TotalBoox: Pay per Book? No, Pay per Page!

Have you ever meet such a situation? Attracted by an eBook's cover and summary then happily bought it, but the main story did disappoint you, then you stopped reading it with just several chapters read. But did you realize that you had paid for the entire book and it seems that most of the money are wasted in this situation?

An Israeli company Total Boox comes up with a solution for this situation.

According to The Next Web's news, if you are using Total Boox, you only need to pay for the pages you have read instead of pay for the entire book before reading. You can even add all your favorite eBooks to your own bookshelf for free, and the company will only charge you for the pages have been read through.

In fact the entire process is similar with using a cellphone, before we starting reading the books, we need to prepay a sum of cash, then the company will charge for the finished pages from your prepaid money.

Total Boox thinks the "Pay and Read" chargement mode is narrowing reader's reading range and reducing their reading amount because readers are becoming more and more cautious in choosing which book to buy. On the contrary, "Read and Pay" is more friendly to readers, because all the chargement are the result of the value which enjoyed by readers. They need not to spend any money wasted.

Total Boox has launched the beta version app on Google Play, and the official version is planned to release at the beginning next year. And we can't get a accurate number of their library capacity so far, but the company said there will be at least tens of thousands of eBooks for sold.

Are eReaders The Key To A More Literate Future?

Reading is a vital part of education, but in recent years with the influx of computer technology, video games and television available, there have been concerns that not enough of us are reading for pleasure.

There is evidence suggesting that children who read for pleasure every day achieve better results in reading skills tests than those who don’t. Experts claim that due to the lack of reading for pleasure in daily life, children are failing to achieve the results expected of them by certain key milestones in their early education.

An ability to read is vital for success during school years and crucial in the world of work. According to Begintoread.com, two thirds of students who can’t read proficiently by the time they have reached the end of the fourth grade end up either in prison or claiming welfare. There is a 78 percent chance that if a child reaches this stage without being able to read they will not be able to catch up with their peers.

In the United States of America, a quarter of children grow up without knowing how to read. This is costly for the country, as 90 percent of people who receive welfare from the state dropped out of high school and those who can’t read are far more likely to have poor health. In fact, low literacy rates cost $73 million in direct health care costs every year.

Developments in reading technology

It isn’t all bad news for books though, as the advent of e-reader technology is said to be an encouragement for children to read, according to a recent survey. The Reading Agency questioned 500 parents, around half of whom said they thought e-reader technology was an encouragement for their offspring to pick up a book and start reading.

However, the popularity of e-readers seems to come at the detriment of investing in traditional books, as 61 percent of the parents questioned said they had never enrolled their child at the local library or borrowed books for them. According to the Reading Agency, children who use libraries double their chances of being above average readers.

The benefits of e-readers

When it comes to literature, e-reader technology boasts a wealth of benefits. Using the device, you can access libraries of books without having to leave your own home, and download the book of your choice within seconds. There are also storage benefits – you don’t require a library of bookshelves in your own home if you like to read. Additionally, this is a much more environmentally friendly way to access literature than printing words on paper.

With an e-reader you can access both children’s books and adult literature – either by sharing your device with your children, or investing in a child-friendly version so your kids don’t accidentally come across inappropriate titles.

Children’s e-readers include the LeapPad Explorer and Vtech Animated E-Book System – devices designed for young children, with their colourful graphics and robust, enduring design. For older children, there is the Nook – again with a coloured screen, as well as good quality graphics. This has the benefit of looking more like an adult e-reader so it feels more grown up.

E-readers in the developing world

The benefits of e-reader technology can be witnessed far and wide, with schools across the world investing in the technology to encourage children to read. In Kilgoris, South West Kenya, local schools are overcoming the shortage of textbooks by using e-reader technology which has been donated and is charged up using small generators and solar power packs.

One school has 150 of the e-readers, donated by the Kilgoris Project to share between 200 pupils, and the standard of reading at this educational establishment far outweighs that of other schools who are struggling for resources.

The school has found the technology inherently valuable, as the e-readers are robust, so they don’t get worn out quickly like traditional paper textbooks. They are also easy to update (being taken regularly to Nairobi where the internet is more accessible), so students can benefit from the latest textbooks, rather than using outdated versions.

Reading is a vital part of education right around the globe, which has suffered at the hands of new technology. However, e-readers have the potential to bring reading into the 21st Century, boosting literacy rates across the world – from the USA to Kenya – and providing a better level of education and improvements to life overall.

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This article is written by Evelyn Robinson, an enthusiastic reader of our blog.

eBook vs. printed book: 5 pros & cons of eBooks

eBook is booming at an increasingly rapid rate taking the region and sales into account. In several countries, such as in the US, eBooks have played a more and more important role in people’s daily life. Amazon has added a new feature, Whispercast, primarily for schoolteachers as well as office staff to share documents, which perfects the whole eReading system to some extent.

In the meantime, however, there are still a huge amount of people who are used to traditional paper books and eager to figure out how it makes sense to swing to eBooks. Here are 5 pros and cons of eBooks to help you understand this issue better.

Pros:

1. Portability. 

Apparently, eBooks do not physically exist thus we can easily put hundreds of eBooks on any handy device with storage function, such as smartphones or tablets. Carrying a couple of books is quite heavy while an iPhone with thousands of eBooks is just nothing.

2. Conserve resources. 

Printing Traditional paper books consume a lot of resources: professional printing equipment, ink, paper (trees and other materials), workforce, etc. On the contrary, eBooks consume few resources except several computers (sometimes one is enough) with editing tools. In that respect, the transfer from printed books to electronic books may well be called a milestone.

3. Save money.

Besides Gutenberg, there are heaps of websites offering eBooks for free such as Tuebl and Free E-books. We can never get free paper books although second-hand books generally sell at good prices. Well, this is not always the fact. Some eBooks are actually more expensive than printed books, but not many.

4. Share with your friends.

We have access to sharing our reading experience and feelings with friends on Facebook, Twitter or even Google + when we read eBooks on devices with internet connected. Tell your friends what is touching you is a nice thing, isn't it? We need reading and we need communicating even more.

5. Other reasons:

#1 More and more authors are turning up. 

Technology and development of eBooks have brought more and more people to the eBook field. This is a good challenge for people who are fond of reading and writing as they can simply write a document, convert into EPUB with free eBook tools and basically send to their family and friends for the first glimpse.

#2 Trend. 

Nowadays we frequently deal with digital content such as World, Excel amd Power Point. eBooks deliver a direct way for us to combine the great words from authors with our own content with simple "select" and "copy" whereas paper books give people a remote feeling.

#3 Reading attachment. 

eBooks often come with specified reading software, which remarkably facilitates our reading-related operations: annotate, bookmark, Dictionary, Text-to-Speech (supported by some reading apps such as iBooks and Mantano), change reading mode (Day/Night) and the like.

Cons:

1. DRM (Digital Rights Management)

Nearly all eBook companies, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, enforce DRM restrictions on their eBooks so as to limit eBook copying, printing and sharing. We are exclusively allowed to read eBooks (from certain store) on corresponding readers or reading apps.

For black-and-white eReader users, reading eBooks from other stores seems to be fairly tough as these readers are mostly based on Linux OS, which is unable to install external reading applications as Android OS does. For instance, there is nearly no legal way to read a Kindle book on Nook Simple Touch since this book has been protected by Kindle DRM. The only solution might be remove Kindle DRM (AZW) and then convert the DMR-free Kindle MOBI book into Nook supported EPUB format. This is the same to reading Nook/Sony/Kobo books on E-INK kindle.

Well, things are much easier if we read on iPad or android tablet such as Kindle Fire as we can download and install various reading apps from different providers to read eBooks delivered by them. Just install Kindle for Android app on your Nook HD or anything else (root may be required), and then you are able to read books purchased from Amazon on your Nook tablet.

A recent case, which greatly maddens me, is that Amazon took back all the books and the account of its customer, Linn, who has potentially violated Amazon’s rule. Without any notice or detailed explanation! Poor Linn sent several emails to Amazon Executive Customer Relations, Michael Murphy but kept receiving vague reply. Linn totally lost all her purchased Kindle books and has no chance to apply for a new Amazon account!

Likewise, Kobo has announced that registered users are not allowed to share their account – not with a spouse, kids, anyone. Ridiculously, we are prohibited from commanding the books we've purchased within reason. It appears that we can share our account in private whereas this behavior is illegal!

2. Reading devices required. 

Reading eBooks on laptop seems sort of clunky, not to mention desktop, when carrying an eBook from one place to another is a need, like from your dormitory to classroom. As a result, we'd better invest extra money on dedicated reading devices for the real “portable and convenient" reading. What's more, different eReaders support different eBook formats, especially Amazon Kindle. Books from Amazon store are mostly AZW whereas eBooks from other stores, as with Barnes & Noble and Sony store, are popular EPUB, which are supported on all non-Kindle eReaders. This is a headache for general readers, however, it appears that Amazon will not sacrifice its interests to combine EPUB with Kindle. Of course, you can choose to read eBooks on smartphones or tablets while color glass screen is not as good as E ink one from the angle of eye-protection.

3. Cross-reference. 

When we have to consult several books at the same time, paper books are apparently more convenient. When it comes to eBooks on our reading devices, we have to close one book and open another to switch. It would be better if we cross-reference eBooks on our computer.

4. Inconvenience for Professional technical books. 

Technical books often contain formatting tables, diagrams, equations, etc, which are mostly eventually integrated into PDF eBooks. In fact, we have found that PDF are not friendly format for setting fonts or zooming. We can certainly convert PDF to EPUB OR MOBI for more comfortable reading, but the conversion is sometimes not so fluent out of those PDFs' odd structure.

5. Other cases

#1 Fail to download a purchased eBook due to the connection problem.

#2 Unaccustomed to reading eBooks on a device, such as turning the pages.

#3 Misoperations such as deleting a purchased book permanently by mistake.

On the whole, eBook is something we love and hate at the same time. I personally prefer to eBook as it is more convenient to me. We have every reason to believe that eBook will become a natural tendency exclusively from the angle of resource-conserving and environmental protection. Well, DRM might be the key impediment for quite a long time although there are a handful of stores offering DRM-free eBooks. 

Tips to Earn More Cash By Selling an Ebook

The invention of the e-reader managed to change the publishing and writing world in various and profound ways. Not only is it now cheaper to buy an ebook, but writers don't have to wait as long to see their material in print, allowing them to find and capture their audience faster than ever and earn more money. Just because it's easier to create and distribute an ebook doesn't mean that you don't have to put as much effort into it as you would if you were taking the traditional publishing route.

There are a few important factors to consider before you even think about making money writing an ebook:

Do you have a large enough audience/market?

Do you have a professional editor to work with?

What's your marketing strategy?

Do you have a platform?


If you want to make money from an ebook, you need an audience with enough interest in your material to spend money and invest time on your work. Take a look at bestseller lists and bookseller websites to see what genres and subjects are popular. If your idea doesn't fall within those parameters, then you may want to rethink or tweak your idea.

One of the biggest mistakes with ebooks is that authors are in such a rush to get their material on digital bookshelves that they put out a poorly-written and poorly edited product. This not only makes the author look unprofessional, but destroys any credibility they may have had with their readers. Word-of-mouth can either boost sales or hamper them, so make sure that your work sparkles.

Having a professional editor will show readers that you are a serious writer who cares about the product they are putting out. While hiring an editor may cost money, it'll save you future embarrassment and will make your writing that much stronger, which can equal sales. If you can't afford an editor, make sure whoever reads your material is someone well-read and can offer constructive criticism.

With the prominence of social media, there's no excuse for writers not to have a Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads account. Not only are these platforms a great way to stay in touch with your readers and find more readers/buyers, it's a good way to stay up-to-date on the latest goings on of the ebook business. Just be sure that you use your social media accounts to share information about your book, not post pictures of what you had for dinner.

Ebooks are a great way to make money doing something that you love. Just make sure that you do it right, take your time and connect yourself with the right people. Other than that, all you need is luck, a good ebook and patience.

About the Author
Jo Harris is an avid reader, author, and social media junkie. When she is not reading or writing about social media she is working as an Outreach Coordinator for the Morgan Law Firm.

Will iPad Mini be your pick?

iPad Mini has been on everyone’s lips even before its actual coming to the world. With its appearance this Tuesday, people who intend to buy a tablet have gained another choice. But will the Mini iPad be your pick?

Apple finally released its small-version tablet, no doubt, aiming at getting a piece of action from the booming 7” tablet market. Among so many 7” tablet opponents, iPad Mini stands out with its iOS platform, rather than the $329 price. For people who are eager to experience apple’s amazing ecosystem, iPad Mini might not be a bad pick, if they do not remarkably care the extra 130 bucks. I personally keep that 7.9” is an advisable size, which is neither too small to fit nor too large to carry, while my colleague geeks hold that the Mini size is exactly a failure compared to the classical iPad. Take Nexus 7 and similar Kindle & Nook HD titles into account, you will find your answer.

However, most people would rather spend around $200 on a tablet just for fun as we do not count too much on such a gadget. Tablet is after all a tablet, which can never take the place of computer in the short run. If you are looking for a high performance-to-price-ratio tablet, Nexus 7 has unquestionably turned out to be the best option exclusively from the angle of its quad-core processor.

Apple patrons, however, have suffered from a loss more or less. Hardly will they keep proud of their iPod Touch as well as the newly purchased iPad 3 as before. What did apple think to make such a decision by sacrificing its fans’ profit?

On the whole, if the 329-dollar price is not a problem and you are still interested in apple’s charm, take the Mini. It won’t be amazing but excellent at least as far as its configuration is concerned.

Will Amazon Kindle Paperwhite’s limitations stop you?

Amazon shed light on 3 limitations of its brand-new E-ink reader, Kindle Paperwhite in a statement on 12th, Oct, just around 10 days after its delivery in the US.

1. Neither audio files nor Text-to-Speech function is supported.

2. Imperfect built-in light. Under bright conditions, Paperwhite offers a display secondary to none while under dark conditions, “the illumination at the bottom of the screen from the built-in light is not perfectly even”, which has been attached with related photos by Amazon itself.

3. 2 G's storage seems to be sort of inferior to some models’ 4 G.

Fortunately, Amazon soon publicized and explained its flaws with a link on its official product page once heaps of complaints arrived. The question is, will Paperwhite’s limitations stop people from buy this fresh built-in-light model?

In all probability, the answer is not. If we are considering an eReader with glowlight, what options will we have other than Kindle’s Paperwhite? Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight or Kobo Glo? Although Nook and Kobo have been laboring hard to ameliorate their devices, it seems the most majority are still inclined to pick Kindle Paperwhite partly due to the following merits.

1. Exceptional E-ink display exclusively for reading. Paperwhite’s unprecedented 212 ppi (62% more) and higher contrast for text (25% higher) make us feel like reading a real black-and-white book rather than a grey-and-white one.

2. Excellent patented built-in light. Amazon Paperwhite takes on an outstanding built-in light with advanced optic technology and design integrated, which remarkably appeals to people who like reading at night, regardless of the given flaws at the bottom of the display in dark conditions. It’s wonderful anyway, isn’t it?

3. Two months’ battery life even with the light on. The actual standby time of Paperwhite may not jibe with the official data totally, nevertheless, our sustainable reading would not be therefore affected since the battery capacity has been greatly improved.

4. Amazon’s complete ecosystem. According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon is making profit from its service instead of devices themselves. There are more eBook titles as well as free titles available on Amazon than titles on the other two opponents.

5. Bandwagon effect. Up against the fact that so many people around us use Kindle and talk about it, we could not but be apt to choose it.

We should not judge a device, say, Kindle Paperwhite ($119) too harshly, as gadgets in the market are hardly all roses. What we do hope to get is the considerate service and the affluent resources to meet our demands after our purchases. We have every reason to believe that Amazon is working towards this all the way while it’s making profit out of such an advisable campaign.

Apple sent invitations for releasing its brand-new titles (probably iPad Mini)

Apple has officially sent out invitations to the press for bringing out its new titles next Tuesday (October 23) without unveiling the details of its products. In all probability, we will have a chance to see the true face of the hottest 7” tablet, iPad Mini.

Earlier this week, it’s rumored that apple would conduct its press conference on October 23. Analysts speculate that iPad Mini will take half the size of regular iPad at a price between $249 and $299. A Mini version (13”) of MacBook is also expected to turn up by the time.

More information falls into the wait-and-see category.