Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[DrNefario]

I just noticed that, in December, I bought a book I already owned. I think that's a definite sign that my TBR is out of control.

[BelleZora]

Yes, that is what convinced me that I might have a problem. Also, several times in the last month or so books have gone on sale that I bought a year or two ago at twice the price, but have not yet read. Hoarding is not economically efficient.

On freebies: I'm now with issybird. I used to think freebies diverted the purchasing temptation. But, for me, they feed it, or maybe just the search for the freebies feeds it. I'll pick up some of the Open Road freebies offered daily to replace poorly edited classics, but that's it now. Obviously, others are not triggered by the joy of free books.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I just noticed that, in December, I bought a book I already owned. I think that's a definite sign that my TBR is out of control.

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Yes, that is what convinced me that I might have a problem. Also, several times in the last month or so books have gone on sale that I bought a year or two ago at twice the price, but have not yet read. Hoarding is not economically efficient.

December and January are a particularly precarious time for me, due to an annual job duty: updating online bibliographies. We link the book titles to Amazon with an affiliate link, and once a year I have to go through and check all those links to make sure they still work. It can't be automated, for various reasons - not least of which is that where possible, links to outdated/OOP editions need to be updated to point at current editions that can actually be purchased.

As a result, I have to study about 75 book lists, which is bound to inspire some curiosity. Some of them are rather short and/or focused, but others are long and wandering. There are also several repeat entries, where different authors have recommended the same book(s) in multiple contexts, which just makes me that much more intrigued if I'm not familiar with the work. (That's what led me to pick up Fatherland, a murder mystery set in a "Nazis won" 1960s setting where the Holocaust is a German state secret.) Worse yet, since some of them refer to series that are still being updated, I'm responsible for finding and linking to the new volumes. In a few cases, I even get to add whole new entries - such as, notably, including Andy Weir's The Martian to a couple of the SF bibliographies.

Where this ties in to hoarding is that I get to see firsthand how book prices are increasing. I've just updated some Discworld links to find that the current mass-market prices are nearly ten bucks per book, where I remember seeing them at six-something a year or two ago. Thankfully, the digital prices are lower, but I fully expect them to start rising before long.

Yes, certainly there's an advantage in waiting for the hardback-to-mass-market price drop if you're not going to read the book immediately. There's also something to be said for watching for backlist sales triggered by new releases or award nominations. Aside from those cases, though, my experience has been that once a book hits mass-market format, the digital price is about as low as it's going to get. Hold off for too long, and you may end up paying more as digital prices rise to track ever-increasing physical prices.

[DrNefario]

That's the bad logic that got me into this position. If I’d just bought books at full price and read them immediately I'd have spent a lot less money in total.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

That's the bad logic that got me into this position. If I’d just bought books at full price and read them immediately I'd have spent a lot less money in total.

Not me. If I'd bought just all my read ebooks at full price (e.g. £4.99), I'd have spent far more than I have on my read and unread ebooks when on special offer.

I think that a moderate (3-6 months) TBR is a good thing, as it means one can wait for bargains. It's the 3-6 year TBRs that are a problem.

[pdurrant]

I'm not doing too badly so far this year. Bought five but read six!

Of course, with the four freebies that I actually wanted (& so have added to my TBR), and a couple of gifts, my TBR is still five up on the start of the year, but I'm feeling optimistic.

Only two purchases apart from my subscriptions! If I can keep this up all year, I might end up with under 130 bought ebooks (including my subscriptions), and meet my reduction of 50 off my TBR for the year.

Nine days in, and I'm feeling good about 2015.

[Postscript:

I've just added up the current prices of the items on my wish list. Around £100! I think most of them are going to stay on the wish list until a special offer comes along!]

[issybird]

I've discovered a pleasure of my ebook diet is that I don't have the admittedly minor nuisance of downloading, Calibrating and sideloading my purchases to my several devices. I know it's not a big deal, but I still dislike such fiddly tasks.

I'm dreading the next Kobo contest. I'm allowed to buy an average of a book a week, but ought I? If I don't have a pressing desire to read something right away? Should I try for a big code or just let it go?

But dread sounds like an advance on eager anticipation, so I'm going with it. And as Kobo continues to lock down its erstwhile fiddles (no more sav50 for the Indian store!), the opportunities to indulge there are fewer and fewer.

[DrNefario]

I made my first two Ebook purchases of the year, today. Both relatively expensive, but cheaper than they have been, and both from my wish list. I felt a bit giddy being so far ahead of the game so early in the year, and decided to treat myself.

[Tarana]

If audio dramas count.

I would only count audiobooks if you have a substantial TBR of them. Lots of people only listen to them occasionally. It's those of us with subscriptions and whispersync addictions that probably have the worst problem with these. It's hard to pass by a $1.99-$4.99 sale on an audiobook that typically costs $15 or more.

I'm dreading the next Kobo contest. I'm allowed to buy an average of a book a week, but ought I? If I don't have a pressing desire to read something right away? Should I try for a big code or just let it go?

I'm in a position where nothing on my wishlist works with a coupon. Just remind yourself that you have other books that are as yet unread. Once you get your TBR down to 3-6 months, then you probably stop second guessing yourself on the coupons. Of course, if there were another 90% off coupon... Yes, I have a wishlist for that as well. We can dream.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I'm in a position where nothing on my wishlist works with a coupon. Just remind yourself that you have other books that are as yet unread. Once you get your TBR down to 3-6 months, then you probably stop second guessing yourself on the coupons. Of course, if there were another 90% off coupon... Yes, I have a wishlist for that as well. We can dream.

I had pruned my wishlist, but I took another hard look at it and I've got it down to two books that seem pretty immediate wants. One would take mighty coupon and then I could probably justify it, as it's in a favorite category and I think the deals could easily disappear altogether.

As for other books on the list I'd like soonish, I'm also in the position where the books mostly aren't couponable or aren't even available at Kobo at all and Amazon wants an astronomical sum for them. Oh, and one other book that I took out of the local university library rather than buy it. Not as convenient, but it keeps me on the straight and narrow.

Twelve days into the year and I'm feeling pretty good. Obviously it helps a lot that effective prices have soared. If there were a book that I needed to read right now I could get it, but that's unlikely to be the case.

[pdurrant]

I'm still adding books to my "I'd quite like to buy this this year" list. Much cheaper than buying them, and by adding them to the list I won't forget them when I do come across a good offer.

I must admit that I've been looking at upcoming Baen offerings and finding that I really want very few of them, compared to many of the books in my TBR.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I would only count audiobooks if you have a substantial TBR of them. Lots of people only listen to them occasionally. It's those of us with subscriptions and whispersync addictions that probably have the worst problem with these. It's hard to pass by a $1.99-$4.99 sale on an audiobook that typically costs $15 or more.

Audio dramas != audiobooks.

An audiobook starts as a written work of prose and is read by, traditionally, one person. An audio drama is more like an old-school radio show: multiple voice actors, sound effects, and they're performing from a script instead of reading a novel. Or, in short, an audiobook will contain "he said" and other such directions that an audio drama does not.

[peachiekene]

Took a cue from here and am deleting most of the free/discount emails I get.
I am keeping Open Road's newsletter because I like them. It includes their free classic for the day and I'm overly tempted by the other titles they list.

With my budget in place, I'm actually holding out for the next kobo contest anyway.

[PurpleStar]

I just deleted a ton of freebies from Calibre. I went from having almost 4000 ebooks to just over 1000 and it feels good! I wouldn't have read any of those books anyways. There was a whoooooooole lot of Amazon freebies. I kept the ones I felt like I would read, and deleted the rest. Whew...now Calibre loads a lot faster anyways!

I am going to try and stay away from most freebies. No more hoarding!!! If I want free books I will use Overdrive instead.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

I just deleted a ton of freebies from Calibre. I went from having almost 4000 ebooks to just over 1000 and it feels good!

O_O

You are braver than me. I'm not sure how many freebies I have. I did a pruning once but it only went from around 750-800ish to like 650. I thought I had deleted far more than that!