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Originally Posted by Pushka
Commercial maybe, and in the US, but this is mainstream every day people reading fiction. I was in a professional meeting yesterday (in Australia) from people all around the country and overseas, and the only other person in the room that new anything much about the kindle (or ebook) other than me, was a consultant from New York. So, as I said, apart from possibly the US, ebooks are simply not as prolific or mainstream yet as people would like to think they are.
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I don't think they're all that common. I do think that authors should be paying attention to them--commercial ebooks predate ebook-dedicated devices, and have been used on computers and PDAs for years in addition to the dedicated ebook readers.
The Kindle is not Amazon's first experiment with selling ebooks; authors whose books are going to sell at Amazon should know the company's history in regards to digital editions. (Or their agents should; that's what agents are for.)
OTOH, if ebooks are not that important, then authors shouldn't worry about ebook-related reviews on their books.
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Think about it, in cafes etc you see people reading magazines and books, but how many times do you see a kindle or other ebook? (And I dont consider typing on a laptop the same thing)
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I see another ebook reader on the train to or from work about once a week. But I work in San Francisco; I'm aware that ebook devices are a lot rarer in other places.
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That is an interesting point then. If the rating system is that flawed, why then are people using this as a means to express their anger. Publishers will simply ignore them.
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A handful of low ratings won't get noticed. A landslide of them might. And it will get talked about (in places like this forum, and book-related blogs), and bring wider attention to the problem. In this case, the problem is that publishers don't like Amazon's policy of discounting bestseller ebooks, even at its own cost--because they don't want the public to get used to the idea of $10 ebooks. Because they don't want to be pressured into lower prices and less profits.
They're not saying, "we can't afford to sell ebooks at that price! They cost too much to make!" --because that's patently untrue. They're just upset that they won't be able to get hardcover prices for something that has no printing costs, no distribution costs, and no (currently legal) resale ability.