Kathleen Desmarais

I am in the process of evaluating the marketability of e-books and if Pandia Press publications should be offered as e-books through electronic downloads. These would be offered along side print copies with customers having a choice–hard copy or e-book. Electronic downloads offer several advantages for customers and for publishers.

For customers:

1. No waiting. Instantly receive your book and use it right away.
2. E-books are interactive with live links, bookmarks, and text anchors.
3. Worksheets and maps can be easily printed from your desktop. If your child makes a mistake, no problem just print another one.
4. E-books are generally less expensive and come with no shipping costs.

For publishers:

1. E-books are easily edited. Error corrections don’t have to wait for the next print run.
2. Paper and money saved with less printing (hey, that’s one for the environment too).
3. Higher profit margins due to less cost of production.
4. Affiliate programs.
5. No trips to the post office (always a good thing).
6. No “lost” packages.

There are a few disadvantages:

1. No hard copy to hold and pages to flip through (unless you print it).
2. Customer will have to print worksheets and maps.
3. Reading off a computer screen can be tiresome.
4. E-books are easily pirated and shared illegally with others.

I am also considering offering a seperate Homeschool Tracker file along with each e-book. Homeschool Tracker is popular homeschool scheduling software.

Let your opinion be heard! Please help me with this decision. Do you want to see e-books of History Odyssey and R.E.A.L. Science? Please participate in the poll found in the sidebar.