Where do you buy your ebooks?

[shighfield]

Mostly Fictionwise for me. Over 200 there, and a handfull at other places. Of course lots of free ones from PG.

[FlorenceArt]

I would buy from Amazon if they would sell to me

I would probably buy from mobipocket.com except that they were bought by Amazon and sell the same books at a higher price

Most of the books I bought came from Books on board. I wish the site weren't so excruciatingly slow and painful to navigate, but they have the lowest prices that I could find. I don't like rewards and sales, I just want to be able to buy a book at a reasonable price whenever I want to.

That said, I did take advantage of a few promotions at Fictionwise.

Free ebooks I download from Feedbooks (English) and Ebooks libres et gratuits (French). And I downloaded all the Tor freebies and am reading them now

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I would probably buy from mobipocket.com except that they were bought by Amazon and sell the same books at a higher price

Don't buy from MobiPocket. They are wholesalers for all the other stores which sell MobiPocket books, and always charge full price for their books. It will almost always be cheaper to buy books from other MobiPocket stores than directly from MobiPocket themselves. The other issue with buying from MobiPocket directly is that if you live in the EU, they will charge you VAT.

[Robotech_Master]

Surprised nobody's mentioned eReader yet. Even though they're technically part of Fictionwise now, they're still being run as a separate site, with their own discount program (newsletter as opposed to discount club). I was buying from them way back when they called themselves Peanut Press and I had a Palm IIIc and a Visor Deluxe.

Apart from that, Baen Webscriptions (natch), Alexlit & Mind's Eye (alexlit.com/tale.com, both now defunct alas but I hope Alexlit will eventually come back and bring my library of titles there with it), and Fictionwise.

I'm trying to think if there's anywhere else I've bought e-books from, but I guess not at this point. I've snagged free ones from enough places there's no point really trying to list them. Blackmask (now Munseys.com), Gutenberg (natch), MemoWare, etc.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Surprised nobody's mentioned eReader yet. Even though they're technically part of Fictionwise now, they're still being run as a separate site, with their own discount program (newsletter as opposed to discount club). I was buying from them way back when they called themselves Peanut Press and I had a Palm IIIc and a Visor Deluxe.

I suspect it's because most of us are using eInk devices these days, and there's currently no eInk device which reads eReader-format books, although I understand that one of the models that Astak are bringing out will be able to.

[Robotech_Master]

Are "most of us," really? Stats from Fictionwise head honcho Steve Pendergrast suggest that more people are reading on the iPhone or iPod Touch than on the Kindle.

[Justy]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Are "most of us," really? Stats from Fictionwise head honcho Steve Pendergrast suggest that more people are reading on the iPhone or iPod Touch than on the Kindle.

I'm not saying that "most of us" are using eInk now... but in Harry's defence, the Kindle *isn't* the only eInk device out there.

I buy my ebooks from Fictionwise in Mobipocket format and use both my eInk Cybook and also my iPaq to read them. Once I got my Cybook, I pretty much stopped shopping at eReader.com because I wouldn't be able to read any of those books on both of my devices. I would imagine that I'm not the only one who is buying books from Fictionwise for an eInk device other than Kindle.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Are "most of us," really? Stats from Fictionwise head honcho Steve Pendergrast suggest that more people are reading on the iPhone or iPod Touch than on the Kindle.

That makes sense. The iPhone has been around longer, and the iPod brand has been around a hell of a lot longer.

It is good to see such success on a smaller LCD device.

Also, I think Harry was refering to the people here at Mobile Read.

[Lemurion]

I normally buy from Baen and Fictionwise. I've just now started using BoB. All three seem pretty good from what I've seen.

[JSWolf]

I'm surprised a lot of people do not mind reading on a small LCD screen covered in fingerprints.

[basschick]

books on board
fictionwise
baen

all three have fast support, too.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Are "most of us," really? Stats from Fictionwise head honcho Steve Pendergrast suggest that more people are reading on the iPhone or iPod Touch than on the Kindle.

I have the Kindle and an iphone (used only as an ipod touch), as well as many palm models (I'd forgotten I'd bought books for the palm until I downloaded the ereader for the iphone and blundered into my account at ereader.com). I only buy in the ereader format if it is the only choice available (and even then, it needs to be quite cheap or I'll search for the book used instead). Reading on the palm or iphone simply isn't the same as the Kindle (although the OLD palm's come close - but with the same small screen limitation of the iphone) and onscreen presents it's own challenges/problems (for any reader format).

Considering the dismal battery life of the ipod touch/iphone (and their primary use for music and phones), I doubt much actual reading occurs (other than web surfing), despite the number that have experimented by downloading the reader. ereader.com likes to claim a certain number of books downloaded -- that includes all my old ones that I downloaded, out of curiosity, but none of which I'll re-read on the iphone.

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by koland

Reading on the palm or iphone simply isn't the same as the Kindle (although the OLD palm's come close - but with the same small screen limitation of the iphone) and onscreen presents it's own challenges/problems (for any reader format).

Why should the iPhone be worse than the old Palm? The screens are about the same size, and the same resolution (for the newer Palms, or twice that of the older ones).

Considering the dismal battery life of the ipod touch/iphone (and their primary use for music and phones), I doubt much actual reading occurs (other than web surfing), despite the number that have experimented by downloading the reader.

I've not noticed excessive battery problems in my reading on my iPod Touch. Turn the backlight down to about 30%, turn WiFi and the telephone network connections off (they take up power even when you're not using them, just trying to connect), and you can read for hours. The Fictionwise people did experiments on an iPod Touch at various light levels and found that with reasonable battery precautions you can read for more than 10-12 hours on a full battery charge.

ereader.com likes to claim a certain number of books downloaded -- that includes all my old ones that I downloaded, out of curiosity, but none of which I'll re-read on the iphone.

I suspect that we only ever hear from loud advocates on both ends—people like you who don't like reading on small screens, or people like me who do. Most people who like reading probably aren't that loud. I think there are more iPhone/iPod readers than you might think.

The form factor is very similar to the Palm, which kicked off the first e-reading revolution—and as with the Palm, lots of people will be buying it for other purposes (the phone, listening to music) and discovering how easy it is to read on them. I suspect that the adoption base of the iPhone or iPod Touch is much wider than the Palm's, at least at first, as people find it a lot easier to justify spending money on a phone or mp3 player than on a pocket organizer.

So, I wouldn't count the iPhone/iTouch out. The Kindle may be a larger device with louder publicity, but I think the iPhone/iTouch may do more for e-books in the long run.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Why should the iPhone be worse than the old Palm? The screens are about the same size, and the same resolution (for the newer Palms, or twice that of the older ones).

Sizewise and resolution wise, the ipods win. Ease of use is a tossup (with older palms, slight edge over newer ones in some ways). Battery life goes to the palm (non-phone - easily a week, same as a kindle, plus it did a lot more). Newer palms are actually smaller than the older ones and are now backlit, which puts them into the same eyestrain (even if you think you don't feel it) category as other backlit systems - and makes them and the ipod touch/iphone essentially useless outside. The iphone would even be nearly impossible to make a phone call with under some outdoor conditions (luckly, my htc mogul has a keyboard, as it suffers from the same outdoor screen problems). But I bought those books a LONG time ago - the palm that read them had a large screen, same as the iphone, no backlight and a week battery life. The battery life on the iphone isn't as good as the ipod touch, from what I have found (but at least turning off phone mode has greatly improved it - it seems with the iphone, that is also the switch to turn off the wireless (my hTc has separate settings for phone and wireless and bluetooth and if the iphone has them, I haven't found them).

I've not noticed excessive battery problems in my reading on my iPod Touch. Turn the backlight down to about 30%, turn WiFi and the telephone network connections off (they take up power even when you're not using them, just trying to connect), and you can read for hours. The Fictionwise people did experiments on an iPod Touch at various light levels and found that with reasonable battery precautions you can read for more than 10-12 hours on a full battery charge.

I doubt my eyes would last that long - but I did just that for 2-4 days in a row, twice in the last three weeks on the Kindle. And the battery easily lasted two full days (before I remembered I had an inverter to charge the battery, since I didn't have a car charger with me). And if you think the Kindle buttons are easy to hit wrong, try it on an iphone while traveling down some of our nations poorer highways (assuming you can see the screen in the bright daylight).

I suspect that we only ever hear from loud advocates on both ends—people like you who don't like reading on small screens, or people like me who do. Most people who like reading probably aren't that loud. I think there are more iPhone/iPod readers than you might think.

Owners are there. Those who download free apps are there (and their free books, since they are already paid for - what are they going to do, read them all again?). But readers (at least of novel length items) are yet to be proven I've already seen complaints about even a $10 or $15 charge for reader software. Using your iphone or touch this way on some methods of public transport is probably just asking for them to be stolen - these are already hot items, with organized groups watching for them there and in airports. Somehow, though, I don't see the resell value of a Kindle being as high (even though Amazon, like the phone companies and Apple, will no doubt let stolen ones be re-registered). Of those who do "read" (full length novels), most will no doubt use that as one method and switch to another once at home (or the office). I do find it useful for internet access (as much as I hate safari on the PC and Apple's insistence that I download it), it works better than IE on the hTc (which, with very cheap sprint cell access, wins on when it can be used). But new browsers are coming out, as well as specific apps that do maps or rss well (and unlike Apple, no one cares much what I install on my hTc phone and no one will decide to ban an app and remove it without notice - at least on the internet side).

The main thing I end up using the iphone (as a touch) for is to listen to music (just in basic shuffle, usually), podcasts and I've tried a few audio books on it. It does that better than the Kindle (and has a better speaker system I plug it into at the office), at least for now.

[Robotech_Master]

If Steve Pendergrast of Fictionwise coming out and saying, "Over 300,000 ebooks have been downloaded onto the iPhone/iTouch platforms from our store," isn't enough "proof" for you, what kind of proof would you require? Auditing their books?