How do you plan to wait out the coming ebook shakedown?

[foghat]

I'm not waiting a out a thing.

Sure the overall ebook landscape could be better and no doubt, it will improve. In the meantime, I don't stress out about geo restrictions (especially when they are so easy to circumvent at amazon), price and the like. Even if I was completely geo restricted by Amazon, they still have enough books that I am interested in to keep me reading for years.

Seems like I am the anomaly on this, but I don't worry about paying more for an ebook than the paper version.

Don't get me wrong, I wish ebooks were always cheaper than the pbook, but if it costs me a couple of bucks extra, so what? I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Besides, that couple dollar savings is easily offset by the convenience of not having to drive to the book store (which costs money). My time is worth something as well.

[abookreader]

I think that in my case "Agency Pricing" has done nothing except make me uber-price conscious about the cost of a book. Pre-Digital reading/Agency Pricing I would have bought Vince Flynn's American Assassin on one of my Wal Mart runs and pretty much just paid the price without a whole lot of thought.

Now -- I see that $14.99 price or maybe it is down to $12.99 and I put my foot down. Yeah, I know it is extremely comparative to what I would have paid in hb prices before, but the whole DRM, Price Fixing, Geographic Restrictions and all the other crap the Publishers have pulled over the past year has just angered me to the point where I deliberately refuse to buy some books. It isn't so much the price, it is the culmination of the negative feelings I have toward some of those large Publishers that I just refuse to play their games now.

I'm sure I'll read Vince Flynn's book someday. But I'll do it on my terms. Its not like I haven't been reading since his book was released. I'm just reading other books instead of his.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by foghat

Seems like I am the anomaly on this, but I don't worry about paying more for an ebook than the paper version.

Don't get me wrong, I wish ebooks were always cheaper than the pbook, but if it costs me a couple of bucks extra, so what? I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

I think for most people it is the principle of the matter more than the absolute cost, most people would obviously prefer a bargain, but the more important thing is that they don't want to feel like they are being ripped off.

[HarryT]

Realistically I have several lifetimes' worth of classics that I want to read, so I'm honestly not bothered. If there's anything that I desperately want to read which isn't available as ebook I'll buy it as a paper book.

[leebase]

Here's my plan. If I want to read a book, and it has an ebook -- I shop around for best price. Then I buy the book.

For example, the new and long anticipated Tom Clancy novel is coming out this December. I would pay full hard back book price if I had too. I want to read the book, and I want to read it when it first comes out.

Same thing with any new Harry Potter books.

If it's a book I'm not all THAT into -- and it's expensive, or I'm low on funds. I won't buy it.

Same as I've always done with books. eBooks are no different IMHO.

Lee

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by foghat

I'm not waiting a out a thing.

Sure the overall ebook landscape could be better and no doubt, it will improve. In the meantime, I don't stress out about geo restrictions (especially when they are so easy to circumvent at amazon), price and the like. Even if I was completely geo restricted by Amazon, they still have enough books that I am interested in to keep me reading for years.

Seems like I am the anomaly on this, but I don't worry about paying more for an ebook than the paper version.

Don't get me wrong, I wish ebooks were always cheaper than the pbook, but if it costs me a couple of bucks extra, so what? I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Besides, that couple dollar savings is easily offset by the convenience of not having to drive to the book store (which costs money). My time is worth something as well.

Originally Posted by leebase

Here's my plan. If I want to read a book, and it has an ebook -- I shop around for best price. Then I buy the book.

For example, the new and long anticipated Tom Clancy novel is coming out this December. I would pay full hard back book price if I had too. I want to read the book, and I want to read it when it first comes out.

Same thing with any new Harry Potter books.

If it's a book I'm not all THAT into -- and it's expensive, or I'm low on funds. I won't buy it.

Same as I've always done with books. eBooks are no different IMHO.

Lee

I'm in this group as well. I don't mind paying the same as a regular paper book for an ebook version. If for no other reason than the convenience of it.

As far as general pricing, I'll pay whatever I think the book is worth to me. If it is part of a series or something else I'm really looking forward to reading I'll pay more for it, to be honest though I've not found anything yet I'd pay (or have had to pay) more than $20 for. For the most part though I've manged to keep my TBR list pretty full with the freebies, discounted books, and webscriptions.

So I guess I dont have a strategy for waiting anything out, cheaper prices would be nice but at this point I can find enough to read at the prices I can accept. Since I live in the US geo restrictions are not an issue and I regularly remove the DRM from things I've purchased prior to backing them up.

[Laine]

My reading habits have just about totally changed.

Living in Australia I have few options. I've given up on Fictionwise, Books On Board and Deisel - and I used to spend a lot with them. They just won't sell me the books I want any more.

Now I can't buy from England either.

I get a few books from Kobo or Read Without Paper.

But most of my books now come from Harlequin, Smashwords, Regency Reads, Carina and Baen. They're DRM free except for Harlequin - and they do lit.

At first I was really upset but now I just think stuff them - I'll give my money to someone who wants it. And I'm talking close to $2000 a year here.

I rarely get paper. They don't sell those here either. Some Romance books take a couple of years to get released here - if at all.

I'm actually finding books I can't get as e, cheaper as audio from Audible. Though they have Geographic Restrictions too.

I'm hoping it settles down soon. I'm too old to wait it out for too long.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by kcmay

I'm with you on that. I simply won't pay over $9.99 for an ebook. Lately, I've been reading about 50% indie anyway, which further helps to lower my per-book average cost. I think the mega publishers may actually be driving business toward indies, so I'm not complaining too loudly at their dumb pricing strategies.

Your book looks interesting so I just bought it.

I don't have a formal plan. I have always voted with my wallet. Sometimes that means buying a book that is $15 sometimes that means paying less.

I am thrilled that I can buy my books where I want and when I want. I love not having to drive to the bookstore and then dig around the shelves. I guess I am just not all that nostalgic when it comes to the bookstore. I love being able to carry my books with me in my backpack (not a big purse gal here).

[GeoffC]

I rarely bother about 'these-new-must-have-books' so ignore them. If I have a look in FW/Indie stores, or MR recommendations, and see something interesting, has no DRM and is priced no more than $6/£4, then I'll wish-it and see what happens with the price. With all I have in my TBR list I have enough to keep me going, even if all I do is re-read favourites.

[foghat]

Originally Posted by Crowl

I think for most people it is the principle of the matter more than the absolute cost, most people would obviously prefer a bargain, but the more important thing is that they don't want to feel like they are being ripped off.

Maybe.

Though, even if you could convince me I am getting ripped off, I am not going to get worked up over it for a couple of dollars difference. Especially when you factor in the convenience - which, incidentally, is one of the reasons I don't feel ripped off.

Plus, I read for entertainment and no matter how you slice it, even at $15 or $20, books are good value for the money when compared with other forms of entertainment.

[Steven Lake]

This might sound silly, but I think a simpler answer to all this might be simply to ignore all the big houses for now, and focus strictly on the indie and small house authors. I'm actually starting to find that most of the books I'm picking up now (not counting the many classics in my library) are from indie and small house authors.

For example, my publisher is doing a book for one lady who has a blended fantasy/historical novel that stands to be completely out of this world and would probably go NYTBS if it were released through a big house. Being with a small house it's a lot harder to do that, given that you have less marketing power. But there are ways to make stuff like that happen anyways, and I think that she could easily hit the list hands down if given the chance.

And I'm not just bragging about her because she's published with the same company as I am. I'm bragging because the book is just that good. (being the tech guru for my publisher, I get the opportunity to read new books he's publishing before they hit the shelves, which is a nice little perk.) Another I ran into is a SHP book from another nearby publisher that's a sci-fi novel along the same lines as my Earthfleet saga which is really good as well.

And that's just two of dozens of SHP and indie books I've come across of late that are awesome. Yes, there's plenty of turds in the pile as well. But there's lots of turds coming out of the big houses these days too, so it's no different really. So if you guys want to wait out the apocalypse and for the hand of the big boys in a positive way, focus all your energy on the small house and indie authors. I think you'll be glad you did, because I believe that's where the future is.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by foghat

I'm not waiting a out a thing.

Sure the overall ebook landscape could be better and no doubt, it will improve. In the meantime, I don't stress out about geo restrictions (especially when they are so easy to circumvent at amazon), price and the like. Even if I was completely geo restricted by Amazon, they still have enough books that I am interested in to keep me reading for years.

Seems like I am the anomaly on this, but I don't worry about paying more for an ebook than the paper version.

Don't get me wrong, I wish ebooks were always cheaper than the pbook, but if it costs me a couple of bucks extra, so what? I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Besides, that couple dollar savings is easily offset by the convenience of not having to drive to the book store (which costs money). My time is worth something as well.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

I don't have a huge income or anything, but books are where I spend any disposable income that I do have, and since I only read e-books these days, those are the ones I buy. Life is too short to wait on somebody else's decision if there is something that I want to do, and I can afford to do it now.

[ficbot]

Here is my problem though, Steven, and this is maybe a topic for another thread. I don't think indie books are quite up to par yet, for the most part. The only one I have read so far that was not a commercially edited author backlist repub AND was completely at a commercial level was Radium Halos by Shelly Stout. All the others I have read so far had potential but needed one more pass by a solid editor. If the product really was equal, I would have less of a problem dumping Big Pub altogether.

[Worldwalker]

Until I got my ebook reader, the only fiction books I bought in hardback were the Harry Potter books (yeah, sorry) and a few Baen novels. Now, Baen will cheerfully sell me ebooks of those new novels, and I will equally cheerfully buy them (and way too much else, but that's a totally different problem). My total expenditure with Baen has increased significantly, and my expenditure with other publishers has dropped accordingly.

As for the rest of what fills up my ebook reader, there's Project Gutenberg (and MobileRead, Manybooks, Feedbooks, etc.). I have at least a decade worth of books from there to read, if not more. They're good books, and range from classics I've never read to ones such as Ivanhoe that I've been re-reading since childhood (nobody told me it was supposed to be boring, y'see, and when I found a book with knights and battles and Robin Hood how could I not fall in love?).

Aside from that, I've been buying things that interest me off of Smashwords ... sure, some aren't ready for prime time, but neither are some of the books I've bought between covers, and I waste less money that way ... plus other indie publishers, authors' websites (Barbara Hambly sold me a wonderful Antryg story), and of course interesting books I find in the "promote your book" section here on MR. The fact that I can't (because I won't buy a DRM-locked ebook) buy the hottest bestsellers or latest celebrity tell-alls doesn't bother me in the slightest. There is more to read than I could manage in a single human lifetime, so it's a matter of choosing what not if.

I have a Sony 505. I love it. I intend to keep it until it falls apart, and then hunt for another like it. I don't like touch screens, as I tend to read while doing (or eating) things which are bad for them. My 505 does everything I need -- which started out, as I've said, as being a way of reading Project Gutenberg in bed.

So I'm not too worried about waiting out anything. The entire publishing industry could vanish tomorrow and I'd probably not notice.

[bobavey]

At the risk of sounding vain, give some of us independent authors a try. It doesn’t have to be me. I realize there is a lot of trash out there, but there are many very good independent authors, too. Our books are generally much cheaper, and you can sample the books for free before you buy.