Chapter 25. E-Books
The term e-book can apply to just about any electronically distributed reading material that has been formatted as a book. The most popular and universally accessible e-book format is Adobe Acrobat's "Portable Document Format" (PDF), and there's an entire industry built around that particular format (see "PDF Resources" for more about it).
There are also a number of software packages that will take a collection of linked HTML pages and create an electronic book file in PC .exe format—these offer some nice presentation and security features, including the ability to lock the e-book to a particular computer and control user access to it (e.g., terminate access if a refund is requested).
The problem with these is their dependence on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Any potential customers who have a Mac or Linux system will be out of luck unless they have a Windows emulator program.
Still, some publishers are willing to make that sacrifice for the added features of the PC .exe format.
(Note: My earlier comments about digital security apply to e-books as well as other digital content.)
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