New British ebook service launches

Just launched in the past few weeks is Myebook.com (www.myebook.com), a new web-based ebook community from a British company, which aims to give people the tools to create book content and 'get it out there' for free. Every aspect of publishing content is covered - from creating, to sharing and reading - in a slick and simple way.

The service has been met with a great deal of interest from several comic creators, with a number of comics from Markosia and Orang Utan already available on the service.

"Comic book creators love it," enthuses Simon Whitehall, head of myebook.com communications. "The system is a great environment to create and publish comics and graphic novels. The power and richness of the design features are out of this world, certainly by web standards."

"Forget web 2.0," he says, "We've just turned the page to chapter 3.0. With myebook.com, we've made it possible for anyone to upload or create from scratch beautifully simple or adventurously complex page designs and covers online, in no time. What's more, users can publish their book with a single button and release it to the world before the (virtual) ink's dry! They can create as many publications as they want. And it's all free."

Readers may think myebook.com sounds too good to be true. So where's the small print?

"There isn't one," says Whitehall. "The only limit is our users’ imagination. An over-used cliché but never more appropriate than now. Ourethos is: create, publish and share.

"Our audience is everyone from the kid at school who's just written a short story in English class; to his sister who wants to document a recent family trip; to the author who wants to share the novel he's just finished; to his friend who wants to share the novel he's sat on for 20 years!

"My grandmother, for example, has led a rather 'colourful life' and has always threatened to write a book some day. 'But who would publish that?' she would ask. Well, we would - so all her friends could read it online."

"It's the ultimate ebook platform for any personal or corporate publications," Whitehall continues, "whether it's for novels, childrens books, magazines, comics, photo albums, leaflets, brochures, instruction manuals. You can even embed or link to videos, audio, documents, images and flash files to make your books fully interactive. And what's more, since the whole myebook system is community-based, getting your word out to your audience is easy."

The team behind myebook.com feels that the service has ‘stolen a march’ on the rest of the publishing industry. While judging a book by its cover is never advised, spending a few minutes on the site will convince even the most hardened bookworm.

"Like the digital music revolution, myebook.com aims to give back total control to the content creator and the reader," Whitehall concludes. "Itprovides a way for users to publish what they want and connect with their audiences directly."

myebook.com are however, not trumpeting the death of print. The company is quick to point out that, while print is an excellent medium, it is the advantages of the traditional publishing and distribution model that are fading.

• More information: www.myebook.com