Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

$1.99 is a pretty good price, but perhaps not stellar. However, for a favourite author, it's allowable.

But do consider how long it's going to take you to read your purchases. If you intend to read them over the next couple of months, $1.99 is a price worth taking. But if you don't plan to read some of them for a year or more, it would probably be best to not buy those books, as there will almost certainly be another as good or better offer before you get to them.

(This has happened to me several times - I'm trying to be better about it!)

I forgot to mention I used coupons, so they were even cheaper than $1.99. I may get to them yet, Nora Roberts is my next read though, her new one Dark Witch. I will get to the others at some point. Nora Roberts used to be a favorite author but I got into other stuff and haven't read her for awhile. I'm glad to finally have ebooks from her as I gave away all of the paper backs of hers that I had.

[CRussel]

I succumbed, though in a minor enough way that I don't feel too bad. I spotted a sale price on a book in the Aaron Fletcher Outback series, which I started reading and am enjoying. Now it will be months, at least, until I get around to reading it, and I've managed to borrow the other books in the series via Audible Prime Lending Library, but this one isn't available for lending, it is in a good series, and at $.99, was an awfully good price. But it's book #4 in the series, and I'm still on book #2.

[pdurrant]

I have been very good for most of this month. It was really just the first couple of days that killed my budget. I haven't bought an ebook for three weeks now!

[Tarana]

I'm proud of you Paul!! 3 weeks is tough these days.

Just bought a trilogy that was on my wish list. It was the Kindle Deal of the Day and I could get both ebook and audiobook for $1.99 each. I'm firmly convinced that these whispersync very low deals will end sometime this year, otherwise, I would have held off even with the special on the ebook. I'll bet though that there is a book 4 coming out, hence the deal (Stephen Lawhead - Dragon king series).

I'm still working on making my TBR lists just for audiobooks. Hard to do on a Netbook, though.

[CRussel]

ARRGGH. I really have to start coming here BEFORE I buy....

These impulse purchases are bad, Bad, BAD. OK, it was only $1.99, but it will be weeks at least until I get to it. And it wasn't even a temporary sale. Sigh.

[CRussel]

OK, I'm guilty. I just bought books #2, and #3 in the wonderful Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. They were released today onto Amazon. Mere hours after the Amazon Anti-Trust settlement came through. Sure that's Karma!

But they DID meet the criteria of books in a favourite series. Actually, I've got the paper versions of these books, and they are much beloved. I'm more than willing to spend the $6 for Kindle versions of the books, since I will reread them almost immediately.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CRussel

OK, I'm guilty. I just bought books #2, and #3 in the wonderful Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. They were released today onto Amazon. Mere hours after the Amazon Anti-Trust settlement came through. Sure that's Karma!

But they DID meet the criteria of books in a favourite series. Actually, I've got the paper versions of these books, and they are much beloved. I'm more than willing to spend the $6 for Kindle versions of the books, since I will reread them almost immediately.

I forgive you for those. That earlier $1.99 purchase though…. bad Charlie!




I'm feeling particularly smug at the moment. No doubt that means I'll have my own confession to make in the near future.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I forgive you for those. That earlier $1.99 purchase though…. bad Charlie!




I'm feeling particularly smug at the moment. No doubt that means I'll have my own confession to make in the near future.

Yeah, I agree. Even though the $1.99 book was relatively less expensive, it was a pure impulse purchase. Totally for the wrong reasons.

Let's hope you can continue to feel smug for a while. You're doing really well.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm feeling particularly smug at the moment. No doubt that means I'll have my own confession to make in the near future.

Well, here's something that may help your budget just a bit...

Kobo is now carrying Baen titles, and they're promo-eligible.

Now, there are some limits. For instance, none of the eARCs or bundles (like the Gazette multi-packs) seem to be available there, and of course that includes the monthly bundles. However, with promo eligibility, those monthly bundles just don't look so attractive. Instead of two or three attractive titles being enough to justify paying for a whole monthly bundle, it's going to be cheaper to use contest codes on just what I'm actually interested in. I no longer see a single month on the calendar where I want to get the full bundle.

If you're the same way, that $18/month in your budget might just get a lot lighter, and you won't have so many "extras" cluttering your TBR stack!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Well, here's something that may help your budget just a bit...

Kobo is now carrying Baen titles, and they're promo-eligible.

Goodness me. I shall take a look at the UK site. They should be there, I suppose.

[EDIT: They're not showing up at the UK site at the moment, but if I take a short break in the US then I can buy them with paypal. Hmmm.... I think I have a 75% code from the competition. And perhaps some of those 45% ones that were posted haven't been used]

In which case I might well be buying from Kobo instead of Baen (which seems crazy, but there it is).

Hmmm.... in the May bundle there are only three titles that I don't already own. If I could get them for 50% off, that would be $14 instead of $18. And if I could get some higher codes....

Thanks!

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Goodness me. I shall take a look at the UK site. They should be there, I suppose.

In which case I might well be buying from Kobo instead of Baen (which seems crazy, but there it is).

Hmmm.... in the May bundle there are only three titles that I don't already own. If I could get them for 50% off, that would be $14 instead of $18. And if I could get some higher codes....

Thanks!

Indeed, I would too if there was a code kicking around that would make it cheaper.

[cadele]

That 90% Kobo coupon recently was my downfall. I bought about three months' worth of book budget over a couple of days. It just kept working, heaven help me.

On the upside, I was able to replace about three shelves of paperbacks with digital - very pleased about that

I am trying to sell the books (for next to nothing) and might end up breaking even. Okay...so I'm an optimist

[pdurrant]

I have a dilemma.

I have just found out that Baen ebooks are available at Kobo (& in the UK, if you wait a bit longer), and are discountable.

Back in 2012, I didn't buy many of the Baen monthly bundles because I was trying to cut down severely on my book buying. I thought I'd pick up the important ones I missed when they came out in paperback the next year, and appeared in another bundle.

But some didn't. Including No Going Back by Mark L. Van Name, the latest in a series I've enjoyed a lot.

The paperback still isn't scheduled on Baen's site. So. Should I buy it now with a 75% off coupon I got in the last contest? Or should I wait?

For getting it now: There's no guarantee it'll come out in paperback from Baen, and there's no guarantee that Baen books will continue to be couponable, or that I'll get a 75% off coupon in future contests.

For waiting: I'm already well over budget for the first three months of this year. And my TBR is about 30 books up on the start of the year.

Is this too good to pass up? Or should I wait, since I've waited so long (almost 2 years) already?

[pdurrant]

On further inspection, it seems that there are well over a dozen Baen ebooks I've missed that I want, so I shall have to wait for next year or another multiple-use 80%+ off coupon.

Crisis over!

[Fbone]

Final price after discount would be $2.50 or thereabouts? Would you read it immediately? Buying it now, would it save you from buying a future bundle?