Sony Reader on pre-order at the Fnac (France) ; ebooks coming soon too !

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There is no VAT in the US, Zelda. Most states have a sales tax, but it's much lower than European rates of VAT - less than 5% in most states. Prices in the US (even the prices marked in stores!) always exclude tax. Also, if you buy an item "mail order", you don't pay the sales tax if the store you're buying from doesn't have a "physical" store in your state. In that circumstance, you are supposed to repay the "owed" tax in the form of what's called "use tax", but it appears to be socially acceptable to evade the payment of this tax.

I can remember when most states were less than 5% but no so much any more. In CA I pay about 8.5%. Most other states are a bit cheaper but very few are less than 5% unless they don't charge sales tax at all.

Dale

[BlackVoid]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

so, even if we know that common practice is to take the US price and change the "$" to "€" for sales in europe, how do they justify THAT difference ??? really, i think it's pretty outrageous. do they think we've all got money trees growing on the windowsill over here ???? sheesh.

Thats the way the American Dollar Empire works. The Americans consume, the rest of the world pays for it.

[vivaldirules]

I'm so happy that the rest of the world is beginning to have the opportunity to spend lots of money on ebook readers for which there are very few ebooks to read.

Okay, I'll go away now.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I'm so happy that the rest of the world is beginning to have the opportunity to spend lots of money on ebook readers for which there are very few ebooks to read.

Okay, I'll go away now.

This is a curious definition of "very few" that I've not encountered before. I couldn't read possibly read all the eBooks I'd like to even if I were to have several lifetimes in which to do so . My "must read" list grows longer and longer every week...

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is a curious definition of "very few" that I've not encountered before. I couldn't read possibly read all the eBooks I'd like to even if I were to have several lifetimes in which to do so . My "must read" list grows longer and longer every week...

Mine too, Harry. But the number of books that should be on my "must read" list that aren't because they simply aren't available for my Sony Reader is very much longer (if I actually had such a list - I quit keeping it up long ago).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Mine too, Harry. But the number of books that should be on my "must read" list that aren't because they simply aren't available for my Sony Reader is very much longer (if I actually had such a list - I quit keeping it up long ago).

Where we perhaps differ is that I've never had the opinion that an eBook reader should necessarily replace paper books. I'm happy if a book I like is available as an eBook, but I'm equally happy to buy a paper book.

The real value of eBook readers for me personally is that they make so much long-out-of-print material accessible to me. I'm a big fan of 19th century novels, and there are thousands of books available from PG that would be virtually impossible to find as printed books.

[zelda_pinwheel]

well, i have to say that i agree with vr on this one. i don't want ebooks to completely replace all paper books, and there are plenty of paperbooks which i plan to keep forever (barring unforeseen accidents), and i definitely do see them as complementary rather than mutually exclusive.

however, i do wish that for all my future purchases i could have the choice of getting *any* book i wanted to buy as an ebook, because i materially do not have the space in my tiny appartment to stock more paper books (the beauty of ebooks is they've allowed me already to get rid of nearly 100 paper books ; that's a considerable amount of space to gain). i don't even know where to stick all the ones i still have ; there are (full) improvised bookshelves in every little corner and underneath things and blocking doorways which are already a bit too narrow when you come home with the groceries, and there are piles on almost every flat surface and even maybe a few directly on the floor. so it's not all the same to me ; now that i have a liseuse, i really don't want to buy any more paper books.

[vivaldirules]

That's a very good point, Harry. I am perhaps excessively anxious to flip the switch entirely and never buy another paper book again.

[Faenad]

I just looked at the Ebook section of the Fnac website. While the selection seems still poor, the principle makes a lot of sense.

They works with the Cyberlibris company, and the website works as a librairy, with a price of 6€/month for access to all the books and a starting price of only 1.49€/month for only one "category" of book.

(You can suscribe only to one or to a few category of book, which would be great for me as I read a lot of history books. Strangly, there is no fiction category for the moment.)

The only problem is that the service only allows you to make a paper copy. You can print the document on paper, but you cannot backup it in electronic form
PDF Printer are not authorized. When you cancel the service, you lose all the books you have not printed.
Also, the books seems only available in PDF for the moment.

I hope they will seriously beef up their offer for the PRS-505 release, while keeping the same functionment and price tag.
I will certainly try the service as the first month is only 1€ for one category of book, and there is no lenght commitment.

[zelda_pinwheel]

faenad, i just noticed that service as well (i think it's been around for a while) but i think it is completely distinct from the ebooks they will be launching in tandem with the sony ; i think those will be the normal type of ebooks, i.e. no subscription, you purchase individual titles and download them to read on your (sony, they hope) device.

i can't see how they could integrate that digital library into their sony offer, so it makes sense they would be separate.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I'm so happy that the rest of the world is beginning to have the opportunity to spend lots of money on ebook readers for which there are very few ebooks to read.

Okay, I'll go away now.

Chicken and egg situation. As a publisher would put in the time and money to convert your books into ebook versions for a small market? Would a consumer buy a ebook reader when so few popular books are available?

Once a critical mass is reached publishers will be rushing to offer ebook versions of their books. Remember how long it took mp3s to become mainstream? It's only recently they've included mp3 downloads in the music charts.

[ronnn]

As being both french and proud owner of an PRS-505 (bought in the US last year), what i'm curious about is the price the books will be proposed at.
For those of you who are not familliar with France, we have a wonderful (ahem) system in which the editor or the importator fixes the price of a book once and for all, allowing only 5% difference from the fixed price. It's called " Le prix unique du livre ".And yes, it's a law (since 1981 - Loi Lang)

Considering that by this law, a book (un livre) is defined as this :
Un livre est un ensemble imprimé, illustré ou non, publié sous un titre ayant pour objet la reproduction d'une œuvre de l'esprit d'un ou plusieurs auteurs en vue de l'enseignement, de la diffusion de la pensée et de la culture.
Which roughly translates to :
A book is a printed ensemble, illustrated or not, published under a title being the reproduction of an intellectual work of art from one or may authors ...
(Please anyone more fluent in english correct me ... )
The thing here being that a book is "printed", which an ebook is not ...
Well, we'll see how things are

[Cookie Monster]

Originally Posted by ronnn

As being both french and proud owner of an PRS-505 (bought in the US last year), what i'm curious about is the price the books will be proposed at.
For those of you who are not familliar with France, we have a wonderful (ahem) system in which the editor or the importator fixes the price of a book once and for all, allowing only 5% difference from the fixed price. It's called " Le prix unique du livre ".And yes, it's a law (since 1981 - Loi Lang)

Considering that by this law, a book (un livre) is defined as this :
Un livre est un ensemble imprimé, illustré ou non, publié sous un titre ayant pour objet la reproduction d'une œuvre de l'esprit d'un ou plusieurs auteurs en vue de l'enseignement, de la diffusion de la pensée et de la culture.
Which roughly translates to :
A book is a printed ensemble, illustrated or not, published under a title being the reproduction of an intellectual work of art from one or may authors ...
(Please anyone more fluent in english correct me ... )
The thing here being that a book is "printed", which an ebook is not ...
Well, we'll see how things are

France still has retail price maintenance? That is surprising. Just buy your books and ebooks cheaper then from elsewhere in the EU.

[olsonjm25]

I wonder if the FNAC ebooks will be available to those of us in the U.S. who enjoy reading French-language literature. I hope so. Manybooks has a nice French-language section, but it would sure be nice to have more.

[zelda_pinwheel]

ronnnn : in the french forum we were discussing the price of french ebooks as well, some have said that an ebook is not legally considered a book (don't ask me why, it makes no sense to me) so the loi lang will not be applicable.

*however*, others have speculated that many of the french publishers don't like ebooks, so they don't want them to gain popularity, so they will continue to price them very high (hardly discounted at all from a paper version), in order to discourage people from buying them in hopes they will just go away.

i guess it's up to us to show them we want them and we want reasonable prices.

olsonjm25 : i think you could probably buy ebooks from fnac.com from anywhere in the world, using a credit card. i don't see why it should be a problem. if you are looking for french litterature, there is already some available (sadly, not very much... hopefully a lot more soon) i recommend you take a look in the french forum where there are a few threads which talk about where to find ebooks. apart from the obvious free sources like manybooks and feedbooks and mobileread and gallica there are some shops which sell french ebooks (numilog for instance) and a lot of ressources that our members have discovered and shared.