What content do you enjoy?

[benn600]

I'm interested in:

1. Answer the poll.
2. For those who mainly get free content, what are your favorite sources?
3. How many hours per week do you read?
4. Do you enjoy audiobooks while reading?
5. Did you get the $150 bonus on Sony Connect? Do you spend other money on Sony Connect? How much money per month? How satisfied are you?
6. Generally, do you read mostly free and/or public domain works or do you prefer paid content?
7. Are you likely to buy new releases which are priced way out of sight--$12-$25?

ME:
1. Ok
2. I prefer manybooks and librivox.
3. Probably 3-10 hours per week.
4. I really enjoy audiobooks when available.
5. Yes. I just got my Reader 2 days ago. I haven't spent much of my free starting balance yet.
6. I really like free content but always like being in the know of the latest books.
7. I hate buying new releases and am very unlikely to do so.

[igorsk]

I can understand your enthusiasm, but that "MANDATORY" thing in the subject kinda looks arrogant. Please remove it.

[igorsk]

BTW, your questions do not cover all the possibilites. The world of books for Reader is not divided between "free" and "Connect store". There are DRM-free ebook stores (like Baen), and there is a possibility of converting .LIT books into HTML and then LRF. There are probably other ways.

[HarryT]

I've edited your thread title to remove the word "Mandatory". It really isn't - sorry!

Unfortunately I'm not able to answer your poll because although I do buy e-books, I don't buy them from Connect, but from Baen.

One suggestion - it's nice to include a "cop out" option in a poll; something like "Just show me the results", so that people who cannot or do not wish to vote can still see the results. It also gives you more accurate information, because it stops people just picking an option at random just so they can see the results.

[benn600]

I changed it to Suggested.
What a complicated ebook world. I didn't even realize there were good alternatives. Are there some big name books on that site?

[HarryT]

Baen specialise in Fantasy and Science Fiction. They publish in open formats at sensible prices - they are one of the "good guys" of the eBook world.

[flumbo]

Originally Posted by benn600

I changed it to Suggested.

That is still strange. Why would you think either is appropriate? Your reply is mandatory!

[yvanleterrible]

You forget translated Web pages and PDF catalogs which I have a bundle of.

Are you doing a market research for some company?

[kacir]

Originally Posted by benn600

5. Did you get the $150 bonus on Sony Connect? Do you spend other money on Sony Connect? How much money per month? How satisfied are you?

I am thinking very hard how to spend $50 bonus I got with the reader. I will most probably buy some books just to get some money to some of my favourite authors. I dislike the way books in Connect store are formatted. Too wide margin, serrif font.
Those 99.50 bucks in Connect credit for "Classics" are ... and I will be VERY diplomatic here ... a Public Relation stunt. You can download all those books for free, LEGALY elsewhere. Then you can format them to your taste or read them on any device, or upload them here like quite a few people did.

Originally Posted by benn600

7. Are you likely to buy new releases which are priced way out of sight--$12-$25?

those prices are INSANE for me

I would be very intertested to know how much money an author gets for a paperback, hardback and electronic version.
With electronic version, most of the money should end up in authors hands. There is no cost for paper, printing, warehousing, bookstore staff, printed but unsold books.
Yet I doubt very much that author gets significant cut of the price of Connect books that are in the 20 dollar range.

[Hadrien]

2. Well I use my own project for this: Feedbooks
3. 30-40 hours
4. Audiobooks is fine, but not on the reader, it ruins the battery, and I don't like the mp3 function of the reader that much
5. No
6. I love philosophy and russian authors from the XIXth, public domain books work fine for me. I also read books released under Creative Commons license.
7. No, e-books should cost a lot less than paper books.

I also read a few RSS feeds on my reader everyday (Techcrunch: http://www.feedbooks.com/news/rss/?i...m%2FTechcrunch ) and even twice a day for Slashdot: http://www.feedbooks.com/news/rss/?i...rg%2Findex.rss
They're automatically downloaded and synchronized using the software we're working on, before that I used to send them to my reader using libprs500.
I'm planning on using Dapper to extract the content from a few music websites that I read everyday: Pitchfork and Stylus Magazine.
This way I'll make my own custom PDF file, with these 2 websites + Techcrunch and Slashdot (well I already made a single PDF for these two: http://www.feedbooks.com/news/newspaper/1 ).
I'll read more and more RSS feeds on my PRS-500: I can concentrate on my reading this way, and e-ink looks better than any LCD screen.

[kovidgoyal]

I used to read about 10 hrs a week, but now all my free time gets sucked into developing libprs500, so that other people can read! The sony reader was the worst disaster to happen to my reading since the time I got acid in my eye ;-)

[benn600]

You forget translated Web pages and PDF catalogs which I have a bundle of.

I totally thought that as I was writing it...lol.

[Azayzel]

Originally Posted by benn600

I'm interested in:

1. Answer the poll.
2. For those who mainly get free content, what are your favorite sources?
3. How many hours per week do you read?
4. Do you enjoy audiobooks while reading?
5. Did you get the $150 bonus on Sony Connect? Do you spend other money on Sony Connect? How much money per month? How satisfied are you?
6. Generally, do you read mostly free and/or public domain works or do you prefer paid content?
7. Are you likely to buy new releases which are priced way out of sight--$12-$25?

Ok, I'll bite.

1. Done

2. The usual places found here for older titles and freely released titles; e.g., creative commons, released to the wild stuff, plus usenet for PB/HB books I already own that I want digital editions of (hey, it's my ethical dilemma and I'm fine with it ).

3. Probably 2-3 hours a night, so 14-21 hours a week.

4. While I thoroughly enjoy audiobooks (been an addict for over 10 years, not recovering ), I don't listen and read at the same time since I'm in pretty deep when I'm enjoying a good read. Audiobooks, for me, are a great way of shrinking the commute time down to an enjoyable frame that I don't mind. BTW I use my iPod for this, since it has a ton more space and I can carry multiple titles of good quality.

5. I spent the $50 Connect credit on a good quantity if books, and have read several of them. I have not spent any more through Connect, since I believe their prices are way out of whack(!).

6. I prefer what I enjoy reading, where ever it may come from; i.e., free sources of PD material, creative common licenses, free use titles, pay titles, and of course, all the PB & HB titles I've purchased over the years (generally too much to carry for too long, but I hate having to get rid of any book that was interesting for me; call me a packrat).

7. Paying stupid crazy prices a digital edition is just that, just plain crazy. I will buy a physical HB or PB edition of a book before I ever pay the same price for a digital edition. I have dealt with all the price hikes on PB books over the years and refuse to succumb to the belief that they (you know who they are) can charge this for a product that costs little to nothing to produce in bulk. I cannot believe the price for PB's are up to $7-10 for a book that used to cost only $2.50-3.00 a few years back, they were pretty sneaky slowly hiking prices over the years so we wouldn't really notice it and balk at the ordeal. I used to prefer to order from book clubs, to avoid high prices or I'd pick up books with heavy discounts from discount shelves at retailers, or (and still do) grab them from the NY Times Best Seller lists so I get at least a 25-40% discount.

In my opinion, a reasonable price for digital content should:

• Never exceed the PB edition (and under no circumstances ever exceed the HB edition)
• Be at a fair discount from their PB/HB counterparts, taking into account the ratio for creating digital vs. physical content.

While publishers can charge whatever they feel their product is worth, they need to understand that consumers, for the most part, are not idiots and will call them on it if they feel they are being taken advantage of; i.e., won't buy/support their products and will let them die a short death.

Heheh, looks like I'm about ready to publish a short-story here, as it stands now, so I better quit.

One last thing... To all of the complaints/suggestions for the original post (which I didn't see since it was edited already); remember, there are no physical tones to your remarks, but there are perceived ones and it came across to me as being quite a bit on the aggresive side, which isn't good. At least pretty up the comments with an emote so you don't alienate anyone too soon or run off people who are interested but lurking. I don't think there are any elitists here (or haven't heard any yet), so why start now? Just my impression.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

Ok, I'll bite.


4. While I thoroughly enjoy audiobooks (been an addict for over 10 years, not recovering ), I don't listen and read at the same time since I'm in pretty deep when I'm enjoying a good read. Audiobooks, for me, are a great way of shrinking the commute time down to an enjoyable frame that I don't mind. BTW I use my iPod for this, since it has a ton more space and I can carry multiple titles of good quality.

That's exactly when - and how - I listen to audiobooks too. They make my 45 minutes commute each way to and from work enjoyable and are GREAT on long drives too - because, unlike music, they require a certain amount concentration, they keep me alert and stop me from falling asleep. I regard them as a completely different "experience" to reading; I'd certainly never mix the two.

I've just bought a new car which has a built-in iPod interface - it plugs into a docking port in the glove box, and I can fully control it, see all my books, etc, on the display of the car radio. Works great! The world's most expensive iPod accessory .

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

In my opinion, a reasonable price for digital content should:

• Never exceed the PB edition (and under no circumstances ever exceed the HB edition)
• Be at a fair discount from their PB/HB counterparts, taking into account the ratio for creating digital vs. physical content.

While publishers can charge whatever they feel their product is worth, they need to understand that consumers, for the most part, are not idiots and will call them on it if they feel they are being taken advantage of; i.e., won't buy/support their products and will let them die a short death.

Speaking for a moment as an author who has had quite extensive dealings with publishers, do bear in mind that the price the publisher sets for the book is not particularly related to the cost of printing it. Most of the price for the initial run - whether it be on paper or electronic - is there to recoup all the money the publisher has spent in advance of publication and (hopefully) give both them and the author a reasonable profit.

People who've never had dealings with publishers perhaps don't realise just how much work is involved in publishing a book, and the cost of all that work does have to be recouped, whether the book is published on paper or electronically. I think it's unrealistic to expect the initial e-book release of a book to be significantly less than the price of the equivalent HB. A bit cheaper, yes, because there are savings on printing cost, but not dramatically.