Effect of Kindle on Sony's Content Offerings

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I feel it's certainly a marketing ploy for Sony to offer short stories. (Additonally, many people love short stories. I know I do.)

But even so, as a "Total Count Strategy," it makes good marketing sense, as well, to have these availabe as it quickly increases the total number of titles available.

However, I would really like to see a large number of short story collections "exploded" out so that short stories of one's choosing could be available rather than a whole book of stories.

Don

Don, I don't think there's anything insidious here like a "Total Count Strategy". Sony doesn't even provide a convenient way to determine the total number of ebook titles that they sell, which is why it's a bit of a chore for me to figure it out and post it here every couple of weeks. So offering short stories to boost a number you can't easily get at doesn't seem like a logical motivation for offering short stories. I would say, rather, that offering really cheap titles is probably a terrific way to get people into the habit of buying content. Amazon has had digital "shorts" for some months (these are PDFs, they also have others for the Kindle). I've bought a few of these myself. At the ridiculously low price of $0.49, how could I pass up an interesting title by an author I recognize? Do you have a Reader but don't want to pay $10 or $20 or more for an ebook at the Sony site? "Hey, look at these SciFi and Romance and Horror and Western short stories! They're only a buck!" I think that's the motivation and I'm glad they're being smart about it.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Content is definitely the most important thing. My question though is what are all those extra 70,000 titles that are available on the Kindle, but not on the eReader? I went through some of my favorite authors and couldn't find any books listed that weren't available through Sony. While that's not a scientific survey or anything, I would have expected to find at least a few with that big of a difference. Certainly, I would be quite willing to buy a Kindle if it really does have books that I want that aren't available on the eReader, but I don't see them. Am I missing something?

Go to Amazon. Sort by price, low-to-high. On the 3rd page of results (or there-abouts) you'll find a large number of books priced a $0.25 which are erotic, bordering on porn. I wonder if the Sony store carries those?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Content is definitely the most important thing. My question though is what are all those extra 70,000 titles that are available on the Kindle, but not on the eReader? I went through some of my favorite authors and couldn't find any books listed that weren't available through Sony. While that's not a scientific survey or anything, I would have expected to find at least a few with that big of a difference. Certainly, I would be quite willing to buy a Kindle if it really does have books that I want that aren't available on the eReader, but I don't see them. Am I missing something?

Amazon has basically the whole Mobipocket catalog which is nice & a few other things as far as books from more mainstream publishing sources. They also sell some e-publisher stuff that Sony doesn't offer, but is available for Sony through Fictionwise.

There's no doubt Amazon has more available then if you're buying books through Sony, but I'm not sure how much more they have that a general audience is going to care about. They do have the $9.99 bestseller deal which is nice (I'd rather pay a couple bucks more for a LIT that I can deDRM and make device independent).

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Amazon has basically the whole Mobipocket catalog which is nice & a few other things as far as books from more mainstream publishing sources. They also sell some e-publisher stuff that Sony doesn't offer, but is available for Sony through Fictionwise.

There's no doubt Amazon has more available then if you're buying books through Sony, but I'm not sure how much more they have that a general audience is going to care about. They do have the $9.99 bestseller deal which is nice (I'd rather pay a couple bucks more for a LIT that I can deDRM and make device independent).

My experiment on a portion of my books (see post #82 in this thread) didn't find that many more ebooks at Amazon compared to Sony for things that interested me. But a few instances were notable. Amazon had many more books than Sony that were by Asimov and Niven, for example. If that's a general trend, it may be that once an author succumbs to having his books published in digital form, Amazon convinces them to do so for most or all of their books, while Sony, for some reason, is content to sell just a few of the author's titles. I don't understand this, but it might account for much of the difference in the total offerings between these two vendors.

[vivaldirules]

In the past two weeks, Sony has added 700 new titles (a 1.7% increase) and they now have about 42,000 ebooks for sale at their eBook Store.

[vivaldirules]

In the past two weeks, Sony has added 650 new titles (a 1.5% increase) and they now have roughly 43,000 ebooks for sale at their eBook Store. Sony has averaged 99 new ebooks per day to their offerings since September and that number has been falling for most of the past four months. Amazon's site today indicates that they have a bit over 128,000 ebooks for sale for the Kindle. They've averaged 192 new titles per day since November and that number has been increasing a little for the past couple of months.

[manchuia]

vivaldi. I am new here, but let me say I appreciate the reporting you are doing on the numbers. I took an informal poll of books I have and books I wanted (off my amazon print wish list) and found most of the same conclusions. Certain authors / subjects (usually computer tech) were available on Amazon and not Sony, but for the most part the two bookstores were even.

Just coming into the whole world of ebooks and readers I thought Amazon had a demonstrative store advantage over Sony, but I am just not seeing that muscle when i compare titles that I would be looking for (good dose of non fiction, minor sci fi, business books).

[Ervserver]

wonder why Sony is so behind in the book offering dept

[HarryT]

Would someone mind checking how many Agatha Christie e-Books are available in the Sony e-Book Store? I'd be interested in seeing how it compares with those available at "FictionWise" in Mobi/Microsoft format.

Thanks!

[vivaldirules]

Harry, Sony lists 54 titles by Agatha Christie, all published by HarperCollins. I only skimmed the list but I didn't see any obvious multiple counts. Amazon lists as many as 82 for the Kindle but there are many multiple counts there. For example, they sell 11 different copies of The Secret Adversary while Sony has one. How many does Fictionwise carry and how many different titles are there by Christie?

[HarryT]

Thanks - it sounds as though they have pretty much the same ones.

FictionWise have 57 HarperCollins titles (they're the ones that I bought), plus lots of different additional versions of the two public domain (in the US) titles, The Secret Adversary and The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Agatha Christie wrote 80 books in all, so FictionWise are missing 23, and Sony are missing 26 of them. Annoyingly, although the missing titles are mostly her less well-known books, they include one Hercule Poirot title ("Hickory Dickory Dock") and one Miss Marple title ("A Pocket Full of Rye").

Hopefully these 20-odd "missing" ones will appear over the next few years - they're all still in print.

Did you know, by the way, that Agatha Christie is the best-selling author in the world, with the exception of Shakespeare and the Bible? More than 2 billion copies of her books have been sold - that's amazing!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Did you know, by the way, that Agatha Christie is the best-selling author in the world, with the exception of Shakespeare and the Bible? More than 2 billion copies of her books have been sold - that's amazing!

Wow, I did not know that. I used to read AC when I was a kid. Got them at the library so I don't own them. Was considering getting them, actually thought they might be out of copyright by now, but I guess not.

Definately going to pick up a few soon. I do remember prefering Hercule Perot to Miss Marple.

BOb

[RickyMaveety]

Me, I've got all 80 of her books in paperback from when I was a kid. And, yes, I'll probably purchase all that I can in ebook format.

My mom let me join a book club in third grade and told me that I could spend as much as I wanted on books "as long as [I] read them all." Thus was a monster created.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Was considering getting them, actually thought they might be out of copyright by now, but I guess not.

She died in 1976, hence won't enter the public domain, even in "life + 50" countries, until 2027.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

She died in 1976, hence won't enter the public domain, even in "life + 50" countries, until 2027.

Damn you Disney. Where is Macaulay when we need him?

BOb