Comments on: Four Reasons Why Ebooks Are My Preferred Reading Format

By: freecia

freecia — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:25:47 +0000

As BooksOnBoard alluded to, I love being able to browse the new releases late Tuesday nights or early Wed. mornings, far far before I’d be able to make it into a bookstore. I can grab the sample chapter before I go to bed at 1am and read a bit, then sleep on the sample to see if I want to buy the book.

In this way, I’ve purchased books I decided were worthy “keepers” which is nicely balanced by my weekend impulse purchases. I try to curb that by heading to the library for the impulse reads. Forget checking out the new books at the library. I have to put it on hold and wait more than a month at times.

By: BooksOnBoard

BooksOnBoard — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:53:18 +0000

We are glad that so many readers recognize the significant advantages of eBooks. The eBook market is growing rapidly, and more new releases are being released immediately as eBooks.

Yesterday, Stephenie Meyer’s publisher advised the eBook industry that the eBook release of Breaking Dawn, her much-anticipated latest novel in the Twilight series, will be delayed a day until August 3rd. The hard copy release will still go forward August 2nd. This lag in release time has to do with concerns about eBooks getting to eBook customers in certain time zones before the hard copy book is available.

We have been heavily promoting the Breaking Dawn eBook (we’re even giving away a free Cybook ebook reader!). We will continue with this promotion. As a champion of eBook readers, we’re not happy about this delay in release time, but we’ll make the best of it for our customers.

We’re interested in hearing what eBook readers have to say – what do you think about eBooks being released after paperbooks? How can we get publishers to acknowledge that eBook readers are a significant (and growing) segment of the reading public?

By: Amy Wolff Sorter

Amy Wolff Sorter — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:48:55 +0000

This is a fascinating discussion. As an author, I submitted (and published) with an e-publisher because I wrote erotica and, at the time, not many of the mainstream publishers accepted it. But this was several years ago and trying to market it was a nightmare. People equated e-books to “crap.” :-)

This is why I find it so interesting that, these days (thanks to eReader devices), ebooks are becoming more popular. I like them too, for a lot of the reasons here; cost, filling in a backlist, finding different authors and so on.

Incidentally, I continue with my epublisher because my particular brand of writing is outside the publishing mainstream. My trade paperbacks sell okay, but I’m finding it’s the eBooks (through Kindle) that are doing quite well.

By: Blog Kindle · Sunday Night Links: 27 July 2008

Blog Kindle · Sunday Night Links: 27 July 2008 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:09:05 +0000

[...] Four Reasons Why Ebooks Are My Preferred Reading Format - Dear Author [...]

By: XandraG

XandraG — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:34:39 +0000

I’m also a big crusader for ebooks because I have elementary school-aged children and our average elementary schooler here in my district carries a backpack weighing anywhere from twenty to forty pounds. Having recently gone through a back injury full of screaming hell-pain (and this thing was minor–I have serious respect for anybody who’s had a moderate to serious back injury), I do not wish a lifetime of chiropractic misery on my kids, or anyone’s kids. A single (durable, flameproof, gumproof, juice-box proof) e-reader (that had its own jet-pack to follow the right kid home) is a crusade I’m willing to ride to war for.

Seriously, the technology is emerging and it will shake out to something that works for enough of a majority. My dream is to see a business model that lets the reader pick their own format–either instant download (whether it’s from shopping at home or at a kiosk in a bookstore or coffeeshop or something), or print-on-demand format of choice (either MM, trade, or something durable like library bound or hard cover. There would be price adjustments for the print versions, and bookstores could choose to print up a set number of copies to have on hand in small numbers.

Yes, I know there are holes in it, but nothing insurmountable to an industry properly motivated.

By: Vivienne Westlake

Vivienne Westlake — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:17:26 +0000

I was slow to move to ebooks. Part of the reason is that I love the feel of holding a book in my hands. Books are my friends and I like being able to highlight them and mark them (at least my non-fiction books). My main reason for not switching to ebooks was the fact that I had to read them on my desktop and I found that irritating. I don’t want to sit and read for hours on my desktop unless I’m writing or editing my own book or editing my critique partner’s books.

I finally bought the ebookwise because I wanted something inexpensive and I couldn’t afford the iRex Illiad or the Sony eReader. Once I got used to it, I loved reading on the ebookwise. My only problem with it is getting books onto the machine. I can’t save books onto the memory card as others seem to be able to do, so I have to buy all my books in HTML (the ones I can’t get from ebookwise directly), convert them to .doc and then upload them to the ebookwise website and download them into the machine. It’s not as horrendous as it sounds–after you’ve done it a couple of times. But, I seriously wish I could get Samhain and Ellora’s Cave books from the ebookwise website as it is totally annoying sometimes to have to convert several books and put them into my machine. Once they’re in my machine, it’s great!

So, I think I’d become more of an avid ebook reader if downloading books was simpler. But, I do enjoy the convenience of having many books with me when I’m on the go and being able to go back and forth between several books, if I want.

By: Megaera

Megaera — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:17:29 +0000

The main reason I haven’t read ebooks is the upfront cost of an ereader. I spend too much time in front of my computer as it is, so without a reader it’s just not going to happen. And do you know how many paperbacks I can buy for the cost of an ereader???

Also, I have a heck of a time learning new hardware (new software isn’t a problem), so any new device is an uphill thing for me.

By: Castiron

Castiron — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:54:33 +0000

I like ebooks, and for some purposes I actually prefer them (software manuals being a prime example). However, having gone through three Palm OS devices in eight years (device failure, not just wanting newer & spiffier), I’m not inclined to buy a dedicated ebook reader until someone comes up with one that’s designed to last and be usable for at least ten years while still being reasonably inexpensive.

And without that small and portable ebook reader, it’s more convenient for me to read dead tree books. I do read ebooks on my computer, but that ties me to one place.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:46:28 +0000

Wow. I read four or five books a week and can’t imagine buying an e-reader. This does mean I haven’t read some of my fellow author’s (in my local RWA chapter) books from EC or Samhain. I get most books from the library (at my pace I could scarcely afford the bookstore) or from swaps. If my library had ebooks, I would definitely consider a reader to speed up the process of requesting, waiting, obtaining, and returning. For the books I do buy, I eliminate the clutter by donating or giving them away as soon as they’re done. I don’t have more than 10 or 20 books in my house at one time.

By: Lynne Connolly

Lynne Connolly — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:28:27 +0000

When I first started selling to e-publishers, I rather guiltily thought that I’d better start trying to read my books in e-format. It seemed a bit hypocritical not to.
I have shelf after shelf of books, the dead tree kind, and I was running out of space.
My first e-reader was a Palm V, an old monochrome pda I bought of ebay for a song. Even on that I could carry around 15 books. And it was backlit. I loved it. I bought another one. Again, for a song.
Then I got an ebookwise, and this is my primary reader, although I have others. I read on my phone, on my pda and on my new Asus eee, the mini laptop. If I use the FBR reader, I can rotate the screen and hold the Asus like a book.
So yes, I prefer the ebook format. Part of it is the convenience - I live in the UK and I can’t always get the dead tree book as fast as I want. The reading in the dark thing is a huge plus for me, as is the space saving. I just haven’t the room for all my books, and I’ve had a big clear-out of dead tree ones recently. The way you can alter the print size, the nice ergonomic design of most ebook readers - they are much easier to hold than a paper book, and the way I can carry a couple of hundred books around with me all help enormously.
But it took a bit of perseverence, working through the readers until I found the ones that suited me best.