How many e-books do readers purchase?

[Bob Russell]

Over at Palm247, Shaun McGill asks his readers How many eBooks have you purchased?

While the question is certainly biased toward those Palm users who read e-books (the ones that read e-books and especially who buy them are most likely to reply with comments), it still is interesting in several ways:

1) So far, for number of e-books purchased, there are 6 with <100, 4 with <300, one with about 700 and another with more than a thousand. (Wow!)

2) Only one person said they read free e-books and didn't buy e-books.

3) There were several mentions of people who just prefer paper.

The big winners for the massive e-book purchases in this small sample of Palm users? Fictionwise/eReader, Baen and MobiPocket.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

Over at Palm247, Shaun McGill asks his readers How many eBooks have you purchased?

While the question is certainly biased toward those Palm users who read e-books (the ones that read e-books and especially who buy them are most likely to reply with comments), it still is interesting in several ways:

1) So far, for number of e-books purchased, there are 6 with <100, 4 with <300, one with about 700 and another with more than a thousand. (Wow!)

2) Only one person said they read free e-books and didn't buy e-books.

3) There were several mentions of people who just prefer paper.

The big winners for the massive e-book purchases in this small sample of Palm users? Fictionwise/eReader, Baen and MobiPocket.

I tend to buy from Fictionwise, eReader, Baen and Mobipocket myself. Of course, if I owned a Kindle, I'd be buying my ebooks from Amazon, but I'm quite happy buying my Mobipocket ebooks for my Cybook.

And I'm definitely in the 500+ category as I've got over 1,000 ebooks.

Derek

[Liviu_5]

It's a good question, though there are little details like what about something like Asimov's. If you buy an annual subscription, does it count as 10 ebooks? What about Fictionwise ss that sell for 95c, or Amazon shorts that sell for 49c. Do they count? I tend to buy a few of those, as well as various sf magazines from various sources like Lulu, publisher, not only Fictionwise.

Restricting to what would be clearly print books not magazines, so novels, collections, non-fiction books, I would say I am in between 100-200 bought. Books on Board and Baen probably about 40 each, Fictionwise about 30, various other places like Lulu, BookHabit, Steve Jordan, other small publishers, about 40 more maybe.

If I count magazines and ss, Amazon shorts and more esoteric stuff, probably I would jump to 200-300, or maybe even 400-500.

[Megaperfect]

This is amazing. I had a hunch but no idea how many ebooks I had. I use Fictionwise/eReader, Mobipocket and other web sites to purchase ebooks. I have been downloading them since they've been available. I must confess I have not read them all. Some came in a bulk w/manuals, stories and such that I'll never read or use.
I'll use any format (I prefer the eReader) to read for any ebook that pecks my interest. I read them on a PC, but, mostly on my PPC. All my life I've always wanted a library in my house, but a PPC will have to do.

I guess I am a

[crc]

I've purchased a little more than 200 ebooks, mostly from eReader.com, about a dozen Amazon shorts, and have around a hundred more etexts from Project Gutenberg. All of which I've read more than once.

[brecklundin]

I use Fictionwise when the price is right, Baen of course (I just this AM decided to buy the whole Jim Baen's Universe), and a couple other places.

Format does not matter to me except that I will pass on any book which comes in only PDF format. And that is for the obvious reasons of formatting on a small display. As in anything under 17" displays.

I almost never visit the used book store anymore as so many books can be had, with some patience for sales from Fictionwise or elsewhere, for just a tad more then the used book price. Used PB's around here run about 50% of cover price. So between $3-$5 ea. but one cannot shop for them in the comfort of one's favorite hole-y underware and torn tee-shirt.

Still there are some, er...ummm...OK....MOST, reads which cannot be found as ebooks. I have made the decision to simply wait and hope for those and am exclusively going with ebooks from now on. I feel that is the only way to push/force publishers to come towards the light.

In all honesty between my 10-year's worth of NYT Xword puzzles and just my current ebook backlog, I would never need buy any more books or d/l another xword puzzle in my lifetime. But, where is the fun in that?

Oh, I have at minimum 500 ebooks right now. Read about 150-200 of them so far when I find the time.

[Jellby]

Where is the answer "<1" ?

[Elsi]

I've only had my Kindle since mid-February. In that time, I've bought 12 books from Amazon.com -- but 5 of those were special promotions at $0.00. From Baen, I bought 6 books. From Steve Jordan, I bought 10 books. And, just to kick around the secure MobiPocket stuff, I bought one book from Harper Collins. So far, I've only opened it in the desktop MobiPocket Reader on my PC, but I did register my Kindle PID with Harper Collins before I downloaded, so I thought I'd play around with that eventually.

So, the total comes to 30 books purchased. I've gladly accepted the dozen or so free books from TOR, and then there are the 400 or so that I've downloaded from MobileRead, Feedbooks, ManyBooks, and Munsey's. I have enough reading material around to sustain me in the event of a long trip. All I need is the power adapter for the weekly (or so) recharge.

Life is so good.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Where is the answer "<1" ?

Excellent question. Added.

[zelda_pinwheel]

i bought my eb1150 last december and have purchased around 10 ebooks for it so far. however, my original motivation for buying it was to read the PG books i had been downloading (but not reading... since i hate reading on my pc) for years. i have several hundred of those (most of them are not formatted yet) and i've also downloaded a few hundred books from MR. altogether i probably have close to 1000 or more. i don't know when i will have time to read all of them.

[RWood]

For me purchases for the Sony have been from (in no particular order):

• Fictionwise
• Sony Bookstore
• Baen
• Steve Jordan Books

[Mr. Goodbar]

I'm definitely in the ~400 range with the early stuff being ereader, but now mobipocket or fictionwise gets most of the business since i've transitioned to a dedicated ereader.

[nrapallo]

I'm with the 1 to 10 crowd, despite having owned a hardware reader for over 5 years.

In the beginning, after Gemstar's demise and before Fictionwise launched the eBookwise site, there was very little opportunity to purchase mainstream .IMP ebooks. As a result, I turned to PD (mainly from blackmask.com and PG) ebooks and/or "rolled my own" ebooks. I would scour for any reading material even if not in the .IMP format with the hopes of converting .html / .pdb / .prc / .lit formats into my reader's native .IMP formats. And a converting junkie was born. I've even converted whole websites (using HTTrack Website Copier) and read them on my REB 1200. And after joining mobileread.com, I've only been inspired even more to continue the same.

Nowadays, I convert and create ebooks most of the time and seldom have time to read any of them anymore. It's truly like a junkie going for his next fix. I see something that would be nice to have in ebook format and I spend considerable effort in converting it only to have it be put aside as the next fix comes along. And so on...

And now, after creating software (Mobi2IMP/PDFRead/deimp) to effortlessly convert between ebook formats, it will only add fuel to my fire.

But I'm enjoying myself, and in the end, that is all that matters to me.

[mollybo]

Oops, I chose 51-100, but I forgot about all the books I bought for my Rocket eBook and Gemstar. I probably have purchased more like 101-200 if we count all the devices I've read books on.

[AJ Starr]

Though I've only "purchased" one book from BoB, and a few years and years and years ago when Star Wars put out the ebook in the series in pdf,

I have converted several of my paperback books to ebook format.

How about a category for converting your own books, since I am almost ( I did buy one) emphatic about not buying any more DRM books.

By the by, this does not include all the copyright free books I've downloaded from Gutenberg and this site.

I know this site is for ebooks, but my currently preferred method is audio books. Much better on my failing eyesight, and I can work around the house, as well as go to sleep, listening to books.

-Alyson