What happens if e-book prices drop?

laktor · Post by **laktor** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 7:22 am

If I take as long to try out an e-reader as it's taken me to give other new gadgets a try, I should be getting my first e-reader....in about 10 years. It's been 1 year ago this month that I got my first EVER cell phone, and we know how long they have been around!

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 7:34 am

I'm a very slow adopter of most new technologies. This is an advantage, I think, because by the time I finally succumb, the technology tends to be at a more advanced and user-friendly stage. I still don't have a cell phone. I tried one out when I was away from home for 2 months on a research project, and hated almost everything about it. I don't like their tininess, and I especially don't like being on call wherever I go. On the other hand, I loooove email!

My maternal grandmother got a charge out of new technologies, although she took a thrifty Germanic approach to it. She bought one of the earliest refrigerators on the market, a GE monitor-top. The salesman told her it was a lifetime investment - and she was still using it to the day she died.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 9:34 am

[quote=""LoveHistory""]I'm fairly certain my autistic kids would read more if they could use an iPad to do it. That thought just occured to me. I wonder if they'd do the same with a Nook or other eReader.

Does anyone know if there are many children's books available as eBooks?[/quote]

Kindle has over 35,000 ebooks categorized as children's books: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_ ... 1298453000

Nook apparently has just over 13,000: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com ... TORE=EBOOK

In fact isn't the nook color? I swear I saw a commercial where they were showing how cool it was that a kids book was now in color.

There is a Nook Color but they also still offer their black and white e-ink Nook too: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?
The Nook Color is a good option for people who want an ereader with the touchscreen and color of an iPad but without all the other features and cost.

N. Gemini Sasson · Post by **N. Gemini Sasson** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 1:20 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]Within the last few weeks, I sat next to a young man in his 20s on an airplane flight who was reading one of the Stieg Larssen books on his Kindle. He said he has been reading many more books since he got the Kindle. I got the impression he didn't read much fiction at all before, and is now reading quite a bit. Very interesting, and not something that would have occurred to me if I hadn't spoken with him.[/quote]

Now there's another thing I hadn't thought of. When Kindles were first on the market and more expensive, I think it was mostly tech savvy adults with disposable incomes using them. Now you see Kindle ads aimed at kids and it wouldn't be such a bad thing if more kids started using them to read instead of playing games (of course, you can buy games for your Kindle now, too :rolleyes

.

MLE, my former band teacher is in his 80's and he bought himself a Kindle for the same reason - so he could increase the font size. He reads a LOT now. I'm thinking this might be a good gift idea for my in-laws for next Christmas. I'm definitely getting my daughter one.

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 3:37 pm

I think ereaders do make books more accessible for a wider reading audience, and those who didn't read much before may find themselves reading more. Maybe we'll even see a revival of interest in some of the neglected classics that are out there for free.

Crunching numbers won't tell you everything. A lot of the cheap ebooks are genre (such as romance which often is not published as HC) or indie authors (which I still think people rely on word of mouth to find good indie authors to try, otherwise there is just too much out there to choose from) or they are promotional and the price goes back up after the promotion. A lot of the titles by major publishers are still above the $5 threshold (which includes quite a few of those children's books unless you are only interested in reading old classics). For some reason, I cannot bring myself to pay the $9.99 price for a new children's book. I would rather own the print editions for those.

Re advertising, I hope we don't see that in ebooks. If they follow the example of MMP, we might see advertising at the end of a book, which I guess wouldn't be so bad but as a consumer I don't want my ebooks overloaded with a lot of code that makes the files too large.

Slightly off topic, but related to advertising, is anyone else annoyed by ads at the online dictionary sites? They seem to be getting worse. I do like the enhancements where you can hear how words should be pronounced. That is helpful and has great possibilities for interactive ebooks as well.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 3:41 pm

I thought about buying ebooks for students in our library but the catch is that only one student can check out an ebook at a time. Then they have to release it from their ereader. Thats fine, but I can only assume mos tof my students would forget to do this and I'd never get the ebook back. A physical book is a lot easier to remember than one in cyber space.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 4:33 pm

Thanks for the link! Fascinating article and follow-up comments. I've been futzing with the pricing questions for months. My publisher sets the price for my ebook edition and I can't, by contract, offer it for less on other sites. I've always thought it was a bit high, but the checks from Amazon each month are heartening. I finally decided, when I bring out my next book, I'll drop the ebook option and the price of my first book. I think it'll do much better at a slightly lower price point. People aren't going to pay premium prices for a new author.

However, I'd like to point out that people are buying A WHOLE BOOK (that someone spent several months, if not years, producing) for less than the price of a latte. They can keep this book, reread it, and (in some cases) loan it to friends all for the low, low price of $.99 to $5.99. The latte is gone in ten minutes and you have to buy another the next time you crave one.

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 7:04 pm

Very interesting link. I've been watching all of this closely, as I believe most, if not all, authors should. With the recent release of my latest novel, The Tudor Secret, e-book sales appear to be outpacing online print, within a month of on-sale. It's too early to determine for sure what is happening with physical store sales - particularly at outlets like Target and Costco - but I'm seeing a definite shift format-wise between this book and my previous one.

Most experts predict that e-book sales, especially within the online book segment, will outpace physical books within two years, if not sooner. Not surprising, considering that people invest between $100 and $300 in an e-reader. To get a return on the investment, they download more books. The device itself is helping to sell the medium it's designed for.

I don't have a e-reader - I've tentatively been exploring the Nook Color or Geo, mostly so I can access books published in Spain - but I'm pretty much a die-hard print guy. But this does appear to be the wave of the future and publishers face some tough challenges ahead, as are those of us in the industry. With the loss of nearly 50% of Borders' sales space and the ongoing rise of e-books and these pricing issues, there's no question anymore that publishing is going to look very different in the coming years.

Matt Phillips · Post by **Matt Phillips** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 8:52 pm

I was a little skeptical about the point in the article speculating that e-readers might get kids to read more and play video games and watch TV less. Analogizing to downloadable music, it's not like iTunes probably increased the amount of music kids listened to (as far as I know), just the way they accessed and listened to it and perhaps the specific artists they considered.

However, one way e-readers might get kids to read more is with the advent of "enhanced" e-books. E-books with links to video, audio or even mini-games related to the story could have great appeal. In fact, I'm surprised Twilight-inspired Facebook games haven't arisen yet (as far as I know). Bella-ville?

This could be especially true for very young kids: When I bought my Nook Color, the sales guy demo-ing it was talking about B&N's plans for enhanced children's books that allow the child to do all kinds of fun things on the device in the "world" of the book (including the book reading itself to the child, when Mom or Dad is busy).

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed February 23rd, 2011, 10:16 pm

[quote=""Matt Phillips""]I was a little skeptical about the point in the article speculating that e-readers might get kids to read more and play video games and watch TV less. Analogizing to downloadable music, it's not like iTunes probably increased the amount of music kids listened to (as far as I know), just the way they accessed and listened to it and perhaps the specific artists they considered.

However, one way e-readers might get kids to read more is with the advent of "enhanced" e-books. E-books with links to video, audio or even mini-games related to the story could have great appeal. In fact, I'm surprised Twilight-inspired Facebook games haven't arisen yet (as far as I know). Bella-ville?

This could be especially true for very young kids: When I bought my Nook Color, the sales guy demo-ing it was talking about B&N's plans for enhanced children's books that allow the child to do all kinds of fun things on the device in the "world" of the book (including the book reading itself to the child, when Mom or Dad is busy).[/quote]

My 11 year old would appreciate a dictionary or encyclopedia feature so that he can immediately look up anything that is new to him.

I don't think iTunes is a good comparison. It doesn't take much thought or attention span to listen to most music. 3 and 1/2 minutes is not a huge commitment to entertainment, and there are more fluffy songs than songs that require or inspire reasoning of any kind.