Who Really Reads Ebooks

BostonB

What the difference in cost in eBook and regular books? Books in Ireland are very expensive, especially as an impulse buy.

Kinski

BostonB wrote: »

What the difference in cost in eBook and regular books? Books in Ireland are very expensive, especially as an impulse buy.

Depends on the book. Though often there is little difference. Don't buy hardcopies from bookshops here - shop on bookdepository.co.uk instead.

pickarooney

BostonB wrote: »

I think the extra weight is a major issue, not something significant.

Likewise the small screen of the Kindle would be a major issue for me, but it's swings and roundabouts. If I wanted a small screen device I'd get a 7" tablet and lose 250g

What the difference in cost in eBook and regular books? Books in Ireland are very expensive, especially as an impulse buy.

.

Depends where you're comparing to. I always fill up on English books when I'm home at about two quid a book.

BostonB

pickarooney wrote: »

Likewise the small screen of the Kindle would be a major issue for me, but it's swings and roundabouts. If I wanted a small screen device I'd get a 7" tablet and lose 250g....

Well the screen is designed for reading books, specifically.

Whats the weight difference between a tablet and a kindle with the same screen size.

BostonB

Kinski wrote: »

Depends on the book. Though often there is little difference. Don't buy hardcopies from bookshops here - shop on bookdepository.co.uk instead.

Kinda hard to impulse buy from that, then read it there and then.

EileenG

I buy a huge number of impulse kindle books for $3 or so. At that price, I don't have to justify it to myself, I just go ahead and buy, and if it turns out to be a lemon, I don't feel too cheated.

The last time I went on holidays by myself, I ended up with a crowd of wrinklies who wouldn't talk to me, and I was travelling Ryanair light. If I hadn't had a dozen books on my Kindle ap, I'd have been sunk. As it was, I caught up with all my reading and enjoyed myself anyway.

Kinski

BostonB wrote: »

Kinda hard to impulse buy from that, then read it there and then.

Then get a Kindle.

pickarooney

BostonB wrote: »

Well the screen is designed for reading books, specifically.

Whats the weight difference between a tablet and a kindle with the same screen size.

I think the 10" Kindle DX is about 50g lighter than my Android tablet of the same size. The 6" in kindle is about 70g lighter than a 7" version I think.

Regarding the scren, I honestly don't know. I haven't tested a Kindle for more than 5 minutes or in the dark or sun.

Chinafoot

Don't forget that Kindles can't currently be used for library ebooks.

FewFew

Right, just went on a Kindle shopping spree.

Bought two of the fecking things (possibly poor logic here, but I decided to start buying Christmas presents now as I may find myself unemployed nearer to the event.). Amazon is such a pain in the ass.

It knows I'm in Ireland, there are Irish flags everywhere and it's charging me more money for my ebooks. Soooo... why is it when I click on the big kindle add, it lets me add the US only version into my cart. Annoying.

Then I try to buy a cover for it, and it turns out the cover can't be shipped outside of the states.

This is quite annoying, there are just constantly errors in your order, but no warning until you press the payment button. Gah!

Also, I'm not a fan of the "Kindle + special offers" deal. It sounds like you're buying a Kindle on special offer, about $20 off the price, but what it actually means is your Kindle will start showing adverts whenever you're not reading something on it! I think I'd rather pay the $20 and not carry around ads for the lifetime of the product.

Antilles

I think the only rational way to decide this is to force everybody to buy and use Kindles for a year. Then after that they can decide for themselves, and those who don't want a Kindle can be put to work in underground salt mines.

pickarooney

Chinafoot wrote: »

Don't forget that Kindles can't currently be used for library ebooks.

Do they read .epubs and PDFs?

EileenG

Chinafoot wrote: »

Don't forget that Kindles can't currently be used for library ebooks.

I heard they could. What can you use for library e-books then?

BostonB

EileenG wrote: »

I heard they could. What can you use for library e-books then?

Library eBooks? whats that?

EileenG

Haven't checked it out yet, but I was told that in September, most libraries would be offering e-books. You download your e-book, and it vanishes after three weeks, so you don't have to return it. Sounds perfect.

chicken fingers

Whats the ebook process in a library?

Anybody know much does the government pay in royalties each time an adult borrows an ebook form the library?
And if it requires an actual person to process the transaction, I wonder what that costs in total, salary, pensions etc per book. I'd be willing to bet that the government is paying more per book read than it would cost the individual to buy their own copy for keeps.

BostonB

Perhaps its books out of copyright?

EileenG

chicken fingers wrote: »

Whats the ebook process in a library?

Anybody know much does the government pay in royalties each time an adult borrows an ebook form the library?
And if it requires an actual person to process the transaction, I wonder what that costs in total, salary, pensions etc per book. I'd be willing to bet that the government is paying more per book read than it would cost the individual to buy their own copy for keeps.

Surely this applies to all library books? And I assume that e-books get a small royalty per loan, the same as paper books do.

Jimoslimos

pickarooney wrote: »

Do they read .epubs and PDFs?

ePUB - No, although there is software (free) that can convert non-DRM* protected ePUB to a format recognised by Kindle.

PDF's - Yes, but not without a few drawbacks. Small screen size (you could use the larger DX but IMO its too big for an eBook reader). Inability to change font size (you can zoom but its a tad cumbersome). I've put a few travel books on my GFs and it worked well but good eyesight is essential.

A few people still making the erroneous comparison between tablets and Kindles. Try reading a Kindle Vs iPad for a couple of hours and see how your eyes react. Also bring a kindle / iPad to the beach on a sunny day (where you might normally read a paper book) and observe the differences.

Kindle Vs Nook...........Kindle wins
Nook Vs iPad.............iPad
Kindle Vs iPad............Kindle (as a dedicated eReader)


*IIRC Amazon's problem isn't so much with the ePub format, its more concerned with the DRM protection, which for the most part is owned by Adobe. Amazon have their own copyright protection software and don't want to pay Adobe for use of theirs - of course even if they did pay Adobe it doesn't neccessarily mean all ePub ebooks will work if they are using non Adobe drm protection

Kinski

Jimoslimos wrote: »

PDF's - Yes, but not without a few drawbacks. Small screen size (you could use the larger DX but IMO its too big for an eBook reader).

I might be wrong, but AFAIK the Kindle DX Graphite is second-gen software in third gen hardware; as such, the PDF support is not as good as the Kindle 3 (i.e. not all PDFs will be readable on it.)

EileenG

I'm still using my phone as a kindle, but I've found a few websites with books I want to read, but they download as ePubs. Does anyone know of an ePub reader that I can download to an Android phone?

Kinski

EileenG wrote: »

I'm still using my phone as a kindle, but I've found a few websites with books I want to read, but they download as ePubs. Does anyone know of an ePub reader that I can download to an Android phone?

Aldiko, but I've never used it so I can't comment on it.

jimmycrackcorm

I think a lot depends on pricing. I use a Kindle DX for mainly technical computing books and I won't buy paper copies.

I won't spend the usual $30 + on an ebook because frankly I could download the PDF for free. I do however buy them from Amazon when they are priced around $10. It just seems wrong to charge for an eBook the same price as teenager equivalent.

Imho, it's much better to sell thousands of copies at $1 than a few hundred at $10 as it makes for better impulse purchasing.

pickarooney

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Try reading a Kindle Vs iPad for a couple of hours and see how your eyes react. Also bring a kindle / iPad to the beach on a sunny day (where you might normally read a paper book) and observe the differences.

The idea of reading a book of any decription on a beach just seems ridiculous to me, let alone exposing expensive electronics to sand and water.

The Mad Hatter

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Try reading a Kindle Vs iPad for a couple of hours and see how your eyes react. Also bring a kindle / iPad to the beach on a sunny day (where you might normally read a paper book) and observe the differences.

I read ebooks on my iPad in bed. A Kindle wouldn't be much good to me there because my girlfriend tends to be asleep beside me, and a standing light would keep her awake.

As for the argument that Kindles and Nooks are easier to read on than tablets, I accept that, but honestly I'm so used to reading off my laptop screen or my iPad screen that reading my books off them as well doesn't make that much difference to me.

BostonB

pickarooney wrote: »

The idea of reading a book of any decription on a beach just seems ridiculous to me....

I would have thought thats the perfect place for a book.

The Mad Hatter

BostonB wrote: »

I would have thought thats the perfect place for a book.

No, I'm with Pickarooney on this. Books are best read outside cafés, on balconies or in bed.

pickarooney

BostonB wrote: »

I would have thought thats the perfect place for a book.

The beach is for swimming, romantic walks and kicking sand on people who read books.

BostonB

Its traditional to swim in the sea, not the beach, and perhaps you're reading the wrong books if your idea of romantic, is kicking sand on people. Just maybe...:)

Hrududu

EileenG wrote: »

I'm still using my phone as a kindle, but I've found a few websites with books I want to read, but they download as ePubs. Does anyone know of an ePub reader that I can download to an Android phone?

If you download Calibre it will convert the ePub to a format the Kindle (or Kindle app) can read.

pickarooney

I've had fairly poor results with Calibre. Aldiko is good for android, as is FBreader.

The Mad Hatter

Calibre is sadly pretty linuxy - powerful (as far as I can tell), but extremely clunky and difficult to use.

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

I've had fairly poor results with Calibre. Aldiko is good for android, as is FBreader.

How do I use Alkido to read books that are not in its library?

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

How do I use Alkido to read books that are not in its library?

Click on the 'home' icon in the top left of Aldiko and there should be a set of options including SD Card. If the file is on an internal or external (micro)SD card you should be able to browse to it. If it's on another storage device attached to the phone, just use the up arrow to browse up a level and then into the storage device. Once you find the file you have an option to import it into the library.

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

Click on the 'home' icon in the top left of Aldiko and there should be a set of options including SD Card. If the file is on an internal or external (micro)SD card you should be able to browse to it. If it's on another storage device attached to the phone, just use the up arrow to browse up a level and then into the storage device. Once you find the file you have an option to import it into the library.

Thanks. I feel like a cavewoman.

pickarooney

I spent ten minutes cursing the applications inability to recognise my USB stick and deleted the program and only then asked on a forum how to read non-SD cards, if it's any consolation

FewFew

My Kindles arrived today! Yay! Nearly lost the fecking things. I moved office today and the porters left it on my old desk. I assumed it was one of many empty boxes, then I noticed a little Amazon logo! Yay! I was afraid it would take a week as suggested.
Then I had the problem of which of the two Kindles was mine. They looked identical, but one had 3G and the other doesn't. Lucky pick on my part. So far I must say it's awfully slick.

ThePinkCage

You're all converting me!

I'm still wondering if my publishers wer e a bit ahead of the curve though. My book isn't easy to get in bookshops for a variety of reasons and most of the people I talk to are wondering why they can't get it in bookshops. I say to them it's freely available on the Internet, but haven't noticed any great interest in ebooks among my extended circle of friends.

EileenG

ThePinkCage wrote: »

You're all converting me!

I'm still wondering if my publishers wer e a bit ahead of the curve though. My book isn't easy to get in bookshops for a variety of reasons and most of the people I talk to are wondering why they can't get it in bookshops. I say to them it's freely available on the Internet, but haven't noticed any great interest in ebooks among my extended circle of friends.

This is an issue for e-books. I've noticed that any of my friends who have bought my book as a Kindle are mostly on Facebook or Boards etc. The majority of my friends and all my family have said they'll wait for the paperback version. As far as I can determine from looking at the Amazon info on people who buy my book, they are strangers who are attracted to that type of story.l

BostonB

Perhaps friends and family aren't representative of your main audience.

EileenG

Well, it's YA SF, and I've got a lot of young relatives (I'll believe them, because they don't have credit cards to buy e-books) and a lot of friends who read SF. I know my mother is not going to read it in case she's in it.

BostonB

Whats YA SF? Maybe I should read it.

Kinski

EileenG wrote: »

I know my mother is not going to read it in case she's in it.

Is she?

EileenG

BostonB wrote: »

Whats YA SF? Maybe I should read it.

Young Adult (ie, no explicit sex) Science Fiction.

EileenG

Kinski wrote: »

Is she?

Not really. The psycho mother character is based on me, not her.

pnkker

ThePinkCage wrote: »

Hi

My book's come out on ebook and paperback - it's on Amazon. Keen to prmote the ebook - I went for my publisher, Book Republic, because they're very proactive in that sphere and I want to be where the action is.

But I'm curious. Have any of you read ebooks? How do you find the experience? What reader do you use? And would you pick an ebook over a paperback?

I read ebooks. If you are about publish one then I suggest you find a group of people say 30 or so who you are sure who will buy it.

The next question is how to get those 30 people . Well google is your best friend for that.

EileenG

There are quite a few e-book readers here on Boards.

pnkker

EileenG wrote: »

There are quite a few e-book readers here on Boards.

Thats a good idea. Make a post and ask people to read your work and that should get you going.

EileenG

They will only read it if it's something they were likely to read anyway. Life's too short to read books that don't interest you.

I think one thing that many aspiring writers think is that they'll have lots of guaranteed sales, because all their friends and relatives will read it. No, they won't. Close family will expect free copies, and most of the rest will only read it if you bully them into it.

pickarooney

This Kindle Fire dealy looks rather jazzy. Probably a bit limited in terms of what it can do but would suit a lot of people I imagine.