Quote:
Originally Posted by astra_lestat
I doubt it.
From my experience based on different book forums, I am far from being in a minority  |
Well, we can agree to disagree, although my assertion still stands.
I would put forth that you and the other folks on these different book forums are already in a minority. Being the majority of a minority group is no better than being in a minority group in the first place. I base this on the premise that people who join book forums or other dedicated forums (like this one for electronic reading) are at the forefront of their peers. They tend to be more picky, opinionated, and vocal. However, they are a very small percentage of the overall reading population.
I believe the way Amazon is marketing the Kindle that they are targeting the overall reading population. The population that previously didn't even consider reading books on an electronic device. Not the geeks that have been reading ebooks on their low-rez, black & white Palm devices since the mid 1990's and have now made their way up to the latest Gen 3 devices. You can see it in how they're presenting the Kindle, how you can just use it without ever hooking it up to a computer. As easy as a paper book really.
Because of their target market, they're going to choose a marketing program that appeals to the most users in that market, hence this program we're discussing here. I would think that before Amazon decides on a marketing program such as this (download the first chapter for free), that they performed some type of marketplace survey to see how such a program would actually be received. There's a cost to Amazon, no matter how small, to distribute all these free first chapters to all Kindle owners. In aggregate though, it could be quite a large cost. Some of the costs for the program is built into the device, sure. But the rest of it must surely be built into the profits from the ebooks themselves when people ultimately decide to buy after the free samples. It would make no sense to implement a marketing program that costs you money but provides nothing in return.
I only raise this topic about being in a minority because it has some rather big implications here. You may feel strongly about the way certain things are done on the Kindle and will voice them unabashedly. However, it won't amount to much from the manufacturer's standpoint since you're really not the market they're trying to win over. If the regular Joe is satisfy with free first chapters and that gets him to make some impulse buys or take some risks on certain books, that's perfectly fine by Amazon. It basically just means that your concerns will never be addressed because to Amazon, you do represent a minority, whether you feel that way or not.