cashinmattress Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Sorry, the point was that you might not need an expensive reader just because you don't want to buy books from Amazon? There are also umpteen charity shops, libraries, etc in this country where books cost next to nothing or can be loaned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipbuilder Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 I can see the point in ebooks for academic textbooks, instruction manuals and so on, but not an ebook reader. I can only read one book at a time. I can go to a library or borrow a book. I simply don't think it's genuinely useful in the same way the internet or a mobile phone is. There's a great quote from (I think) Douglas Adams about how the standard paper book doesn't need improving. I haven't been able to find it anywhere - anyone? p.s. I've simply no interest in being 'connected' 24/7 and having everything at my fingertips at the click of a button. There is enjoyment and reward in anticipation, in having to work or search for something. p.p.s. The more potential time you have, the more available you are, some c**t will come along and fill it with more work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rw42 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Buy a book and get real. I've got plenty of books. Too many. I live in a 1 bed rented flat, and i'm resisting building up my collection any more due to how much hassle it'll be to move them all. I don't want to donate them to a charity shop as i frequently re-read older books. As i said, an e-book reader looks mighty tempting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lorne Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 because your PC or Android device has an old-fashioned backlit screen? ..I don't read at the beach...why spend until the new product meets my requirements.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lorne Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Depends. The kindle lasts weeks between charges, whereas my smartphone lasts a couple of days if not used. And reading off a desktop PC screen whilst in bed is impractical at best.. ...I recharge my smartphone each night anyway.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lorne Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Self publishing books sounds easy in the digital age but in practise it is very hard to make it pay and you cant even promote your product by playing live gigs which is how many of the self publishing musicians and bands survive. ..the world of publishing and in particular self publishing has changed positively in the last 6-9 months...watch the next 9 months.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lorne Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Most of the cost of a book isn't in the printing and distribution. You're also paying for copyediting, typesetting, and marketing, and profit for publisher and distributor (not as much as you'd think)... not to mention author royalty. Under your model only the people who buy the print version shoulder these costs. I agree that you should get a discount on the e-book to reflect the removal of the printing and distribution costs - but that's not going to be 90% off. Maybe 20% off. [edit to add: I work in publishing, so this is one of the few posts I've made on HPC where I actually know what I'm talking about!] ...keep up to date and Google, John Locke, a US self published writer ...99cent digital books and hit just over 1 million sales in last 9 months..there is evolution in the market.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19 year mortgage 8itch Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 $210 to make and selling for $199 http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/30/amazon-kindle-fire-build-cos/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormymonday_2011 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 I can see the point in ebooks for academic textbooks, instruction manuals and so on, but not an ebook reader. I can only read one book at a time. I can go to a library or borrow a book. I simply don't think it's genuinely useful in the same way the internet or a mobile phone is. There's a great quote from (I think) Douglas Adams about how the standard paper book doesn't need improving. I haven't been able to find it anywhere - anyone? p.s. I've simply no interest in being 'connected' 24/7 and having everything at my fingertips at the click of a button. There is enjoyment and reward in anticipation, in having to work or search for something. p.p.s. The more potential time you have, the more available you are, some c**t will come along and fill it with more work for you. I have a couple of ebook readers which I use when travelling and they obviously save on the weight of carrying books around. My main gripe about the ebook market is that is not comprehensive. A lot of ebooks even on Amazon is simply just a rehash of stuff that is out of copyright. Now I am not knocking Project Gutenburg or its ilk which does a fantastic job making a wealth of literature freely available. For a history buff like myself it isgreat to be able to get an electronic copy of the entire version of Gibbons Decline and Fall or Pepys Diaries for nothing. What bugs me is that quite a lot of standard history texts are not available in electronic format. I also get irritated with the tiresome habit of vendors like Amazon trying to lock you into their store by using a proprietory file format rather than a universally agreed standard such as epubs. I dont have that problem with a paper book and if they are printed on decent quality material they last for decades. BTW I cant really see the point of e-ink readers for newspapers and magazines which by their nature are far better suited to either the full range of display formats found on a backlit PC/tablet or just old fashioned paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashedOutAndBurned Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Amazon in theory has the content behind them to finally challenge the iPad. However, Sony has killer 'content' too and its tablet is flopping badly, getting outsold 9-1 despite a massive launch. As I've said before, Apple have carved out an iPad market - that's obvious. However, it doesn't follow that there's a wider 'tablet' market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Sorry, the point was that you might not need an expensive reader just because you don't want to buy books from Amazon? Hehe. Fairy nuff! But every other reader costs more than the kindle, 'cos for Amazon it's a loss-leader for their book sales. Hence, I have a more expensive reader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I also get irritated with the tiresome habit of vendors like Amazon trying to lock you into their store by using a proprietory file format rather than a universally agreed standard such as epubs. The .mobi format is open, or at least open enough that it can easily be converted into any other format. The only thing locking you in to Amazon is books with DRM, which is just as much of a problem with DRM-ed epubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 The .mobi format is open, or at least open enough that it can easily be converted into any other format. Erm, what's that got to do with the price of fish? The only thing locking you in to Amazon is books with DRM, which is just as much of a problem with DRM-ed epubs. Tell that to the people who bought (from Amazon) fully paid copies of 1984, only to find themselves in a startingly Orwellian situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxe Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I can see the point in ebooks for academic textbooks, instruction manuals and so on, but not an ebook reader. I can only read one book at a time. I can go to a library or borrow a book. I simply don't think it's genuinely useful in the same way the internet or a mobile phone is. To be honest, the only decent way of reading technical manuals, textbooks and the like is on a decent 24" screen - even a laptop is too small. Why anyone would want to read such things on a screen slightly smaller than a small paperback is beyond me. Kindle is simply a way of Amazon forming a business with lock in, nothing more, nothing less. It taps into the "electronic must be better" mentality - but really you end up paying a lot more for the same thing. The real reason both Amazon and publishers really like it - is because it kills the secondhand market stone dead. Most of the fiction that I read is either from a charity shop (they have pretty much everything) - or swapped with friends. You go and stay with someone, leave the book you finish with them...and swap it for something they've finished. And with real books, if you lose, break, scratch them it doesn't matter - if you really want to, you can plonk down £5.99 for a new one, not £100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Erm, what's that got to do with the price of fish? Um, the previous poster's claim that Amazon try to tie you to them with a proprietary format, when .mobi is no such thing? So long as you don't buy DRM-ed ebooks you can convert them to any format you want, but if you buy DRM-ed ebooks from any retailer you're just as screwed. I can't see which part of this is proving so hard for you to understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phead Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Ebooks should have been a complete boom for the publishing industry. They should have seen it as a way to avoid the bookshop costs and gone ahead with dynamic pricing to keep as much of their back catalogue in circulation as possible. They should be doing teaser deals with free books to draw people into series that last saw a bookshop shelf 20 years ago. They should have been doing different offers every week and trying new things all the time with quick access to sales figures to see what is working day to day. Instead they see ebooks as a threat, so they formed a cartel and fixed prices. The only thing they have gained is a criminal investigation by the OFT and the EU for breach of competition law. All I see in the future for the publishing industry is massive downing of books from every dodgy website everywhere, and authors bypassing them for self publication while they sit around like the three wise monkeys thinking that selling at sky high prices is really going to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormymonday_2011 Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Um, the previous poster's claim that Amazon try to tie you to them with a proprietary format, when .mobi is no such thing? So long as you don't buy DRM-ed ebooks you can convert them to any format you want, but if you buy DRM-ed ebooks from any retailer you're just as screwed. I can't see which part of this is proving so hard for you to understand. Amazon's .azw format may be derived from mobi but it is definitely proprietary. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats I know that there are ways and means of unlocking the various formats so that they can be converted from one to another so books can be transferred but the process is tedious,time consuming and also confusing for many non technical users. The Kindle does not support epubs which is the IDPF Open Standard used by most ebook retailers. In fact it wont even read encrypted .mobi files from other ebook suppliers. That looks pretty much like an attempt to lock Kindle users into the Amazon format and Amazon store to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone baby gone Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Amazon's .azw format may be derived from mobi but it is definitely proprietary. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats I know that there are ways and means of unlocking the various formats so that they can be converted from one to another so books can be transferred but the process is tedious,time consuming and also confusing for many non technical users. The Kindle does not support epubs which is the IDPF Open Standard used by most ebook retailers. In fact it wont even read encrypted .mobi files from other ebook suppliers. That looks pretty much like an attempt to lock Kindle users into the Amazon format and Amazon store to me. He's right though, the Kindle will read a plain non-DRM .mobi of the kind you find supplied in their tens of thousands via torrents without any conversion - just copy it over to the memory. And software like Calibre will make the conversion process from ebub to .azw completely transparent. You point at an epub and say "copy to device", then hey presto, your book is on the Kindle, exactly if it had been a .azw, .mobi or .pdf. And yes, you can remove the DRM from an epub file so it can be read on a kindle (or any other device). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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