Buy an ebook in a bookshop.

[LDBoblo]

I like the idea of niche bookstores. When I can buy books from a website without chintzy subscription services, annoying signups, gimmicky payment services, or ridiculous prices for especially low-quality products, I'll be pretty happy to do most of my petty book buying that way, but I still want some bookstores around for real books and as a social space. I find that talking to random people in a bookstore can be rather fun sometimes...I've not had such good luck at WalMart or Carrefour or poorly-lit parking lots at night.

[rebarnmom]

I found this site http://www.symtio.com back in January (mentioned in an earlier thread) that sell ebooks via a card you can purchase at several major Christian bookstores. I've just now started seeing ads in my local Christian bookstore.

Quote from my Lemstone Parable Christian Stores mailer:
"We have eBooks... a perfect gift for people on the go! Easy to download and ultraportable...
Choose from the latest authors and titles, then slip them into a greeting card or a Christmas stocking. It's that simple."

Since January, Symtio's selection of eBooks and audio books has grown enormously! I believe that all of the eBooks are available in ePub format. You can also buy from them online, but the idea is to support eBooks within the brick & mortar stores.

I think that this is awesome! Then I don't miss the enjoyment of browsing the bookstore and supporting them at the same time!

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

I just posted a thread in which an author talks about eBook marketing and one of the things he discusses is how Harper Collins is going to to sell eBooks in book stores. They are selling 3 by 5 cards with the cover and back cover of the book with a code that you can download the book. It lets the book store set the price they want for the card and make a profit on the sale.

I wonder if this would change the 'location' of the sale? Might be a way around GR?

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Using barcodes to contain the entire book would be impractical. Most current barcode methods are only good for small numbers. A more practical solution would be to have the barcode have the ISDN, and just have it download the book when getting that.

Barcoding the ISDN is a practical compromise, but there are 'scannable' options (not barcodes) that compress considerable data into a small area. I don't know enough about them to know whether or not they'd be suitable for encoding an entire book. I remember reading about them several years ago-I believe it was for faxing something that could be scanned into a computer? I remember that the example shown looked like a blotchy page rather than a diagram. I'll see if I can't Google it out, but don't know how much luck I'll have. If I find it then I'll post a link for others to consider the option.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

There's nothing wrong with a physical place for people to congregate and share their thoughts... just like people happily gather at a bar, knowing that they can save themselves a boatload of money (and a risk of a DUI) if they just drink at home.

Interestingly enough, I get little satisfaction from browsing my local superstores. Books are tightly packed together, back to front, requiring me to extricate a book from the shelf in order to see its cover... after a dozen or so of doing that, I'm done. For me, shopping online is just as easy.

For me, the value of physical locations is the people there. If they know you, they may be able to recommend books you might have never found on your own, through random or targeted browsing. You can cultivate a network of peers to hang with, and to help you find new reads. I'm all for this.

The printed card thing is an okay option, for those who do not have their devices with them. But I suspect that soon most people will have some form of digital storage with them at all times (for instance, the memory card in their cellphone), and may just take to using whatever they have to transfer files from store to their device. As long as the store offers options ("Would you like to download, e-mail or take a card for your book?"), that would work fine.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by alecE

I find the browsing process on a web site incredibly frustrating - as an example, I was browsing Waterstone's site the other day, just looking at the history section. There are several hundred titles, listed 10 on a page.Trying to decide from a thumbnail image of the cover and the author/title/price data whether or not to click and view the blurb is very tedious. I probably buy fewer ebooks simply because I cannot skim the contents and make an informed choice on purchase. Being able to browse the physical shelves in a store, and *still* be able to make an e purchase would be really great for me. Will suggest it to my local Waterstones next time I'm there!

I feel the same about trying to decide from a thumbnail, etc. but can't come up with a rational reason why I feel that way so I suspect it's just being uncomfortable with change. Logically, when I'm browsing the shelves at the bookstore I'm often trying to decide based on title, author, and spine-which is usually less informative than thumbnail. (Except it does indicate the size of the book whereas not all 'listings' do so. FW, IIRC, does but then they also give at least a couple sentences of the synopsis, too.)

As for the 10 books/page, that might make sense for dialup customers but with broadband the first thing I do is set my preferences, when possible, to display pretty much as many books per page as I can. (OK, I draw the limit when the list contains thousands of books-even broadband takes a while to download a page like that. When they have that many I'll usually opt for 100-150/page.) So my major frustration is with online sellers who don't offer that option.

But, one thing I still find frustrating about buying ebooks vs browsing in a book store is the inability to 'thumb thru' the book, reading a paragraph or two here & there. Not paragraphs selected by the person trying to *sell* me the book, but paragraphs I choose. (One option the sellers *could* implement would be to show a TOC & let the user specify a limited number of pages to view-say 3 to 5, selected from any of the pages in the book. Nobody does this, that I know of, but I think it would improve browsing.)

Right now it's like browsing in a bookstore where all the books are wrapped in plastic.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Your typical bookstore carries 20,000 books; a "superstore" carries 100,000. B&N's ebook store, in its infancy, has around 200,000 titles plus another 850,000+ public domain books via Google. An ebook store with 20,000 titles would be regarded (correctly) as a crippled joke.
...
So to me, selling ebooks in a bookstore is a foolish and desperate attempt to save an aspect of commerce that is about to get threshed.

Assuming the only purpose of a bookstore is to sell books, you're correct. And the only purpose of a car is to transport you from here to there-and who needs a 2-ton behemoth to do that? But they sell, don't they?

That's because the cars (and bookstores) fulfill emotional needs that go beyond the physical 'functionality' of books & transportation. Emotional needs are rarely logical, but they exist.

You might be right that bookstores will disappear-depends on how many people are willing to pay for fulfilling their emotional 'need' (need might be a little strong, but that seems to be the term that's usually used) to browse thru physical bookshelves. I tend to agree with you that bookstores will eventually disappear, I just think it'll take some more improvement in the ebook buying experience before they do. Right now I don't find choosing & buying an ebook nearly as satisfying as choosing & buying a book in a bookstore.

Written English (and possibly other languages) makes it hard to distinguish different meanings of words by tone/emphasis. So my following probably won't make sense when you first read it-but 'play it back with different emphasis' and I think you'll eventually see what I'm trying to say. And maybe you can even rephrase it to actually say that. I don't seem to be able to, but others are much better at writing than I am.

Anyway, I find shopping for a book online very convenient when I'm trying to find the book that I want, but not nearly as satisfying as shopping in a bookstore when I'm trying to find a book that I want. I could probably go into several paragraphs trying to explain that, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm trying to say.

[Tattncat]

Originally Posted by mgrunk

I love going to bookstores and browsing the shelves - sometimes I'm drawn to a book because of the cover art or the blurb or that it's on sale. I often stumble upon books that I never would have searched for. Websites on the other hand have a very small footprint - it is quite difficult to browse IMO. I think Amazon is the best online book browsing experience for me, but it doesn't equal a physical store.

I like to shop, I find it to be a break from my life - I enjoy going to bookstores and browsing - if I could buy an ebook after browsing, it would make the process even more enjoyable.

Actually Barnes & Noble has been doing it "sort of" for about a month. They supply free WiFi in the store which allows you to shop their store and then purchase from the online store of your choice. Since they own Barnes & Noble.com, Fictionwise and eReader.com they profit either way.

My description is probably too simplified, but...... You get the idea.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

This is a completely backwards idea.

Why, exactly, would I want to get in a car, drive 20 minutes to the store, browse for 30 minutes, spend 15 minutes checking out, then another 20 going home -- when I can download a sample, read it, buy it, and have it on my device in 10 minutes?

Because you can browse. Simple as that.

And browsing means people spend more on books. Amazon has tried very hard to give their website features to simulate the experience, and they've failed. Amazon is great when you know what you want, bookstores work when you don't and just want to see if there's anything interesting available. Furthermore, if I come across a book on Amazon that I might want to read later, I usually just put it on my wishlist. If I find it in a bookstore, then I'm much more likely to buy it, since I'm there anyway.

It would make a lot of sense for bookstores to put physical books out for display but let you buy the eBook version instead for a small discount.