Are Plain Text Versions Of Ebooks Worth It?
Question; are plain text versions of ebooks even worth it? This is a question that a lot of people may have when it comes to deciding upon a format for an ebook. Now wile there are many different ebook formats out there, the most popular ones are the Kindle format, Epub format, and HTML format. All of these formats are excellent choices for ebooks, but what about putting them in plain text format?
Well as you already know, there are some issues when putting books into this particular file format mainly being that it can be easily manipulated. As you well know, plain text files can be loaded up into any text editor or word processing program and then modified and then redistributed across the Internet.
This in turn causes problems for the owner of the ebook because now you will have alternate copies floating around on the Internet. Now while this may be true, putting your book into plain text format can actually be a really good thing and here's why.
For starters, putting your book into plain text format actually helps to future proof the book because once it is in plain text format, that format can last practically forever because as you know, ebook formats come and go. The plain text file format has been around forever, and it doesn't look like it is going anywhere soon.
Using the plain text file format as a backup for your book is actually the smart thing to do. Another reason why you should put your books into plain text format has to do with people with disabilities such as the blind and visually impaired. Those that are blind or visually impaired have to use specialized software called screen readers to help them to navigate their computers and the Internet as well as for any reading material that they receive. These screen readers access plain text better because there is no formatting to contend with, and the text is really simplified.
The plain text file format is the simplest and most basic file format around, and it can work on all devices and computing platforms with no problems whatsoever. So putting your ebook into plain text format along with the other formats that you use is a smart thing to do.
Remember, not everyone is interested in plagiarism of your material, so it is pretty safe to place your ebook into the plain text file format and distribute it to people who can best use that particular file format to read books. However, not many ebook authors do this with their books and a lot of people don't have access to them because of this fact. By placing your books into plain text format is giving your material the accessibility features that it needs in order to allow for the blind and visually impaired to read your book. especially if the book is in an ebook format that isn't usually accessible to these people.
So if you're thinking about publishing an ebook, or you have already published ebooks in the past, then you might want to seriously think about putting them into the plain text format as another alternative file format for your ebooks. This makes information much more accessible to everyone in the end. Plus it is the smart thing to do.
Also, speaking of future proofing your ebooks, if they're in plain text format, you will be able to put them into an ebook format that isn't even out yet because the book is in plain text, and converting plain text to a new ebook format shouldn't really be all that difficult to do.
So as you see, there are several reasons as to why you should put your ebooks into the plain text file format, and all of these reasons are valid ones that will benefit you as an author in the end. So Seriously think about converting all of your ebooks into plain text along with the other file formats and get ready to reap the benefits!