Price of e-books - Page 2

Alisa · 03-25-2008, 07:54 PM

I don't work for free so I don't expect authors to, either. If they want to, they can always release their books as Creative Commons. I do believe ebooks should be a lot less. The cost of the materials, shipping, overstock, brick-and-mortar stores, etc., make up a good chunk of the price for a paper book. Still the paper provides less of the value to me than the content and I'm happy to reward authors who write the books I love.

mateo · 03-25-2008, 08:33 PM

why? i have many ebooks that i paid for. they feel as real to me as my hardbacks.

moz · 03-25-2008, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobolover

if youre gonna spend money on it,buy it in the flesh.

Buying things in my non-flesh incarnation has never worked very well for me.

Seriously, if I wanted dead trees I'd buy them. But since I have an ample supply of big physical junk already, the idea of buying data encoded in an appallingly inefficient way like a pbook just does not appeal at all. I still find myself drawn to bookshops (the airport yesterday, for instance) but once I'm there I find myself wondering how I can get their books onto my liseuse because I don't want to lug the paper packaging around.

mazzeltjes · 03-26-2008, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

(Ahem.)

Spend more time looking around the site, and you'll find some good indie authors with low-cost, light-or-no-DRM e-books in multiple formats for you.

I don't think that was giedre's point
We can't only buy indie stuff
The publishers must take a serious look at pricing
or otherwise they will see sales of e-books stagnating

HarryT · 03-26-2008, 05:59 AM

Please don't feed the troll.

Thank you.

[Moderator]

mazzeltjes · 03-26-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Please don't feed the troll.

Thank you.

[Moderator]

was this a reaction on my post ?

brecklundin · 03-27-2008, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Smith

I like the idea of the E-reader as I think it will encourage me to read more during my commute. However I am put off by the price of content.

Looking at the Amazon and Sony US models it seems the price of ebooks is very similar (and in some cases more) than the price charged for print versions. I was surprised at this and baulk at paying comparable prices for digital versions as for the hard copy, with no second hand market available and no possibility for me to lend books to friends when I've finished reading them.

If I end up getting an ereader I guess that I will very likely end up using it primarily for catching up on out of copyright classics such as the ones available at www.gutenberg.org whilst waiting for the publishers to get their pricing policy in order

Are there any other good sources of free / low cost ebooks?

Also how do you see the e-book market progressing in the future?

A good use of DRM for me would be things like the possibility of "renting" books (say by paying 10% of the selling price per day with the DRM controlling an expiry date). Does this exist already somewhere?

I can also imagine a situation where authors completely bypass publishers and sell their e-books to the consumer direct. Does anything like this exist already? If so where and what is the quality of content like?

I like the content over on FeedBooks too. Basically a lot of cleaned up PGut books. Also look in these foorums for all the books HarryT and others have worked so very hard are correcting and reformatting. Seriously there is enough content there to last a dozen lifetimes.

bwaldron · 03-27-2008, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brecklundin

I like the content over on FeedBooks too. Basically a lot of cleaned up PGut books. Also look in these foorums for all the books HarryT and others have worked so very hard are correcting and reformatting. Seriously there is enough content there to last a dozen lifetimes.

Yep, Harry and the others here do a great job (as does FeedBooks) with turning the PD content into well-formatted eBooks.

HarryT · 03-28-2008, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazzeltjes

was this a reaction on my post ?

No. To Lobolover's.

Martin Smith · 03-28-2008, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brecklundin

I like the content over on FeedBooks too. Basically a lot of cleaned up PGut books. Also look in these foorums for all the books HarryT and others have worked so very hard are correcting and reformatting. Seriously there is enough content there to last a dozen lifetimes.

Thanks, I've already downloaded quite a few from this site (thanks HarryT et al) and am just getting stuck into feedbooks now!

Just looking forward to my Iliad being delivered

Taylor514ce · 03-28-2008, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No. To Lobolover's.

Oh... I thought it was in response to moz's "big physical junk".

JSWolf · 03-28-2008, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epiphany

I think the future of ebook sales will be like mp3s: it will always be easier and quicker to get them pirated. I don't think I'd pay to hire ebooks but I'd certainly be more inclined to buy a book if I knew the money was going straight to the author.

I don't think it it quicker or easier to get eBooks pirated. It is a lot easier to search the eBook store and if you find it in a format you can deal with, buying is trivial as is downloading it after the purchase.

wgrimm · 03-29-2008, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't think it it quicker or easier to get eBooks pirated. It is a lot easier to search the eBook store and if you find it in a format you can deal with, buying is trivial as is downloading it after the purchase.

Apple has been very successful with their music store because they developed realistic business and pricing plans. This is something most of the large publishers making the foray into ebooks have not done. Of course piracy is going to flourish if one can find pirated ebooks for free that are "well-produced." And that will continue to be the case until publishers lower their prices.

I bought a paper book about OS X internals- spent $65 on it when it was on sale. Thick book- didn't like to lug it about. The pdf version cost another $45. I called the publisher- they offered no sort of deal on the pdf version. My solution- stripped the pages out, scanned and ocr'd on a high speed copier. I now have an electronic book I can read on several different devices. Took me less than 2 hours to put this book in several different e-formats.

As I have said before- greed is blinding publishers to a very lucrative e-book market.

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03-25-2008, 07:54 PM	#16
Alisa Gadget Geek Posts: 2,324 Karma: 22221 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Paperwhite, Kindle 3 (retired), Skindle 1.2 (retired)	I don't work for free so I don't expect authors to, either. If they want to, they can always release their books as Creative Commons. I do believe ebooks should be a lot less. The cost of the materials, shipping, overstock, brick-and-mortar stores, etc., make up a good chunk of the price for a paper book. Still the paper provides less of the value to me than the content and I'm happy to reward authors who write the books I love.

03-25-2008, 08:33 PM	#17
mateo Enthusiast Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2005 Device: Palm Zire71	why? i have many ebooks that i paid for. they feel as real to me as my hardbacks.

03-26-2008, 05:59 AM	#20
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Please don't feed the troll. Thank you. [Moderator]

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