Ebook: To Kindle or not to Kindle

Sony PRS-500 portable reader system. Used from $189.30 and new from $295.00 on Amazon.com.

Problogger's blog, How To Create Ebooks That Sell, was thought-provoking. http://www.copyblogger.com/create-ebooks-that-sell.

He advises that if your manuscript is over 200 pages, you might want to go ahead and try to get it published or self-publish. People in today's postmodern culture want to just skim things fast. Problogger says that your successful Ebook can be anywhere from 10 to 50 pages. A book that is 50 pages max? That is an attainable goal, for even a beginner writer!

Your edge over losing a sale to Amazon, or other online bookstores and sites, will be to solve a problem in your Ebook and to be a credible writer. And of course, your writing needs to be solid, something people want to read! This problem to solve doesn't even have to be a hard one.

Let's see. Why teenagers want to be able to drive, but can't do their own laundry. Why husbands do not fear bullets, fire, or blood, but would not be caught dead buying feminine products for their wives that time of the month. How libraries will file Kindles on their shelves. Just kidding.

Readers don't want to do the research they need (I personally love googling!), so that's your job with your Ebook ~ putting a convenient, useful product in their hands that will help them, and that they can download very quickly, for a reasonable price.

Problogger even added a tip to use Ejunkie, which my website uses for readers to purchase my article, Having Faith In Fearful Times. http://www.bethjones.net/cms.

My personal preference is still to be able to curl up with a good book when I want to read. A world without books would be such an awful, empty place.

There's nothing like a good Jane Austen book.

I also am very technology challenged, so the idea of buying a portable reader system, like the one by Sony at the beginning of this blog, is not very appealing to me ~ I don't want to have to figure out how to push buttons just to be able to read a book! (Makes turning a page sound really lazy, doesn't it?)

Then again, I have an IPOD, a cell phone, and a laptop, so why not a Kindle? :)

At any rate, Problogger gave me some ideas about creating Ebooks. Now to go find some problems to solve. :) What are your thoughts on Ebooks? Do you like them, or do you prefer an actual book?