Why are BBeB Books from Connect so $$$pricey???

Stu Segal · 01-18-2007, 03:12 PM

I've had my Sony Reader about a month and really like it.

I just don't understand why stuff from the Connect Store is soooo expensive. I did a compare on recent releases, and it seems it's not unusual for the Connect book to cost MORE than the comparable paper book from Amazon. What gives?

I have of course found some other older stuff in the public domain for free, but for recent releases I'm stumped. Do I need to get some other reader that accepts affordable e-books?

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

. . .Stu

NatCh · 01-18-2007, 04:02 PM

Hey, Stu, welcome to MobileRead.

This topic has been kicked around a bit (here's a link if you want to read the background

). The nutshell answer is multi-layered.

The first layer is that they claim to be (and mostly are) aiming to price things at 20% off the current paper price -- that is 20% below hardback when it's in hardback stage, 20% below trade when it's in trade stage, and so on.

However, the rest of the layers (which complicate the matter a good deal), consist of the apparent fact that the ConnStore (Connect Store) folks don't seem to have a good way to keep track of when prices drop, and seem to have some trouble making changes to pricing and getting the changes to actually stay put for any length of time.

That is, they don't seem to have a mechanism to track when the paperback comes out, and lower the pricing appropriately. And as you can see from the above-linked thread, even when they make changes to the prices, many of them mysteriously return to the higher price-points (personally, I suspect that this is probably a situation where they make changes to one server/DB, and then a refresh from another overwrites the change; replication issues, if you will, but that's just a guess).

And the final complication is that the publishers have the final word on the pricing. So if, say, Penguin Books says that they want $25 for their edition of Jane Eyre, then ConnStore hasn't much choice but to charge that $25. I'm not saying that happens, and this example is just a random pulled-out-of-the-air type example with no attempt at a basis in reality -- I'm just saying that the pubs can be a factor.

Leaping Gnome · 01-18-2007, 04:22 PM

It seems most of the "why is this so expensive" reactions I get when looking through the Connect store is from Sony often being many months behind in updating pricing for when a book goes paperback.

RWood · 01-18-2007, 04:35 PM

At the moment they seem pulled thin and I suspect that there are not as many people at the ConnStore as we might believe. They are most worried about getting new books into the store and changing prices on established books takes a backseat.

scotty1024 · 01-18-2007, 10:21 PM

From the quality of some of the ebooks the Connect staff seems to be spread thin by hand typing the ebooks in from a paper copy they got from the publisher.

You can purchase books from http://www.baen.com and download the RTF version, they work well on the Reader. And the typo rates, on non-ARC versions, is noticeably lower...

stxopher · 01-19-2007, 07:54 AM

Are you sure the Connect Store isn't just getting them off usenet and packaging them as BBeBs? It would explain a lot of formatting and spelling errors I've seen.

Bob Russell · 01-19-2007, 10:12 AM

Actually, they have third party services that prepare the books. Publishers probably start with some kind of XML that they supply. There is some expense for the conversion houses, and they are supposed to be experts, but they probably don't proof or change content. I haven't really noticed enough to bother me (with the exception of the variety of font sizes). But then again, unless it's a technical document, I don't mind extremely imperfect OCR either, so I'm obviously not picky.

Leaping Gnome · 01-19-2007, 12:40 PM

I have read about a dozen books from the Connect store, maybe I've just been lucky but I have not found any proof-reading problems. The only annoying formatting thing I've seen is like Bob said with the varying font sizes, especially when you get a book that small is just a little too small but medium is too big. I wish they offered more variety of size options, instead of 3 levels have 5 or even 7.

stxopher · 01-19-2007, 07:17 PM

Most of the glitches I seen have been minor. Usually run together words (canbe, hasto, things along those lines). Did have a charming couple chapters on Foundation where the name was "Harry Seldom". Since I bought those and several other bundles with the credit, I'm not going to get freaky annoyed. (Now if they had charged the same as a p-book and all those little errors were there, there would be much gnashing.)

As for the font, yea, same here. I change all RTFs to a base font of 14 instead of Sonys preferred choice of 12, 10 and (I'm thinking) 3. They probably can't read them either at the supplied sizes but none of them want to admit it because it would make them feel old. (Hmmm, that might explain some of the proof reading also. "Say, Bob, does this look okay?" Squint, squint. "Uh, sure, Dave, looks great!")

01-18-2007, 03:12 PM	#1
Stu Segal Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Just outside NYC Device: Prs-T1 PRS-300 PRS-505 PRS-500	Why are BBeB Books from Connect so $$$pricey??? I've had my Sony Reader about a month and really like it. I just don't understand why stuff from the Connect Store is soooo expensive. I did a compare on recent releases, and it seems it's not unusual for the Connect book to cost MORE than the comparable paper book from Amazon. What gives? I have of course found some other older stuff in the public domain for free, but for recent releases I'm stumped. Do I need to get some other reader that accepts affordable e-books? Thanks for your thoughts on this. . . .Stu

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01-18-2007, 04:02 PM	#2
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Hey, Stu, welcome to MobileRead. This topic has been kicked around a bit (here's a link if you want to read the background ). The nutshell answer is multi-layered. The first layer is that they claim to be (and mostly are) aiming to price things at 20% off the current paper price -- that is 20% below hardback when it's in hardback stage, 20% below trade when it's in trade stage, and so on. However, the rest of the layers (which complicate the matter a good deal), consist of the apparent fact that the ConnStore (Connect Store) folks don't seem to have a good way to keep track of when prices drop, and seem to have some trouble making changes to pricing and getting the changes to actually stay put for any length of time. That is, they don't seem to have a mechanism to track when the paperback comes out, and lower the pricing appropriately. And as you can see from the above-linked thread, even when they make changes to the prices, many of them mysteriously return to the higher price-points (personally, I suspect that this is probably a situation where they make changes to one server/DB, and then a refresh from another overwrites the change; replication issues, if you will, but that's just a guess). And the final complication is that the publishers have the final word on the pricing. So if, say, Penguin Books says that they want $25 for their edition of Jane Eyre, then ConnStore hasn't much choice but to charge that $25. I'm not saying that happens, and this example is just a random pulled-out-of-the-air type example with no attempt at a basis in reality -- I'm just saying that the pubs can be a factor.

01-18-2007, 04:22 PM	#3
Leaping Gnome Evangelist Posts: 490 Karma: 1641 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Louisville Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	It seems most of the "why is this so expensive" reactions I get when looking through the Connect store is from Sony often being many months behind in updating pricing for when a book goes paperback.

01-18-2007, 04:35 PM	#4
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	At the moment they seem pulled thin and I suspect that there are not as many people at the ConnStore as we might believe. They are most worried about getting new books into the store and changing prices on established books takes a backseat.

01-18-2007, 10:21 PM	#5
scotty1024 Banned Posts: 1,300 Karma: 1479 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Peoples Republic of Washington Device: Reader / iPhone / Librie / Kindle	From the quality of some of the ebooks the Connect staff seems to be spread thin by hand typing the ebooks in from a paper copy they got from the publisher. You can purchase books from http://www.baen.com and download the RTF version, they work well on the Reader. And the typo rates, on non-ARC versions, is noticeably lower...

01-19-2007, 07:54 AM	#6
stxopher Nameless Being	Are you sure the Connect Store isn't just getting them off usenet and packaging them as BBeBs? It would explain a lot of formatting and spelling errors I've seen.

01-19-2007, 10:12 AM	#7
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Actually, they have third party services that prepare the books. Publishers probably start with some kind of XML that they supply. There is some expense for the conversion houses, and they are supposed to be experts, but they probably don't proof or change content. I haven't really noticed enough to bother me (with the exception of the variety of font sizes). But then again, unless it's a technical document, I don't mind extremely imperfect OCR either, so I'm obviously not picky.

01-19-2007, 12:40 PM	#8
Leaping Gnome Evangelist Posts: 490 Karma: 1641 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Louisville Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	I have read about a dozen books from the Connect store, maybe I've just been lucky but I have not found any proof-reading problems. The only annoying formatting thing I've seen is like Bob said with the varying font sizes, especially when you get a book that small is just a little too small but medium is too big. I wish they offered more variety of size options, instead of 3 levels have 5 or even 7.

01-19-2007, 07:17 PM	#9
stxopher Nameless Being	Most of the glitches I seen have been minor. Usually run together words (canbe, hasto, things along those lines). Did have a charming couple chapters on Foundation where the name was "Harry Seldom". Since I bought those and several other bundles with the credit, I'm not going to get freaky annoyed. (Now if they had charged the same as a p-book and all those little errors were there, there would be much gnashing.) As for the font, yea, same here. I change all RTFs to a base font of 14 instead of Sonys preferred choice of 12, 10 and (I'm thinking) 3. They probably can't read them either at the supplied sizes but none of them want to admit it because it would make them feel old. (Hmmm, that might explain some of the proof reading also. "Say, Bob, does this look okay?" Squint, squint. "Uh, sure, Dave, looks great!")