Ee-what ?

I have to admit, I viewed the arrival of Ebook readers on the technological scene with deep suspicion.

For a start, I regard anything paper based as the last bastion of civilisation. Blow the trees. Plant a new one. I may be a teeny-weeny bit biased because of the strings to my bow is a little book binding.

And they are, like, for instance, anything Apple based - iPad, iPhone et al (iMe!) consumer devices. Try using one of those without eventually shoving a few quid in their direction. Pennies make Pounds, and they want 'em.

But then, a few pennies dropped.

Lots of bloggers are budding authors. Getting into print used to be a tedious merry-go-round of submission, rejection, try again, acceptance, rewrite, edit, resubmit - it goes on and on in various combinations. Then it might be a limited print run, and if it isn't making a quick profit for the publisher, you go down in a blaze of glory. Or not.

So what if one managed the whole process oneself? Cut straight to the chase by offering a book as an Ebook, for a reasonable price using Paypal (for instance). Any disadvantages are only the same as the printed word. More, you can offer a prospective customer a couple of chapters as a teaser for free.

There are companies on line who will take the pain out of it for you - for a percentage of any sales.

You never need ever go 'out of print' too. And bless you, should it be profitable, you could have paper copies made available - for a price.

There are freeware Ebook catalogue and reader programs that will transfer from your PC to your Ereader or mobile phone/cell (I'm trying out Calibre for PC's), and thanks to organisations like Project Gutenberg who catalogue and make available out of copyright material, I've been able to find stuff that would be darn near impossible to find otherwise.

How does " THE FORME OF CURY, A ROLL OF ANCIENT ENGLISH COOKERY. Compiled A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King RICHARD II" Grab you? :) And naturally, you can print to paper if you wish.

As for bookbinding . If you can bind a book you can bind anything.....