Ebook Readers:
There are many handheld devices to read ebooks now. Kindle, Nook, Android Tablets are the big players in this domain. The cost of these devices are getting low as around 4000-6000 INR. Many people are buying these devices now.
Ebooks in English:
There are tons of ebooks in english available now. Most of the latest ebooks are released in the following formats. PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3. So that we can read them in these devices.
Ebooks in Tamil:
In Tamil, latest books are available in Kidnle. But they are for cost and have DRM. ProjectMadurai.com team is doing a great job of providing ebooks in Tamil, which are available in Public Domain. But these ebooks are very very old.
Currently, When any Tamil reader buys these ebook readers, he can not get any ebooks in tamil for free.
How to get latest content for Tamil?
Nowadays, there are many Tamil writers and bloggers write about various latest trends. Literature, Sports, Culture, Food, Cinema, Politics, Photography, Finance, Information Technology are the most common stuff people blog in Tamil.
We can collect these articles and create ebooks.
We can release the ebooks in the creative commons license, so that the credits to the author is maintained legelly. At the same time, any one can share the ebooks with anyone for free.
Thus, the Tamil readers can get thousands of ebooks with latest content for free.
Can we copy the content from any tamil site/blog?
No. Every blog/site has its own copyright permissions. If the author mentions, as “Anyone can copy and reuse the content”, we can copy the content.
Some authors, release their works under creative commons license. We can copy the content from these sites too.
“All rights reserved”
If the site/blog contains this text “All Rights Reserved”, we should not copy the content from these site.
We have to write to the author, asking for releasing their content under creative commons license, so that the authorship is maintained even we copy and share the content.
All writers love to readch more readers. If they allow us to copy the content to release as ebooks, the readers will get good content and the writers will get more readers.
Anyhow, the readers can reach their websites and read the content. We are just changing the reading medium from browser to a ebook reader device.
FreeTamilEbooks.com
This is the website, to provide thousands of ebooks for free in all the formats.
PDF for desktop, PDF for 6” devices, EPUB, AZW3, ODT are the formats we can release the ebooks.
Anyone can browse the ebooks and download for free.
Readers are permitted to share the ebooks with anyone for free.
How can you volunteers?
We need you to make this project up and running.
The task is very simple.
Copy contents from a Tamil website/blog and paste in a wordprocessor like LibreOffice/MS Office.
Send the ebooks to us.
Thats all.
There are some more tasks too.
1. Sending email to the bloggers/writers to convince them to release their content under creative commons license
2. Verify the ebooks created by volunteers for the valid content and valid license.
3. Upload the approved ebooks to the site.
Write to [email protected] if you are interested for volunteering.
Who is making money on this project?
No one.
This is fully volunteers driven project to make the Tamil content to reach more readers via their handheld devices. All the ebooks are free of cost and all the readers have the rights to share the ebooks.
What is the benefit for the author?
The author is not getting paid. We are not asking for new content. We just copy the same content already available in their site/blog. Some readers are already reading the content for free in their sites. We just change the medium of reading. As more people buy the tablets and ebooks readers, we create a new way to reach the readers.
Are there any Tamil sites that allow copying?
Yes. There are some sites now that allow copying.
4. kaniyam.com
How can I ask a writer to release the content in creative commons license?
Send a mail to the writer with the following content.
<start>
Thanks for your wonderful site [site name here ]
The usage of mobile, handheld devices for reading is increasing drastically.
We are working on a new project http://www.FreeTamilEbooks.com
A portal to provide Tamil Ebooks on various subjects freely for the
various computing devices like
Desktop,ebook readers like kindl, nook, mobiles, tablets with android, iOS etc.
in various formats like odt, pdf, ebub, azw
We like to create some ebooks with the contents from your site, so
that your works will reach global readers on their devices.
We request your permission to copy the content from your site and
publish as ebooks.
We ensure that the ebooks will be released under creative commons license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-SA or you can choose any one from the above url.
We will attribute the original author and website link in all the
ebooks and articles.
To make ebooks from your site, we request your permission.
You have to add the creative commons license in your website, so that
we can get content from the site, create ebooks and release legally.
Feel free to contact us on [email protected] for any queries.
Connect to us via
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeTamilEbooks
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/communities/108817760492177970948
Thanks a lot.
</end>
Send this email to all your known tamil writers and get their permissions.
Ask them to put their creative commons license in their website.
Forward their acceptance email to [email protected]
so that we can start creating ebooks from the content from their sites.
What if an author denies our request?
Leave him and his content.
Some authors may have plans to create and release ebooks on their own.
We should not make troubles to their plans.
Let us leave them and work on other writers.
What is the structure of the ebook?
A website/blog can have hundreds of blog posts. Some may categorized or some may not.
The vlounteers should read the cotent and select a 10-15 articles/blog posts and copy them all to a document.
We can create the ebooks in multiple parts like part-1, part-2, part-3 etc.
Are there any restrictions on the contents?
The content that induce the racisim, sexism, porn, violance are prohibitted.
How can I contact the Team?
Send email to [email protected] for any queries.
Connect to us via
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeTamilEbooks
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/communities/108817760492177970948
Share this news to all your friends.
Please volunteer to create the next generation Tamil Reading Community
Who are the core team?
Check the Team page – https://freetamilebooks.com/meet-the-team/
Supported by
Free Software Foundation TamilNadu, www.fsftn.org
Yavarukkum Software Foundation http://www.yavarkkum.org/
This is a good project The advantages are:
1. It encourages young writers to create more
2. Share there creations in Book form with readers all over the world.
3. To POD the creations.
4. Cost effectiveness
Great efforts, a very good beginning .
Very few take to reading in India. I wish this movement help increase Tamil read enabled people take to reading. And make learning a part of their daily routine.
Good wishes
அருமை அருமை
You are doing a wonderful job.
Keep your good work continuing.
[…] Read more about he project here – http://freetamilebooks.com/about-us/ […]
[…] Read more about the project here – http://freetamilebooks.com/about-us/ […]
super team& collections. God bless you.
Great work. I benefited from FTE a lot. Thank you so much.
Can readers of FTE books make some of these books as audio books and share it with others or through social media?
It will be easy for anyone to listen to audio books while travelling especially when commuting for work daily.
Please revert.
We are very much impressed by your efforts.
Will it be possible for any of your representative to explain the features of Free Tamil Books and Creative Common license to our group of members (30-40) – mostly writers ?
We conduct Zoom Meetings every week on Sundays 6.30 to 7.30 PM India time