MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New to E-Readers

Elsi · 02-22-2009, 05:43 PM

Hello Bear and welcome to MobileRead.

You're asking some of the same questions that plague those of us who've been reading electronic books for a while. Regarding the price of electronic books -- the general consensus is that publishers are somewhat panicked since they are terrified that an electronic book would be widely distributed through pirate sites (aka the ancient Napster issues). So, it appears that they price the eBooks high either to make sure that they get a decent profit from the ones that they *do* sell or maybe a subconscious (or maybe deliberate) attempt to kill electronic books alltogether. There are a few publishers who appear to "get it". Leading the pack is Baen. They've got 117 books available for free and bring out 10-12 new (for sale) titles every month. The highest price I've seen for a single book is around $6, and when you purchase one of their bundles, the per-book price drops down to $2 or $3.

There are several people who are active on MobileRead who can talk about using the Public Library in conjunction with their electronic book reader. I've not tried that, but it's because my "to be read" stack is so very tall.

I own both a Kindle and a Sony PRS-505. I know that I could be content with either one -- both offer an excellent reading experience and when coupled with supporting software on your PC, you can get an amazing amount of books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs to read. I do have to admit a preference for my Kindle for two reasons:

1 - First is the availability of books through the Amazon store. Most of the time, the price is lower at Amazon than from other online sellers. I suspect that's a factor of Amazon's size. They can absorb a certain amount of "loss leaders" without affecting their bottom line. And, the ability to receive these books via the WhisperNet cellular connection just makes the Amazon store even better.

2 - Second is the ability to highlight text and add notes using the keyboard. Due to the implementation & the e-Ink screen refresh rate, it's not easy to take extensive notes -- or at least not very quickly. But the Kindle stores your highlights and notes in a text file which you can download to your PC. I use the highlighting feature to easily capture quotes for book reviews. Sure beats having to type it in.

So -- whichever device you pick, I'm confident that it's going to positively affect your reading experience. And while none of us are very happy about the prices for new releases, just look at the thousands of classics (and maybe not so classic) that you can download for free! Check out the library right here at MobileRead.

02-22-2009, 05:43 PM	#4
Elsi Wizard Posts: 2,366 Karma: 12000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas, USA Device: Kindle; Sony PRS 505; Blackberry 8700C	Hello Bear and welcome to MobileRead. You're asking some of the same questions that plague those of us who've been reading electronic books for a while. Regarding the price of electronic books -- the general consensus is that publishers are somewhat panicked since they are terrified that an electronic book would be widely distributed through pirate sites (aka the ancient Napster issues). So, it appears that they price the eBooks high either to make sure that they get a decent profit from the ones that they do sell or maybe a subconscious (or maybe deliberate) attempt to kill electronic books alltogether. There are a few publishers who appear to "get it". Leading the pack is Baen. They've got 117 books available for free and bring out 10-12 new (for sale) titles every month. The highest price I've seen for a single book is around $6, and when you purchase one of their bundles, the per-book price drops down to $2 or $3. There are several people who are active on MobileRead who can talk about using the Public Library in conjunction with their electronic book reader. I've not tried that, but it's because my "to be read" stack is so very tall. I own both a Kindle and a Sony PRS-505. I know that I could be content with either one -- both offer an excellent reading experience and when coupled with supporting software on your PC, you can get an amazing amount of books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs to read. I do have to admit a preference for my Kindle for two reasons: 1 - First is the availability of books through the Amazon store. Most of the time, the price is lower at Amazon than from other online sellers. I suspect that's a factor of Amazon's size. They can absorb a certain amount of "loss leaders" without affecting their bottom line. And, the ability to receive these books via the WhisperNet cellular connection just makes the Amazon store even better. 2 - Second is the ability to highlight text and add notes using the keyboard. Due to the implementation & the e-Ink screen refresh rate, it's not easy to take extensive notes -- or at least not very quickly. But the Kindle stores your highlights and notes in a text file which you can download to your PC. I use the highlighting feature to easily capture quotes for book reviews. Sure beats having to type it in. So -- whichever device you pick, I'm confident that it's going to positively affect your reading experience. And while none of us are very happy about the prices for new releases, just look at the thousands of classics (and maybe not so classic) that you can download for free! Check out the library right here at MobileRead.