Where do you buy ebooks from, and why?

[andrewburt]

So, question for everyone, where do you buy your ebooks from -- and why? I imagine the most common reply will be "Amazon" of course, but I wanted to delve into that more deeply, with the "Why?" part. (Given that books bought on Amazon are often DRM'd, and only in one format, precluding their use on non-Kindle devices.)

And if you buy elsewhere, why there? (B&N? Smashwords? Small ebookstores?)

Where I'm going with the question is that there's this report, from Goldman Sachs, that says Amazon sells twice as many ebooks as B&N -- however, I've studied a wide range of data from authors (mostly professional authors) and found that B&N sales are typically more like 10% or under compared to Amazon.

So I'm wondering (a) does B&N really sell half as much, or is it really more like 1/10th as much? and (b) why is that?-- since there's more hard evidence of how many devices B&N sells, and so it seems like B&N should be higher than 1/10th of Amazon. (Plus there are so many non-Nook .EPUB reading devices that would tend to steer traffic to B&N or other places that aren't just .MOBI.)

Somewhere there's a disconnect in the numbers, so I'm trying to get a handle on where.

And then I'm just generally curious how people feel about buying from Smashwords, or other smaller ebookstore. (It seems to me there'd be a benefit from getting ebooks DRM free, and in multiple formats, but the evidene points to people sticking mostly with Amazon. So... what's the biggest reason for that?)

Not knocking Amazon -- I generally like Amazon quite well -- just trying to wrap my head around discrepancies in reported numbers, and curious how people feel.

[xg4bx]

i use amazon. i have a kindle and they have the best selection. the few drm'd books that i cant strip with calibre is a pain sometimes but its not a deal breaker.

i've checked out b&n and frankly the selection is miserable. i'm not surprised their sales are lower.

as for why people choose amazon: selection selection selection. i don't think its any more complex than that.

[Sweetpea]

Amazon. Why?

Because they have the books available, I can buy books there (a lot of e-book sellers won't take my money as it's Euros and not pounds or dollars).

DRM? What's that? Oh, I think I remember, that's that thingy I remove within a minute after buying my book....

[church mouse]

My general buying pattern is:

1. Check my book "wish list" and decide which one I wish to buy next.

2. Check who is selling it, and at what price. (Generally use Luzme as my starting point, though it is not fault-free)

3. Buy from whoever is cheapest. (Format not a concern).

In practice, Amazon UK is nearly always the cheapest vendor, unless the book price is "publisher set", though WH Smith sometimes gets my money.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i use amazon. i have a kindle and they have the best selection. the few drm'd books that i cant strip with calibre is a pain sometimes but its not a deal breaker........................

Picky, I know, but an important point - Calibre does not strip DRM.

And just out of interest - why would someone using a kindle want/need to strip the DRM - if it was at all possible that is...................

[avantman42]

I buy books from Amazon and Smashwords. I don't buy from stores that use Adobe DRM because I run Linux, and so don't have ADE. One of the reasons I bought a Kindle is that I don't need to run a Windows program in order to buy books.

If a book is available at both Amazon and Smashwords, then I'll buy from Smashwords. I did buy some from Amazon, in order to get the whispersync functionality, but now that Calibre adds the relevant metadata to the file, I can get that functionality with books bought from Smashwords. I buy from Smashwords over Amazon because I like what they do and I want to support them.

I'd be happy to buy from a small ebookstore, as long as they didn't use Adobe DRM.

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

And just out of interest - why would someone using a kindle want/need to strip the DRM - if it was at all possible that is...................

Off the top of my head:

• I may not always have a Kindle. If I replace it with an ePub reader, I want to be able to convert all my mobi files to ePub
• I might want to use something other than the official Kindle app to read my books on my PC, phone, tablet, etc
• I may want to use the Kindle's text-to-speech function on a book that doesn't have it enabled

Those are the reasons that immediately came to mind.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i've checked out b&n and frankly the selection is miserable.

I read this statement often from people who buy at Amazon but I don't understand the basis for it. Other than a handful of ebooks that are exclusive to Amazon, what books are available at Amazon but not at B&N? Certainly all of the midsize and large publishers release their books through both. Perhaps there are some small publishers (publishers of 10 or fewer books) or some self-publishing authors that do not sell through Amazon, but I cn't believe that is more than a handful. Any published book that goes through a major distributor such as Bookmasters or Ingram or Smashwords can be found at either store.

And raw numbers are not a sufficient claim that selection at one is better than at another. To say that one has 2.35 million titles and the other has 2.1 million titles available is meaningless unless you eliminate all the duplicate versions and parse out what those numbers really mean.

I'd like to see someone who makes this claim that Amazon's selection is better than B&N's selection back up the claim with valid information and not just broad generalizations or speculation.

One other thing: Selection is fickle. It is meaningless, as noted above, to talk of raw numbers because if Amazon's selection of Romance titles is better than B&N's, that has value only if one reads Romance titles. If you never buy a Romance title, then who cares who has more titles in the genre than someone else -- the Romance selection is meaningless.

[pdurrant]

webscription.net
Other author-based independents
Fictionwise
Amazon

So of the 'major' resellers in the UK (Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith/Kobo) I mostly buy from Amazon.

Why? Price.

[rhadin]

My choices for where to buy are Smashwords, Sony, and B&N. Occasionally I go elsewhere. If a book is available at all three, I buy it at Smashwords.

Smashwords is my preferred venue because I can download the books DRM free and because my buying there helps to support a place where indie authors can be assured of distribution.

I have two Sony devices. I am willing to buy at B&N because I can strip the DRM. However, if a title is only available at Sony and B&N (of my 3 venues), I generally buy it at Sony. I would buy more ebooks at B&N if Sony supported the B&N DRM natively. I am uncomfortable stripping the DRM, so I tend to "buy" at B&N only free ebooks.

Having said that, I still buy a lot of hardcover books and those I buy at B&N or Daedalus.

[EowynCarter]

Mostly Kobo, as they are willing to sell to me even if i'm in france Amazon does too, but i can't be bothered to convert to get a lesser quality ePub in the end. (Sorry amazon, you showed up a few years too late...)

Sony for the books that still happen to be geo-resticted on kobo, as geo-restictions can be bypassed.

Fnac and ePagine fro french books. Smashword and feedsbooks too.

[Pinecone]

In order of volume -

Sony Store
Amazon
B&N
Kobo
Others

I prefer to buy in ePub. But after that go for the cheapest place. If it isn't available in ePub, or substantially lower in price, I will buy from Amazon and convert.

[owly]

I mostly look att price. Since I own a Kobo Touch I use the Kobo Store but also BooksOnBoard http://www.booksonboard.com/index.ph...ks-audio-books and Diesel http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/

[DiapDealer]

And then I'm just generally curious how people feel about buying from Smashwords, or other smaller ebookstore. (It seems to me there'd be a benefit from getting ebooks DRM free, and in multiple formats, but the evidene points to people sticking mostly with Amazon. So... what's the biggest reason for that?)

The obvious answer is that Smashwords just doesn't sell the works of a lot of people's favorite authors. There's definitely a benefit to getting DRM-free ebooks—no doubt about it—but here's the kicker: DRM-free is only of interest to me AFTER I've already determined it's a book I want to read. Not before. I couldn't really care any less about a DRM-free ebook from an author that I have little or no interest in reading.

So I buy from the store that A) sells the works of authors I'm interested in, and B) makes it easiest to get my purchase on the ereader of my choice (which is a Kindle).

(Unless another store is offering the same book for a significant enough savings to make it worth my while to buy from them, strip the DRM and format shift... and that doesn't happen very often anymore in this post-Agency Pricing ebook world).

I honestly think you're overthinking this thing. Kindle owners buy ebooks from Amazon... and there's a lot of Kindles out there.

[Asawi]

I buy very few eBooks (I borrow lots from libraries), but the few I have bought I have bought from Kobo and Sony store.

Why? They haven't been available elsewhere!

(Yes, it's true, Amazon doesn't actually have "everything"! Had they been available at a lower price there I would have bought them there, but either they weren't available at all, had georestirctions or were more expensive at Amazon - or all of the above.)

[Quake1028]

Almost all of my book purchases come from Amazon. Their prices are usually very competitive, and I always get gift cards there for birthdays, Christmas, etc., so it's a no brainer.