Millennia Corporation Adds eBooks

I have written a number of times about the growing popularity of eBooks (books published in electronic format). Now Millennia Corporation is poised to become a major supplier of genealogy eBooks, thanks to a new agreement with Genealogical Publishing Company. The result should be genealogy books available much more easily than ever before and at lower prices. I believe this is great news for genealogists.

Here is a new announcement written by Millennia Corporation, the publishers of Legacy Family Tree:

Legacy Family Tree teams with Genealogical Publishing Company to release popular How-To books in downloadable, electronic format for the first time

SURPRISE, Arizona - Millennia Corporation, publisher of the popular family history software Legacy Family Tree, announced today that it is teaming with Genealogical Publishing Company to provide broader access to popular How-To books.

In the first joint project, two significant how-to books are now available in digital format for the first time ever:

• In Search of Your German Roots: a Complete Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors in the Germanic Areas of Europe
• Finding Italian Roots: The Complete Guide for Americans

Joe Garonzik, Marketing Director of Genealogical Publishing Company said, “Genealogical Publishing Company is delighted to make its award-winning how-to books available in digital format for the first time. Our association with Legacy Family Tree enables us to provide a valued new audience with authoritative information on a variety of subjects of importance to genealogists.”

Dave Berdan, President of Millennia Corporation commented, “Our mission has always been to help genealogists organize, research, and share their family history. Teaming with Genealogical Publishing Company certainly supports our mission. We are excited to help bring these how-to books to a wider audience.”

About In Search of Your German Roots, by Angus Baxter

This updated edition of In Search of Your German Roots is designed to help you trace your German ancestry; not only in Germany but in all the German-speaking areas of Europe, from the Baltic to the Crimea, from the Czech Republic to Belgium. Like all books by Angus Baxter, it shows you how to conduct your research by correspondence and e-mail; how to work in your own home, at your computer, using the resources of libraries and archives or the records of church and state. (PDF format, 127 pages, published 2008, $14.95 from http://www.legacyfamilytreestore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=P01)

About Finding Italian Roots, by John Philip Colletta

Since Finding Italian Roots first appeared in 1993, an ever increasing number of Americans have become interested in tracing their Italian heritage. This thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded Second Edition provides up-to-date information about accessing and interpreting the vast universe of materials available for tracking Italian ancestors and recording their stories for future generations. It contains more state and local sources, more point-by-point explanations, more step-by-step instructions, more "insider" hints and helps, more illustrations, more specific examples, plus an expanded glossary and annotated bibliography, and numerous Internet websites in both English and Italian--all brought vividly to life through the colorful stories of real Italian and Italian-American ancestors. Whether you are just beginning your investigations or have been doing genealogy for years, this guide will help maximize your investment of time, effort, and money. (PDF format, 206 pages, published 2003, reprinted 2008, $12.95 from http://www.legacyfamilytreestore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=P02)

Comments

[Toni Carrier]

This is wonderful news. Genealogical Publishing offers so many rich resources. Having them available online will be a major convenience. Hope some African American titles are on the slate!

[Pinklady]

Since those books are on sale at the Genealogical Publishing Co. website for #16.95 and #14.95 respectively, I do not call that a substantial savings.

[happygen]

I love e-books. No shipping costs, instant delivery and no lost books in the mail. I've stopped buying books internationally because of the number lost in surface mail, and expedited shipping is too expensive for me. And just as an added bonus - my kids haven't wrecked any of my e-books yet. And then there's that saving on storage space. I cannot fit anymore bookcases in my house. Oh I love e-books... Great news.

[Timothy Eastman]

e-books were never intended to be a way to grossly profit as you would on a printed volume. Any price associated should be to help offset the scanning or transcription cost with a small profit to the copyright owner/writer, etc. An out of copyright book should cost only a couple dollars as an e-book and $5 to $15 dollars (depending on how many pages) for an e-book still in copyright. This cost should accurately reflect what the copyright owner, publisher and reseller make already as a profit on printed books.
Also, e-books tend to come in un-editable pdf format. If a printed book comtains errors, you can make a correction in the margin. A pdf file, you cannot (unless you spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe's full version - other pfd editors, cheap or free, are of poor quality). Either a new universal format is needed for e-books, or Adobe will need to allow it's free reader to make corrections, notes and/or saving the pdf in other formats, such as Open Office and Microsoft Word format.
By changing e-book format schemes - such as text and background colors, and font size - e-books can be easier on the eyes than a printed volume. They should also be significantly less costly than a printed volume, since there is no printer cost associated.
A few of the old genealogy and reference books that I own, I have scanned myself into my computer as an e-book. Sometimes you don't want to run to the next room or downstairs and search thru the bookshelf (or take it with you on vacation or a road trip). Most countries (outside the US) have a fair use copyright law which states that the purchaser of copyrighted material may make an archival copy for personal use. International law also has fair use and the internet falls under international law.

[Drew Bartley, Genealogist, editor of Mayflower Descendant and Vermont Genealogy]

As an author to several books and editor of two journals, the real work (also read $$) in creating a new title is not in the printing, but the many hours researching, writing, editing, and indexing. People who have not done this I find tend to overlook that, so publishing in hard copy or electronic form should not effect the cost that much (unless you are donating your hours to the greater good on genealogical research).

[Susie]

I love the idea, but to be honest, feel 12.95 a bit steep for an ebook, sorry. Yes, it does take a lot of work to "typeset" into this form (created a couple myself so I know), however, once it's done, there's no further work. Presumably you will sell more than a dozen copies, eh? Well, maybe not since I can buy a hardcopy for a few extra bucks and share it without a reader issue.

[Rosemary]

I love eBooks... but not PDF format. I want to download them to my Kindle which takes MOBI and PRC formats. Other eBook readers have other formats.

I'm slowly getting rid of all my paperbacks and putting them on the Kindle. The basic model can hold about 200 books and you can extend this with an SD card.

However, pictures, tables and graphs are, as yet, not handled and I'll have to wait for a future upgrade for these features.

[Alwin]

Rosemary wrote: "I'm slowly getting rid of all my paperbacks". If you're throwing them away, please throw them in my direction. I spend all day with LCD, but LCD is the medium of phut! or poof! which is all right for ephemera; but for what is worth thinking about I want the printed page (and, yes, this is partly because I like the _feel_ of books).