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I have an e-reader myself, a Kobo, and I am proud to have one. Before getting it I was reluctant, however it proves so useful when out and about, travelling etc. And the built in light allows for reading before sleep- so much easier as it's lighter and page-turning, heh, no more getting comfy then having to move.However finding ebooks of my favourite novels is tricky- none the less, no e-reader gives the comfort of the book.
I doubt e-readers will ever take over books themselves, especially not with book fans such as ourselves around, anyway.
Give it time and these statistics will change. I would be interested to know the age demographics here too.I read anything I can get on my kindle and I find it incredibly useful for large books. My mother loves it because it allows her to enlarge the font size. Unfortunately German language books are still hard to find and way too expensive.
This is another issue for me: Considering that releasing an e-book is so much cheaper than paper format (no print & delivery costs) I find many e-books are simply overpriced, so I don't buy them and prefer to read other stuff instead. Hopefully publishers will get the message eventually or ebooks will face the same sort of pirating crisis as the music industry soon.
From my research at university (MA in publishing studies) I can report that apparently most people don't mind paying a reasonable(!) price.
I love ebooks, but continue to read and love treebooks.The price of ebooks is a big factor for me. Unless they're on sale, I frequently see ebooks priced higher than paperbacks. Pricing them a bit higher if they're new releases makes sense to me, but those should come down. I'm baffled when publishers bring out backlist items at $10. Not everyone is doing that, though. One of my favorite anthology series has placed the early volumes in the series in the $1-$3 range. I snatched those up right away, even though I have treebook versions of most.
I don't think I'll ever stop buying the physical ones, though. Small press editions of books I love will always have a place on my shelves.
Ben wrote: "I'm baffled when publishers bring out backlist items at $10. "I also disagree with the $10 price, but I know part of why they do it. If a book is over a certain age, they don't have a modern digital file of it. So their choices are to do a digital scan to convert it into an e-reader format (and those can go really bad, depending on the font, letters can get turned into other letters and cause all sorts of problems). Otherwise someone needs to get paid to create a digital file from scratch. Regardless of method, then someone needs to get paid to proof it and make sure there aren't any kinks. If they aren't sure how many copies they can sell of an established book, they might pick a high price to introduce it (a poor plan unless they plan on soon putting it on a large discount so they can announce a "sale" and get some additional promotion).
Publishing Houses have figured out that people can recognize scans and will return them for refunds if the errors too much for that reader. When I got my first Kindle in 2008, there were some real doozies on the market.
Ben wrote: "I love ebooks, but continue to read and love treebooks.The price of ebooks is a big factor for me. Unless they're on sale, I frequently see ebooks priced higher than paperbacks. Pricing them a bi..."
Recently, I've seen a number of topics on e-book pricing in different forums. The general argument for higher prices is that readers will pay for quality (assuming the quality is there, of course). I agree, though, that publishing costs should factor into the decision and you're the first I've seen mention it.
Equally interesting right now is the disparity in e-book pricing among the well-known authors. I see some still pricing around $13, but others are dipping below the $5 mark. The days of a standard approach seem to be gone. Might just mean some good deals if one pays attention.
This discussion is very timely for me. I'm trying to decide if I should make my novel available for print. It's a $100 (designer fees) investment that I've been on the fence about. Thanks for sharing!
Rebecca wrote: "Equally interesting right now is the disparity in e-book pricing among the well-known authors. I see some still pricing around $13, but others are dipping below the $5 mark. The days of a standard approach seem to be gone. Might just mean some good deals if one pays attention."What were the DTB books prices for those volumes? I keep a separate wish list at Amazon to track the e-book prices of volumes I'm interested in reading. What I've seen is when the book is in hardback, the e-book price is close to $14. When it comes out in paperback it will drop to $7, when the paperback has been out for a while and now there is a "mass market" listing it might drop to $4-5. Unless of course the paperback is running for $10-12, then the ebook will stay higher (but frequently available for $9.99), that's normally non-fiction titles on my list.
*DTB stands for Dead Tree Books, a cute name e-book readers gave to paperback/hardback in response to people calling those "real books".
I find e- books in US and UK are subject to way better pricing schemes than elsewhere. In Germany the average best seller by a German author, released about 5 years ago will still cost 10 Euros. I have even seen German kindle books for 21 Euros or 30! That was a real shock when I moved here from the UK and I refuse to buy books at such exorbitant prices. It's a rip off, pure and simple and so I stick to English books instead, offered via Amazon UK.Buying german kindle books is supporting greedy publishers rather than the authors (who get just as little from sales as elsewhere). I for one would rather download them illegally than support those publishers. Unsurprisingly, it is a lot easier to illegally download free versions in German...
It's even worse when you consider that the average German pays more tax and earns less in wages than the average American or Brit. I knew I was going to take a pay cut for a better job when I moved here but I hadn't factored in my addiction (reading) costing so much more.
Sorry for the rant guys.
Forgot to add: the books I checked were exactly the same price as DTB
Jim wrote: "My publisher e-mailed this AP wire to me.Thursday, Jan. 16
New York (AP) - A new survey from the Pew Research Center reports more adults than ever own an e-reading device, but print books are doi..."
I'm not surprised. Print people ought to stop jumping up and down in fear -- the book isn't going away any time soon, thank goddess!
Penny wrote: "Just came across this study which says that Americans prefer print books over e-books."The worst thing I saw in that study is that Americans read an average of 5 books a year. What chance do we authors have?
MK wrote: "5 books! That's .... crazy! :-o"I read more than that in a month! Although there are a lot of other readers in the world....
I tend to buy kindle books these days - mostly beccause they are cheaper and far easier to store. That said I bought a print book just yesterday as it isn't available on Kindle. For me I find research books, books with maps or a lot of appendices and pictures much easier in print.
I have to say that I've switched over to ebooks for all my fiction now. It's just too convenient to have it in electronic form. I'm a fast reader and the ability to carry the book I'm currently reading as well as the next three or so without the extra weight is really nice. Plus with page syncing services I can read on both my ereader or my phone depending on what I have with me.For non-fiction study or reference material, I have to agree with A.L, ebooks just don't work as well as print books.
I heard a interview that Ursula K. Le Guin did last fall, and she stated that for every age group, other than the young adult group, reading has been actually going up. I don't know wither if that is true or not.
What ebooks are good for is what microfilms did in the past in by allowing to keep in storage of out of print books and older text from the past.
Well there are definitely books that I think are worth being over $9.99. Research volumes that take years to put together and likely won't come close to bestseller in unit sales should definitely sell for more. A romance novelist can put out a novel a year (and in some cases, every six months), a science writer or historian may put out a new volume every five years. When those writers also have higher costs (trips to research sites, interviews, subscriptions to field periodicals) it makes sense they would be priced higher.
I have no problem with ebooks being priced higher or lower than $9.99. Publishers, authors, and retailers should be able to charge whatever they think the market will accept. If it is too high, then they won't sell enough to make a profit. If it is too low, then they still won't make a profit. Finding that happy medium is the job of each link in the chain Author->Publisher->Retailer.That said, whenever I see an ebook that is priced higher than a physical book, that tells me that the Publisher/Retailer really doesn't want to sell the ebook and would prefer you bought the Physical book. Which makes me wonder why they are even bothering to sell the ebook at all. Unless it is some misguided PR move.
A.L. wrote: "MK wrote: "5 books! That's .... crazy! :-o"I read more than that in a month! Although there are a lot of other readers in the world....
I tend to buy kindle books these days - mostly beccause the..."
Yes on the Kindle cheaper and easier to order. I was in B&N today and checked out a book I want to read, Swamplandia!. It costs $7.99 for Kindle, and paper on Amazon it's $11.99 (plus there's delivery). In the store it was $16.99, w/o the tax. I'll buy the Kindle.
I guess it all depends with me regarding whether or not I purchase the physical book or the kindle version. Yeah, more than likely the Kindle version will be cheaper, but there are certain series and authors that I really love and want the actual, physical book. If it's something like I know I'll probably read once, enjoy and not really go back to, I'll grab the kindle version, or if it's just one of those ridiculous deals for $.99 or whatever. Since I've gotten the kindle for christmas, I've been about even in the amount of physical and ebooks I've purchased.
Hugh Howey had a massive rant about ebook pricing on his blog recently. He ain't a fan of Scott Trurow ;-)https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
The only e-book I ever spent more than 10 bucks on was the last Wheel of Time. I would have bought hardback but I actually prefer the Kindle. It's easier to switch between novels when the whimsy hits me, and I can carry around a whole stack of novels in my coat pocket. Also, there's less clutter in my house.
I tried to read all but I couldn't. Too long.But while I see some of his points - they are all focused around what he would personally enjoy as a way to make more money.
Amazon is not the writer's friend (in the long run). They can and will adjust their prices/royalties (i mean, Amazon is a loss leader). And Amazon is a BIG advocate for that DRM Howey rails against. So what is it, Howey? Friend or Foe,?
The whole contractual stuff...eyes glazed over BUT what Howey doesn't pay attention to is the fact that a lot of genre books (like his) actually helps pay for other books - books that publishers think are a good idea/niche market/etc but might not be a best seller fresh off the press.
And the smart ass comment about strikes - I wish they would strike, it'd help me knock some of my TBR down to size. I mean, there are about 300K new books released in the US per year.
heh ... Mrsj, yea, good point on the schitzo-ism 're: Amazon and drm. Also, my eyes glazed over when he got in the weeds, too
This is circumstantial evidence at best but...I do all my reading out in public (coffee houses and restaraunts), and when I see others reading out and about, it's like 1 out of 7 (or less) that are reading printed books. Everyone else is on an eReader, tablet, smartphone or laptop. Granted, a lot of them probably read printed books when they're at home, but I think digital is clearly the preferred on-the-go reading medium.Was on the Washington DC Metro this weekend for over 3 hours total...saw 2 other people reading printed books.
Micah wrote: "This is circumstantial evidence at best but...I do all my reading out in public (coffee houses and restaraunts), and when I see others reading out and about, it's like 1 out of 7 (or less) that are..."Yeah, here it works best not to have a print book with you. I once got into a heated argument over The DaVinci Code - a very religious person was offended at my reading material. O_O
MrsJoseph wrote: "Yeah, here it works best not to have a print book with you. I once got into a heated argument over The DaVinci Code - a very religious person was offended at my reading material. O_O "Reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany on the light rail definitely got me some looks. Nothing like a giant swastika on a book to draw the eye.
Lara Amber wrote: "Reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany on the light rail definitely got me some looks. Nothing like a giant swastika on a book to draw the eye. "Yup, that would do it!
While I was not a huge fan of Howey's books I do agree with all his points.As far as I know Amazon allowed him to self publish his first book and thus earn money by cutting out the conventional publisher (hence his support despite DRM). Good on him and hooray for authors who think twice before selling their work and rights to publishers to make yet more money on. I was horrified when I learnt about the profit margins in my MA for "Publishing studies". They picked our entire class up in limos to tour us around their flash publishing houses, never once mentioning authors rights or their meagre profits.... Convinced that they had the market sussed, I was dying for the digital revolution to wipe their smug smiles off their faces. I still stand by that pov but sadly I think nothing much has changed if people are still going along with their absurd pricing schemes...
?????????????? duh so you think you can just tell everone its bad and not read all of it . sounds S H O R T minded
I'm an indie publisher of ebooks and print. Ebooks are my preference for both reading and publishing. In fact, getting hooked on reading ebooks is what influenced me to start publishing. I'm actually hoping the ebook market continues to grow, not just because I want to sell more ebooks, but also because I want have more books available to read. Since switching to ebooks, I read at least 4 times more books than I did before.
One note on the cost subject: I don't really understand why folks aren't willing to pay the same price for an ebook and a printed book. Why would an ebook be less valuable? I can think of two very memorable books I read this past year that I would have gladly paid the price of a printed book to read. They were extraordinary reads. As a reader, I'm glad I can get the books for less; but as a publisher I see the hard work that goes into both. I'm sorry folks, but no matter what format you are reading, many authors are making pennies an hour for our reading pleasure.
Toni, the reason I would pay more for a print format book is the physical actuality. I can loan a print book, and it can go on, without being subject to the whims of some random chip, hardware upgrade or battery failure. As well, I have print copies over 130 years old. With the way media has changed, I doubt the formats for ebooks will be the same 10 years from now. (78, 45, 33, 8 track, reel to reel, cassette, quadraphonic, Beta, betamax, VHS, CD, DVD, Blue ray) etc Print is still print.
Thanks for posting this. It confirms what I've been reading in a number of other places. With regards to prices, I live in Australia. We get slaughtered on prices here (I've seen new paperbacks selling in bookstores for $30 - and that's even when we had parity with the US dollar). It's no surprise that most of the heavy book readers I know in Australia either get books second hand/at markets or order them in bulk from Amazon.I suspect that the eBook sector will continue to grow, albeit more slowly than before (as a percentage). The key is to try and drive acceptance of the format amongst the general population (e.g., emphasise and really sell the convenience of having your library in your pocket!), but that would also depend on the big publishers better managing their eBook/paper book coordination. In Australia, a lot of new DVDs come with access to a corresponding digital version. Something like that for books would be a huge success, I think.
Hi ToniI am willing to pay what I see as a fair price for both paper and ebooks. Same pricing seems absurd to me as delivery costs and printing become redundant. As L.G. stated and as I have before in this thread, pricing schemes vary from country to country. In some countries they are simply not justifiable (Germany, Australia...), neither in print nor ebook format.
Sure I have read fantastic books in any format that I was willing to pay 9.99USD for (and more for rare or speciality books), however the quality of the writing in books I have payed for has also let me down a lot. This to my mind removes the premise of your argument as it can cut both ways.
I will never pay the same or higher price for an ebook. Ever.Ebooks are licensed, not sold. So you technically don't own them.
I refuse to pay for that.
DRM can make your ebook unreadable* and I lost years of ebooks when Microsoft decided to stop supporting their MSReader.
Adobe has recently created a new DRM scheme - IIRC they will phase out their Adept DRM and phase in a new one: Always On DRM. You know, like SIMs.
Originally Adobe planned to require all vendors to start supporting their new DRM in March 2014 with the roll out to be completed in June 2014.
IF the outcry hadn't made Adobe change its mind...any and all readers who use eReaders with Adept would stop working. This plan would have also broken any ebooks currently owned that were coded with the Adept DRM.
*Read here: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/201...
So, no. I will not pay the same or more for what is, essentially a broken defective product which I would not own.
MrsJoseph (taking back my data & giving GR the middle finger) wrote: "I will never pay the same or higher price for an ebook. Ever.Ebooks are licensed, not sold. So you technically don't own them.
I refuse to pay for that.
DRM can make your ebook unreadable*..."
Although there are some authors who charge exorbitant prices, the majority of the self-published authors I've encountered do charge what I see as reasonably prices for eBooks. I do agree with you that it is horrifying to see people charging identical prices for eBooks and print books. The distribution and production costs of eBooks are far less, and for that reason (and for the reasons you've stated), they should cost less. Interestingly, whenever I see an overpriced eBook, it's almost always from one of the big publishers - the same publishers who still haven't figured out what the customer really wants.
L.G. wrote: "Although there are some authors who charge exorbitant prices, the majority of the self-published authors I've encountered do charge what I see as reasonably prices for eBooks. I do agree with you that it is horrifying to see people charging identical prices for eBooks and print books. The distribution and production costs of eBooks are far less, and for that reason (and for the reasons you've stated), they should cost less. Interestingly, whenever I see an overpriced eBook, it's almost always from one of the big publishers - the same publishers who still haven't figured out what the customer really wants. "That maybe true. I don't read a lot of SPA work - a lot of it is slush pile material and/or there ends up being a lot of drama due to reviews:
"I can't afford an editor, maybe after I make some money."
"Reader/reviewers should overlook SPA errors because they are SPAs."
"Reviewers should PM/Email the author about errors located in books instead of discussing them in reviews. To do otherwise means they are bullies (or malicious. Or jealous)."
"Readers should help me with my promotions!!"
I've heard that (and different remixes of that) for the last 3-4 years and I'm tired of it.
There's one guy who writes Sci-fi. I don't read sci-fi a lot but my mom does. I bought her all of his books. Later I even came back and told him my mom enjoyed the books and wondered if he would continue the series.
His response? A snarky, "Well you and your mom should be telling people about my books (and reviewing them) so I can make more money. Your mom didn't even write a review."
WTF? My mom can barely email people and I had to buy, d/l and load the books for her!
So mostly I pass. THe only SPA work I read nowadays are books recommended to me by people I know and trust.
I don't even factor in SPA book costs vs larger pubs.
MrsJoseph (taking back my data & giving GR the middle finger) wrote: "L.G. wrote: "Although there are some authors who charge exorbitant prices, the majority of the self-published authors I've encountered do charge what I see as reasonably prices for eBooks. I do agr..."L.G.,
I concur with your opinion of those who choose to ignore or disregard undisciplined writing skills among SPAs.
If for no other reason, a writer should learn how to write properly out of respect for their potential readers. They must not insult their intelligence or underestimate their own.
SO .......... I just received a notification that Sony is closing the Reader Store in March, and transferring stuff to Kobo. It seems that formats must be boiling down to the most efficient.
Art wrote: "SO .......... I just received a notification that Sony is closing the Reader Store in March, and transferring stuff to Kobo. It seems that formats must be boiling down to the most efficient."Why am I not surprised?
I'm with Kobo...I hope it stays alive.
But, what stuff are they transferring? Your account?
I *thought* Sony already converted their format to .epub.
Art wrote: "SO .......... I just received a notification that Sony is closing the Reader Store in March, and transferring stuff to Kobo. It seems that formats must be boiling down to the most efficient."Regardless of how the market finally pans out, I hope that we don't end up with a complete monopoly. That might make publishing easier (one stop shop for everything), but I've never seen a monopoly (or near monopoly) that wasn't abused.
That said, I can understand Sony closing down/selling off some of its assets. It's been a difficult few years for Sony as a whole. Consumer electronics aren't what they were, and the gaming side of things isn't the money spinner it was during the PS2 era (heck, they lost pretty much all the money they made in the PS2 and PS1 eras in the first three years of the PS3 debacle before steadying the ship).
MrsJoseph,
I'm appalled at the way that self-published author treated you. You are completely right to be offended by that sort of conduct. As an author, all I can do is my best. If people like what I've written, that's great. If they choose to spread the word, even better. But I absolutely should not expect them to do my marketing for me, nor should I act as though I've done them some kind of great favour. Heck, they've done me the favour by buying my book!
Confidence is a good thing in a writer, but arrogance is the last thing a self-publsihed author needs. Unfortunately, however, arrogance is one of the few things that isn't in short supply.
Jim,
You're spot on. A writer should respect themselves and their readers, and that means doing their best.
I’m in my late 30’s (for those who were curious about the age correlation) and I read everything on my Kindle, with the exception of school textbooks. When the original Kindle was released, I only waited long enough to make sure initial reviews indicated it was something I would like and then I bought one for myself. I’d already been reading e-books for a couple years before that, but I was reading them on a PDA which wasn’t nearly as nice. E-Readers have so many great features now to enhance the reading experience. You put your finger on an esoteric word, and voila – you have a definition of that word. Sure, you can almost always figure out what the word means from the context, but there are often nuances to the author’s word choice that you can catch and appreciate when you see the actual definition. I also enjoy the Wikipedia lookup on the more recent Kindles far more than I thought I would. I’m currently reading a fantasy book, Sleipnir, which has Norse mythological gods in it. I’m about as ignorant about mythology as you can get, so being able to stab at the name of a Norse god with my finger and receive a Wikipedia entry explaining a little bit about the god has enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Before switching to e-books, I rarely bothered to seek out a computer or a dictionary when I was reading.
I also love the convenience of being able to take an unlimited number of books with me wherever I go. I travel pretty often for business, and the amount of books I can take isn’t constrained by the limited amount of space in my carry-on bag. (No self-respecting business traveler checks their luggage for a week-long business trip!) :) The reduction of clutter is nice also. For my mother, being able to enlarge the font means she can spend hours reading whereas she used to only be able to read for 15 minutes or so before getting a headache.
I know the vast majority of the reading populace prefers the tactical experience of paper books, and I completely accept that. It’s just not something I personally identify with. I take great pleasure in books, but that pleasure comes from the stories themselves and the thoughts, images, and the emotions evoked by the words that make up those stories. When I fondly think about a favorite book, even one from my childhood, it’s the story I remember, not the physical book.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Sleipnir (other topics)The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (other topics)
Swamplandia! (other topics)
Thursday, Jan. 16
New York (AP) - A new survey from the Pew Research Center reports more adults than ever own an e-reading device, but print books are doing just fine.
Based on interviews conducted earlier this month, the study released Thursday shows 50% of respondents saying they have a tablet or stand-alone device such as Amazon.com's Kindle. That's up from 43% in September.
The survey says nearly 3 out of 10 adults read an e-book over the past year, compared to 23% who had done so when asked in 2012. Only around 4% read e-books exclusively.
Sales for e-books are growing, but have leveled off over the past couple of years. They're believed to comprise 25% to 30% of the general trade market, with commercial fiction especially popular for e-books.
Associated Press