Can you help me design a new ebookstore?

ballyc27 · 06-29-2011, 11:31 AM

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice/feedback from ye guys.
I am expanding into the ebook retail arena in a bigger way. I'm a small ebook publisher (TheEbookSale Publishing) and a POD publisher (RealTime Publishing) so I'm in the business for a few years now.

I'm in the process of developing a new ebook store.
The main store will be located at: leisureebooks.com
the mobile store will be located here: m.leisureebooks.com
and I will also have a cross platform smartphone app and perhaps a desktop app also.
Everything is under development at present so it's the perfect time to touch base with the experts out there to gain some insights into the wants and needs of ebook lovers.
I can then take action to build in the desired features and produce an ebook store designed by you.

For today, I wish to concentrate on the main store (I'll leave the apps for another day). It is still hosted on our development servers but you can take a look at it here:
http://dev.indianic.com/leisureebooks/

Again, I would really appreciate some feedback so please fill out the survey. I will send a $10 gift cert to the first 50 people who fill out the survey.
Note: you will have to wait about 4 weeks to use your gift cert because leisureebooks.com will not be officially opened until August 1st. There is a small amount of content in the store for testing purposes but by opening day, there will be several thousand titles.

And here is the survey.

If you don't have time to fill out the survey, please leave some comments here.

Thank-you all very much,
Richie.

justapuppy · 06-29-2011, 12:04 PM

Done the survey and then clicked onto your current site, which I can comment on to maybe help the new one. I find the page is too slow to load - I think it's the changing images that does that, it's also a bit distracting to me. I do have a crappy speed here though...

Elfwreck · 06-29-2011, 02:01 PM

The blinky changing books at top are nothing but a bandwidth-sucking nuisance. NOBODY likes those.

I'm not signing up, because the login form demands a bunch of info I don't hand out without a reason. (Including Mr/Ms. What difference does it make? Do you have gender-targeted advertising? And phone number--what, is someone going to call me if I'm unhappy with my order?)

Note about the Gift Certificates FAQ: All of the pieces should be available on one page; you shouldn't have to click five times to figure out all of how they work.

Site doesn't say anything about ebook formats or DRM. Doesn't say whether it considers that it's "selling" ebooks or "licensing" them.

The vanity press publishing aspect is fascinating... why should someone pay you $65 + 40% of the first 3000 copies for an ISBN and distribution, when Smashwords only takes 15%? And Amazon only takes 30% for books priced between $3 and $10?

$2.50/page for editing seems... not unreasonable, but not likely to get a large demand, either. It's unclear whether it demands any kind of exclusivity, or if authors can pay for the editing services & then market their books to other sites.

Looked around a bit more--AH! That includes print publication, which is of little interest to a lot of us here at Mobileread.

jbcohen · 06-29-2011, 02:43 PM

The best advice that I can give you at this point is the catagories that you use in your catalog needs to have very descriptive catagories and needs to go down several levels.
For example at the top level you need catagories like fiction, mystery and thriller and scifi and fantasy. The mystery and thriller catagory would break out into mystery and thriller. Thriller would break out into technothriller and political thrillers, while mystery would break out into sub-catagories such as hard boiled detectives, amateur detective and police procedural. You will need to make these bottom level catagories very descriptive and many different bottom level catagories so that your customers can find the appropriate catagory for them. Personaly I have not used b&n becuase their catagories are not broad based enough and I can not find the catagory that best suits me. Too few catagories makes it impossible for your customers to find the appropriate one for them while there does not appear to be any penaty for having too many catagories. A drop down list box is probably the best way to present the different catagories.

You will also need to provide different formats such as epub, pdf and mobi (for kindlers) and also perhaps a printed format for those that are not up to date with the electronic reading trend.

Elfwreck · 06-29-2011, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

The best advice that I can give you at this point is the catagories that you use in your catalog needs to have very descriptive catagories and needs to go down several levels.
For example at the top level you need catagories like fiction, mystery and thriller and scifi and fantasy. The mystery and thriller catagory would break out into mystery and thriller.

I'd say "Crime drama," and break that into "mystery" and "thriller."

Quote:

Thriller would break out into technothriller and political thrillers, while mystery would break out into sub-catagories such as hard boiled detectives, amateur detective and police procedural.

And, potentially, historical. There's a difference between wanting modern detective novels and wanting to read Sherlock Holmes-era, or Cadfael-era, stories.

Quote:

Personaly I have not used b&n becuase their catagories are not broad based enough and I can not find the catagory that best suits me.

I've given up on expecting useful categories from ebook stores; I want useful search options instead.

Quote:

Too few catagories makes it impossible for your customers to find the appropriate one for them while there does not appear to be any penaty for having too many catagories.

Too many result in customers giving up because it's too confusing, especially if they're dabbling into a genre they don't normally read in.

I can name a dozen or more subtypes of romance novel, and maybe two for mysteries. (I see you've listed three above. I couldn't articulate the differences between them.) I'm sure plenty of other readers would have the opposite problem. If I click on "mysteries," because a friend suggested I try some, and I'm faced with 9 subcategories, I may just give up. Definitely, the main category needs to work as its own filter, with the option of using subcategories as well.

Too many categories also means needing to decide exactly where each ebook fits; even if the authors decide that when they submit them, they may be unable to pick which specific subcat is most appropriate.

Quote:

You will also need to provide different formats such as epub, pdf and mobi (for kindlers) and also perhaps a printed format for those that are not up to date with the electronic reading trend.

It looks like they have PDF, EPUB, MOBI and LIT, with many titles only offered in some formats. (A lot of pdf-only titles.) No info about DRM.

justapuppy · 06-30-2011, 06:22 AM

Can't remember if I put this in the survey, but I love Tags as a way organising content. Maybe within Romance you could have: historical, chick lit, modern, thriller, comedy... (ad infinitum, depending on the tags placed together)

DuskyRose · 06-30-2011, 11:56 AM

I did the survey first, then checked out the site.

I agree with everyone above, and for me wanted to add a personal opinion that to offer any public domain books as your 'freebies' feels kind of tacky. I know other places do it as well, and some allow people to upload PD books and charge, and I've always felt that was tacky as well. Save the space for freebie offers for stuff people can't get anywhere else. Or at least not for from from Gutenberg.

susan_cassidy · 06-30-2011, 12:46 PM

The site seems slow.

Book summaries (displayed when you click on Science Fiction, for example) also need to show the author name. When you open a book's detail page, the author name is not prominently displayed, either. I should not have to read "About the Author" just to find out who wrote the book.

Please make sure to split (make subcategories) for science fiction and fantasy. They are NOT the same thing. Also, subcategories for Mystery and Crime might be helpful, or at least provide search criteria like "British", "Police Procedural", "Cozy", etc.

I don't like the animated header, either.

I find it odd that you list mobipocket format as "prc", when that file extension has been obsolete for years. .mobi is the preferred file extension.

Elfwreck · 06-30-2011, 02:09 PM

Offering PD books as freebies is reasonable--if something's been added to make them different from the Gutenberg editions. Formatting, synopsis, filetypes Gutenberg doesn't make (.lit), a better TOC & a nice cover, whatever.

But there's no need to have yet another gutenberg/google/archive.org bookfeed attached to a store.

Giggleton · 06-30-2011, 03:28 PM

Allow people to read the entire book before deciding if they wish to purchase the book, it is very simple and good. see,

http://redlemona.de/

Beerman · 06-30-2011, 04:10 PM

Survey completed. Good luck on your endeavors!

crich70 · 06-30-2011, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballyc27

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice/feedback from ye guys.
I am expanding into the ebook retail arena in a bigger way. I'm a small ebook publisher (TheEbookSale Publishing) and a POD publisher (RealTime Publishing) so I'm in the business for a few years now.

I'm in the process of developing a new ebook store.
The main store will be located at: leisureebooks.com
the mobile store will be located here: m.leisureebooks.com
and I will also have a cross platform smartphone app and perhaps a desktop app also.
Everything is under development at present so it's the perfect time to touch base with the experts out there to gain some insights into the wants and needs of ebook lovers.
I can then take action to build in the desired features and produce an ebook store designed by you.

For today, I wish to concentrate on the main store (I'll leave the apps for another day). It is still hosted on our development servers but you can take a look at it here:
http://dev.indianic.com/leisureebooks/

Again, I would really appreciate some feedback so please fill out the survey. I will send a $10 gift cert to the first 50 people who fill out the survey.
Note: you will have to wait about 4 weeks to use your gift cert because leisureebooks.com will not be officially opened until August 1st. There is a small amount of content in the store for testing purposes but by opening day, there will be several thousand titles.

And here is the survey.

If you don't have time to fill out the survey, please leave some comments here.

Thank-you all very much,
Richie.

I filled out the survey. Good luck with your new ebook store.

Tome Keeper · 07-01-2011, 07:41 AM

Filled out the survey but I was unsure what your USP is with the e-book store. Are you just offering indies? Only those you have published?

The survey didn't ask much about the site itself so I attach comments below.

The changing images are very annoying and make the site slow even on my average connection.

You have a language option which does not seem to change anything.

The changing images and title font make the site seem tacky and I am not sure I would trust it because of that. Apart from that the site looks professional.

I like to see reviews when I buy books, extra function?

Why do you need age/phone/fax details?

The product selection is limited, this links back to the USP. Are these books not available elsewhere?

Shipping and returns section seems out of place. Why include just one sentence?

I couldn't find information on the DRM status of the books.

This page http://dev.indianic.com/leisureebook...roducts_id=181 does not give enough information about the contents nor does it seem professional. Those, visit here to find out how, links are those I associate with scam sites.

DiapDealer · 07-01-2011, 07:59 AM

Microsoft Reader (.lit) format? Really? I liked it OK when it still had a pulse.

jbcohen · 07-01-2011, 08:08 AM

One way to understand what a good electronic book store looks like is to look at a suscessful one already and learn from them. The things I like about Amazon is: 1) the way it breaks out its catagories, not to many not to few; 2) There willingness to give away a free sample to a novel (I like to look at the preview first to see if I like the author's writting style); 3) Their willingness to offer new authors books for substantial discounts - for the author it gives them a way to get noticed and for me the customer gives me a way to find new authors and save dolars in the process, together with their willingness to give me a sample before I buy.

06-29-2011, 11:31 AM	#1
ballyc27 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 169 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: microsoft reader	Can you help me design a new ebookstore? Hi there, I would really appreciate some advice/feedback from ye guys. I am expanding into the ebook retail arena in a bigger way. I'm a small ebook publisher (TheEbookSale Publishing) and a POD publisher (RealTime Publishing) so I'm in the business for a few years now. I'm in the process of developing a new ebook store. The main store will be located at: leisureebooks.com the mobile store will be located here: m.leisureebooks.com and I will also have a cross platform smartphone app and perhaps a desktop app also. Everything is under development at present so it's the perfect time to touch base with the experts out there to gain some insights into the wants and needs of ebook lovers. I can then take action to build in the desired features and produce an ebook store designed by you. For today, I wish to concentrate on the main store (I'll leave the apps for another day). It is still hosted on our development servers but you can take a look at it here: http://dev.indianic.com/leisureebooks/ Again, I would really appreciate some feedback so please fill out the survey. I will send a $10 gift cert to the first 50 people who fill out the survey. Note: you will have to wait about 4 weeks to use your gift cert because leisureebooks.com will not be officially opened until August 1st. There is a small amount of content in the store for testing purposes but by opening day, there will be several thousand titles. And here is the survey. If you don't have time to fill out the survey, please leave some comments here. Thank-you all very much, Richie.

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06-29-2011, 12:04 PM	#2
justapuppy Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Sony PRS650	Done the survey and then clicked onto your current site, which I can comment on to maybe help the new one. I find the page is too slow to load - I think it's the changing images that does that, it's also a bit distracting to me. I do have a crappy speed here though...

06-29-2011, 02:01 PM	#3
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,187 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	The blinky changing books at top are nothing but a bandwidth-sucking nuisance. NOBODY likes those. I'm not signing up, because the login form demands a bunch of info I don't hand out without a reason. (Including Mr/Ms. What difference does it make? Do you have gender-targeted advertising? And phone number--what, is someone going to call me if I'm unhappy with my order?) Note about the Gift Certificates FAQ: All of the pieces should be available on one page; you shouldn't have to click five times to figure out all of how they work. Site doesn't say anything about ebook formats or DRM. Doesn't say whether it considers that it's "selling" ebooks or "licensing" them. The vanity press publishing aspect is fascinating... why should someone pay you $65 + 40% of the first 3000 copies for an ISBN and distribution, when Smashwords only takes 15%? And Amazon only takes 30% for books priced between $3 and $10? $2.50/page for editing seems... not unreasonable, but not likely to get a large demand, either. It's unclear whether it demands any kind of exclusivity, or if authors can pay for the editing services & then market their books to other sites. Looked around a bit more--AH! That includes print publication, which is of little interest to a lot of us here at Mobileread.

06-29-2011, 02:43 PM	#4
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	The best advice that I can give you at this point is the catagories that you use in your catalog needs to have very descriptive catagories and needs to go down several levels. For example at the top level you need catagories like fiction, mystery and thriller and scifi and fantasy. The mystery and thriller catagory would break out into mystery and thriller. Thriller would break out into technothriller and political thrillers, while mystery would break out into sub-catagories such as hard boiled detectives, amateur detective and police procedural. You will need to make these bottom level catagories very descriptive and many different bottom level catagories so that your customers can find the appropriate catagory for them. Personaly I have not used b&n becuase their catagories are not broad based enough and I can not find the catagory that best suits me. Too few catagories makes it impossible for your customers to find the appropriate one for them while there does not appear to be any penaty for having too many catagories. A drop down list box is probably the best way to present the different catagories. You will also need to provide different formats such as epub, pdf and mobi (for kindlers) and also perhaps a printed format for those that are not up to date with the electronic reading trend.

06-30-2011, 06:22 AM	#6
justapuppy Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Sony PRS650	Can't remember if I put this in the survey, but I love Tags as a way organising content. Maybe within Romance you could have: historical, chick lit, modern, thriller, comedy... (ad infinitum, depending on the tags placed together)

06-30-2011, 11:56 AM	#7
DuskyRose Guru Posts: 754 Karma: 9209502 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Virginia Device: Boox Note Air3, Palma, K-Scribe, Eclipsa 2e, & Libra 2, Ipads	I did the survey first, then checked out the site. I agree with everyone above, and for me wanted to add a personal opinion that to offer any public domain books as your 'freebies' feels kind of tacky. I know other places do it as well, and some allow people to upload PD books and charge, and I've always felt that was tacky as well. Save the space for freebie offers for stuff people can't get anywhere else. Or at least not for from from Gutenberg.

06-30-2011, 12:46 PM	#8
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	The site seems slow. Book summaries (displayed when you click on Science Fiction, for example) also need to show the author name. When you open a book's detail page, the author name is not prominently displayed, either. I should not have to read "About the Author" just to find out who wrote the book. Please make sure to split (make subcategories) for science fiction and fantasy. They are NOT the same thing. Also, subcategories for Mystery and Crime might be helpful, or at least provide search criteria like "British", "Police Procedural", "Cozy", etc. I don't like the animated header, either. I find it odd that you list mobipocket format as "prc", when that file extension has been obsolete for years. .mobi is the preferred file extension.

06-30-2011, 02:09 PM	#9
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,187 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	Offering PD books as freebies is reasonable--if something's been added to make them different from the Gutenberg editions. Formatting, synopsis, filetypes Gutenberg doesn't make (.lit), a better TOC & a nice cover, whatever. But there's no need to have yet another gutenberg/google/archive.org bookfeed attached to a store.

06-30-2011, 03:28 PM	#10
Giggleton Banned Posts: 1,687 Karma: 4368191 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Oregon Device: Kindle3	Allow people to read the entire book before deciding if they wish to purchase the book, it is very simple and good. see, http://redlemona.de/

06-30-2011, 04:10 PM	#11
Beerman Member Posts: 24 Karma: 1286 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Ipad 2	Survey completed. Good luck on your endeavors!

07-01-2011, 07:41 AM	#13
Tome Keeper Addict Posts: 355 Karma: 1001201 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle 3 Keyboard, Surface Tablet, Android Smartphone, Laptop, Netbook	Filled out the survey but I was unsure what your USP is with the e-book store. Are you just offering indies? Only those you have published? The survey didn't ask much about the site itself so I attach comments below. The changing images are very annoying and make the site slow even on my average connection. You have a language option which does not seem to change anything. The changing images and title font make the site seem tacky and I am not sure I would trust it because of that. Apart from that the site looks professional. I like to see reviews when I buy books, extra function? Why do you need age/phone/fax details? The product selection is limited, this links back to the USP. Are these books not available elsewhere? Shipping and returns section seems out of place. Why include just one sentence? I couldn't find information on the DRM status of the books. This page http://dev.indianic.com/leisureebook...roducts_id=181 does not give enough information about the contents nor does it seem professional. Those, visit here to find out how, links are those I associate with scam sites.

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07-01-2011, 07:59 AM	#14
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,571 Karma: 204127028 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Microsoft Reader (.lit) format? Really? I liked it OK when it still had a pulse.

07-01-2011, 08:08 AM	#15
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	One way to understand what a good electronic book store looks like is to look at a suscessful one already and learn from them. The things I like about Amazon is: 1) the way it breaks out its catagories, not to many not to few; 2) There willingness to give away a free sample to a novel (I like to look at the preview first to see if I like the author's writting style); 3) Their willingness to offer new authors books for substantial discounts - for the author it gives them a way to get noticed and for me the customer gives me a way to find new authors and save dolars in the process, together with their willingness to give me a sample before I buy.