5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet

[sparkchaser]

5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet

1) An unfinished e-book isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it.

2) You can’t keep your books all in one place.

3) Notes in the margins help you think.

4) E-books are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.

5) E-books can’t be used for interior design.

I find myself agreeing more or less to all these points. Except maybe number three. I always wonder what kind of crazy person has arguments in the margins with the author and when they are going to mail their next letter bomb. That being said, I have used the notes feature on my Kindle once or twice to share some bits with my Facebook peeps but that's different. Or so I tell myself. :whistling:

 

[abecedarian]

It also is not as easy to share an e-book with someone else. For example, my husband and I often share library books. And Just the other day, I ordered a book about hypoglycemia for my son and I to read. This book is available for a kindle, and I know there are note making features, but a post-it note is much more in my son's face and harder to ignore. He'd at least have to see it long enough to toss it aside as he reads. Even so, I seriously thought about buying the kindle version to load onto my daughter's kindle just to get it here faster.

 

[sparkchaser]

Depending on the format, lending an e-book is either ridiculously easy or not possible. Since you mentioned your husband as an example, hand him the e-reader when you're done and grab a tome from your to be read pile. Easy peasy.

 

[abecedarian]

Depending on the format, lending an e-book is either ridiculously easy or not possible. Since you mentioned your husband as an example, hand him the e-reader when you're done and grab a tome from your to be read pile. Easy peasy.

He's easy to share books with in either format, I'm not so sure about the kids..and with library books, they're still free as long as I get them back on time. I know there are tons of free e-books out there, but are they the latest titles or mostly classics in the public domain or obscure titles no one has heard of outside the author's circle of friends and coworkers? I'm not dissing e-readers, I'm looking for arguments for purchasing one..

oth, what is this 'hand him the e-reader/book when you're done?' DH's style is to pick up my book, look it over and walk off with it if it interests him...I'll get it back when he goes to work. After 30 years with this man, I know to have backup reading material!

 

[Peder]

I'm just having fun downloading free samples from books that have been mentioned somewhere and sounded interesting. I'm finding lots of good (short) reading that way, whether or not I continue on to buy the book via kindle or someplace else. Netherland is the most recent free sample that has hooked me.

I have found, however, that #4 in the original post has considerable truth to it when it comes to buying on the Kindle. Some books are far from bargains.

 

[abecedarian]

I'm just having fun downloading free samples from books that have been mentioned somewhere and sounded interesting. I'm finding lots of good (short) reading that way, whether or not I continue on to buy the book via kindle or someplace else. Netherland is the most recent free sample that has hooked me.

Yeah well, be careful about those free samples. I downloaded one from Amazon and next thing I knew, dd wanted me to pay for the $11.95 'free sample' she'd been charged for. I've looked at it once on her kindle.:innocent:

 

[sparkchaser]

I have found, however, that #4 in the original post has considerable truth to it when it comes to buying on the Kindle. Some books are far from bargains.

True. But that's not a Kindle specific, or even an e-book, issue. There are plenty of dead tree books that I won't buy because I don't think they are a "bargain".

 

[sparkchaser]

Also, when did you get a Kindle? How does it compare to your Kobo?

 

[Peder]

True. But that's not a Kindle specific, or even an e-book, issue. There are plenty of dead tree books that I won't buy because I don't think they are a "bargain".

Well, Sparky
It's hard to know what to make of #4 as posted, anyway:

4) E-books are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.

I didn't know that ebooks were positioned as disposable, if they are, and I have always heard of the free and reduced prices for ebooks as a selling point -- for example, that the savings would eventually defray the initial cost of the device. So I was, and still am, surprised at the relatively high prices for many books that I see on the kindle, even though it may also be true that they are reduced somewhat from full or amazon price -- meaning, the reduction seems small to me. Full prices are of course exorbitant in most cases, kindle or not.

 

[Peder]

Also, when did you get a Kindle? How does it compare to your Kobo?

About 7 sample downloads, 3 book purchases, 2 free dictionaries, 1 User Guide, and 1 book read, ago.

Trials and tribulations with ordering and download at Borders quickly killed enthusiasm for Kobo in this family.

Very happy with our Kindle(s).

 

[sparkchaser]

Well, Sparky
It's hard to know what to make of #4 as posted, anyway:

Well, according to the article:

4) E-books are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.
This one is simple, and also easy to oversimplify since people still have to get paid. But until e-books truly add new value, the way Hollywood did with DVD extras, it’s just annoying to plunk down $13 for what amounts to a rental. E-books cost virtually nothing to produce, and yet the baseline cover price, set by publishers, is only fractionally below the discount price for the print version of new releases.

E-books can’t be shared, donated to your local library shelter, or re-sold. They don’t take up space, and thus coax conflicted feelings when it is time to weed some of them out. But because they aren’t social, even in the limited way that requires some degree of human contact in the physical world, they will also never be an extension of your personality. Which brings me to …

 

[sparkchaser]

I forgot to address the "disposable" factor. Unless you change file formats as the hardware changes, your ebooks are indeed considered disposable.

 

[Peder]

Well, according to the article:

Thanks for the detailed quote.

I still don't see how any of that makes them "positioned to be disposable." But no matter. The prices are what they are, despite all the abstract "theology" about what they "ought" to be. They'll ooze toward what survives in the market -- IMO at least.

 

[Peder]

I forgot to address the "disposable" factor. Unless you change file formats as the hardware changes, your ebooks are indeed considered disposable.

Yes, I'll agree with you -- with a suitable definiton of disposable. Razor blades are disposable. Old computers have no value and negligible secondary market, so can only be discarded, except possibly in rare circumstances. And so on.

Books? Treebooks come close to being disposable on that definition also. I buy them to keep them, but after I have finished reading them what then?

Once, I could not even donate a dozen cartons to my local library; they would take them grudgingly in ones and twos, but the accession staff was incapable of handling any volume (and uninterested). The local used-book seller did not want them either; trade papers just did not move in his market niche of selling and lending. So I gave them free-of-charge to a local charitable purpose. To me they were clearly only disposable, although one might now see slim secondary markets for some of them.

I buy books of course to keep them -- both tree books and ebooks -- and don't think of either of them as disposable. But I guess that's my personal quirk. So yes, the marketeers are right. Ebooks have only one long-term eventual future --to be deleted or discarded, either before or after reading -- and they are therefore only "disposable."

Maybe like cyborgs with built-in timers. :sad:

 

[pontalba]

I forgot to address the "disposable" factor. Unless you change file formats as the hardware changes, your ebooks are indeed considered disposable.

According to Amazon the your ebooks are kept in an archive or file thingy at Amazon, and your books are always accessible to you, even should your Kindle be lost, stolen or drowned. Wouldn't that apply to new and updated Kindles [hardware]?

Re the pricing of ebooks, to my mind, a large portion are overpriced. When I can buy a trade paperback for less than a kindle edition, it's hands down the paperback. I have found lots of books for under 9.99USD, which, for the moment is my cutoff price. I haven't reached it yet, and have downloaded about 15 books so far. Mostly in the .99 - 7.99USD range. Plus I still buy from Amazon Marketplace. It's hard to pass up a nice hardback for a dollar.

 

[beer good]

I forgot to address the "disposable" factor. Unless you change file formats as the hardware changes, your ebooks are indeed considered disposable.

Technically, EPUB is one of the most forward-compatible file formats around; just a bunch of XML files in a ZIP file. So they're not quite as short-lived as some other formats. Of course, as long as the retailers use DRM, that's beside the point.

 

[RhondaGivings]

Have been reading with interest the points of view with regard to e-books (seems like Kindle is the most prominent) and have some questions. I don't have an e-book, did bring home a Kobe from Chapters with a huge fold out sheet of instructions on how to download and found that some element was not the proper size in my computer, needed a 2 something and only had a 1. Anyway, my question is, I read a lot of best sellers, ie, Lee Child, Nelson DeMille, Brad Thor, Lisa Gardner, James Patterson, Vince Flynn, John Sandford, legal thrillers, English mysteries and such like, but I usually wait until the pocket book version comes out as it is quite a bit less in price. Would these books even be available to be downloaded at a price equal to the pocket book price or would I have to pay the hardback cost? Also, I don't want to buy an e-book already loaded with books I may have read years ago. I mostly read now for entertainment rather than education in the classics - however low brow that might sound. Anyone any ideas? I do pass along legal type thrillers to a friend and this wouldn't work if the book was in electronic mode. momac:

 

[Alix]

momac, nothing is loaded on the Kindle except a dictionary I think. All you need to do is be on a wireless network and you're good to go.

Most books that are at the paperback stage of publishing are about $6-$8 each on Amazon. New release hardcover types would be about $14 or so. There are TONS of free books though. Some of them are quite entertaining. I've found a lot of $.99 books too. I quite enjoyed the Donovan Creed series. They were all $.99 each.

 

[RhondaGivings]

Thanks for the information Alix - next question - you mention a wireless network - I am currently on mid range speed with cable - I don't think that's what you're meaning though - is it that Wii thingy (or whatever the terminology is)that folks use when using their laptops in locations other than home. I just have basic cable. The Kobe that I brought home to try had about 100 books (I believe) already loaded - don't know what they were but I imagine they weren't terribly current. It went back to the shop pretty quickly. momac

 

[pontalba]

.... Kobe from Chapters with a huge fold out sheet of instructions on how to download and found that some element was not the proper size in my computer, needed a 2 something and only had a 1. Anyway, my question is, I read a lot of best sellers, ie, Lee Child, Nelson DeMille, Brad Thor, Lisa Gardner, James Patterson, Vince Flynn, John Sandford, legal thrillers, English mysteries and such like, but I usually wait until the pocket book version comes out as it is quite a bit less in price. Would these books even be available to be downloaded at a price equal to the pocket book price or would I have to pay the hardback cost? Also, I don't want to buy an e-book already loaded with books I may have read years ago. I mostly read now for entertainment rather than education in the classics - however low brow that might sound. Anyone any ideas? I do pass along legal type thrillers to a friend and this wouldn't work if the book was in electronic mode. momac:

momac,

That's the USB port, my older computer had a number 1 [whatever that means] but our laptops have the required number 2 port. I didn't find that out till I'd "charged" the kobo on it over night. Hah. It charged immediately on the laptop.

The beauty of the Kindle is that while it can be charged by the USB port on your computer [probably not the number 1 though], it comes with a real electric cord to charge it. The charge holds as advertised.
It only comes with a dictionary and a user guide.

We've found enough books to keep us happy, but we're still buying tree books in any case.
If you like Lawrence Block, he has several .99 and 1.99USD ebooks on sale right now. I've found others at 6.99 and 7.99USD, so it's worth it for me.