Sunday November 22, 2009
I Want to be Your First E-book
Oh, who am I kidding? I want to be your only e-book. Or, rather, your only two e-books, since you really shouldn’t download Cassingle without Single. They’re like a set.
In any case, I know a lot of people still aren’t reading e-books, so I thought I’d offer a quick guide to downloading Cassingle and Single—and a lot of other e-books, if you insist—on your iPhone or iPod Touch. While dedicated e-readers are obviously important, the iPhone and the handsets it has inspired will perhaps be even more important to the future growth of e-books—plus I see a lot more of them on the F train.
So. Step 1: Get an iPhone or iPod Touch. I only recently gave in and got an iPhone myself. I had to face the fact that being a digital publishing devotee, a semi-pro Tweeter (I have a whole job, but only part of it involves social networking), and not having an iPhone constituted some sort of malpractice. I was like the disproportionate number of ad creatives I’ve met who don’t own televisions. I’m an Apple skeptic—and a loooong-time Windows Mobile user—but I have to admit I’m pretty impressed. And the e-book reading experience on the iPhone is great. Perfect for Thanksgiving travel. Here are the next steps.
DOWNLOAD STANZA
Stanza is a great e-reader app. It’s so great, in fact, that Amazon had to buy it earlier this year because it was gaining so quickly on the Kindle. Search for it in the App Store and download it. It’s free.
LAUNCH STANZA
OPEN THE ONLINE CATALOG
The rest of the steps are after the jump.
CHOOSE FEEDBOOKS
Stanza is integrated with a lot of online catalogs of free and for-purchase books, from Fictionwise to Project Gutenberg. Read all that later. For now, choose Feedbooks.
CHOOSE “ORIGINAL BOOKS”
Feedbooks also offers a lot of public domain books. Topping the charts at the moment? “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Come back for that. Right now you want “Original Books.”
CHOOSE “FEATURED BOOKS”
Top selection. We’re almost there. Promise.
CHOOSE CASSINGLE
There it is, about to become your first e-book.
DOWNLOAD CASSINGLE
And there you have it.
READ ON
This is the first page of the “The Guest,” the first story in Cassingle. But as long you’re here …
MAKE SINGLE YOUR SECOND E-BOOK
Go back to the Cassingle download page and choose “Other books from this author.”
CHOOSE SINGLE
DOWNLOAD SINGLE
Just like you did with Cassingle. Hope you enjoy them both, and if not, you can surf Feedbooks and the rest of Stanza’s catalogs for other great (and often free) things to read.
