1: WHAT IS A KINDLE?
Amazon’s Kindle is the first portable e-book reader that works entirely without a computer, and except for charging it, you don’t need cables to use it. It connects (at no charge to the user, who doesn’t need a cell phone account or a cell phone) via Amazon’s Whispernet technology using Sprint’s national high-speed data network. Instead of a computer screen, the Kindle uses E-Ink and E-Paper, which you can read about here. The E-Ink on the E-Paper gives the Kindle screen the look of a real page in a printed book, though unlike a p-book, the font size can be changed to suit the reader. In addition, by using the small keyboard below the screen, the user can highlight any word, page or section of a book, and then type notes about the selection that can be edited, saved and even printed. To read more about Kindle’s many features, click here.
2: WILL MY BOOKS BE DIGITALLY SECURE?
Completely. Books are sent wirelessly to a Kindle, but they cannot be sent from a Kindle to a computer or cell phone—or even printed out.
3: CAN READERS PREVIEW MY KINDLE BOOK BEFORE THEY BUY IT?
Yes. Amazon allows Kindle owners to wirelessly download and read a section of a book at no charge. Your reader can be anywhere: waiting at an airport or riding in a car. Once a reader clicks “Buy,” the book is downloaded to the Kindle in seconds and charged to an Amazon account.
4: WHAT ELSE CAN BE READ ON A KINDLE?
Readers can subscribe to U.S. newspapers and magazines, including: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Time, Atlantic Monthly and Forbes. All are delivered wirelessly to the Kindle overnight. Readers can also subscribe to more than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment and politics. And of course, the Kindle will play audio books and even MP3s in the background, if the reader chooses to add them.
5: HOW MANY BOOKS CAN THE KINDLE HOLD?
Over 200 titles. And that’s without using an additional SD (Secure Digital) storage card that plugs into the back. In addition, all digital purchases are stored at no charge on the user’s Amazon Kindle page, so books can be deleted from a Kindle and downloaded again in the future. This means that even if the user buys an updated version of the Kindle someday, previously purchased books will easily be downloaded to it.
6: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KINDLE, THE SONY READER, MOBIPOCKET AND PALM OS?
Kindle and Sony Reader are stand-alone pieces of hardware on which to read e-books that have been formatted for these devices. Palm OS, .Lit and Mobipocket can be read only on a computer screen or a cell phone.
7: MY BOOK IS ALREADY A PDF. WHY CAN’T I JUST UPLOAD IT TO KINDLE MYSELF?
You can—but you probably won’t like the results.
Although a reader can “transfer” a personal PDF to the Kindle using the USB cable that comes in each package, Amazon does not allow PDFs to be sold as Kindle books.
That’s because in order to protect digital rights, Amazon has created its own proprietary format for Kindle books. While that format can take a PDF and “convert” it—neither we nor Amazon recommend this approach, since the code within a PDF does not convert or display well. Headers look strange, table of contents links don’t always work, alignment on the page can be off, and sometimes strange symbols appear within words.
If you want your Kindle book to look like your p‑book, the print file needs to be converted to a file format that Kindle can read perfectly. That file also needs to be “massaged” so that the table of contents will appear on the Kindle as “clickable links,” for example, and the page numbers from the p-book need to be removed. Why? It turns out that Kindle uses an internal numbering system that doesn’t correspond to the print edition.
And those are just two differences between p-books and Kindle books. Another is the index. Even if you want to keep an index (though, given Kindle’s incredible search ability, an index is no longer necessary), the page numbers won’t match. You can remove the index from the file, have us remove the page numbers, or we can make some or all of the index clickable links.
Once this interim file is perfected, it can be uploaded to Amazon using its Digital Text Platform where it is then converted into Kindle’s proprietary format. The end result is a Kindle book that looks great and reads the same as your print version.
8: MY BOOK HAS PHOTOS OR GRAPHICS. WILL THEY DISPLAY PROPERLY ON THE KINDLE?
They will, if they are added to the pre-conversion file properly. Although the Kindle screen does not use color, the E-Ink on the E-Paper is true gray scale, and graphics look wonderful.
9: WHAT IS THE SONY READER?
The Sony Reader is a digital reader that must be connected to a computer to download books. It can hold about 80 books (more with an SD card) and also plays MP3s and audio books. Like the Kindle, it can display a reader’s personal PDF files, other documents, blogs and news feeds.
10: DO READERS NEED SPECIAL SOFTWARE TO READ MOBIPOCKET OR PALM?
Yes. If readers don’t have a stand-alone product like the Kindle or Sony Reader, they need to read digital books on their computers or cell phones. Each format requires its own software.
11: WHERE WILL THE CONVERSION OF MY BOOK TO DIGITAL FORMAT TAKE PLACE?
Unlike many conversion companies, GuruGirls is located in the United States. All work is done here, not outsourced, and we’re only a phone call away.
12: CAN MY DIGITAL BOOKS BE UPDATED?
Absolutely. One of the advantages of “going digital” (aside from the big savings that come from the lack of warehousing, printing or shipping costs) is how easily a book can be updated.
Just let us know what needs to be updated—five pages that have typos on them, for example, or the need to add three new paragraphs to the end of a chapter—and we’ll send back a quote with the time and cost for us to make your changes.
