There are tons of free eBooks out on the Internet these days and if you’ve ever wanted to produce your own free eBook there is more than one good way to do so.
Booktype is a prime example that features a slick, well-thought out interface, a connection to a great community of like-minded individuals, and the option to collaborate with others on the creation of your eBook.
Booki, similarly, is designed to help individual produce books (physical ones as well as ebooks) and provide them with a context where they can collaborate with others or simply discuss publishing and other issues.
Writing a book on your own or with friends can seem as simple as typing into a word processor, it’s true. If, however, you plan to publish the book in an electronic format it is a much better idea to use a program that is designed to organize and ‘codify’ the book in that format. That’s what Booktype is and does. It will allow you to set up the table of contents, chapter headings, built-in bookmarks, illustrations, etc. all automatically within the framework of the program itself so that when you finish typing the actual contents of the book, you’ve already got a viable eBook created.
The alternative to this is to simply type everything into a word processor and then use a separate program to convert it into an electronic book format. The disadvantage of that method is that sometimes content can be lost, distorted or even outright changed by the program doing the conversation. You might think of Booktype as a word processor specially designed for creating eBooks, as opposed to a multi-purpose one like Word.
If you want to use Booktype to create a book and then sell it you will need to have the installation of Booktype hosted on a web server. If you’re not up to the task of learning how to do that or don’t have the resources to be able to get a web server on your own, the folks that created Booktype can help you get started with a hosted site for a fee. If you are using it to create a free eBook, however, then you can use the installation of Booktype that is available at Booki which is a community of individual and group authors that concentrate solely on free eBooks. Why make a free eBook? There are tons of reasons. Practice for the budding author, instructions for posterity, and simple sharing of your art are just a few of them and of course there are more that you can discover for yourself. In either case, Booktype itself is free to download and use and it’s set up to be supremely easy once you have it installed. Each portion is self explanatory in the best tradition of the K.I.S.S. principle and if you do get stuck, you can always ask the kind folks at Booki or the Booktype home site for help.
I found Booktype to be an excellent method of creating an eBook, whether for profit or for free distribution, for the new or experienced author, for the solo or group project. It’s worth a look since it costs nothing and it could just be the program you’ve been looking for to get started putting your ideas into an electronic book format. Until next time, my friends.
