Celebrate Read an Ebook Week

Two Small Presses Give Away Free Ebooks

Mar 9, 2009 Mayra Calvani

In celebration of Read an Ebook Week, Zumaya Publications and Twilight Times Books are giving away free ebooks.

Read an Ebook Week, which runs March 8-14, 2009, was founded by author Rita Toews as a way to recognize and inform the public about the benefits of reading ebooks. All over the web, electronic publishers and authors will be promoting their ebooks this week, either by offering free titles and discount deals, or by blogging and writing articles about it.

For a closer look at Read an Ebook Week, readers may visit Spunk On A Stick's Tips, where L. Diane Wolf interviews Rita Toews.

Two publishers who are taking advantage of this opportunity to promote ebooks are Zumaya Publications and Twilight Times Books.

Zumaya Publications

Zumaya Publications publishes books in both print and electronic formats.

In celebration of Read an eBook Week, 17 Zumaya authors will offer free copies of their books, in categories ranging from Romance to Mystery to Science Fiction and Fantasy. All will be available in eReader format suitable for reading on iPhone, iPod Touch and PDF. Many others will be offered in other popular ebook formats such as MS Reader.

In addition, copies of other titles by these authors will be offered at their online bookstore at a 20% discount for the duration of Read an eBook Week.

"Books are books--ebooks are just more convenient than their print brethren," says Elizabeth Burton, Editor-in-Chief at Zumaya. "If you have vision problems, if you can't leave the house without something to read, if you spend any amount of time waiting for something to happen, if you have arthritis in your hand that makes holding a book uncomfortable, if you like to read in bed but your partner doesn't appreciate the glare--these are all good reasons to consider ebooks. That there are some incredibly good writers whose work you'll only be able to read digitally is just an added bonus."

As Burton further states, "There was much lamenting when the mass market paperback crawled out of the pulp world that it would destroy the wonders of hardcover reading. The same, equally specious wail is not being aimed at ebooks. EBooks are just another way to read, one that appeals to the younger generations who've grown up with digital media but that also draws those who for any or all of the above-listed reasons want an alternative to print. They won't replace print books anytime soon, but the market for them will continue to grow."

Twilight Times Books

Twilight Times Books also publishes books in both print and electronic formats. During Read an Ebook Week, Publisher Lida Quillen will be offering Darrell Bain's autobiography, Darrell Bain's World of Books, as a free download. She will also be offering an additional free ebook each day. For a list of free titles, visit their website.

For those readers who are familiar with ebooks, this week is full of special deals and promotions. For those newbies out there, this is the perfect time to become familiar with ebooks and try them out.

The copyright of the article Celebrate Read an Ebook Week in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction is owned by Mayra Calvani. Permission to republish Celebrate Read an Ebook Week in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Ebook Week