Flipreads: Filipino eBooks for All

First it was music, now it's books!   Last Friday I attended the launch of Flipreads.com, another source of Pinoy ebooks.  The other source is VIBE eBookstore which I wrote about here.  Flipreads launch event at Celebrity Sports Plaza Ballroom was attended by around 250 guests including authors, publishers, bloggers and readers.

National Book Development Board Director
Atty. Andrea Pasion-Flores gave the opening remarks.

Host for the evening Honey de Peralta, Managing Editor at Flipside Digital

Mr. Anthony De Luna, CEO for Flipside Digital introduced Flipreads and their ebooks. "The Amazon jungle is vast and not too kind(le)"   Pinoy ebooks are not easy to find at all, let alone to purchase and to read.   The search engines don't support Filipino and most Pinoys don't have a credit card.

Flipreads.com  was launched as a a secure distribution platform for Filipino and Asian publishers, authors, and other content providers and gives the Asian reader easier access to e-books.  If you don't have a credit card, you can use Paypal or even pay at any 7-11 store! Their e-books are in ePUB format or screen-optimized PDF e-book format. They can be read on the Apple iPad, and any device or computer running Android, Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS. 

Filipino authors can also have their works converted to eBook format and made available to an international audience!  The number of copies also don't have to be physically limited to the usual 1000 or 2000 copy print-run, while local publishers can also cut distribution and printing costs.  Textbooks and magazines are also available.  Some of Flipreads' featured titles include, but are not limited to:

However, just like with anything digital, the dangers of piracy will always loom large.  CEO Anthony De Luna acknowledges this, and says that while we cannot stop piracy, we can at least make it more difficult for pirates.  Thus, Flipreads is powered by Adobe Content Server platform for Digital Rights Management (DRM).  

But for me the biggest question of all is whether or not Pinoys will actually start paying for ebooks.  Though I have an eReader, I only download free ebooks at iBooks.  If I were to purchase anthing, call me old-fashioned but as a reader I still prefer the feel of a printed book in my hand.   While for some authors and publishers the potential to reach a wider audience at a lower cost may be attractive, whether or not these advantages outweight the disadvantages remains to be seen.

For more info about Flipreads visit www.flipreads.com.