It seems that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were so busy competing against each other that they failed to properly standardize their technologies. Now electronic reading patrons have to decide what they will buy as far as the e-book reader; Nook versus Kindle formats. This is problematic, especially for e-book writers. You see, not long ago, I was contacted by someone in Texas who wanted to buy one of my e-books, and it was an e-book that I had posted at the Barnes & Noble website.
Unfortunately, this gentleman had a Kindle which did not support the Barnes & Noble Nook format. Yes, there are ways to get around this, for a tech savvy individual, a way to jailbreak the code, or convert it into a PDF, and then take that PDF and convert it back into an Amazon book format. Of course, not everyone is tech savvy, or knows how to do that. Especially people like grandmas who perhaps would like to buy an e-book which is done in a different format.
BARNES AND NOBLE
What we need is complete standardization without regard to the type of e-reader whether it be an iPad, a Kindle, or a Nook. Each format should work on each of the others, and it shouldn't matter which one you start out with, you should be able to read any e-book that you buy regardless of the format. You should be able to download a free e-book, of an out-of-print book, on the Google website, or any e-book from Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon. That's only fair, and we shouldn't make it tough on people.
The same thing goes for all the libraries, all formats should be the same, and we should keep it simple. We should not have people choosing between Beta or VHS, every e-book should work on every device. Because it's simply not fair, especially to the gentleman who e-mailed me, worried that he couldn't buy my book because he had the wrong type of e-reader. Indeed, even though there are ways around this, not everyone knows how to do it, and some people are fearful they might get in trouble if they do.
This is something that an e-book author needs to consider, and therefore publish their e-books in multiple formats. This way they don't accidentally alienate their less than tech savvy readership, who can't seem to make the conversion work. Okay so, I hope you will please consider all this, and the dilemmas of our high-tech e-book reading age. I ask that you think about it. If you have any solutions, comments, or new technologies that are out which might be good for a future article on this topic, please shoot me an e-mail.
Standardization Needed Desperately for All eReaders BARNES AND NOBLE
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