The Sword and Laser discussion
How much of a price difference would it take for you to wait or change from your preferred media; ebook, audio or dead tree?
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Price is sort of a tertiary concern. The first question is whether I really need my own copy, and if not, is it available from the library?If I do need my own copy, for whatever reason, the preferred format is dependent on the book and intended use. If I'm traveling or have no desire for a shelf copy, or if it's a public domain title, then eBook is preferable. If it's a mystery series or reader I follow, then audiobook. If a graphic novel then paper.
Ready availability and price are sort of the last concern, though still significant.
Chances of me reading a paper book is slim, unless I have to do it as part of my hobby or work. There are too many good fiction out there for me to be a slave to a book's paper format. I have poor eyesight, and I look at a computer screen a lot. Thus, I get eyestrain easily. If I don't have to, I will not read a paper book. I can't adjust the type or brightness of a paper book. I also cannot highlight, do searches and go quickly to a passage I was thinking about. I would pay over $5 more for an eBook over a paper book, depending on how badly I want to read the book. I prefer audios most of all because that gives my eyes the most rest. I can exercise, enjoy nature, commute, or do mindless chores while I get into a book.
Since I work in a library its easy for me to borrow the books through my local branch or an inter library loan (I'm super cheap due to tiny paycheck from said library). I can wait a while for most things. If I needed it quicker I would try to find it at a used bookstore that I already have trade in credit banked up at.
If I needed it really soon, I would try to use the Amazon prime membership to order books with the free shipping.
Since I use the Kindle app and not the actual Kindle Device, that is my last resort.
Would hardly ever pay over 20$ for a book, unless it was rare. I would usually spend around 5-10$ per book if I was ordering online. Since I trade in so many books, I end up paying 1-5$ per book at my local bookstore. I would wait weeks to get it for free from library.
Audios are not expensive for me since I'm a member of audio clubs or I rent the audios from the library. Breaking it down to monthly membership fees make the cost palatable.
Since that happened to me yesterdayI can say exactly $6.
The difference between the kindle ebook price
and the used paperback.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I can use text to speech with an eBook. That also helps relieve the eyestrain.
I would never switch to ebook or audio no matter what the price difference it would be against the dead tree version, even if its a lot more in price than the ebok or audio version. I love my dead tree version way too much. Its the reason I read, plus audio books takes up too much time since I'm a fast reader.
Kevin wrote: "I would never switch to ebook or audio no matter what the price difference it would be against the dead tree version, even if its a lot more in price than the ebok or audio version. I love my dead ..."I was once this man. Then I got a Nook.
That said, now I'm a lot more like Terry. Price is probably the last thing I bother with. It starts with "Can I buy this on my Nook?" and ends with "WHAAT! It's 2012!!! Who doesn't publish an ebook version! Ridiculous!!!! Guess I'll check audible."
I haven't read a dead tree book for 7 years. Even before i read on the Ipad or Kindle, I was reading ebooks on my blackberry (yes they were pirated, I have no excuse, moving on). I tried to pick up a book recently and i threw it down in disgust 10 minutes later and downloaded it to my ipad.
I don't believe that the question was meant to spark a format war.If you only consume your media in one format then its a mute point.It's a very realistic scenario. Say that a popular book has been out for almost two year.
It's locally available in hardback new & used , paperback new & used, audio book (CD & download), three different ebook versions and there's waiting list at the local library.
How do you weight: cost vs desired format?
Drew wrote: "Kevin wrote: "I would never switch to ebook or audio no matter what the price difference it would be against the dead tree version, even if its a lot more in price than the ebok or audio version. I..."The reason I am the way I am is because I love the way that books feel in my hand, there is a connection. I feel ebooks are so hollow, not as nice. I collect cover art and editions of books, which could not be done with ebooks, but I do loved it that audio sometimes come out with exclusive cover arts for their editions.
They have nice covers for eBooks, too. I love the effects you can do with digital photography and art.
For me it depends on the book. If its an author or series I love, its dead tree all the way. If not, then price is large consideration. Sometimes I'll try a new book I don't know much about if I see it for two or three dollars on the kindle (I use the free app).
Like others have said here, price is not a primary concern for me. One of the main draws for ebook and audio books is storage space. I don't like to get rid of books, I never know when I might want to reread or look something up. However, even in my house, room does eventually become limited. I do have interests and hobbies other than books and reading and I'd like to allocate some space to those interests. :)As far as data loss, I run multiple 6TB Raid5 NAS devices on my home network. Everything I purchase gets stored locally on those devices, as well as having the ability to grab the files from their hosts. I've been buying and reading ebooks since the 90s, and I have yet to have a book which I can no longer get access to or read.
Power isn't much of a concern as I also have a couple of portable solar chargers (my husband is a gadget geek). And to be honest, If I've lost power for long enough for it to become a problem, well I've got bigger problems than just my mp3 player or phone. :)
Mod
I'll pay more for a book I can have now.
Luckily I'm in the position where Kindle books & ibooks are significantly cheaper than any other books I can purchase.
Ideally, I would love for books to do like movies and give a download code for an ebook with the purchase of a physical copy. I'd pay more for a physical copy of a book if I got a digital copy as well. I don't like giving up actual dead-tree books--there's just something about owning a real object, not to mention the smell of a book--but the convenience of ebooks is hard to argue against.
There's also a social aspect to physical books that I miss with my Kindle. Yesterday I struck up a conversation with a girl at Panera because I saw she was reading The Alloy of Law. We lose something there with the transition to digital books, and that's a bit sad.Sorry, I got a bit off-topic there, I guess.
Only if you have the desire to be social. ;)It does have the added benefit that I no longer get lectured by strangers worried for my soul due to the books I choose to read.
Well, when it's a cute girl reading a good fantasy novel, yeah, I want to be social! Haha. But yeah, normally I'm fine with people not talking to me when I'm reading too.
Nicholas wrote: "There's also a social aspect to physical books that I miss with my Kindle. Yesterday I struck up a conversation with a girl at Panera because I saw she was reading The Alloy of Law...."Yeah, I love when that happens, I wish it happened a lot more frequently.
I'm in a transitional stage. I just got a Kindle. I'm finding that new releases are generally the same price or cheaper in the Kindle version, but for most of the sci-fi/fantasy books I like to read, the e-book is still more expensive, and I haven't decided what to do. I wish the e-book was cheaper.When I finish about 8 more books, I'll have to actually start deciding with my wallet.
If you look at anything in the public domain, it's free to download for your Kindle. I'm thinking about reading A Princess of Mars given that I'm curious about John Carter with the movie coming out and because it's free. You should also be able to find H.G. Wells and Jules Verne on there, and while modern fantasy didn't start until later, there are plenty of stories with fantastic elements in them that you could get on there for free.
If it's something I want to read right away, I'll usually buy it on the Kindle no matter what the price. If it's something I can wait for, I'll get it from the library. I figure it evens out, moneywise.(I've also realized recently that most if not all of the Kindle Daily Deals are in the Kindle lending library, which means I can get one a month for free. Woo hoo!)
One big argument for having tree books is so that I can one day have a library or bookcase like one of these: http://ceresmodo.wordpress.com/2012/0...
http://goo.gl/PB6Wg;-)
Nice link. Thanks.
I would also like a wall of books.
I just don't want to travel with them.
Since I got my Kindle it's my preferred way of reading books. If a book is available on the Kindle it's the version I'm getting.If I really like a book though I will also get it in hardcover.
I don't know. It's really not about price. Its really about the qualities of the formats (my formats of choice being print and audiobooks). Really the only thing that would get me to go with other formats would be content exclusivity.
I would always prefer the dead tree book.Most of the books I buy cost under $10 and I love bookshops and receiving parcels in the post.
If there was a decent reader under $50 that accepted all formats I might get it just for the fun. But books would have to cost under $5 to convince me to give up on all the pleasure I derive from physical books.
However if it was thirty years ago when I read at least a book a day and went on loooong family holidays I would have begged for a reader and would have read my way through all the free and $2 books available.
I agree with most. If it is an author I collect I will get the hardcover.If not (and not at the library), then I find my line- in-the-sand price with ebooks is 12.99. I can't see spending the same amount for an ebook as a hardcover. It sticks in my craw. Unless I really can't wait to read it, I'll wait for the paperback.
eBooks books are great for convenience, but the issues of DRM and price fixing are making them less and less attractive. I treat them as 'disposable' since you do not really own them anyhow. I think 99c would be a good price for an eBook to make me buy more.Anything I really want to keep has to be dead tree version. Browsing Amazon is no fun compared with browsing a large second hand bookstore.
For me it is about the reading experience the convenience and the story. Format is secondary I love books because of the stories they contain not because they are bundles of paper. While there is certainly a wonderful feel of a nice hardback book printed on quality paper if the story inside stinks it's not with it at any price.Personally for me to move away from ebooks would require their price to go up and the price of the DTB version to come down significantly. Some people feel ebooks are less valuable vs. DTB where I personally feel the opposite. The ability to read on multiple devices, no physically storage issues (haul 5,000 books between moves and see how nice the thought of reducing that weight is), the ability to easily search for quotes are worth the same price as a new DTB.
It looks like eBook prices might drop in price sometime in the future. According to this article, the Justice Department intends to go ahead and sue Apple and it's agency model partners over price fixing.http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/justice...
Vote with your wallet. If an eBook is overpriced I'll buy the dead tree version used. I think what really gets me is print costing less than electronic.
As an author, I can tell you I'm struggling with this exact question. I published first to Amazon as an e-book but a few readers asked for a paper version. Rightly or wrongly, I've tried to make the price difference a bit of a statement. Those that want paper should expect to pay more (and I believe we paper readers realize that.)But neither do I want paper readers to feel they are being ripped off. So I've tied the prices to my royalties. I make the same modest royalty from the e-book as I do the paper book despite a $10 price difference in the 88 page color paperback.
I think Walter is right: Authors have to be careful not to over-price their e-books.
Also, e-books are difficult for authors to sign, at least until I can apply a digital signature to your nook when you come to a reading :-)
I will buy a hardcover if I intend on getting it signed or if I know I will be lending it out. I listen to podcasts or music when I'm listening so I tend to read my books, not listen to them. And I usually only have time to read on my daily train commute, so I prefer not to lug paper around with me. I have an iPad, so I have books on iBooks, Kindle App, and Nook App.Pricing is the key, but since I like ebooks it is more of a make or break thing for me. I'll pay the price of a paperback for an ebook, and I don't mind publishers charging more for a popular book during the hardcover window. If I want the book I'll pay for it. If I don't want it that much, I'll read something else and wait. But back-catalog works should be dirt cheap, you can sell a ton of old pulps for between $4.99 and $1.99.
To me the ebook price point sweet spot is $0.99 - $2.99But, if an ebook is exactly the same cost as a paper back, I'll get the ebook (for those who like to own dead-tree books - well that gets kind of old after your first 5,000 or so and you start worrying about shelf space)
The only time I refuse to purchase ebooks are when I see they are actually mor expensive than the paperback version. You often see this when publishers re-issue a story as an oversized trade paperback and do not want an ebook to compete with the price.
Honestly, the price is only one of the factors I consider. If I'm buying fiction, then there are several things I look at. First, since I collect some books, I always buy hardcover editions from all my favorite writers, no matter how much more expensive it is over digital. I like to display them. However, for any novels I'm not collecting, I often buy the Kindle edition because it is instant and easier to read. I'm a proud owner of both digital and print books. I can't see ever giving up either of them.
Stan wrote: "To me the ebook price point sweet spot is $0.99 - $2.99But, if an ebook is exactly the same cost as a paper back, I'll get the ebook (for those who like to own dead-tree books - well that gets ki..."
Stan, your comment about the ebook sweet spot caught my attention. What size e-book would you be willing to purchase at $2.99? Do you expect an 80,000 word novel or something smaller?
Stan wrote: "....for those who like to own dead-tree books - well that gets kind of old after your first 5,000 or so and you start worrying about shelf space.."If I had kept all the books I've read and had them actually crowding my shelves at this moment I would have many more things to worry e-book version or not.(Divorce being one of them)
I give away most books once I've read them.
I have a big pile of books to read in both paper and ebook. I also have a lot of books to listen to, so it would have to be a pretty remarkable book for me to pay for it in hardback that isn't in the bargain bin. I also won't buy any ebook that costs more than $10, and even then, it'd have to be pretty remarkable. I even resent the new mass market paperback sizes that push the price up over $10 sometimes. They don't fit in my purse as easily or in my book cover.The highest I'll pay for an ebook is around $5-7, and even then, I won't buy it if it has DRM. I strongly oppose DRM and I don't pirate anything but I also think an ebook shouldn't cost more than the paperbacks priced at $8. I just want to own a book that I can read on whatever device I own at the time when I want without having to mess with permission. If the book is free and has DRM, then I'll download it.
I also spend a lot of time at the used book store, especially since I'm on a first-in-a-series quest to find new authors. And for my audiobooks, I take advantage of many of the the sales they have. I'm more willing to pay for an audiobook without sales prices simply because I know it cost extra money for publishers to produce, but I'm also not going to turn down the $4.95 sales, for instance.
Esther wrote: "I give away most books once I've read them."Right on. I actually believe books have something of a traveling soul and one needs to allow them to roam. The more people they touch, the greater that book's history.
Where as I like to re-read books multiple times. Especially at times when I can not afford to purchase new ones. ( my collection of books has been accumulating since 5th or 6th grade ). I'll loan out books to friends, but if they do not return them then I send out the ninja attack zombies.
And you don't want the ninja attack zombies after you. No, you do not want that.
@Chistopher
For the $2.99 (or even up to $3.99) I'm expecting 200+ page novel with good quality writing and editing. As an example - here is a link to a self published book on amazon called Zero Sight - http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Sight-Seri...
Great writing, interesting characters, decent story length and good editing, all for only $3.99
@Stan I keep the books I think I will probably reread but with so many exciting new books I have to be realistic.And is there any chance you hire out those ninja attack zombies? My mother has this annoying habit of lending her favourite books to dodgy types who don't return then. She also forgets who took which book and we have all suffered years of her moaning about 'I wonder where my edition of that fantastic book has disappeared to... if only I could remember where it went."
Christopher wrote: "Right on. I actually believe books have something of a traveling soul and one needs to allow them to roam. The more people they touch, t..."that's awesome. I like this philosophy.
I enjoy going to a used book store way to much to ever give up physical books. It's not about price. I love the way a book feels. I rarely ever look at the price of a book. If I want it I get it. Money isn't the first thing on my mind. I do own a Kindle and I have read books on them, but it doesn't get used often because I prefer the real thing.
@Stan: Thanks for your insight. As I delve into self-publishing its important to have this kind of feedback.@Micah: I'm right there with you, my friend!
@Alisha: I absolutely agree with you. A book is tangible. Its more than simply the ideas it conveys. And since I'm a bit of a sci-fi fan, let me say that we dangerously assume the Internet (or its offspring) will be with us forever. There may come a time when digital information--whether because of politics or because of lack of energy, by accident or by design--will become hidden from the average person who lacks that capacity to evoke it from its electronic storage media. As long as humankind retains the ability to read, books, because of their simple non-technological user interface, are (as fragile as they are) probably much more resistant to catastrophe. What good is an e-book if one does not have an e-reader? What good is a digital library if it has been corrupted because of hackers, or is inaccessible because of sun spots? I have books that have long outlived their authors. Will we be able to say the same of their digital brethren?
Okay, so this topic of e-books versus paper is starting to blow my mind, so rather than continue it here (with respect to the original topic), I started a short essay on it on chrisvera.com
Well, I'm probably what publisher's love with our next pick (The Magicians). I saw it was on Kindle for $12.99 so decided to check out the price in paperback...it was about $10. Still I opted for the Kindle version for convenience, since I think it's unlikely I'll have much free time to read, I'll do better with the option to read a little here and a little there. After buying it on Kindle, I realized I already had it in audio (and the sequel), which I picked up during the recent $4.95 sale at Audible. Whoops.
As I sit here rereading my kindle version of a Malazan book (I have the hardcovers as collectibles, the kindle versions are for convenience) I realize what my main argument against high ebooks prices is. Editing. Every ebook I've read seems to have more typos and typesetting problems. In this book I've had to guess at what some of the words actually were. So, if they want me to pay the higher prices they should at least splurge for an editor. vent vent vent vent vent ugh
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Magicians (other topics)A Princess of Mars (other topics)
The Alloy of Law (other topics)
The Alloy of Law (other topics)
Since I was ordering another book that was not available as an e-book, I opted for the hardcover. That way I got free shipping. Yes, I had to wait a few days for the books for arrive rather than the instant download of an e-book.
So the question is, how much of a price difference would it take for you to wait for shipping or change from your preferred media; ebook, audio or dead tree?