How to get started reading eBooks... for free

How to get started reading eBooks... for free

As the summer starts, many of us will find time to do some reading, whether on the boat, or in the RV, or in a tent, or at home.  The timing is right, then, to provide a little practical assistance.  The first question to ask is what kind of device you plan to use.  You can find eBooks formatted for smartphones, for tablet PCs, for the Nook®, the Kindle®, and for other generic and proprietary eReaders.  You can also find good software for reading right on your desktop PC, notebook PC, or netbook PC.  If you're new to this eBook thing and you just want to try it out and see what's available, start by using eReader software for your laptop.  

Update 5/5/12: 

I've started using fbreader for android for my tablet, and it's a great app, but there's also versions for PC / laptop.  It's stable, good software, and it's free.  It will read mobi (Kindle) files as well as ePub (Nook/Kobo) files.  I highly recommend it.

Images showMobipocket Reader on laptop screen

This is a great way to read!

With the increasing number of eBooks, the question is: how do we read our eBooks? Many people are buying a Kindle®, or a Nook®, or other similar e-readers. Many people are reading on their PDA, or smart-phone. Still others are starting to use their iPad®, and Apple is introducing their new iBookstore (including 6 of my books - thanks to Smashwords) to promote that. Those are all good ways to read eBooks, but there is still another option that is overlooked.

A great way to read eBooks is a way that has been in use for some time: a laptop (or desktop) computer. The really good news that there are really good software alternatives for using a laptop to read eBooks. Barnes & Noble® and Sony® have their own software to use with ‘ePub’ files. B&N has a Nook for PC. Amazon has Kindle software for PC. There are many other ways to get software to read ePub files.

If you’re still reading your books as PDF or similar files, there is a much better way.

From my perspective, after spending a lot of time looking for something I liked to use, one of the best choices for reading eBooks is software called “Mobipocket Reader®.” This turns your laptop into a really nice, big-screen e-reader. The price is right, too; it’s FREE. You can set the software to display full-screen, or part-screen. Any eBook can be displayed in many different fonts and sizes.

Both of the images above are from the Mobipocket reader.

This Mobipocket Reader requires ‘Mobi’ files, and the choice of eBooks titles in that format is huge and growing by the day. The Kindle® also uses Mobi files.

Most books on Smashwords, for instance, are available in multi-formats, and can therefore be read on a laptop with Mobipocket Reader software. Mobi files can be downloaded from many eBook retailers, including a store that comes with the software, but this Mobipocket Reader® will also convert PDF, Doc, and a number of other text file types into Mobi files so that the books can be read more easily.

So, what is my recommendation? Go get your FREE Mobipocket Reader software, get it set up on your laptop, and then look for eBook retailers that sell books in the Mobi format. As a start, I would recommend Smashwords, as they have over 30,000 titles available, and many of them are Free. It’s a really good way to get started reading eBooks.

If you want a really good book to get started with, I further recommend one of my books at Smashwords. Some are free. Try the software to see how it all works, and I think you’ll be pleased and impressed. I was, and I still am.

Good luck with your reading, and

Enjoy,

Wil

2 books reach new high rankings at Barnes & Noble

2 of my books, Playing the Baseball Card, and A Family Legacy: The Watson Works, have reached new high rankings at Barnes and Noble.  The two books have held a top 1% sales rank at B&N.com for some months now, but they are continuing to creep upwards in the sales rankings, and now both are in the top one-half of 1% for all books at B&N.  In fact, Playing the Baseball Card has been holding into the top 1/4 of 1% for a few weeks.  

In addition, a search of all "Baseball" books listed at B&N reveals that Playing the Baseball Card is the top-ranked fiction book (yes: number one) with a baseball theme, and is number four overall, behind non-fiction titles including biographies about Mickey Mantle and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

So, as we celebrate the first day of summer and I blog today about one of the games of summer, I'm extraordinary happy to see that some of my young adult fiction titles are doing so well.  Playing the Baseball Card is still free, for now, at Smashwords.  Have a look, and

Happy Reading,

Wil

Dear 11-, or 12-, or 15-year-old me

In my books aimed at Young Adults, I often put my characters in situations that would seem extraordinary, but all of the situations are possible and most are inspired by real-life events.  My characters are also inspired by real young people, and I have often said I hope the events in my stories will help some young people in their own lives.  I sometimes wish I had the benefit of these stories when I was younger.


I have also pondered, as I write, what kind of advice I'd give myself, if only I could go back and visit myself at a younger age.  I came across a video, posted on You Tube earlier this year, that I really like.  It's called "Dear 15-year-old me."  I truly think it's worth watching.


What advice would you give yourself?  And, what age would you target?

Free eBooks for Young Adults

I contribute to a new site, listing FREE Young Adult eBooks. The site is run by Smashwords authors, and is intended to primarily assist Smashwords authors.  Mark Coker recently mentioned the site in his Smashwords update.  The site is now getting more traffic than ever, and I really hope it helps all of us authors find more readers.

I have added coupons to make all my books free on the site, for a limited time:

• Aiden's Arrival: Honor Before Gold, free with coupon KM53M
• Robert's Ride, free with coupon FE33M
• Sons and Brothers in Seattle, free with coupon BF89M

The site is Free eBooks for Young Adults. Check it out, and

Happy Reading, 

Wil

Ryan Redman - Rescue at the Cliff: a brave, courageous very young teen

Rescue at the cliffs: A very young teen saves a life 

I have often written in this blog about how so many young people prove capable of acts beyond their years.  As readers of my books will know, I also put many of my young fiction characters into similar situations. 

This blog post is dedicated to another young person, a not-at-all-big 13-year-old named Ryan Redman, who clambered down a 30-foot cliff, jumped into the ocean, and swam out to rescue an older lady in trouble.  He got her to safety, then climbed back up the cliff to arrange for help to be called, and then climbed back down the cliff to help comfort the woman until help arrived.  Oh, and by the way, the cliff face was wet because it had been raining.

The rescue took place a few days ago in southwest England, and the complete story is detailed in London’s Daily Mail.  As one of the persons commenting on the story notes, this boy showed braveness, selflessness, maturity, compassion, kindness and guts beyond compare.

Ryan Redman is a great example of what young people can do.  I base all of the young fictional characters in my books on real young people such as Ryan; those I knew as a young person myself, or those young people whom I have had the good fortune to meet in my life, or those whose stories are told in the media.  Even so, I still get an occasional book review stating that I have put my fictional characters into a situation that might be a little beyond belief as far as their age is concerned.  Every now and then, I will respond to those reviews with another example of what real young people can accomplish.  Ryan’s rescue is just another example of a young person who has done something truly amazing, and I am truly humbled.

 Wil

Smashwords eBooks hits TWO Billions words on Friday 6th May 2011

SMASHWORDS hits 2,000,000,000 (that’s TWO BILLION) words on Friday, 6^th May 2011.  Over 300,000 words are mine, and there’s more to come.  Crunching the numbers, I expect to see 50,000 titles available at Smashwords.com before the end of May.

When I first decided to publish multiple-format eBooks with Smashwords back in December of 2009, the total number of words had not yet reached 400 million, and from under 8,000 titles.

In early April of 2010, I was able to tweet that Smashwords had hit 10,000 titles and the number of downloads of my books was into the thousands.  That was just barely four months since I started making some of my books available on Smashwords.

Smashwords hit ½ billion words on April 14^th 2010, and one billion words on October 22^nd 2010, so the torrent of words flowing to Smashwords is definitely picking up, rather dramatically.

So, why hook my eBook wagon to the Smashwords cart?  Simply put, my books are now in the hands of many, many thousands of readers, through direct availability on Smashwords.com as well as through Barnes and Noble (I have 2 books in the top 1% with Playing the Baseball Card leading the way), Sony, Apple, and Kobo.  Making my Young Adult fiction titles available as eBooks on Smashwords (and retail partners) has made them much more accessible and more discoverable by my readers.  Given that eBook sales now exceed mass-market paperbook sales, I am more certain than ever that I made the right choice more than two years ago.

Two years from now?  Smashwords at ten billion words, in 250,000 titles?  Two or three more of my books available at Smashwords?  Hmmm… let’s see.

For now, have a look at an eBook today, and

Happy Reading.

Wil

What Can Kids Do? You'd be surprised! Just look around...

A Family Legacy: The Watson Works ........ made it into the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award... with some very youthful characters.  What can kids do, anyway?  You would be surprised.  The old adage about "truth being stranger than fiction" is very true when it comes to the young characters in A Family Legacy: The Watson Works.  The characters, as young as they are, are taken from real-life young people, and they are far more capable then most people will realize.  

The adults might be surprised, but the kids won't be. If you give them half a chance, kids will astound the adults around them with what they're capable of.

One of the reactions I get from my books is something like: 'Yes, but your character is awfully young to do what you've got them doing.' That reaction is usually muted and subtle, as in: 'Well, I like the story, but...'

So, I tell those adults who have read my stories that I've based my youthful characters on real kids. Maybe kids I know today, or kids I grew up with, or, just perhaps, a tiny bit out of my own past. I also find, much more frequently than I expect, news stories about youthful characters, real ones, who are doing amazing things at young ages.

I have started to Tweet about those young people, when I spot a story that supports my point of view.

A 10-year-old who wrote a book to help other kids deal with their feelings when dealing with a personal tragedy. A 12-year-old running his own company (okay... I posted about him). A 13-year-old baseball player in the Baseball Hall of Fame (yes, I posted about her, too). The 13-year-old who climbed Mount Everest. 14, 15, and 16-year-olds sailing around the world. 14 and 15-year-olds who survive 50 days lost at sea drifting in an open 12-foot boat. A 16-year-old hero who risks his life to save a 10-year-old boy from a partially frozen, rapidly flowing river. The list goes on.

Ask any young person, and many of them will tell you what they could do, if only given a chance, if only the adults in their lives would let them and support them. The next question is: Do the adults support them? Or, perhaps, do the adults say something like, 'Oh, you'll have to wait to do that' or 'You really think you're ready for that?'

So, what's your point of view on this? Do you think I'm exaggerating? Do you think my youthful characters are doing too much, or am I feeding back what is really happening?

I absolutely and firmly believe my youthful characters are fully capable of the feats, successes and actions that I've put into my stories. I believe it because I know it. I hope you agree. If you don't, then I welcome the challenge. Do you agree?

Wil