Why e-books?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Okay, Now I see the source of my confusion. I'm looking at Amazon as the wholesaler or deep-discount retailer (think Costco or Walmart). You're looking at Amazon as the storefront provider and distributor for independent sellers including authors.

Yes, you were looking from the customer perspective and I was looking from the seller perspective.
Neither is wrong and makes an interesting conversation especially if the parties involved don't realize the opposite views.

Oh and as far as that goes on the discount stuff, I would bet money that they have a decent markup on most stuff.

I do believe that Amazon makes at least 25% if not 50% of their revenue from the sellers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

I use reviews a lot to help me make decisions about buying books but I don't go by the reviewers opinion so much as the information he gives me about what to expect. I've bought books a lot of times based on a negative review that tells me something interesting to me about the book.

I'm more likely to look closely if it has good reviews but even if it doesn't I'm likely to look at the information that's there if something about the book has caught my interest.

I'm sure doing it this way I miss a lot of good books but I also find a lot of good books and that's just fine.

The book I'm reading right now is one I decided not to buy a few months ago when I read about it. Then this weekend I ran into it again and something made me reconsider and I'm glad I did. It's excellent. But that's okay. I've read a lot of good books since I first rejected this one.

By the way, I'm reading "Defending Jacob" by Wiliam Landay, and it's excellent.

Barry

If you look into some positive reviews, you can sometimes read things that would help you not to read the book because of something you may not like.

One thing I never ever go by is award winning. I've read too many books just because they won an award that are lousy. I'll only read an award winning book because it seems like I might like it and not because of the award.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Why ebooks? When I packed 10 paperbacks in my suitcase for a 2-week vacation, and decided that I didn't have what I really wanted to read. Honestly, my vacation reading was my only reason. Since then, I have found other reasons, and love ebooks to the extent I really don't like print books.

Another good reason for eBooks is font size. Recently my mother-in-law was reading a paperback book that has a small fonts size and she was having difficulty with it. I was able to get her a copy of the eBook from Overdrive and she was then able to finish the book no problem.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by polarsuds

Because I have very low vision and it is much easier to read a big font on my bright kindle screen than a real book.

Would it not be better to have a larger eInk screen than 6"?

[Froide]

Originally Posted by issybird

Bookmarks, feh, why use a bookmark when you can dogear your page and/or break the spine by leaving the book open and facedown?

Originally Posted by copyrite

Did I just hear someone's nails on a chalkboard?

I physically winced. Almost posted a reply; then decided s/he MUST be joking. (Hope so.)

[Joseph J Bailey]

Because now my books won't fall apart when read with love.

[LadyKate]

I just bought the first paper book in years. I think the last one I bought was an Honor Harrington hardcopy one that I bought because of the included dvd (or was it cd) of many, many baen authors works. That must have been in 2004.

I found I can't read more than a few pages at a time. The small font size and the sneezing makes it hard. (I have been wanting to read CatFantastic V for years and finally bought a used copy ... gave up on seeing it come out in ebook )

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I just bought the first paper book in years. I think the last one I bought was an Honor Harrington hardcopy one that I bought because of the included dvd (or was it cd) of many, many baen authors works. That must have been in 2004.

I found I can't read more than a few pages at a time. The small font size and the sneezing makes it hard. (I have been wanting to read CatFantastic V for years and finally bought a used copy ... gave up on seeing it come out in ebook )

The last time I read a paper book the font was too big for my taste. Also, I missed having the dictionary.

[william z]

Originally Posted by barryem

While none of us likes high prices for books this is one of the potential advantages of keeping prices high. I remember when I got my first CD player and started shopping for CDs they were ridiculously expensive in their earlier days even though they cost practically nothing to make. The result was that albums I hadn't been able to find for decades were suddenly available again. I was in heaven.

If ebooks prices go up a lot more of that might happen, too. And no, I'm not wishing for higher prices since it seems to be happening anyway, at least more than I would have expected. But there are still a lot of older books unavailable as ebooks. Maybe if the rest of you paid high prices...

Frank Yerby is a good example. In the 1940's and 50's he was one of the best selling of writers in America. His books were everywhere. A lot of his were forerunners of romance novels today but some were more serious historical novels and those were excellent. But you just can't find those today in ebooks.

This is just one example of many unavailable ebooks. Still there are a lot more now than just a few years ago.

Barry

There are lots of books that are not available as ebooks. Frank Yerby was very popular in the 1940's and 50's but he was just one of those writers whose work went out of fashion for some reason. There are many writers like that; many of the mysteries that were enormously popular in the 1930's and 40's, for example, seem terribly outdated today. Just like popular music, tastes change.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by william z

There are lots of books that are not available as ebooks. Frank Yerby was very popular in the 1940's and 50's but he was just one of those writers whose work went out of fashion for some reason. There are many writers like that; many of the mysteries that were enormously popular in the 1930's and 40's, for example, seem terribly outdated today. Just like popular music, tastes change.

Yep, some with some of the books from the 70's. All the smoking and drinking on the job seems very out dated these days.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by william z

There are many writers like that; many of the mysteries that were enormously popular in the 1930's and 40's, for example, seem terribly outdated today. Just like popular music, tastes change.

Things are constantly in and out of fashion. Outdated pulps came back into vogue in the '70's, leading to a resurgence or rediscovery for guys like Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

The nice thing about e-books is that once they exist, they do not have to go out of print.

Given enough time, guys like Frank Yerby will make it to e-books.

[barryem]

There are a number of books I'd like to reread. A lot of the books I read in paper as far back as the 1950's are now unavailable in ebook format. I keep watching for them and every now and then one turns up.

A good example of that are books by John O'Hara, an extremely popular and critically acclaimed author of the 40's and 50's. Quite a few movies were made from his books. I watched for those for years at Amazon and Gutenberg and other sites for years and then one day Amazon had "10 North Frederick". Within a year they had a lot of his books. That happened a couple of years ago as I recall.

One more recent author that I especially like was Lee Gruenfeld. He was pretty popular 10 or 15 years ago and wrote some excellent novels. Today they're unavailable. I emailed him to let him know there's at least a little interest and I got a reply that it's not up to him. His publisher owns the rights and has no interest in making them available.

That's a major flaw in our system. Books should always be available. We should always be able to buy books. Our copyright system shouldn't give the right to withhold them for any reason whatever.

In the 1980s Michael Abrash published "The Zen of Assembly Language", the first book of it's type; something totally new in technical books. It was a huge best seller as tech books go, which is very little compared to crime novels of course. A larger publisher bought out his publisher and decided to cut out tech books and it became suddenly unavailable. Abrash fought for years to get the rights back but, as I recall, his first objections to them pulling the book angered them and they withheld it. It was a decade before it became available again and by then it was sadly outdated.

I have no objection to publishers having the right to set ridiculous prices, although I may object to those prices once set. I don't accept their right to withhold books. Their profit is important but our culture and our knowledge is on a much higher level of importance.

Barry

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

A good example of that are books by John O'Hara, an extremely popular and critically acclaimed author of the 40's and 50's. Quite a few movies were made from his books. I watched for those for years at Amazon and Gutenberg and other sites for years and then one day Amazon had "10 North Frederick". Within a year they had a lot of his books. That happened a couple of years ago as I recall.

As I was reading that, was thinking "I know at least Appointment In Samarra is available..." then I read the rest

Originally Posted by barryem

One more recent author that I especially like was Lee Gruenfeld. He was pretty popular 10 or 15 years ago and wrote some excellent novels. Today they're unavailable. I emailed him to let him know there's at least a little interest and I got a reply that it's not up to him. His publisher owns the rights and has no interest in making them available.

That's a shame. If a book is out of print for X amount of time, the rights should revert to the author (assuming it is not a work for hire/shared universe book).

Of course, even that is no guarantee the author will be satisfied as Alan Moore could tell you.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That's a shame. If a book is out of print for X amount of time, the rights should revert to the author (assuming it is not a work for hire/shared universe book).

A point: that's not copyright. It's an aspect of the contract between author and publisher.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by barryem

There are a number of books I'd like to reread. A lot of the books I read in paper as far back as the 1950's are now unavailable in ebook format. I keep watching for them and every now and then one turns up.

A good example of that are books by John O'Hara, an extremely popular and critically acclaimed author of the 40's and 50's. Quite a few movies were made from his books. I watched for those for years at Amazon and Gutenberg and other sites for years and then one day Amazon had "10 North Frederick". Within a year they had a lot of his books. That happened a couple of years ago as I recall.

One more recent author that I especially like was Lee Gruenfeld. He was pretty popular 10 or 15 years ago and wrote some excellent novels. Today they're unavailable. I emailed him to let him know there's at least a little interest and I got a reply that it's not up to him. His publisher owns the rights and has no interest in making them available.

That's a major flaw in our system. Books should always be available. We should always be able to buy books. Our copyright system shouldn't give the right to withhold them for any reason whatever.

In the 1980s Michael Abrash published "The Zen of Assembly Language", the first book of it's type; something totally new in technical books. It was a huge best seller as tech books go, which is very little compared to crime novels of course. A larger publisher bought out his publisher and decided to cut out tech books and it became suddenly unavailable. Abrash fought for years to get the rights back but, as I recall, his first objections to them pulling the book angered them and they withheld it. It was a decade before it became available again and by then it was sadly outdated.

I have no objection to publishers having the right to set ridiculous prices, although I may object to those prices once set. I don't accept their right to withhold books. Their profit is important but our culture and our knowledge is on a much higher level of importance.

Barry

I still have the Zen of Assembly Language sitting in by bookshelf. It was invaluable if you were into assembly language back then.