so you can begin reading!

Reading from paper: If you prefer to print out e-books and read them that way, then we recommend downloading Adobe, as all of our e-books are formatted for printing in the Adobe format only. It is possible to print out the HTML version of e-books but the effect is sloppy and page numbers are often times missing.

Reading from handheld computers: If you own a handheld computer, we recommend downloading the Mobipocket plugin. Mobipocket is the only translator we have found that is both stable and can be used across various platforms. In other words, if you own both an OS PALM and a PocketPC and you want to read your Ellora's Cave e-books on both devices, the Mobipocket plugin can successfully accomplish that. If you do not install Mobipocket, then you would need the MS Reader format for your PocketPC and the Adobe-for-PALM format for your OSPALM.

Reading from e-book readers: E-book readers are EC's recommended method for reading our titles! Designed specifically for the sole purpose of reading e-books, cozy up in your favorite chair and read your favorite e-novels the same as you would a paperback! The difference between the two being that your e-reading device's virtual library can hold hundreds of titles. Additionally, the screens of e-book readers are larger than the screens of most PDA's and are therefore optimal for viewing. The most popular ones amongst our customers are the Franklin E-Bookman and the Hiebook.

Franklin E-Bookman & Hiebook: EC recommends purchasing the HTML version of our titles for either of these popular e-readers. (If you own both of these then we definitely recommend keeping an html version handy and importing your own content that way.)

If you own an Rocket E-Book (REB), you will need to purchase either the HTML or the Rocketbook formats. Additionally, you must download the Rocket Librarian from their website in order to beam our titles into your e-reader.