Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
I think there are significant differences between mp3's dominance of audio formats as compared to mobi's dominance of ebook formats. Part of the reason that mp3 became so popular was because of the easily available software that made it easy for people to convert their existing CD's into mp3 files. Pretty much by definition, nothing like that exists for books. Therefore, to a large extent, the Publishers still can have a major say in the actual format in which ebooks are distributed.
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Bill
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You raise an interesting point, will the winning format be the one pushed by the companies, or the one most easily converted to and from? We have some good tools at the moment, but nothing that would equate to the ripping of CD's to mp3. eCub provides funky output, Calibre is fantastic but not yet 'cd-ripping' easy, Feedbooks is also good if you have the time to manuallly cut-and-paste your text then download the preview without actually uploading to the site. The best I've found is the Book Creator macro here on Mobilereads, but alas I'm no longer on PC and there's no equivalent on my machine.
If someone comes up with combination of the tools mentioned above, mabye we'll have a WYSIWYIG solution that forces ePub domination over the others. Just spitballing, but if you could take a TXT file and with little or no intervention, push out an ePub the other end, then I think the adoption would skyrocket.
Oh, and on another note, you need the Pirates to adopt the format. It may sound counter-intuitive, but adoption by the Pirates would seal the deal on ePub becoming the standard.