eBooks: Overview
Welcome to Space1999.org's free, non-commercial eBook publishing imprint!
Overview
Electronic books (eBooks) are digital versions of books that you can download to your personal computer or handheld device. According to Pressbox.co.uk, research conducted by the Gartner Group in 2005 revealed that one in 300 books read in the USA, and one in 450 books in Europe, are read in the digital format.
All of Space1999.org's eBooks are free, non-commercial and not-for-profit offerings, published under the "Space1999.org imprint" or in partnership with another web site (as a joint imprint). All authors retain 100% ownership of their own works, as covered by Creative Commons licenses and/or copyrights. Our imprints provide formatting, packaging and distribution to you, the reader.
Space1999.org makes absolutely no claim to the ownership of any copyrighted and/or trademarked properties, such as Space: 1999. No copyright infringement is intended.
eBooks typically have security settings, including DRM (Digital Rights Management) which may prevent or limit printing and copying, as well as specifying how many different devices you can download the eBook to. Our eBooks have none of this. We believe our readership is mature and responsible--and will respect the licenses granted for proper use of the eBooks.
There is no one single eBook file format; there are many. You will need to choose the appropriate software reader to go with your selection. (See below.)
Additional information about our eBooks can be found in our FAQ section.
Our eBooks are typically available in two different file formats:
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Software: Adobe Reader (free) |
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Software: OpenOffice (free) For more information on open standards, visit OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). |
At the time of this writing, we have standardized on these two file formats. For those using other eBook readers/formats, we apologize. There are simply too many formats in the public domain to publish to! This requires a tremendous amount of time/energy to re-design/re-format for other file types, such as Microsoft Reader.
We feel our chosen formats are the best ones to reach diverse computer platforms/operating systems.
Users can always use the .ODT version to save (or convert with other software) into other file formats which might display on their reader software, albeit without the same level of quality formatting & design we've endeavored to provide with our .PDF and .ODT versions.
Why go to this trouble?
The World Wide Web (WWW) continues to evolve, from simple SGML and HTML page types to complex multimedia and technological wonders involving Java, AJAX, Flash, PHP, C#, Ruby on Rails and other programming languages. The plain text web pages of yesteryear have been superceeded by ever-evolving, refined offerings.
Same with eBooks.
Space1999.org and other sites have decided to uplevel fan fiction to the next level, providing a professional-looking luster, design and format via newer technologies. We believe stories will receive more serious consideration if packaged in these file formats, rather than plain ASCII text files or HTML web pages. For those already published, it may renew interest in their works.
This publishing effort is done as a hobby by all involved. It is not a commercial venture. Authors retain 100% ownership of their works, although allowing their designated imprint to publish and distribute copies freely. Some writings may be prolific, highly-polished literary works; others may be amateurish and needing editorial work. Regardless, we believe it's time to uplevel and improve the fan fiction experience.
Lastly, Space1999.org is championing an eBook Development Kit: a guide for authors to publish their works to Space1999.org, or self-publish via their own imprint. As with our Open Content Model (akin to an open source-like model), we do not believe in hoarding content or ideas. The Kit can be used freely by others, using guidelines we've provided.
We hope you enjoy our venture into this brave, bold world of eBooks! Let us know what you enjoy--and what we can improve upon!
For those wishing to become involved...
- If you're an author and wish to have your work considered for publication with us, then start with our eBook Development Kit.
- If you're interested in starting a joint publishing imprint with Space1999.org, such as the "Space1999Fiction.com & Space1999.org imprint", then then start with our eBook Development Kit.
- If you want to host/distribute our eBooks on your non-commercial, fan-based web site, then we ask that you contact us before doing so. We do welcome other sites to share unaltered/unchanged copies of our eBooks for free.
- If you want to volunteer as a voiceover artist to record an audiobook version of our eBooks, let us know!
- If you have story ideas and are looking for a co-author or an editor, let us know.
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