CBD (Christian Book Distributors) to add ebooks later this year!

[rebarnmom]

(Preface to forum mods: As I wasn't sure where to put this, if this is not the right place for this thread, please feel free to move it to the appropriate forum. Thanks!)

As a frequent customer of CBD (Christian Book Distributors), I received a free ebook download yesterday. I wrote them back to thank them and encourage them to make more ebooks available for purchase. These were my comments:

I just want to thank you so much for this free .pdf ebook! I just wanted to add that I hope you continue to add books to CBD in this format—for purchase! I don’t buy physical books anymore, if I don’t absolutely have to. I have had my Sony PRS-700 for over a year now and this is my preferred method of reading books, as I carry it with me (my portable library) everywhere! Finding Christian books in formats such as .pdf and .epub has been difficult. I realize that this technology is just now catching on and it just isn’t for everyone, but I would be purchasing so many more of your titles, if they were available as such! I know plenty of others who are looking for Christian content for their ebook reading device! And I would certainly prefer to purchase them from you (CBD) over other sites, like Sony’s bookstore. Their real interest is in selling their devices, not necessarily in selling ebooks. I would rather support a bookstore that sells God-honoring materials, like CBD! Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again for the free ebook!

Today I was excited to receive this response back from Product Assistance at CBD!

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

We plan to have ebooks available for purchase on Christianbook.com later
this year.

Be sure to visit our website in the future for further news.


Peter B.
Customer Service
Christian Book Distributors

[Janet54]

Thanks for posting this, I would of never thought to look there. Years ago I ordered quite a bit through them, then came Amazon and my kindle. ((grin))
I will check them out.

[danbdan]

Yes, THANKS for posting this!!

I'm new to the forum... a self-admitted techno geek... but until recently hadn't contemplated having such easy access to the Christian books that I enjoy so much. I was trying to decide which book reader to go with (I only have an iPhone) when I found this site:

http://www.puritandownloads.com

Seems like they have loads of ebooks for downloading at reasonable prices. Has anyone else looked into getting the puritan hard drive that they're offering? It looks like a really amazing collection (ok, a DREAM collection for me!)... Does anyone know any more about it or has anyone gotten to take one for a test drive?

- Dan B.

[rebarnmom]

From their website:

Christianbook.com, the company you’ve shopped with and trusted for years, is now offering eBooks! With the introduction of the CBD Reader, you’ll be able to read thousands of Christian eBooks on devices you already own—your desktop and laptop computers, many popular smartphones and eReaders, and the iPad.

The CBD Reader operates within your computer's, smartphone's, or iPad's internet browser and utilizes ePub, the standard eBook format, which allows you to customize text and images for optimized reading on any size display. Whichever device you're using, simply visit cbdreader.christianbook.com, login using your Christianbook.com account, and start reading! If you wish to read an eBook on a personal eReading device such as a Sony® Reader, nook™, or Kobo Reader™, you can do that too using Adobe® Digital Editions.*

*Kindle™ not included due to its proprietary format.

Browse our extensive selection of Christian eBooks the same way you would any other product at Christianbook.com. Simply click on the blue tab labeled "eBooks" at the top of any page on our website. You can also search for a particular eBook by typing the title or author in our search box and selecting "eBooks" from the dropdown menu, or search our entire collection by clicking "eBooks" in the yellow "Browse" section on the left side of our website.

Read a free sample of any eBook before you buy it! Click the "FREE Sample" button and a sample portion of the eBook will be placed in your CBD Reader Library. At any time while you're reading the sample, you can purchase the entire eBook, without ever leaving the page.

Start reading your eBooks immediately following your purchase! Access your CBD Reader Library at cbdreader.christianbook.com on your laptop, desktop, smartphone, or iPad. If you wish to transfer your eBooks to your dedicated eReader, you can download your eBooks to Adobe® Digital Editions from the "eBooks" tab of your Christianbook.com account.

We hold your library for you, so your eBooks will never be lost. There's no need to worry if you move files around or change computers, since your complete eBook library is only a click away with the CBD Reader. Save precious hard drive space and your peace of mind; your eBooks are always safe with us.

I've downloaded a free ebook to ADE without any problem. I'm having trouble trying the "read a free sample" feature though. I just stumbled across this, so maybe there's still some kinks to work out. I've found several authors & titles that I've been looking for on Sony's Reader Store, and some titles for a better price, so I'm thrilled!

[rebarnmom]

I've had some time to check out Christian Book Distributor's (CBD) ebook section and the CBD Reader for a few days now. I have to say that I'm thrilled & impressed! I went through my wishlist on the Sony Reader Store site and compared prices with over 20 different titles and most all were selling below the Sony Store price or were the same price. I only found a few that sold for more (will explain further).

I'll just list some examples:

Jesus Lives by Sarah Young- Sony price $13.49, CBD price $ 9.69
How Can a Good God Let Bad Things Happen? by Mark Tabb- Sony price $8.99, CBD price $7.99
Bringing Up Girls by Dr. James Dobson- Sony price $18.19, CBD price $14.29
Bible Answers For Almost All of Your Questions by Elmer Towns- Sony price $11.89, CBD price $9.99
If My People... by Jack Countryman- Sony price $2.84, CBD price $2.39
All of the titles in the Lynn Austin "Gods and Kings" novels- Sony price $12.59, CBD price $9.29 or 9.69
The Message New Testament with Psalms- Sony price $7.59, CBD price $6.39
The Message Concordance- Sony price$ 13.49, CBD price $9.69
The Message For Each Day- Sony price $13.49, CBD price $ 9.69
Amplified Bible- $9.99 same price both sites
Exercising Your Soul by Gary Jansen- $9.99 same price both sites
The Story by Dennis Okholm- $11.99 same price both sites
Praying the Scriptures For Your Children by Jodie Berndt- $9.99 same price both sites

Where I found discrepencies was when looking at Beth Moore titles. If they were published by B & H Publishers, the price was higher on CBD, but if they were published by Thomas Nelson Publishing, the price was lower on CBD.

Other thoughts:
I was very pleased to find several titles by Stormie Omartian (that I had been wanting!) on the CBD site, that were not on Sony's site, although not all of the books on my Sony Store wishlist were available at CBD as ebooks.
They do offer free ebooks for download!
And I was most impressed by the large samples you can read before purchasing an ebook, something I always found lacking on Sony's site!

*Oh! And they now take PayPal, which I was also thrilled about!

I received this email from them yesterday and thought I would pass it along.
They are looking for feedback, so I would encourage you to check out their ebook selection and their CBD Reader and give them your feedback!

Our email records indicate that you've previously asked about the
possibility we'd be offering eBooks. A few days ago you may have already
received a general email announcement, and if so, we apologize for what
may seem like a duplicate notification. However, due to your prior
interest, we're following up with a more personal message announcing
this new service on our web site

eBooks are now available for purchase on Christianbook.com. Here's the
direct link to that new portion of our web site:

http://www.christianbook.com/ebooks

Our customers will be able to read their eBooks on a variety of
computers and devices, including PC and Mac computers, iPhone and Droid
smartphones, the iPad, and eReader devices that support reading of
eBooks in the ePub format, including the Sony® Reader, nook?, or Kobo
Reader?. Please note *Kindle? not included due to its proprietary
format.

You'll find further information about eBooks via links included on the
eBook page accessed via the link above, including one for Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs). There's even a link that will allow you to "Try
Free eBooks" on the FREE CBD READER.

Since our eBook store is brand new, so we were hoping we could take a
few moments of your time to gain some feedback if and when you proceed
to try out the new service and purchase one or more eBook titles.

We would love to hear what your experience was like purchasing your
eBook through Christianbook.com, and whether you chose to read your
eBook on our CBD Reader, on a device you already own, or both. We hope you'll enjoy this new service and product format from
Christianbook.com !

Your friends at CBD