|
View Poll Results: Would a visual clue to book size influence your purchasing decision? | |||
Hell yes! | 33 | 30.56% | |
Couldn't care less | 46 | 42.59% | |
I'm a tad ambivalent | 20 | 18.52% | |
What is a visual clue? | 9 | 8.33% | |
Voters: 108. You may not vote on this poll |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
12-16-2011, 04:58 AM | #1 |
Basculocolpic
Posts: 4,356
Karma: 20181319
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sweden
Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1
|
Size matters
One drawback of buying e-books compared with p-books is that it is difficult knowing how much volume you are getting. In the bookstore you can pick up the book, see the pages, feel the heft.
There are no visual clues to that in the e-bookstore. So a simple question; Would it influence your purchasing decision if the picture of the cover (or similar visual clue) was proportionally related to the amount of words in a book? Last edited by Kumabjorn; 12-16-2011 at 06:36 AM. |
12-16-2011, 06:31 AM | #2 |
Wizard
Posts: 3,117
Karma: 9269999
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: UK
Device: Sony- T3, PRS650, 350, T1/2/3, Paperwhite, Fire 8.9,Samsung Tab S 10.5
|
What ?
I just voted couldn't care less, then noticed your explanation, and now I don't think I voted, for what I thought I had.... see? Do you mean a small image of cover = short book, and vice versa ? In which case I couldn't care even less - I am reasonably numerate, and can see how many pages there are in the book. And I have the rest of my life to read it, long or short, if it interests me. |
Advert | |
|
12-16-2011, 07:52 AM | #3 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 27,548
Karma: 193191846
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
|
As long as it's abundantly clear that it's not (or is) a short story, I don't really care. But if a visual "small, medium, large" indicator helps people make a decision... who am I to stand in the way?
That's a "couldn't care any less" vote in case you couldn't tell. |
12-16-2011, 08:26 AM | #4 |
Country Member
Posts: 9,058
Karma: 7676767
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Denmark
Device: Liseuse: Irex DR800. PRS 505 in the house, and the missus has an iPad.
|
I wonder if a word count would help. I have a general intuition that about 100,000 words is a reasonably long novel - not 1Q84 or The Magic Mountain, but not Death in Venice either. Even if it is not relevant for most people because they couldn't care less, it wouldn't hurt and shouldn't be so difficult to do, if a few people would find it useful.
|
12-16-2011, 10:02 AM | #5 |
Guru
Posts: 815
Karma: 1029784
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Nebraska, USA
Device: PEZ, Color Libre, 2@Sony T1, Onyx i62HD
|
After I buy the book, I can use the file size as an estimate.
|
Advert | |
|
12-16-2011, 10:11 AM | #6 |
Cat lover
Posts: 487
Karma: 1149782
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Montreal, Canada
Device: iPhone, Kobo Vox, Kobo Glo, iPad mini, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura
|
|
12-16-2011, 10:35 AM | #7 |
Spork Connoisseur
Posts: 2,355
Karma: 16780603
Join Date: Mar 2011
Device: Nook Color
|
I had to go with "couldn't care less" for the care continuum. If it comes down to it, I could always remove some older books to make room. And, with that, it's not like I LOSE the ones I take off my device. They are happily backed up.
But, I wouldn't rage if some kind of estimate were given on the book product page prior to purchase. Last edited by RainingLemur; 12-16-2011 at 10:38 AM. |
12-16-2011, 11:01 AM | #8 |
Well trained by Cats
Posts: 29,799
Karma: 54830978
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Central Coast of California
Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A
|
Price is not the indicator of size
... (or quality ) |
12-16-2011, 11:21 AM | #9 |
Guru
Posts: 726
Karma: 9209502
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Virginia
Device: Boox Palma, Kdle Scribe & Paperwhite, Kobo Eclipsa 2e & Libra 2, Ipads
|
I like to have some idea of how long the book will be. Even on the Freebies on Amazon I'll check the file size and determine if the summary warrants a short story or something smaller.
I'm not a fan of short stories unless I know the universe it's in. I don't mind them in fanfic, but not a fan of going in blind on something short. On the other hand, people can add a lot of padding to any format to make it seem longer, whether that padding is huge fonts and margins, or a lot of unnecessary story that does nothing for the plot line. So you can't always be sure. |
12-16-2011, 11:21 AM | #10 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,516
Karma: 2567610
Join Date: Oct 2009
Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD
|
With so many authors and publishing houses using the novella as a marketing tool now, I prefer that they be listed as such in the title.
"A Book - A Blank Series Novella" But I guess some sort of visual clue would work if they could agree on a universal tool. I'm really not a huge fan of the novella or the short story and I do try to avoid them. |
12-16-2011, 11:24 AM | #11 |
Zealot
Posts: 134
Karma: 249287
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Device: Nook, Kobo Vox
|
Hmm, In reality it doesn't matter to me. The size of the book doesn't make my decision about whether I'll buy it or not.
On the other hand, I really do take into account how long a book is when I start to read it. I would like to have a general idea of what I am about to get myself into. On the other hand, there is a participant in my book club who reads, on average, a book a day. She reads so much that she doesn't like to purchase short novels that she could read in a couple hours at her speed. |
12-16-2011, 11:28 AM | #12 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 27,548
Karma: 193191846
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
|
Quote:
|
|
12-16-2011, 12:54 PM | #13 |
Illiterate
Posts: 10,279
Karma: 37848716
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: The Sandwich Isles
Device: Samsung Galaxy S10+, Microsoft Surface Pro
|
I tend to prefer longer books. Even if I enjoy the story, I tend to feel a bit cheated if I'm through it in a day or two; especially if I’ve paid ten or twenty dollars for it.
Many times Amazon lists the page count for the paperback version (if it’s available in pbook), and I find that useful. |
12-16-2011, 02:52 PM | #14 |
Readaholic
Posts: 5,137
Karma: 89858112
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: South Georgia
Device: Surface Pro 6 / Galaxy Tab A 8"
|
Size is not an indication of quality. I voted I couldn't care less.
Apache |
12-16-2011, 03:43 PM | #15 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,698
Karma: 4748723
Join Date: Dec 2007
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
|
I hate buying, or downloading, what looks like a promising novel only to find out it's a short story or short novella. Other than having short works clearly marked as such I'm kind of ambivalent. A marker of some sort for long works might be nice though.
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Full size photo size v. Screensaver size? | FF2 | Amazon Kindle | 5 | 12-19-2010 11:02 PM |
Does the size matters? | Mister_R | Which one should I buy? | 32 | 10-23-2010 09:29 PM |
Size matters, what about weight? | jetreader | Ectaco jetBook | 5 | 09-05-2009 11:56 PM |
EVERYTHING MATTERS! Like, uh, formatting! | Neil | Amazon Kindle | 2 | 07-21-2009 11:17 AM |
Size matters? | Boris | Which one should I buy? | 4 | 08-08-2007 04:06 PM |