eBook reading devices have come and gone (mostly gone) – often because the real market for mobile reading devices is in fact multi-functions such as mp3, phone, organizer and e-book reader.
Well, this time, we are in the midst of a massive revolution of iPod users – to the point where you have to ask yourself as an e-book publisher – is it time to consider Ipodders as a viable market for your e-books?
Answer is maybe!
The iPod comes with a nifty notes reader that allows viewing of small text files. There are iPod users that have figured out how to take an ebook, convert it into a text file and split it into multiple smaller text files to read on their IPod.
You will find opensource book at Guttenburg that are already in text format, but most commercial ebooks are either in Adobe PDF or compiled into an exe format from html.
For a reader to view a pdf ebook on their Ipod they would need:
1. Convert pdf to text file (I’m sure there are lower cost tools out there, but one example is this one for $40 is this PDF for Word Converter Once you have the file in MS Word format you can export or save as a text file easy enough.
2. Text file splitter. Low and behold, there is a free IPod text splitter available here that will take your text file and split it into various files that can be uploaded to your Ipod.
Now, will the future see pdf reader on IPod – I would think so, and when this happens the entire process becomes much simpler.
Eventually it will happen, so you’ll want to start thinking about text formatted “teasers” that IPod users can download and that will drive them to your website to purchase more.
Its a captive audience for your e-book and information product marketing business – you just need to reach them with today’s technology.
