Macmillan Ebook Poll

[Havndrup]

Done. Scary questions... But im glad to see that real book-geeks didnt answer yes to the 'do you want the first chapters early' question.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

This brought into mind the problem Amazon customers are having getting updated copies of books originally published with formatting flaws (LOTR for example). Amazon states they back up all your purchased books on their servers. I always assumed they would simply have a file of links to book titles per customer, perhaps with customer notes, etc. linked to the PID of their Kindle. Apparently Amazon stores the entire book per customer - since customers that deleted the faulty copy and redownloaded the title still got the same flawed copy. So in this context, you really do "own" the book - or at least are irretrievably linked to one version of it linked to your account.

I don't think that's a universal issue. When I purchased and downloaded "The Hobbit" on my K1, it had the typo in the title "Tha Hobbit". By the time I re-downloaded it into my K2, the title was corrected (so I now have both versions). I'm sure they got so many complaints about that title and it was such and easy fix, that they corrected it for everyone.

I have also complained about formatting issues and Amazon has had me delete the book and download a corrected version. Maybe it requires making Amazon know that you want a corrected version.

[Gideon]

That was.. odd.

I think Macmillian is hanging out in the stupid department too much. Pay for access to samples? Really? Insane.

You give me samples, I am more likely to get the book (assuming it is good.) Samples in an of themselves have very little value.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Daithi

If you answer Indifferent to question 11 (the one about buying chapters) you get a lot fewer questions (it skips to question 24), so I think that's their main focus with this survey.

Also, I wasn't sure how to answer question 3., "Do you ever read books on a computer?"

Are they talking about a computer or an ereader here? I assumed they were talking about a computer and answered No, although that's not entirely true.

Okay that explains it I clicked indifferent and missed all of the subscription questions so couldn't understand what folks were talking about.


Sounds like they are trying to do something similar to ShortCovers and sell a book by samples/chapters at a time.

I tried the shortcovers app and promptly deleted the app, the process of reading books online was painful, not to mention you never get the copy of the book online so if you lose network connections you cannot read.

=X=

[rlparker]

I dunnit too.

Originally Posted by DixieGal

...I think the question that bothered me the most was how far down the list of age ranges I had to go before clicking.

Me too

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

...
Owning content is the way of the past....
...

Interesting idea; never thought about it that way.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

...All things said and done, if you're charging for samples, you really should GTFO

GTFO Please to explain....

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by rlparker

GTFO Please to explain....

GET THE F**K OUT/OFF Used most often to describe someone/thing who is clueless and should go away.

EDIT: here's the urban dictionary entry for it:
An internet acronym short for "get the f**k out".

It is used to express indignation, usually towards stupidity, incompetence, or both.

It can be used in response to something that is unwelcome.
That guy was annoying and didn't know what he was talking about so I told him to GTFO.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by Gideon

That was.. odd.

I think Macmillian is hanging out in the stupid department too much. Pay for access to samples? Really? Insane.

You give me samples, I am more likely to get the book (assuming it is good.) Samples in an of themselves have very little value.

I agree.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Gideon

That was.. odd.

I think Macmillian is hanging out in the stupid department too much. Pay for access to samples? Really? Insane.

You give me samples, I am more likely to get the book (assuming it is good.) Samples in an of themselves have very little value.

Exactly. I wish they had included a comment section. Oh boy the comments they would have gotten over that.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Maybe my copying and pasting will come in handy. Here are the questions I got (notice some numbers were skipped based on my responses).

1. How many books to do you READ per year?

0 - 5
6 - 10
11 - 15
20+

2. How many books do you BUY per year?

0 - 5
6 - 10
11 - 15
20+

3. Do you ever read books on a computer?

Yes
No

5. Do you own an mobile reading device (e.g., Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone with Reader Application)?

Yes
No

6. If you own more than one of these devices, which one do you prefer?

Kindle
Sony Reader
iPhone with Reader Application
COOL-ER
Other

7. Please rate your comfort level reading book content via a mobile device:

Very comfortable
Comfortable
Not comfortable

10. Please rate your interest-level in getting books in an electronic format before their
official on-sale date:

Very interested
Interested
Indifferent
Not interested

11. Please rate your interest-level in getting early access to several chapters of major books in an electronic format prior to the official on-sale date:

Very interested
Interested
Indifferent
Not interested

12. Would you be willing to pay for this early access?

Yes
No, but I would be willing to pre-order the book for this access
Not at all

13. Would you be willing to register on the Macmillan site (e.g., give a valid email address and other pertinent personal information) to get access to this content?

Yes
No

14. How much of the book would need to be available pre-release for you to be interested?

25%
50%
100%

15. Would you be willing to register if access included a discount off the purchase of the book once it released?

Yes
No

17. What payment model would you prefer to gain early access to several chapters of these books?

Pay-Per-Title (access to one specific title’s sample chapters offered on the site)
Annual Subscription (access to all sample chapters of major release titles offered on the site)

18. How much of the book would need to be available pre-release for you to be interested?

25%
50%
100%

19. Would you be more interested if you received a discount off the purchase of the once it went on sale?

Yes
No

24. What is your preferred method of book delivery?

Print
Website
RSS feeds
Kindle
Sony Reader
iPhone
Other

25. Are you based in the United States?

Yes
No

26. Select your age group:

12 and under
13 – 18
19 – 30
30 – 40
40 – 50
50 – 65
65+
I prefer not to answer

27. Select your sex:

Male
Female
I prefer not to answer

Dear Nate:

I cannot believe that they name the COOL-er for God's sake and I have to push "OTHER" for Astak!! Is there no end to the embarassment??

But, I know anything you bring to people's attention is really good. So I did the survey and support it!

Thank you!!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Nate:

I cannot believe that they name the COOL-er for God's sake and I have to push "OTHER" for Astak!! Is there no end to the embarassment??

But, I know anything you bring to people's attention is really good. So I did the survey and support it!

Thank you!!

I found that odd too. There's plenty of other ebook readers that have market share and are known, so why pick the COOL-ER that's only just been released? Shoddy is what it is. Whoever put this together did it in a rush, or they were high, or they were so high they were in a rush....something involving high and rush anyway.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Gideon

That was.. odd.

I think Macmillian is hanging out in the stupid department too much. Pay for access to samples? Really? Insane.

You give me samples, I am more likely to get the book (assuming it is good.) Samples in an of themselves have very little value.

I don't know if this is anything close to movie and movie trailers, I often wish I would have just paid for the trailer and save me a little money and the pain of sitting 2hrs in a bad movie.

=X=

[Gideon]

That's what Apple's website is for http://www.apple.com/trailers/ ! You can see trailers for just about anything for free (and often in HD!)

If you have a Mac, this is actually built into Front Row.

[kcarscadden]

It seems to me that the survey was about getting e-samples, but buying the hard-cover or paper book.

I certainly would have liked a comment section, to tell them I really only want e-books.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Whoever put this together did it in a rush, or they were high, or they were so high they were in a rush....something involving high and rush anyway.

High on a vial of rush?

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

The reason they are asking about that is probably because of the way the Kindle lets you download chapters of books to preview. I think thats a pretty poor service and I wouldn't pay for that. What I would be willing to pay for is some sort of subscription based book service that is like an "ebook library" or ebook version of Netflix, I can download a certain number of books at a time and return them (you don't really ever own ebooks anyway since there is no resale value). But its got to have real content not some no name authors I've never heard of, I mean like NY times best sellers and all.

The only company that I've seen get this right so far is Marvel Comics on their website, I think its like $50/per year and you get access to all of their comic books online and you can read whatever you want. I have a membership there and I think its great. With the amount of content you can read the subscription is almost a no brainer

Owning content is the way of the past. I dont want to own dvds, let someone else keep them somewhere and I can get them when I want it like Netflix. Keeping tons of books is a waste of space for me and I'm in an apartment so I don't have much space to waste. The big issue is trying to get the publishers on board, I'm not exactly sure how Netflix's business model works in terms of payments to the studios but there has to be a way to get that same business model into ebooks. I'm sure it costs 800x more to make a movie than it does to make a book so if the model can work with movies theres no excuse for books not being able to make the cut. When that comes and you can get multiple publishers titles in one database for one annual subscription price then we're talking turkey. If the publishers had half a brain in their head they would steal the marvel model and start up a subscription service that gives you access to all of their books that are in ebook format, but then again that would be thinking outside the box and they still think that people enjoy the "feel" of books too much to ever use ereaders.

I respect your worldview, but there are places where you just don't have cloud access. (Cube farms in big buildings, airplanes, car road trips, ect.) That's when it's nice to have content. E-books are nice because you can load 1000+ books on a chip, and then pick what you want out when you want to. An SD chip doesn't take much space.... (Music is almost as portable. DVD's are another matter, but chips keep getting denser and denser..)