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Old 12-01-2009, 07:17 AM   #1
Book Depository
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Format or eReader?

I would love to know how everyone decides how they buy their eBooks regardless of being free or paid for.

A few questions:
  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?

Thanks
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Old 12-01-2009, 08:14 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
A few questions:
  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
    I search by format first, starting with ePub. If none are found then I search by reader.
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader? Yes I know what formats my eBook reader can read and I usually know which sites do and don't carry the right formats.
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer? Yes, since I was already a member of MR.
I hope this is of help. I seldom do surveys.
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Old 12-01-2009, 08:25 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
I would love to know how everyone decides how they buy their eBooks regardless of being free or paid for.

A few questions:
  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
    I look for the book i want and then check out the format. If not available in my preferred bookstores, I will do a search after the format (epub first)
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?
    I know most of the formats of my reader - if not sure, I check here on Wiki
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?
    I didn't know about a conversion software before I bought my reader. But tbh, I didn't worry too much about it as there is a 'cure' for nearly every problem on the internet these days. And no, I don't think it's the retailers job to inform about file conversion. Geographical restrictions however should be.

Thanks
Well, that's from someone who has a reader for less than 4 weeks and has been member of this forum same time.
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Old 12-01-2009, 09:51 AM   #4
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Thanks Wetdogeared and Katti's Kat

Valuable answers so far and definately food for thought.
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Old 12-01-2009, 09:58 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katti's Cat View Post
Well, that's from someone who has a reader for less than 4 weeks and has been member of this forum same time.
As a newbie to the whole eBook scene you are perfect for my next questions:
  • Before you became a member of this forum and bought your eReader did you know anyhting about eBooks/eReaders?
  • What reasons made you chose your eReader? Was it format or device based"?
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:06 AM   #6
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Bad format
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:07 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
I would love to know how everyone decides how they buy their eBooks regardless of being free or paid for.

A few questions:
  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
    Format
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?
    I know the formats my eReader admits
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?
    Yes, I knew. And I doubt a retailer can inform me when a lot of books can't be converted because they have DRM

Thanks
I hope this helps.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:08 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
As a newbie to the whole eBook scene you are perfect for my next questions:
  • Before you became a member of this forum and bought your eReader did you know anyhting about eBooks/eReaders?
    Yes, I'd been reading at my Palm for two years, and about half a year before at my PC
  • What reasons made you chose your eReader? Was it format or device based"?
    Format (viewer, really), I used Mobipocket at my Palm and I like it.
I hope this helps.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:09 AM   #9
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  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?

    i search by title or author most of the time ; when i find a book i am interested i will search for the best format for me (i prefer epub). if it's not available in epub i search for a format i can easily convert.
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?

    yes, i know what formats i can read natively (without conversion), and more importantly i know which formats i can easily convert, since (alas) most books are still not available in all formats, and since not all formats will give the same results.
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?

    before i bought my *first* reader i didn't know anything at all about ebooks, nor about formats. but i very quickly found mobileread and learned a lot here, and conversion was one of the first things i learned. i don't know whether we can expect a retailer to advise about conversion ; they may not want to run the risk of confusing their customers (not all people who read ebooks are necessarily comfortable with computers), and if they are selling books with drm that would require explaining how to remove the drm first, which would rather defeat the purpose (drm is completely pointless, but i don't expect the retailer to broadcast that or undermine it further ). however katti cat made a good point about announcing geographic restrictions clearly, and definitely it's important to explain very clearly which formats are available, whether or not they have drm, and ideally which devices can read which formats, for inexperienced users.

  • Before you became a member of this forum and bought your eReader did you know anyhting about eBooks/eReaders?
    nope ! practically nothing at all.
  • What reasons made you chose your eReader? Was it format or device based"?
    one of my first criteria is format support. i won't buy a device which doesn't support epub format.

Last edited by zelda_pinwheel; 12-01-2009 at 10:12 AM. Reason: extra questions
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:33 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
As a newbie to the whole eBook scene you are perfect for my next questions:
  • Before you became a member of this forum and bought your eReader did you know anyhting about eBooks/eReaders?
    I did a bit of research (including on this forum) before I bought the reader. But the information is overwhelming and as it was a totally new device for me, I didn't know the right questions to ask. The forum was helpful though. In hindsight I can say that I got enough information but didn't realise the importance of geographical restrictions.
  • What reasons made you chose your eReader? Was it format or device based"?
    I ruled out the Kindle (sorry guys) at an early stage as I didn't like the fact of being locked in. Although the books on offer are too many to read in a lifetime I didn't like my options restricted.
    As I didn't have the opportunity to actually see a reader here in Australia I went for the a price / device relation and chose the Sony as I never had any problems with a Sony device before - that would be company reputation I'd guess for me.
If you look for information for your bookstore, a few suggestions that I as a new eBook buyer would like to see more
  • Clear and easy to find information, what formats you are selling. I hate it if I have to chase around the shop to find the information
  • Very clear about geographical restrictions (BooksonBoard is good in that I find)
  • Information on what the individual formats are and maybe some device as examples on which they can be used
  • Include a matrix or have a link to a matrix elsewhere which compares readers.
  • Don't forget a wishlist - I like to flag books I want, but are not in my budget for the moment.
  • And I don't know if you can do that (from Forum side) : but why not have a link to the forum. There is so much to learn about readers and eBooks that it is very confusing for beginners. And the forum is really great with lots of helpful people. Not even sure if there are more forums like this. I just stumbled over MR and never bothered looking any further as I like the atmosphere here.

Hope this helps. If you want to know more, just ask.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:37 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Book Depository View Post
I would love to know how everyone decides how they buy their eBooks regardless of being free or paid for.

A few questions:
  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?

Thanks
eReader is a format. So searching by format or eReader is the same thing.

What I do when I am looking for eBooks is to search for what's available or something specific. Then I'll see what formats the eBook is available in and if it's one of the three I can deal with and the price is not too high, I'll buy.

I search for ePub first, MS Reader second, and Mobipocket third. I liberate the format from ePub and fix it up as I want and with the others, I liberate the DRM and then convert to ePub and sort it out and voila done.

Before I bought my first Reader, I did have a look on MobileRead and I did see Book Designer and libprs500. So I know I was able to convert some content to LRF to then be able to read. I was able to strip the DRM from MS Reader format and convert fairly easily. So I did have a good enough supply of eBooks.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:37 AM   #12
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  • When buying/searching for eBooks do you search by format or by eReader?
    Format. I've no idea what formats every reader can read. I only know what I can read...
  • Do you know what format/s your eReader can read when searching or do you expect all eBooks to be read by your eReader?
    Naturally, I expect all ebooks to be read by my ereader, but I also am dissapointed a lot I do know what formats I can handle and will try to buy only those formats. When a book is not in that format, I will only buy it if I can convert it to the format I need.
  • Before you bought your eReader did you know about software to convert a format to your eReaders format? If you didn't would you have liked to have been informed by the retailer?
    No, but I don't think there actually was any software back then... Ebooks were still fairly new 6 or 7 years ago... (and mostly in TXT format too)
  • Before you became a member of this forum and bought your eReader did you know anyhting about eBooks/eReaders?
    Yes, I have been ereading much longer than I've been part of this nuthouse. I decided to join because I felt at home
  • What reasons made you chose your eReader? Was it format or device based?
    My first reader was a Franklin eBookman. I bought it because I wanted a mobile device for reading books. And I had heard about that one. I then moved on to a PDA, which was second-hand, from my mother. And I loved reading from a colour screen and so I bought my current PDA 5 years ago (improved screen, transflective and VGA). Ever since the ebookman, I've been reading mobipocket books. And I could install Mobipocket Reader on my PDA's as well, so I kept to the format. And when I finally decided upon an e-ink device (this summer), I wanted one that read Mobipocket books. So, it's mostly format that decided my readers after the first one. The first was was purely device based.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:41 AM   #13
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Being a user of a PDA, I can read most e-book formats. E-book SW is still available for most handheld devices, usually for free, and quite a lot of them are still in use, despite the proliferation of dedicated devices these days.

Therefore, I look for the book first, and check for available formats afterward. Sometimes I will convert a book from an available format to a preferred format, but that is not always a choice (if the book has DRM on it). I also usually pass on a book that has DRM, but not always.
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:45 AM   #14
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As a fiction editor, BD, I'm well used to some pretty horrendous presentation of raw manuscripts (hard copy and digital), so I'm not too worried when a book I'm reading for fun is a tad scruffy on my PRS-505.

It's good to see a retailer taking the pulse, though, because recreational readers deserve a well laid out book in return for the investment of their money and their time. I hope you'll pass on what advice you gather here and elsewhere to your other publishers because it's as much the publisher's job to get his ebooks spot on as his treebooks.

My own house has always sold through you, by the way, and we're already working on the conversion of our entire catalogue.

Very best. Neil
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Old 12-01-2009, 10:46 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
eReader is a format. So searching by format or eReader is the same thing.
Jon: Don't be hard on 'em. They're new here.

BD: Around these parts, we usually refer to e-book reading devices as "dedicated devices" or "dedicated readers," as opposed to "eReader," which, as Jon pointed out, is the proper name of a particular e-book format (like MobiPocket and ePub, etc).

Of course, Jon is aware that outside of these parts, calling these devices "eReaders" is fairly common...

Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 12-01-2009 at 10:58 AM.
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