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#16 | |
IOC Chief Archivist
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Fruitland Park, FL, USA
Device: Meebook M7, Paperwhite 2021, Fire HD 8+, Fire HD 10+, Lenovo Tab P12
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Quote:
Even if I could see how many books I've sampled, it wouldn't be an accurate picture because I often sample reasons that have nothing to do with book shopping - comparing or verifying edition info, morbid curiosity, etc. |
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#17 |
Guru
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Device: iPhone
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100 to 1 sounds ridiculously high to me as well. I don't browse or download sample chapters, so my ratio is very close to 1, with exceptions made for public domain works.
An informal poll of the people I know who do a lot of e-reading shows that they act fairly similarly. Almost no freebies. |
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#18 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 204127028
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
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Quote:
![]() But like I said, I still factored them into my response. I only download samples if the price seems exorbitantly high for something I'm just not sure of. But most of the time, I'm pretty sure of the stuff I purchase. So I stand by my 5 purchases for every freebie downloaded. I'm not much for downloading/purchasing something I'm not ready to begin reading immediately. I don't really have a TBR pile. I like to "wing it." It seems that most of the works that catch my attention have a price tag. (not that I think I represent the average, by any means) |
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#19 |
Wizard
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Karma: 8426142
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Chicago, IL
Device: Kindle PW2, Kindle Voyage, Kindle DXG, Boox M90, Kobo Aura HD
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I, too, downloaded quite a few free ebooks from Amazon back when they first started appearing. I trashed most of them, and now it's extremely rare for me to download a freebie.
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#20 |
Treasure Seeker
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Karma: 26026435
Join Date: Mar 2010
Device: Kobo HD Glo, Kindles, Kindle Fires, Andriod Devices
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Oh you don't know what to know my stats. I'm a hoarder.
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#21 |
Is that a sandwich?
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Karma: 101697116
Join Date: Jun 2010
Device: Nook Glowlight Plus
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I confused myself reading the comments. Do you want us to count online read samples but not downloaded? Public domain titles as free? Library ebooks?
And what of those titles I abandoned? |
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#22 | |
Evangelist
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Ohio
Device: Mobiscribe Wave B&W; Kindle Scribe; Boyue Mimas & 62+; KindleKeyboard
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I'm a terrible ebook hoarder. I have bought a ton of free ebooks, and have probably read less than one percent of them.
I occasionally read some of the sample before deciding if I want to buy a free book, but most of the time I'm in a hurry and just download it and figure that if I ever get around to reading it, I can just delete it if I don't like it. I do try to put it into an appropriate category though so I can find the promising ones later. Often I buy a questionable freebie just so that I don't have to waste my time again in the future reading the description and trying to figure out if it's worth buying. If the reviews were dependable, I probably wouldn't do this as much, but they are mostly worthless at this point. I do try to make more of an effort to add an unbiased review when I do finally get around to reading something. (Especially if a book seems to have a lot of fake reviews.) Quote:
I used to buy a lot of books when I was younger, but I mainly either read all or part of a book and was disappointed or otherwise never got around to reading them at all. There were only a small number that I read cover to cover and felt good about the purchase. I think it is largely because of this that I don't buy many paid books any more. I recently moved and donated about twenty large bags and boxes of books to the library store. I also sent a number away to be scanned in hopes that I will find that more convenient and actually read a small percentage of the books I bought over the years now that they're in ebook form. When I first got my Kindle I did buy some non-free books... but then I put myself on restriction - I can't buy another paid ebook until I read all the non-free ebooks I already bought, and I'm not even close to that point. |
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#23 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: 26 kly from Sgr A*
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Quote:
Abandoned? Well, partial reads are reads, no? Last edited by fjtorres; 03-01-2013 at 08:08 PM. |
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#24 |
Is that a sandwich?
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Device: Nook Glowlight Plus
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ebookstore free downloads 296 (read 6)
ebookstore paid 11 (read 8) |
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#25 |
Wizard
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Location: The Heart of Texas
Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,
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Hmm... Lets see, I have here a $12 ebook of unknown value to me, on the one hand and
a $0 ebook of unknown value to me, on the other hand - Which should I download? "This looks like it might be interesting but I don't know - Ah what the heck, it's only $2.99" or "What the heck it's free." "I don't usually read this kind of book but I could give it a try, since it won't cost me anything." Luck; Ken |
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#26 |
Literacy = Understanding
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: The World of Books
Device: Nook, Nook Tablet
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I'm not sure how to answer this. I download any freebie that looks interesting to me (I do read a few sample pages to make sure that it isn't in the the worst-book-ever-written category, particularly in terms of spelling, word choice, and grammar) and add it to my TBR pile. The problem is that books get added to that pile faster than I can read them. I average three to four 400-page novels a week, but find I frequently add several times that number to the TBR pile.
The other complication is that if I download and read Joe Blow's 800-page masterpiece and like it, I immediately go buy Joe Blow's other volumes and read them, before I return to my TBR pile. I have every intention of reading every book I have downloaded. Whether I will reamins to be seen. I suspect that for every 100 books I download, I actually read 50, a 2:1, download-to-read ratio, and I am aiming for 1:1. |
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#27 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch
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My conversion rate for paid books is probably still only about 1 in 5 a the moment. I guess no one cares about that if they've already got my money, though. (It is the reason I prefer the prices to be low, though.)
Of the hundreds of freebies I've downloaded, I've read almost none, so my conversion rate is likely less than 1%, which doesn't sound like a terrible ratio to me anyway. These are mostly just speculative downloads, and since I still have 80% of my paid downloads to read, when am I going to get to them? I used samples a fair bit when I first got my kindle, but nowadays I'm really not short of reading material, so I don't often bother. The main reason I get a sample now is to take a look at the table of contents and see what's actually in it. I am kind of saturated with freebies. About half of the ones I now download are later books in series I was already collecting (if not actually reading), and I'm much more choosy about the rest. |
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#28 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Device: a variety (mostly kindles and kobos)
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According to calibre since 1-mar-2012, I've acquired 176 new books. I've read 48. (3.7:1)
There were 28 free books and I've read 5 of those (5.6:1). I was trying to get my buy:read ratio closer to 1:1 but I guess I'm still struggling with that. I'm surprised the free count is as high as it is. FWIW I don't do samples. If a book looks interesting I'll get it. Reading a chapter or two to then give up seems like a waste to me. |
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#29 |
Indie Advocate
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: Kindle
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Considering that I pick up new freebies almost every day my ratio of free vs bought is pretty low according to Calibre. Looks like somewhere between 8:1 and 9:1.
Of course, most of my purchases are in the 0.99 to 2.99 range, but still - I expected something a bit higher. |
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#30 |
I ♥ Calibre
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis, Voyage, Sony PRS-350, Hudl2
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Until I got my Kindle I very rarely bought books and borrowed from the library regularly instead. So while my freebie/buy ratio is probably quite low (or high depending which way you look at it), it's a lot more than it used to be.
I agree that 100 to 1 is a crazy figure though, but then I guess that takes into account the fact that a lot of people download tons of free books just because they are free? I don't, I only download the ones I am likely to read as I plan to read them all eventually. I try and read a couple of free books for every paid book I read, often more if I get a run of good freebies. The only difference is I'm much more likely to give up on a freebie book if I'm not enjoying it. Anyway, to cut a long story short! I bought a load of books to start with, and didn't really know about the amount of freebies available, but I've ignored that initial period, so my figures are roughly. Freebie/bought ratio is probably 20:1. While for freebies my download/read ratio is probably 8:1. Last edited by soulfuldog; 03-04-2013 at 08:11 AM. |
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