M40

eReaders?

August 06 2011

This has been bugging me for some time. As a writer, and as someone who used to read purely for pleasure. I'm just curious, does anyone out there own an Ereader of any sort.. and more to the point, does anyone find that Kindle are by far the worst reader on the market, usually with artifically inflated pricing and lack of transferability between devices? I ask this question because I don't see the discrimination between something I write and something someone noteworthy i.e Bret Easton Ellis or even Stephen King, writes... at least in eBook form. For example: A Bret Easton Ellis eBook averages $9.69 A Jeff Lindsay (Dexter) averages $8.42 A Charlaine Harris (True Blood) averages $7.59 and a Chuck Palahniuk averages $6.97 My question is, where do you guys as consumers draw the line? I would've thought that in theory eBooks would've been cheaper to produce and distribute than actual books, but apparently I was mistaken. Of course there's no taking into account man-hours, labour or any of the other legal stuff and all the unpaid time. If these are the prices that the big names get, I'd be lucky to sell anything I write for $4.99 or under and I'd have to sell 1432 eBooks at that price before I made my money back. Or 16,835 copies at 0.99 cents copy which even by modern standards is astronomical for an unknown, because if I sell for under $2.99 I only get to keep 30%. If I sell for $2.99 or over, I keep anywhere between 55-70% of royalties, depending on the device it gets downloaded to and the country. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, if you are one of 'those' people, that own some form of eReader, iPad or iPhone, what is the absolute maximum you'd be willing to fork over for a digital download of an eBook? Because I really can't compete with .99 cents... thats just ridiculous, and if I did that, I'd feel like a ripe whore. Then again, you can download all the old classics for free anyway... I don't want to appear cheap but I don't want to price myself out of the market. Any tips? Thanks guys...

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RHP User

14 years ago

Hey Nick, I am still old fashioned and read actual books. Nothing better than walking into a fantastic book store, that really gets me off. Although unfortunately we have such high taxes for books in Oz and they are alot more expensive that overseas. :( I guess ebooks are the way to go and also better for the environment. I for one will be very sad to see books go. What would I pay for a good book, well alot more that 99c. You need to get a name for yourself first. A very had thing to do no doubt. xxMeeka

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RHP User

14 years ago

is fantastic!! Love Bret Easton Ellis too And I have to agree with Meeka...I like the tangibility of books, the way they feel, smell the memory of where they were bought/read... Mich

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RHP User

14 years ago

Ebooks are a bit like cam sex .. but a bit artificial .. Give me a paper book any day .. love the feel of the paper , the smell of the print .. cannot get that with ebooks or the feel and smell with camsex

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RHP User

14 years ago

Not being a big reader of fiction it's hard to say what it would be worth. I know that a hell of a lot of research goes into the history and non fiction books I read so I would expect to pay more for them than a fictional work with less research behind it. An ebook is simply data to download with no printing or binding so the only cost should be to the writer and to the publisher/distributor as there would be nobody else involved. The cost of the publishing software used to produce the book should be absorbed into whatever the writer earns since it would be written off on tax anyway.Paper books have a history, can be bought and sold second hand and many of the ones I have in my bookcase have illustrations and photos for which the publishers pay copyright fees. You can lend them to friends and family and pass them on for others to enjoy. That has to be worth more than an ebook.

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