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Frequently Asked Questions
Does it cost anything to use eReadUps?
What do I get if I join and become a premium member?
How do I get an invitation to set up a beta account at eReadUps?
What if my article search doesn't find exactly the articles I am looking for?
Why can't I get results from the other sites on the results page?
Are you planning to add more sites to the results?
What should I do if eReadUps stalls or my eReadUp comes out wrong?
How do I get my eReadUps on my mobile device?
OK, so what's an eReadUp?
Did you ever hear anyone say "Geez, I need to read up on that!" Well, an eReadUp is an ebook full of articles about something you want to read up on. It's an ebook that you build out of lots of different source articles. The eReadUps engine takes articles you select from a list and collects them all together into an eReadUp that you can read on your ereader device.
Who started eReadUps.com?
A few of us got Kindle ereaders a while back and loved the idea of putting articles on the device to read about things that interest us. The problem is that getting articles properly formatted for ereading is difficult and complicated and we needed something that was dead simple. We happened to know someone who had mastered the art of formatting text for ereaders like the Kindle, and voila! eReadUps.com was born.
What's the point?
When we started gathering and reading articles from the web on our Kindles, we discovered that a lot of content for ereaders is very hard to view and to navigate. Even many ebooks that you can buy don't have fully linked Table of Contents that let you jump to the chapter you want, and certain words in other languages look like twisted math problems. We decided to create a service where the information that readers want would be formatted really, really well, and a pleasure to read.
Does it cost anything to use eReadUps?
No. eReadUps.com is free for everyone to use. When you search for articles on eReadUps.com, the first results are from Wikipedia, and you can format and read as many articles as you want from this, the world's largest encyclopedia. You can even make multi-article eReadUp for yourself using up to three articles from Wikipedia for free.
What do I get if I join and become a premium member?
For a couple of bucks a month, you can join eReadUps Me and get lots more articles to choose from at Wikipedia and other sources like WikiTravel, Medpedia, and Wikia. We are constantly adding sources for our members. Members also get results in other languages, and you'll get a nifty online folder to store all their eReadUps.
How do I get an invitation to set up a beta account at eReadUps?
Right now, the only way to join eReadUps and create an account is to request a beta code invitation by entering your email address on the Sign In page. We will honor as many requests as we can during our beta testing period.
What if my article search doesn't find exactly the articles I am looking for?
First, check the spelling of your search terms. The eReadUps engine is pretty creative, but it doesn't read minds! You can also include additional terms in the search to generate additional articles to select from, like "James Cameron and Avatar" if you would like to include a biography of the director in your eReadUp about this popular film. Keep it simple and just search for "Avatar" if you want your eReadUp to focus on articles about the film and other definitions of the term. Experiment with the search until you get just the combination of articles that you want!
Why can't I get results from the other sites on the results page?
eReadUps has selected sites for the service that have a wide range of desirable information and that publish the information using an "open" license, usually from the Creative Commons or the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you planning to add more sites to the results?
eReadUps is always interested in adding more sites and plans to do so on a regular basis for its premium members. eReadUps respects the rights of authors and other information producers and so will only make content available that is properly licensed. If you have a suggestion for a site that publishes under an "open" license and that provides information of wide interest, please send us your suggestion using the contact page.
What should I do if eReadUps stalls or my eReadUp comes out wrong?
Ouch! We never like to hear about that happening. The first thing to try is to rebuild your eReadUps, starting from scratch. Sometimes the number of articles, tables, and images contribute to a slightly wacky result. If a "redo" doesn't help, please use the contact page to tell us about the problem and we will get to work on fixing it right away!
How do I get my eReadUps on my mobile device?
eReadUps is designed to produce high quality ebooks for reading on any device that supports Mobipocket files (like the Kindle) or ePub files (like the Sony Reader and B&N nook). You can also load an ePub file onto your iPhone by using a resident reader like Stanza.
Kindle: For Kindle owners, you can find the article you want on the My Stuff page and email the "mobi" version to your Kindle email address (example: kindleowner@kindle.com). Amazon will relay it on to your Kindle wireless, usually in a couple of minutes.
You can also download the file to your desktop and drag it into the Kindle's "documents" folder once your Kindle is connected to the computer with its USB cord.
Sony, nook, etc.: Users who own Sony Readers or other devices that read ePub files can download the ePub file to your desktop and drag the file onto the device using the free Adobe Digital Editions software or the Reader Library software that comes with the Sony Reader.
Stanza: In Stanza on the iPhone and iPod Touch, premium users can set up their My Stuff page as a shared resource. Just go to the Get Books section, press Shared, then Edit and Add Book Source, type in your eReadups My Stuff website address, then you can log in and browse your My Stuff page inside Stanza and download your ePub files right there.
Computer: You can use Adobe Digital Editions to read the ePub files on your computer, or Kindle for PC to read the Mobi files on your computer. If you read these files on the computer, clicking the links to web resources in every article will launch your browser and you can take advantage of these additional resources included in the eReadUp.