by Lucy E. Zahnle

Created on: November 17, 2009

Ebooks are the cutting edge in the book publishing industry. They are so new that many traditional publishers are uncertain whether to view them with skepticism or embrace them and explore their financial promise. However, because of their lower production costs and greater ease of distribution, ebooks are becoming worthy competitors for print media.

Ebooks offer several advantages. They cost less to produce and with the appropriate software, just about anyone can create one. For instance, Adobe software is affordable to most people and can easily create a professional looking ebook file. With a few taps of on a keyboard or clicks of a mouse, ebook creators can format text, insert graphics, and create navigational links to all parts of a book. Anyone from an executive at a large New York publishing house to an eager entrepreneur who is tired of reading submission rejection letters can publish an ebook.

Ebooks are easier to distribute than print books. The large publishing houses and their distributors have created a system designed to lock small publishers out when it comes to getting shelf space in major brick-and-mortar bookstores like Barnes and Noble, B. Dalton's, or Borders. Ebooks enable authors and publishers to sidestep that system altogether. Ebooks can be sold on sites, large or small, commercial or personal, all over the web without having to deal with the space, size, and cost limits inherent in paper distribution.

Ebooks are also better for the environment. Instead of cutting down trees to make paper for books or using chemicals to create recycled paper, a thousand copies of an ebook can be created and distributed with little or no impact on the environment. When a reader no longer desires an ebook, he or she merely deletes it. Nothing ends up taking space in a landfill.

Unlike traditionally published books, which are usually only available for two or three months, then are considered out of print, ebooks are available for years at a time. Because there are no storage costs for copies waiting to be shipped, no unsold return copies, and no expensive print overruns, online bookstores can offer book titles nearly indefinitely.

Because production costs are lower, ebooks are often less expensive for consumers and more affordable as promotional freebies for authors to give to fans. As the cost of ebook readers has fallen, devices like the Kindle or the Sony Ebook Reader are making ebooks more attractive to readers than ever before.

Ebooks are a great

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