A Wonderful Surprise

Most of the time you need to plan, work, and rework to get anything worthwhile as an author. Sometimes, you just get lucky.

We were contacted this week by Lucy Schneider to do an eBook reading later this month. Lucy is the owner of All Readers Ebooks (www.allreadersebooks.com). Her husband, Charles, has invented a universal eBook format that will work natively on any tablet, reader, smart phone, or PC. While he’s busy trying to convince the world that everyone needs to use .efont, she’s decided to open up a virtual bookstore featuring eBooks published in this format.

Needless to say, this adventurous pair has given themselves quite a challenge. Not only has Charles the unenviable task of trying to convince behemoths like Amazon, Apple, and Google that they made mistakes choosing different native eBook formats, Lucy has chosen to compete against these same companies and an e-world of other online eBook outlets. Luckily they do have one thing going for them; .efont is cool! Not only does it offer all the features as any other eBook software, it can integrate completely with a word processor like MS Word. Using the .efont add-in, you are able to easily write, convert, or format your eBook on your PC and know exactly how it is going to look on a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or any other eBook reader. As I’m sure all our loyal readers know, eBooks today are formatted into the different formats using conversion software, which isn’t perfect. Even professionals will turn out eBooks with weird gaps or the occasional blank page.

You can also write in an .efont eBook after it’s been converted. By designating parts of your eBook as “interactive,” you can have sections of the eBook available after it’s been published. The Schneiders envision incorporating electronic pictures and video post-production so that eBook readers can personalize their copies. It also provides a neat way for eBook authors to do book signings. We’ve already downloaded an app from Lucy that lets us use our smart phone to sign copies of The Valentine’s Game that she converted for us. It’s wild!

Lucy has a sister who lives in Poway and she saw our article in 92064 Magazine (www.92064magazine.com/2012/03/poway-high-student-services-director-and-husband-make-quite-a-writing-team/). Now we’re going to do a premier release of The Dragon Princess at All Readers EBooks and are committed to doing a web-reading and eBook signing as soon as we finish our final proof edit. Since we plan to be finished in the next two days, we’re currently scheduled to release on the morning of Friday, April 20^th with our reading that evening. We will be sure to post the details once they’ve been firmed up.

We are a little overwhelmed but completely ecstatic by this unexpected event. We love the idea of being quixotic partners with Lucy and Charles as they tilt at the eBook windmills festooned across the Internet landscape. While we still intend to independently publish The Dragon Princess through our normal e-publisher, we are happy to release the .efont version first and are sure most of you will want to download your signed copy from All Readers EBooks as soon as it is available. Since it will still be the same price at Lucy’s place as it will anywhere else, we think most people will want all of our eBooks in this amazing new format.

Oh, one more thing… April Fools!