New Publisher Showcases New Ebook Format

The Writers' Collective has placed two finalists in the 2002 Independent Ebook Awards using a new Ebook technology called Exebook, where the book is also the program needed to read it.

When TWC founder, Lisa Grant, went online last November to see about submitting member's books to the Awards committee, she discovered every concievable ebook format accepted--except the one her publishing company was using.

Until now," Ms. Grant said, "ebooks have faced considerable problems. Many of them are easily pirated, require the download and installation of a separate program just to read them and worst of all, are awful to look at. Who wants to 'scroll' through three hundred pages of a novel?"

Although The Writers' Collective had their official launch in April of this year, and concentrate on traditional hardback and paperback books, they realized the need to offer ebooks as well. They worked for nearly a year helping Exebook's creator, Yakov Sudeikin, to develop an Ebook program that is impossible to hack, easy to use (the book IS the reader) and gives full artistic control of every aspect of the book's production back to the writer. The result is a book that looks real even when read on the average PC user's monitor, with double-sided 'paper' pages that turn at the click of a mouse.

"These books are an evolutionary step up from what has gone before," Ms. Grant said, "and a joy to read."

The judges of the Ebook Awards evidently agreed. Not only did they change the rules to allow TWC to submit in that format (after viewing a sample she sent them), but both _The Last Bastion_ by Barbara Wellesley and _The Phoenix_ by Ruth Sims were named finalists in last week's Award's online announcement.

When the Awards ceremony is held in Santa Barbara in November, Ms. Grant plans to fly in from Providence. And, she says, "I plan on reading a few Exebooks on my laptop along the way."

Links:

The Writers' Collective
http://www.writerscollective.org

2002 Independent Ebook Awards
http://www.e-book-awards.org

The Last Bastion & The Phoenix
http://www.writerscollective.org/books.htm