Would you pay MORE for an ebook

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

If I bought just one or two a month, I wouldn't worry either. But since I find I buy at least half a dozen every month, it starts to add up!

This year I've actually managed to be significantly under budget - only £117 spent so far, while my half-year budget is £150.

Well, I did stipulate that I buy new at full price only if I intend to read immediately. If I know I can't get to it immediately, I don't buy it.

But I've probably wasted more money buying books on sale than I do on the full-price new books I read and enjoy right away. I'll buy a batch of books on sale and years later they're still sitting there unread. I figure it makes a lot more sense to buy what I want when I want it, regardless of price.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Used book > one dollar scans > Sigil > ebook.
Also works if there is no ebook available.

What's a one dollar scan? Doesn't this whole process take a long time? Especially proofreading the OCR would take longer than just reading the book, no?

I'm asking because it's something I have sometimes thought of doing, but it seems a bit overwhelming.

[ottdmk]

For myself, it depends on the size of the price difference, as well as the cause. A while back I ended up checking out the pricing for Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. The e-books were more expensive because, although they were discounted from the retail price, the p-books were more deeply discounted. (At least for the box set.) Had I the money then, I probably still would've gone e-book. $29.99 for 5 books isn't a bad price.

Now, the box set is out of print for p-book and the price has dropped to $16.99 CDN for both Kobo & Kindle. Better! I'll have to revisit picking up the series.

A continual annoyance to me is the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. RoC (Penguin) used to price the e-book $1 above the p-book retail price. Now it's improved a bit: the e-book price is the same as p-book retail. Still, the p-books get discounted. It's only about $1 to $1.50, but it still bugs.

Still, I'm at the point where I prefer e-books enough that I'd probably just grit my teeth and pay the extra $1-$1.50.

[disconnected]

In the early days of ebooks there were so few available that when anything new came along that I thought I might possibly like I bought it immediately.

Now that more backlist titles are available I've bought lots of old series by authors I really like so I have a backlog of things to read.

I don't feel the need to buy as many new books now, especially those at close to hardback prices. Except for a few authors, I usually wait at least until the paperback is released and the ebook price comes down (or if applicable, until I have a good Kobo coupon).

[ebusinesstutor]

I prefer ebooks, but to me I prefer to pay less than for a print book. With a print book, I own it and can resell it.

With an ebook, it has no secondary market value, I am only licensing it. For this reason and the savings on printing costs, it seems to me they should be less expensive.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

I prefer ebooks, but to me I prefer to pay less than for a print book. With a print book, I own it and can resell it.

With an ebook, it has no secondary market value, I am only licensing it. For this reason and the savings on printing costs, it seems to me they should be less expensive.

The other side of the equation is that ebooks don't degrade. I have expensive print reference books that I've had to buy more than one copy of because the print book has literally fallen to pieces from daily use. I've just had to buy a second copy of a hideously expensive Ancient Egyptian grammar book because my last copy disintegrated; it's a book I use every day. eBooks don't do that!

[murg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The other side of the equation is that ebooks don't degrade. I have expensive print reference books that I've had to buy more than one copy of because the print book has literally fallen to pieces from daily use. I've just had to buy a second copy of a hideously expensive Ancient Egyptian grammar book because my last copy disintegrated; it's a book I use every day. eBooks don't do that!

Then again, I have some books from the 1800s. Still in good nick.

[FlorenceArt]

If a book is not available as an e-book, I usually don't buy it. There are paper books that I bought years ago, because I really wanted to read them, but ended up not reading them. I still visit the local library occasionally (they only have paper books) and borrow a book, but quite often I have read a few pages, then returned the book to the library and bought the e-book. That's for non-fiction books, because I like to highlight and annotate them.

So yes, I guess I would and sometimes do pay more for an ebook. They have more value for me. Paper book take up room. I got rid of my bookshelves and I don't really have a place to put them. I can't annotate them (I don't annotate paper books, plus what use is it anyway, how am I going to find my notes again?), copy a snippet of text to quote it online or to make a web search. I can't carry many of them with me on my iPad.

[DiapDealer]

I don't even look at the prices of the paper books any more. I look at the ebook price and base my decision solely on that. I simply don't care how it compares to the price of a version of the book that I'm not interested in buying.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

If a book is not available as an e-book, I usually don't buy it. There are paper books that I bought years ago, because I really wanted to read them, but ended up not reading them. I still visit the local library occasionally (they only have paper books) and borrow a book, but quite often I have read a few pages, then returned the book to the library and bought the e-book. That's for non-fiction books, because I like to highlight and annotate them.

I'd find that very restrictive. Unfortunately, most of the non-fiction books I read aren't available as eBooks, and are never likely to be. It's ebooks all the way with me for fiction, but for non-fiction I have little choice but to buy paper books.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'd find that very restrictive. Unfortunately, most of the non-fiction books I read aren't available as eBooks, and are never likely to be. It's ebooks all the way with me for fiction, but for non-fiction I have little choice but to buy paper books.

It is restrictive, yes, but whereas I can read fiction in paper form, it's very frustrating for me with non-fiction, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. Many books are not available, but since I read them for myself and not for work or study, I can choose what I read.

[crossi]

As well as comparing to the paper version of an ebook there is also the factor of comparing to similar ebooks, same genre same quality of writing, by other authors and publishers. If an author I like as well or even better has books available at a lower price I tend to go first for the author/publisher that has lower priced books. I can pick up the higher priced ones later if the price drops or if I run out of other appealing possibilities. I almost never have a circumstance where there is one and only one book I want to read. My problem is the opposite, there are so many authors, titles that I want to read that I'll never have time for them all.

[Tarana]

I don't actually have a choice. If I want to read it, I have to pay the ebook price for it. However, my TBR is so tremendous now that I can wait for a sale.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I don't actually have a choice. If I want to read it, I have to pay the ebook price for it. However, my TBR is so tremendous now that I can wait for a sale.

Yes. My TBR stack of bought ebooks is ridiculously large (these are bought books not freebies). In fact it is so large I have some reluctance to add to it so unless it is some book I have been really waiting for or a really good bargain I can't pass up I've been putting off the actual purchases and just adding them to my wish list for later purchase.

[DiapDealer]

I don't have a purchased TBR stack any more.

I used to (before ebooks), but that was only because I wanted to ensure that I was never out of reading material. Since the immediacy of ebooks has all but eliminated the possibilty of me ever being caught with no book to read, my TBR pile has become entirely virtual.

So when I finish one book, I browse my TBR/wishlist to decide what I want read next. If the price isn't ludicrous, I buy it and read it. A pile of pre-purchased books that I may never get to (or may no longer be interested in by the time I get around to them) just doesn't make sense to me any more. I gobbled up sale ebooks for a quite a while when they first came out--I've since deleted most of them.

I have more than enough in my virtual TBR to last me a lifetime as well. If I ever find that my reading habits are putting a strain on my finances, perhaps I'll resort to bargain hunting. But as I'm fairly frugal in every other aspect of my life, I don't think I'll have to worry about it.