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I'm relatively new to the ebook world, so I'm afraid I'm going thru that "hoarding" phase. My free/buy ratio is probably
500/40. It would take a fair amount of time to see how many I've read, partially because I've downloaded (both free and paid) a number of books that I'd read previously in paper. Suffice to say, I haven't read anywhere near what I've downloaded in the last year.
I suspect, however, that they may be picking the wrong question to evaluate.
If they're looking at "conversion" rates (a free book resulting in a paid book sale), that's pretty irrelevant from a publisher/author viewpoint. The practical question, in my point of view, is how many books would have been bought without the support of the free book.
I grew up using libraries, and still use them extensively. I just thought through this for a post in another thread-- we've got 1000+ paper books, and I've been reading that way for years, so it's easier for me to look at-- and in the long range, I imagine it will parallel my ebook habits. By far the lion's share are from authors with multiple books on my shelves (as are my paid ebook purchases). I would guess that I was introduced to every one of those authors through a book that cost me nothing (via the library or a personal loan), or occasionally a really cheap book at a used book store.
The "conversion rate" is still pretty low, since I read a lot of library books that didn't result in future sales, but the conversion rate is nearly 100% reliant on providing some method of reading "free". (And this is why I think the "ebook wars" between publishers and libraries is particularly short-sighted.)
KentE
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