Do some publishers have any idea?

[DuckieTigger]

@darryl, yes experimenting with price is a nice thing. It appears that they do not do so while a book is on preorder. Amazon's preorder price guarantee is kind of useless as the price doesn't appear to drop temporarily anymore like it used to. Used to be that the sooner you preorder, the more money you could save. They truly do want to milk those that cannot wait. So I preorder and if it doesn't price drop I cancel again a day before release. Usually whenever it comes out (midnight?) I am not there to read it right away anyway. So I can just wait until I have time to start reading.

How horrible is pre ordering knowing that the books just sits there waiting and you are stuck at work.There needs to be so e incentive in preordering ebooks. It is not like there is limited stock.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by darryl

[...] As I have posted previously, my view is that the Big 5 tried but failed to differentiate their books sufficiently from Indies. [...]

A partially facetious response to this jumped into my mind: Big 5 ebook publications are the ones that come down in brown-paper wrapping as if they were pornography. (With plain/generic covers.) And some non-big-5 but still non-indie publishers, seem to hire trainees to assemble their epubs. Around 10% of the books I buy have to be fixed in one way or another - and this applies to trad-pubs as much (or more) as indie. (At least the free stuff here on MR can be relied on to be built properly!)

[gmw]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

[...] How horrible is pre ordering knowing that the books just sits there waiting and you are stuck at work.There needs to be so e incentive in preordering ebooks. It is not like there is limited stock.

It's funny, I hadn't thought of it explicitly like that, but it's true: I don't bother pre-ordering ebooks because I've never seen the point.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by gmw

It's funny, I hadn't thought of it explicitly like that, but it's true: I don't bother pre-ordering ebooks because I've never seen the point.

Years ago it did give you a lower price. But that might have been in the bubble that allowed discounts between agency pricing and renewed agency pricing.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by gmw

... Big 5 ebook publications are the ones that come down in brown-paper wrapping as if they were pornography. (With plain/generic covers.) ....

Not like that. They are ahead of the curve with cutting edge, fancy, minimalistic design. Just the way Millennials like their houses: clean lines, no decor.

[darryl]

I've never seen the point in pre-ordering ebooks. In the absence of a real incentive such as a lower price, it seems to be pointless. In the case of a print book expected to be very popular and in limited supply it did at least have the advantage of securing an early copy. I get regular emails from Amazon alerting me to upcoming publications I may be interested in purchasing. However, I must admit to being more frustrated than interested. I can't recall ever having pre-ordered a single book. I would much prefer an email once the book has been released, or even the day before. Though admittedly I do add the book to my wish list if I am interested. When I later review my wish list I delete some and buy others.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by darryl

I've never seen the point in pre-ordering ebooks. In the absence of a real incentive such as a lower price, it seems to be pointless.

The point, from my perspective, is simply one of convenience. If I see that a new Penguin Classics book (they're the ones I pre-order most commonly) is due to be published in 6 months' time, and I know I want it, pre-ordering it there and then saves me the hassle of having to remember when it's actually been published and ordering it then.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by gmw

A partially facetious response to this jumped into my mind: Big 5 ebook publications are the ones that come down in brown-paper wrapping as if they were pornography. (With plain/generic covers.) And some non-big-5 but still non-indie publishers, seem to hire trainees to assemble their e-pubs. Around 10% of the books I buy have to be fixed in one way or another - and this applies to trad-pubs as much (or more) as indie. (At least the free stuff here on MR can be relied on to be built properly!)

I don't mind facetious responses, even partial ones. They are almost a mobileread tradition. In the same spirit I must wonder whether it is more embarrassing to be caught with a newly published top priced Big 5 e-book or with porn?

More seriously, I too have found the e-books in the Patricia Clark Memorial Library to be generally much better formatted and compiled than e-books in general, including Big 5 e-books. Whilst understandable in the case of some Indies, this does not speak well of the Big 5. It is of course aggravated by DRM which amongst its other notable characteristics would if it could make correcting these errors in your copy impossible.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The point, from my perspective, is simply one of convenience. If I see that a new Penguin Classics book (they're the ones I pre-order most commonly) is due to be published in 6 months' time, and I know I want it, pre-ordering it there and then saves me the hassle of having to remember when it's actually been published and ordering it then.

Ditto. I pre-order quite often, usually from Google Play. The price must be acceptable, of course. The usual price for my pre-orders is 5-9 €.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The point, from my perspective, is simply one of convenience. If I see that a new Penguin Classics book (they're the ones I pre-order most commonly) is due to be published in 6 months' time, and I know I want it, pre-ordering it there and then saves me the hassle of having to remember when it's actually been published and ordering it then.

That's pretty much the reason that I pre-order books. When I see a book that I want, I pre-order and then don't have to remember to look for it later. It's either that, or start writing down books and authors in a list and then check through the list.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

That's pretty much the reason that I pre-order books. When I see a book that I want, I pre-order and then don't have to remember to look for it later. It's either that, or start writing down books and authors in a list and then check through the list.

I figure that anything I am so enthusiastic about as to consider pre-ordering is not something I'm going to forget. And even if the worst happens does happen and it slips my memory, it's most probably because I've already got enough to read and don't actually need it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gmw

I figure that anything I am so enthusiastic about as to consider pre-ordering is not something I'm going to forget.

But why do you choose to need to remember it yourself when you can just preorder and forget about it? I see no downside to it.

[Sirtel]

The only downside, for me, is too high a price, but that doesn't happen often. Most books I'm interested in are below my 10 € limit and then it's much simpler to pre-order than to write them down somewhere. I'm an impatient person and hate wishlists. If I can afford it, I'll order it immediately.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But why do you choose to need to remember it yourself when you can just preorder and forget about it? I see no downside to it.

Indeed, if you're going to buy anyway there probably is no downside. I think it's just one of those things; call it habit, foible or whatever. I suspect part of the habit came about because I tend to think of ebooks as one of those instant gratification things, and pre-ordering doesn't fit that model. Combine that with the fact that my reading is very much mood based and when I see something is not yet available, I just shrug and move on.

[DiapDealer]

I don't pre-order very often, but whenever I have, it has always felt like a mini-surprise-birthday party when the book "magically" appears on my reader.