Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[BrianRS]

Been reading through all your comments here about how many books you have bought and are still buying. I just thought why don't you offer to review books in exchange for copies supplied for free.

There are loads of authors looking for reviews across all genres and some great books can be obtained that way. Doing a review on Amazon or other distributor sites doesn't take long and it would help authors if you just tell them what you think of their books publicly.

Although I do wonder if you would ever get around to reading them as you all seem to have more books than you can handle already and it wouldn't be fair to get a free review book if you don't think you will actually read it.

[pdurrant]

Getting hold of books to read isn't our problem in this thread.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Getting hold of books to read isn't our problem in this thread.

Apache

[Jdschi]

Sigh I guess I need to introduce myself here as well - hi I'm J and I have an ebook addict problem.

Since discovering that I can actually read with my tablet (my eyes somehow had problems with my Kindle so I didn't read much on it) and me starting to work and earn actual money, my (e)book addiction has become really unstoppable. I try to stick to the rules posted here in the thread. But after a book-bundle I had eyed for days and days suddenly jumped in price by 100% (and made it unaffordable especially since I had seen the previous price) now I'm really jumpy when it comes to books I "might want to read in the future" - I fear that they suddenly might increase in prize. They don't, of course, and so far I have managed to talk myself out of buying two I am eyeing since a couple of days... but maybe I should just go for it for the sake of my mind?
I did buy two books yesterday, but one had a really good review in our local newspaper plus I used a kobo coupon, and the other has some relation to my work so I can somewhat justify buying it. I also always get bundles like the Storybundle or the HumbleBundle if they have ebooks just because I think the idea is cool and I should support it.
My TBR pile/wishlist has exploded though and it has stuff on it like "Malazan Book of the fallen" (10 books with about 1000 pages each?) and "The Wheel of Time" (14 books each?) so it's not like I can (or want to) breeze through them.

Speaking of rules - how do you organize your wish list and look out for deals? It is crazy how the prices on ebooks vary from one day to the next and sometimes I panic that I might actually miss a deal for one of the books on my wishlist (and then I go and buy it even though I really shouldn't).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Jdschi

Sigh I guess I need to introduce myself here as well - hi I'm J and I have an ebook addict problem.

Since discovering that I can actually read with my tablet (my eyes somehow had problems with my Kindle so I didn't read much on it) and me starting to work and earn actual money, my (e)book addiction has become really unstoppable. I try to stick to the rules posted here in the thread. But after a book-bundle I had eyed for days and days suddenly jumped in price by 100% (and made it unaffordable especially since I had seen the previous price) now I'm really jumpy when it comes to books I "might want to read in the future" - I fear that they suddenly might increase in prize. They don't, of course, and so far I have managed to talk myself out of buying two I am eyeing since a couple of days... but maybe I should just go for it for the sake of my mind?
I did buy two books yesterday, but one had a really good review in our local newspaper plus I used a kobo coupon, and the other has some relation to my work so I can somewhat justify buying it. I also always get bundles like the Storybundle or the HumbleBundle if they have ebooks just because I think the idea is cool and I should support it.
My TBR pile/wishlist has exploded though and it has stuff on it like "Malazan Book of the fallen" (10 books with about 1000 pages each?) and "The Wheel of Time" (14 books each?) so it's not like I can (or want to) breeze through them.

Speaking of rules - how do you organize your wish list and look out for deals? It is crazy how the prices on ebooks vary from one day to the next and sometimes I panic that I might actually miss a deal for one of the books on my wishlist (and then I go and buy it even though I really shouldn't).

Hi J, welcome to the thread.

I can't speak for others, but I use my wish list as a way of putting off purchases, so I don't actually bother to track the prices of ebooks on my wish list at all carefully. I do subscribe to a couple of the Free/Bargain threads in the Deals forum, which usually alert me to anything special going on.

On the whole I take the view that unless it's a really exceptional offer, it will come around again long before I start to run short of books.

Again, unless it's an exceptional bargain, I don't tend to buy entire series at once - just in case I read the first one and hate it.

Realising you have a problem is the start of fixing the problem, so congratulations on starting to bring your ebook buying under control.

Feel free to post here asking about whether a particular deal is too good to miss - those of us who've been following the ebook market for many years will be happy to advise.

[DrNefario]

The dirty trick that usually gets me is when I wishlist something at a low price, then it goes up, and I think I've missed my chance, and then it drops (briefly?) back down to the low price again. I'll almost always buy it, then, at the price I initially refused.

What can I say? I am weak.

[greenasterisk]

Wow learning about how many ebooks some of you guys have in your collection has been eye opening.

[Dhevi]

Originally Posted by greenasterisk

Wow learning about how many ebooks some of you guys have in your collection has been eye opening.

I try to curb my appetite... sometimes I win... most times I do not lol.

My biggest weakness is the ease of access to online bookstores.

The nearest brick and mortar anything is 30 some miles away, whereas a few clicks away I can get it wherever I am with an internet connection.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Jdschi

Speaking of rules - how do you organize your wish list and look out for deals? It is crazy how the prices on ebooks vary from one day to the next and sometimes I panic that I might actually miss a deal for one of the books on my wishlist (and then I go and buy it even though I really shouldn't).

I keep several different wishlists:

- Amazon exclusives (grumble, mutter).
- Three "Hold" lists:
--- Moratorium: series that look neat that I haven't bought into.
--- Suspended: series I'm behind on and don't want to invest in until I catch up.
--- Promo Hold: stuff from both of those lists that I can use Kobo promo codes on.
- Two "Available" lists (eligible and ineligible for promo codes).
- Anthologies: usually trade paperbacks where I'm watching for the electronic prices to drop.
- Upcoming: Exactly that. Usually divided into a couple of monthly lists and two or three quarterly lists beyond that. I track just about any future release of interest here, not just books.

[Grace Elliot]

The good news is I didn't buy an ebook today.
The bad news is I bought a paperback (...but it is for my husband's birthday...)

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Valentino

Freebies are a waste of time not cash, besides the free classics.
I used to get the free for a limited time books.
They were all bad and I never actually finished reading one.

I get quite a few decent free ones. In fact, the last freebie I read "Fatal Affair" by Marie Force, I enjoyed so well that I just purchased the next book of the series.

Not all freebies are good, but they are not all bad either. Heck they're free!!

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by Valentino

I used to get the free for a limited time books.
They were all bad and I never actually finished reading one.

Back in 2010 a book by a favorite author was free for an extremely narrow window. I'm still kicking myself for missing it (yeah, I bought it eventually when I stopped kicking myself, and the Audible version too), and because of that experience I have clickitis where a lot of free books in genres I like to read are concerned.

It seems to me a lot of first books of series are free at one time or another to get suckers like me to try out a series and end up purchasing the rest of the series.

[Grace Elliot]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I get quite a few decent free ones. In fact, the last freebie I read "Fatal Affair" by Marie Force, I enjoyed so well that I just purchased the next book of the series.

Not all freebies are good, but they are not all bad either. Heck they're free!!

I agree.
What seems to be helping the quality of free or bargain ebooks are some of the companies (Bookbub, Ereader News Today) who vet the books first and only advertise the better ones. I've certainly read a couple of corkers recently that were free - The Dead Virgins and Seven Patients. These books weren't a genre I would normally pick up but I took a risk because they were free and loved them!

[pdurrant]

The current Kobo unlimited use 50% off coupon (Sept50) was worth waiting for. 11 books by favourite authors for under $3 per book on average.

[Edit: make that 12 books. 14 if you count the two I got yesterday as well.]

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[Edit: make that 12 books. 14 if you count the two I got yesterday as well.]

I didn't get off that light, even without factoring in the Pottermore set. I've got 17 so far, including two rebuys, and some Star Wars stuff is still calling to me at about $4 each.

Yep, my Kobo's gonna top 500 books reeeeal soon now.