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By David Rothman

“If you write and publish eBooks, sooner or later you will probably be faced with a dilemma–should you create your eBooks as .exe files or .pdf files?” e-booker Michael Southon asked last year.

But, look, isn’t it possible you should not use either format?

As even some PDF boosters will admit, typical readers may find it difficult to get to the customization features to adjust the on-screen appearance of the text to their liking. Plus, PDF documents can be slow going on some PDAs, assuming that they have the capability to use the format in the first place. PDF, if you must use it, is better suited for desktops and printed-out books.

EXE is worse. It won’t work on Macs and Linux machines and certain others. What’s more, especially in this era of viruses, the last thing you want to do is scare off readers. Far better to use nonthreatening standard formats like TXT and HTML or (without Digital Rights Management) PDF and other proprietary formats if your heart is really set on them.

Interestingly, in Southon’s case, we’re not talking solely about real books. Judging from his Ezine Writer home page, many in his audience are more into books as marketing vehicles than into books as books. (I’d just hope that the EXE books don’t include spyware. No accusations against Southon himself–I’m just wondering about his customers.)

Still, since these distinctions blur in the minds of many readers and even many small publishers of “real” books, I’ll take his column seriously and warn people of the weaknesses of both EXE and PDF.

Of course, while we’re on the topic of nonbooks disguised as books, I’m reminded of one advantage of a TeleRead-style library model. The default settings in library catalogues could steer people away from nonbooks of the kind that Southon is apparently teaching some readers to write for their multilevel marketing schemes.

A lengthly aside–away from e-books: Not to be down on Southon about everything. Toward the bottom of a column last year, he told readers of a gem of a way of dealing with spam from China.

“The Chinese government,” Southon wrote, “recently ordered all ISPs in China to start monitoring email for subversive phrases. This anti-spammer replies to Chinese spam with a message that includes subversive phrases, such as ‘weapons and ammunition’, ‘Falung Gong’ and ‘Free Tibet’.” Alas, Southon suggested avoiding this technique since it could result in spammer being sent to labor camps.

I myself doubt that would happen–even the most zealous government officials would understand what was going on. But if nothing else, the officials and Chinese ISPs would be POed at the spammers for wasting the time of the People’s Republic and hard-working techies, and then China might take the spam problem more seriously.

So next time a Chinese spam sneaks past SpamKiller, I’ll do the weapons-and-ammo act for sure.

 
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