Definition

• The word e-book originated as an abbreviation for "electronic book." And that is what e-books are: books that are produced for distribution and subsequent reading on a computer or other electronic device, rather than being printed and bound as traditional books are.
  
  

Format and Reading

• The vast majority of e-books on the market are distributed as PDF files, meaning they can be read on any computer or device that can read PDF files. (For example, if your computer has Adobe Acrobat or Preview installed, you can read e-books that are distributed as PDFs.) In other cases, e-books may be distributed in file formats that are specific to different individual e-book reader devices, such as Amazon's Kindle reader.
  
  Reading an e-book consists of opening the file on your computer or other device and reading the text on the screen. Some e-book reading devices and software programs even simulate page turning.
  
  

Distribution

• You can buy e-books directly from Amazon.com, particularly if you have a Kindle reader. Otherwise, there are numerous online e-book publishers and sellers with wide selections. Sometimes books that are published only in electronic format are considerably less expensive than those that exist as electronic versions of existing print books, given that the costs of publishing an e-book are much lower than the production costs of a print book.
  
  

Creation

• One interesting consequence of e-book production being less expensive is that new authors find it easier to get published. In fact, it is quite easy to publish an e-book yourself without even involving a publishing company. Amazon offers authors the ability to post their work for sale in the Kindle format (although Amazon takes a cut of the profits), but it is also possible to publish an e-book on your own merely by formatting your work as a PDF and then posting it for sale on your own website (using payment software such as PayPal to accept orders). Note that you are likely to get more traffic by going through a popular site such as Amazon, however.