Just got a Kindle...

burlgirl · Post by **burlgirl** » Thu August 11th, 2011, 3:28 pm

[quote=""Divia""]Fist note that I have a Nook. The deals are not the same. [/quote]

Divia,
I also have the Nook, but the Color Nook. I rooted it (I found a how to on the Color Nook boards - it even had a link to a video with a step by step, so it was a no brainer, although time consuming). Why did I do this? Because I can now download the Kindle app and be able to get Kindle books as well as Nook books (amongst other reasons). I feel that this increased the value of my Nook and opened up my reading world even further. Not that I needed that - I suffer under the tyranny of too many books and too little time.

Jo

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » Thu August 11th, 2011, 5:13 pm

[quote=""anne whitfield""]I don't know much about the Nook, but I adore my kindle.
I've found a heap of historical fiction to read. The sample option lets you try a book before buying which I think is a great addition. I've saved money that way by trying a book and not liking it, where I might have bought the book in a shop.
Some authors I've found are Deanna Raybourn and Gemini N. Sasson to name only two. I read their samples and enjoyed them and bought the books straight away.

I've seen in other forums about people whining about digital book prices. I don't see what the problem is money wise. The author has written a book and deserves to be paid for it no matter what format it is read in. Why should we only pay for paperbacks or hardbacks but not for digital books? I don't understand that reasoning.
I've paid $9 and I've paid .99 cents for digital books, just as I would for a paperback. If the book is good I'll buy it and read it.[/quote]

I have no problem paying an author for their work. But the fact of the matter is, in traditional publishing, the author gets very little of the final price of the book. Most of it goes to the publisher. Obviously, this covers manufacturing and distribution, as well as a large cut for the final retailer.

I have no problem paying the author and even a cut for the publisher of an e-book, but why should I pay the same price as a print book, when no manufacturer, distributor, warehouse, or retail cost is involved?

Raymond · Post by **Raymond** » Thu August 11th, 2011, 8:34 pm

I will never buy an e book thingy. I love the feel of a open book in my hands, the way they look in my book cases and the smell of some of the older, musty ones. Plus I wll never have to worry about running out of batteries

Sharz · Post by **Sharz** » Fri August 12th, 2011, 2:55 am

There's not much worry about the battery these days. I've had my Nook for just shy of two months and I've charged it three times.

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Fri August 12th, 2011, 8:52 am

[quote=""The Czar""]I have no problem paying an author for their work. But the fact of the matter is, in traditional publishing, the author gets very little of the final price of the book. Most of it goes to the publisher. Obviously, this covers manufacturing and distribution, as well as a large cut for the final retailer.

I have no problem paying the author and even a cut for the publisher of an e-book, but why should I pay the same price as a print book, when no manufacturer, distributor, warehouse, or retail cost is involved?[/quote]

Yeah but the author still does the work though!

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Fri August 12th, 2011, 9:43 am

I found this article well written and informative on the issue of ebook pricing:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksbl ... ing-ebooks

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Fri August 12th, 2011, 11:25 am

[quote=""Raymond""]I will never buy an e book thingy. I love the feel of a open book in my hands, the way they look in my book cases and the smell of some of the older, musty ones. Plus I wll never have to worry about running out of batteries

[/quote]

The battery argument has always been a weak one in my opinion. We have so many electronics these days and no one ever complains about having to charge them - people didn't refuse to try cell phones or cordless phones because "I don't have to worry about charging my corded landline." That's because cell phones and cordless phones provide other benefits and conveniences that a corded landline doesn't. And the same is true for ebooks.

Keeping my Kindle charged is no different than keeping my phone charged (apart from the fact that my Kindle battery lasts much longer). It's really not a big deal and never been a problem. I've never "worried" about it running out of batteries. E-readers are not for everyone and if they are not for you, fair enough but I think the battery complaint is a weak one.

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » Fri August 12th, 2011, 11:19 pm

[quote=""Madeleine""]Yeah but the author still does the work though!

[/quote]

Sure, and by all means, I'm willing to pay him for it. I'm willing to pay his publisher for the trouble to format the book, edit it, and put it on amazon (although quite frankly, this is now a pretty simple process). What I'm not willing to pay for is for a bunch of stuff that they don't do in the e-book format, like buying paper, printing the book, cutting the pages, binding it, shipping it to stores, etc. Charging the same for an ebook as for a print book is just greedy and insulting to my intelligence.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Sat August 13th, 2011, 9:56 am

[quote=""The Czar""]Sure, and by all means, I'm willing to pay him for it. I'm willing to pay his publisher for the trouble to format the book, edit it, and put it on amazon (although quite frankly, this is now a pretty simple process). What I'm not willing to pay for is for a bunch of stuff that they don't do in the e-book format, like buying paper, printing the book, cutting the pages, binding it, shipping it to stores, etc. Charging the same for an ebook as for a print book is just greedy and insulting to my intelligence.[/quote]

I agree but I have read numerous times that for major publishers, the actual print and binding costs per book are something like less than $1, especially for mass market paperbacks. For indie publishers who can't print in the volumes that traditional publishers can, the cost per book is much more - which is why they often are more expensive in print yet far less expensive on ebook.

So I think that a lot of ebooks prices do indeed reflect the subtraction of printing costs. Not all, but many.

What gets on my nerves is ebooks which are MORE expensive than the (new) print version. Fortunately, that is not the case for plenty of the books I want to read but the more traditional publishers do this, the more indie books I find to read instead.

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » Sun August 21st, 2011, 4:13 am

[quote=""Mythica""]I agree but I have read numerous times that for major publishers, the actual print and binding costs per book are something like less than $1, especially for mass market paperbacks. For indie publishers who can't print in the volumes that traditional publishers can, the cost per book is much more - which is why they often are more expensive in print yet far less expensive on ebook.

So I think that a lot of ebooks prices do indeed reflect the subtraction of printing costs. Not all, but many.

What gets on my nerves is ebooks which are MORE expensive than the (new) print version. Fortunately, that is not the case for plenty of the books I want to read but the more traditional publishers do ethis, the more indie books I find to read instead.[/quote]

Yes, but even the $1 prints have to be bulk shipped to stores, which have to be stocked and retail expenses paid.

I'm totally cool with around $10 for a well formated Ebook. I remember books used to be about that before they started printing everything in larger prettier editions, and now they are up around $20.

And those $30 and up ebooks you see sometimes? Please. no way.