Welcome to Publishers Row the eBook marketplace

While you may never give up paper versions of some of your favorite classics, there are many compelling reasons to read e-books. For example:

The Adobe eBook Reader and Adobe eBook Reader Plus run on any laptop or desktop PC using Windows 95 or 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 and on Macintosh computers running Mac OS 8.6 or later. There’s no need to buy any special hardware to read your e-books.

Glassbook is pleased to offer a wide variety of new releases as well as many classics. Titles range from the latest bestsellers by Scott Turow, Stephen King, and Ian Frazier to literary treasures such as Jane Eyre, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Through the Looking Glass. The company continues to work with its publishing partners to make more new e-books available.

All of your transactions within the Glassbook Bookstore are secured using a Verisign digital certificate. This ensures that all information you send to Glassbook via the Web is encrypted. If other Internet users intercept the communication, they will be able to see it only in an encrypted (garbled) form. Certificate technology allows Glassbook to decrypt the information and view it in plain text form.

The Adobe eBook Reader Plus installation is available in two versions, one that includes the dictionary with the installation program and one that does not. The version of the installation program that includes the dictionary is approximately 55MB in size. The version that does not include the dictionary is much smaller.

If you install the version of the Adobe eBook Reader Plus that does not include the dictionary, you can download the dictionary after installation by clicking the Menu button and then clicking Dictionary.

If you install the Adobe eBook Reader, you can upgrade to the Adobe eBook Reader Plus by clicking the Menu button and then clicking Dictionary.

You can download he Adobe eBook Reader and the version of the Adobe eBook Reader Plus that does not contain the dictionary in less than an hour on a 28.8 modem (and much faster connecting through an ISDN line, broadband network, or 56K modem). The dictionary can take several hours to download on a 28.8 modem.

E-books can be downloaded in a matter of minutes. E-books come in all different sizes. A 300-page book without many graphics can be downloaded in approximately four to five minutes.

Currently, e-books cost the same or slightly less than paper books. We expect prices for e-books to go down in the future as market share increases.

Not at this time. We anticipate this will be possible in the future, as the standards develop.

Because the Adobe eBook Reader displays e-books in PDF format, you can view the same beautiful typeface, images, and page layout you would see with a paper book.

Adobe Acrobat and the Acrobat Reader work well for all documents, while the Adobe eBook Reader is designed specifically for e-books. The Adobe eBook Reader has all the functionalit y of the Acrobat Reader, including annotation and bookmarking capabilities plus enhancements such as display rotation for laptop computers and a built-in dictionary.

Glassbook and Adobe are marketing and development partners. In fact, the Adobe eBook Reader technology will be bundled with Adobe Acrobat Reader in a future release.

The Adobe eBook Reader is free, and the Adobe eBook Reader Plus is available for $39.

Since you own the e-book, once you have read it you can store in the Library that is included with the Adobe eBook Reader. In the future, users will be able to loan or give their e-books to others using the Adobe eBook Reader Plus.

To protect copyrights, publishers establish their own guidelines for how much of their e-books can be printed and/or copied. This means that these permissions will differ from book to book. For example, some of the free books from the Glassbook Bookstore have no restrictions on copying and printing. For example, a publisher might give consumers the ability to print several pages of a cookbook within a set period of time.

The Adobe eBook Reader can be used on any laptop or desktop PC. The Reader is perfect for the new class of ultra light notebook PCs, such as the Sony Vaio and the Sharp Actius. In general, the higher the screen resolution, the better the book will look on your monitor.

Glassbook has developed a technology preview of its own subpixel technology, called sharpen, which is included in the latest version of the Adobe eBook Reader and Adobe eBook Reader Plus.

The Open eBook Publication Structure is a specification for e-book file format and structure. OEB is a subset of HTML and is appropriate for simply designed books. It does not have the capabilities of PostScript and PDF, such as sophisticated page layout. Right now, you can drag and drop HTML files into the Adobe eBook Reader.

Version two of OEB is expected to include more sophisticated features for book design than the current version. Glassbook will be adding support for OEB to the Adobe eBook Readers in the future.

Yes. To move your existing PDF files into the Adobe eBook Reader, simply drag them from the Windows desktop or Explorer into the Adobe eBook Reader.

Glassbook provides 24 x 7 support for the Adobe eBook Readers. In the U.S. and Canada, you can reach support toll free at 800-324-9113. International users can call the 24-hour support line at +1-503-968-4056.

We are planning a version of the Adobe eBook Reader for this platform in the future. If you would like to be notified when this version is available, please join our mailing list.

We do not have an immediate plan to develop a version for the Linux platform. However, this is certainly a future possibility as this platform becomes more widely used.

There are some programs that are incompatible with the Reader, including but not limited to:

Please check to make sure that these applications are not installed on your computer. If these programs are installed, you will need to uninstall them to use the Reader.

The driver is installed when you reboot your system after the software installation. It may be necessary to reboot one more time and try again.

Currently we are working on incorporating a lend/give feature into the Adobe eBook Rea der Plus, which will allow you to transfer a book to another PC. In the interim, if you want to read a book on a certain PC you will need to download it directly to that PC.

For some background information on why you cannot freely copy copyrighted works please see:

When you install the Adobe eBook Reader, the installation directory typically is named C:\Program Files\Glassbook\Adobe eBook Reader, although you can specify a different directory when you install the Reader. The Data subdirectory contains e-books and important information about them. This is the directory that you should back up.

Some users have encountered difficulties when downloading and using the Reader and e-books from behind firewalls due to the proxy settings in the Internet Explorer browser.

Whether or not you use Internet Explorer as your Web browser, the Reader accesses the proxy settings in Internet Explorer. Verify that your proxy settings are correct and that they match those of other browsers you use.

If your proxy server requires authentication, especially when using Windows NT authentication mode, you will not be able to download books since the authentication dialog will not appear. You will see an error in the download dialog that HTTP authentication is required. We are working on a solution to this problem.

Just before you certify your Reader, it logs this information as an error message in the bug report form. Unless you"re seeing a different error message, you can ignore this one.

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What should I do if I cannot open the EBX transfer file?

Error: Cannot open EBX transfer file.

If you haven’t already certified your Reader please do so. This must be done before books can be downloaded and read. Otherwise, you will be able to download information (the .etd files) that will allow the Reader to obtain the books but not the books themselves. Once the Reader is certified, the full download can proceed.

Follow these steps:

Install and then open your Reader.
Click the Bookstore button.
You will be prompted to certify; click Certify Now.
Locate and open the .etd file on your file system.

The Adobe eBook Reader will then download your e-book.

If you cannot find this file on your system, it may have been interrupted during the download process. Go to the Bookstore and try to download a book again.

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Why do I need Internet Explorer to use the Reader?

Error message: "UNHANDLED EXCEPTION ERROR WHEN TRYING TO CERTIFY or ACCESSING BOOKSTORE LINK FROM READER"

The Adobe eBook Reader requires web components of Windows that are not part of the operating system but instead are bundled with Internet Explorer. This requires that you have at least IE version 4.x on your system in order for the Reader to function properly. You can continue to use another browser to access the Web. Internet Explorer is available free from the Microsoft Website.

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What should I do with the .ETD file that I downloaded?

You need to get your Reader certified. It will then download your e-book. The .etd file that you are trying to open contains information that allows the Reader to download the book; it is not the book itself.

Follow these steps:

Open your Reader.
Click the Bookstore button.
When asked to certify, click Certify Now. This validates your Reader as trustworthy.
Locate and open the .etd file on your file system.

The Reader should begin the full book download.

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Why can`t I pan text while in Zoom mode?

This limitation has been corrected in the latest release to allow panning of text within the Reader while in Zoom mode.

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Are there any problems running the Reader under Windows 2000?

When you use the Adobe eBook Reader or Adobe eBook Reader Plus under Windows 2000, shutdown/reboot and suspend/hibernate modes may be disabled or may not function as expected. A manual reset and/or power cycle may be required if the system fails to restart. In addition, operation of the floppy drive may be disrupted.

A fix to these problems is available in the current version of the Adobe eBook Reader. Another option is to download a standalone fix that can be applied to correct existing Adobe eBook Readers. Download the file to your Windows 2000 machine and run the executable file GBWin2000Patch.exe. The install program will automatically update your existing Adobe eBook Reader installation and prompt you to reboot your system.

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Why can"t I install the Adobe eBook Reader on my Windows NT system?

You must be a member of a local administrators group to install the Adobe eBook Reader or Adobe eBook Reader Plus on a computer running Windows NT 4.0. If you do not have administrative privileges, you can download the installation file to a directory on a computer. Someone who has administrative privileges can then log onto your computer and install the Adobe eBook Reader or Adobe eBook Reader Plus by opening that file. After the Adobe eBook Reader or Adobe eBook Reader Plus is installed, you do not need administrative privileges to use it.

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Can I run the Adobe eBook Reader and a debugger at the same time?

Our security implementation does not allow debugging of any program while the Adobe eBook Reader is running. However, as long as the Adobe eBook Reader is not running, debugging is not a problem.

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Why do I get the error "Out of memory" when reading a PDF file that I brought into the Adobe eBook Reader ?

This occurs when you have an item in the library that points to a file that does not exist. To verify that this is what you are seeing, right-click the image of the document in the Library, click Info on the shortcut menu, and note the file name. On the Windows Start menu, point to Find, click Files or Folders, and search for the file. The file should not exist.

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